“MEASURE YOUR WORDS”

THE LIMITS ON HUMOR IN THE CHARLIE HEBDO CASE

Abstract

In this article, I consider that the motivating issue of polemics in discourses about humor begins around what (supposedly) does not make us laugh. However, the practices that construct and maintain the collective imagination in relation to the limits of the humor act are articulated in different ways: on the one hand, the understanding that the plot of historical relations involved in the controversies promotes a discussion beyond the field of humor, and, on the other, the observation that two debates are distinct and interdependent. Aware of this dual functioning, I propose to briefly analyze the connexion between the limits of humor and the politically correct in an interview with the then director of humorous newspaper Charlie Hebdo, published in TV Cultura's program "Roda Viva International" in the year 2015. Finally, I risk to make some considerations concerning the dispute of meanings in the in discourses about humor.