Cinema and Humor in Latin America: An Introduction

Even a cursory look at some of the Latin American movies with the highest attendance in the history of their respective national industries reveals that comedies have been extraordinarily successful film efforts in the continent: of the ten most-seen Mexican films ever, four are comedies (and two of them are analyzed here in the chapters by Sánchez Prado and Fernández L’Hoeste). In Argentina too, that number is four out of ten. In Peru (Asu Mare, 2013), Chile (Stefan v/s Kramer, 2012), Argentina (Metegol, 2013), and Mexico (Nosotros los nobles, 2013), the most successful national film ever is a very recent comedy. Even more strikingly, in Brazil and Chile, seven out of ten of the most popular films are comedies (one of them examined here by Poblete).