How Latin America’s rightwing politicians use humour to normalise their extremist ideologies

Humour plays a key role in the political communication of rightwing populist leaders in Latin America. Politicians including Javier Milei in Argentina, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil have all used humour to engage with and solidify their support base, normalise extreme ideologies and deflect criticism.

Humour also circulates constantly among their followers. In October 2022, a few months before Brazilians went to the polls in their last general election, I carried out fieldwork at a Bolsonaro rally in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro with a group of colleagues.

We overheard a Bolsonaro supporter joking about a stray dog. “Watch out for that dog!” he shouted. “If Lula wins, we’ll have to call him picanha [a type of beef].”

The crowd laughed, with another supporter adding: “If Lula wins, he’ll be the first to eat it.” Lula went on to be elected as Brazil’s president by a razor-thin margin.

Argentina held elections the following year to appoint successors to President Alberto Fernández and his vice-president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – who had dominated Argentinian politics for two decades alongside her husband, Néstor Kirchner. Together, they had forged Kirchnerism, the country’s main leftwing populist movement.

At a campaign event, we observed a Milei supporter also making a joke about dogs (and cats). “Milei is...

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