Humorous graphic production, sports press and stereotype: the narratives of Maciota, in the Placar magazine

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze stereotypical traits associated with the Brazilian identity, based on graphic humor productions published in the Brazilian sports press. Created by Paulo Paiva and published in the sports magazine Placar, the narratives of the character Maciota were little studied in the country. The fictional stories present situations experienced by an anti-athlete in the context of soccer. We consider that certain stereotypical traits can both aid in the production of humor and in the consolidation of the anti-athlete, as well as reinforce the construction of one of the Brazilian identities: the malandro. Given the nature of the study, the theoretical basis establishes an interdisciplinary dialogue between the areas of the sports press, graphic humor and discourse analysis. The corpus of analysis comprises 140 stories about the character, published in the Placar magazine from 1980 to 1983.

Keywords
Graphic humor; Stereotype; Maciota; Placar; Soccer