Brazil’s Stand-Up Comics Lead Social Revolution Against Powerful Elites

The powerful, never appreciating being the butt of comics’ jokes or withering commentary of critics, have long tried to keep a lid on criticism with ownership of media conglomerates and influence over media licenses. The freewheeling internet has changed all that, allowing comedy to take hold in nations like Brazil where the powerful expected unthinking deference. In the 1980s, jokes about political or corporate leaders could have landed a Brazilian comedian in jail or doomed a television career, explains Tom Phillips for the Observer. “Brazil's social media boom also provides the country's stand-up artists with a considerable degree of protection; politicians might dislike their jokes – but they challenge them at their peril,” he writes. Stand-up comedian Danilo Gentili opened up the first Brazilian club devoted to stand-up and will have a show on the US Comedy Central channel, soon to be launched in Brazil. Satire can be the best weapon to reveal the ludicrousness of inequality. – YaleGlobal