On the techniques of laugh-making and truth-telling: a study on the moral knowledge production of bolsonarism through humor

• Grant number: 25/11711-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Sociology of Knowledge
• Principal Investigator: André Vereta Nahoum
• Grantee: Matheus Alysson Cunha
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to articulate a link between humor and the production of moral knowledge in contexts of political dispute. To this end, it investigates how humor, especially that produced by the group Canal Hipócritas, operates as a technique of truth production within the political context of Bolsonarism. The study starts from the premise that humor is a discourse and, as such, capable of articulating meanings and moral knowledge within a digital populist regime (Cesarino, 2022). Two hypotheses are proposed: (a) the humorous output of non-expert pro-Bolsonaro public agents exemplifies the crisis of expertise (Eyal, 2019); and (b) this form of comedy partly configures itself as a parrhesia (Foucault, 2011), in which "truth-telling" takes on political and moral dimensions. This is a qualitative study with a virtual analytical locus, drawing on Content Analysis (Bardin, 1977) and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. By focusing on a reduced analytical regime-the moralizing production of a group of Bolsonarist comedians-the research seeks to understand the forms, strategies, and techniques of truth production within Bolsonarism, as well as to contribute to reflections on digital populist discourse and the crisis of expertise.