{"id":30617,"date":"2016-08-15T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30617"},"modified":"2016-08-19T12:23:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T15:23:58","slug":"rio-2016-is-an-absolute-joke-humor-as-olympics-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30617","title":{"rendered":"Rio 2016 Is an Absolute Joke: Humor as Olympics Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWit is a dangerous weapon,\u201d wrote French philosopher Michel de Montaigne. George Orwell remarked that every joke is a tiny revolution. Mark Twain proclaimed laughter as the only truly effective weapon humanity possesses. Activists in Rio de Janeiro have creatively turned that weapon on\u00a0the Rio 2016 Olympic Games<\/a>, following activists in London who used humor to highlight various grievances including environmental damage by Olympic sponsors like BP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Activism and the Olympics,\u00a0<\/em>Olympics scholar Jules Boykoff<\/a> documented how activists in London felt they needed to be creative, as any other form of intervention would be impossible due to police repression. Humor was also\u00a0a deliberate strategy\u00a0to widen the audience of Olympic criticism, reaching out beyond those who were already critical. That said, humor was always acknowledged to be just one component of the patchwork of activism in the lead up to the 2012\u00a0summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

In Rio,\u00a0graffiti<\/a> sprayed around the\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a>\u00a0favela next to the Olympic Park formed a fertile ground for puns. Sprayed on the wall dividing the community<\/a> from the Olympic Park construction site was the word “Olim(piada).” \u201cOlimp\u00edada<\/em>\u201d is the Portuguese word for the Olympics, while \u201cpiada<\/em>\u201d translates as “joke.” Activists even chanted this in protest as the Vila Aut\u00f3dromo Neighborhood\u00a0Association<\/a> building was torn down. Other\u00a0graffiti took the\u00a0common phrase \u201cpaz e amor<\/em>\u201d (peace and love) and twisted it to \u201cPaes sem amor<\/em>\u201d (Paes without love). By switching the Portuguese word for peace to the name\u00a0of Mayor Eduardo Paes<\/a>, the graffiti artist highlighted the lack of humanity and love in the mayor’s policy of forced evictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) program<\/a>, a key policy component of the Olympic legacy promise to make the city secure, has also attracted puns along with heavy criticism. Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a>‘s\u00a0Raull Santiago wrote in November 2015 about Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>‘s\u00a0five years of \u201cpaciFIC\u00c7\u00c3O<\/em>\u201d<\/a> (paci-FICTION), highlighting the\u00a0Pacifying Police Unit<\/a> (UPP) program’s failure to bring about the peace its name promised.<\/p>\n

Over Easter 2016, the hashtag #PazcoaNoAlem\u00e3o was trending on social media<\/a>, mixing the Portuguese words for Easter (Pascoa<\/em>) and peace (paz<\/em>) to ask for respite from shootings in the community.<\/p>\n

Recently, Coletivo Papo Reto and other community\u00a0organizations have hijacked a slogan used by Brazilians unhappy with the impeachment<\/a> proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. The original impeachment phrase involved beginning\u00a0any conversation with, “first things first, out with Temer” (primeiramente, fora Temer<\/em>), in reference to the interim president. For many favela residents, the disregard for their basic human rights<\/a> is a far more pressing concern, leading some\u00a0to regularly use and post the phrase “first things first, out with the UPP<\/a>”\u00a0(primeiramente, fora UPP<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\""Pacification<\/a><\/p>\n

The video<\/a> below, posted on the Mar\u00e9 Vive<\/a>\u00a0Facebook page, parodies potential\u00a0Olympic sports in a favela, including athletics (police running around with guns) and shooting at poor, black favela<\/a> residents. “Foda-se<\/em>,” created with the Olympic rings in the opening of the video, translates simply as \u201cf*** it.\u201d<\/p>\n