‘Laughter is a Harlequin’: Laughter and identity in a close reading of a Cuban punk band

Abstract

Abstract As Punk and Post-Punk have pointed out in previous issues (2.2 and 2.3), humour might be said to be at the heart of a variety of punk aesthetics, incorporating elements of satire, parody, shock and subversion as weapons against host cultures (and yet, paradoxically, often cementing those punk manifestations within and as constituent part of those same cultures). Rather than reassert the place (and types) of humour in punk, this article examines one of its symptoms, laughter, outlining the ‘dual face’ of laughter and its role in delineating both exclusionary and inclusionary identity spaces. By offering a close reading of several recorded bouts of laughter – some performed, manic and distinctly humourless, others apparently natural and spontaneous (though nonetheless deliberate parts of the recording) – in the work of controversial Cuban punk band Porno Para Ricardo, this article examines specifically the role laughter plays in the band’s work, but also suggests, more broadly, that laughter might constitute not only a telling identity marker for its audiences but also an important facet of the punk soundworld.