Pg. 88 a 104.

Chapter 5

If you cant play, dont come down to the playground1! Agency in Brazilian humor: parody and verb-visual remix

1

Luiz Fernando Gomes

University of Sorocaba (UNISO)2

The current chapter analyzes two posts from the Brazilian website Zuei Muito,

which contains parodies and remixes organized in several categories, such as: imagens

que falam por si, sem zuao! (images that speak for themselves, no kidding!),

propagandas que zoam muito (ads that tease a lot), etc. and that hold in common the

slapstick humor and satiric view of peoples daily customs. This research is situated in the field of new literacies studies in Brazil and aims at bringing examples and discussing

contemporary cultural practices of language usage in digital environments.

Remix is hereby understood as a hybrid text produced though the combination

and manipulation of existing authorial cultural artifacts with the objective of creating a

new cultural product (Lankshear & Knobel, 2004, 2007, 2008). As for parody, it is hereby

seen as virtually having the same characteristics of a remix, but with a twist of meaning

that turns against the original piece, instead of paying homage to it. Nevertheless, remix, a cultural practice that has turned into a routine and current form of writing in

digital culture, may be conceptualized as a sort of expansion of parody. Our specific

objective is to identify and understand which rhetorical resources the authors of two

digital texts, a parody and a remix, used in the production of authorial humorous

discourses (Travaglia, 1990), and which types of agencies (Ahern, 2001 and Emirbayer &

Mische, 1998, Lewis 2006) such posts configure.

We consider agency as one of the salient features of new literacies, and as linked

to the need of understanding codes, conventions and values, of dealing with limits and of

subverting, criticizing and reacting to the world around us. The verbal-visual analyses of

the posts were conducted in accordance to the representational, interactive and

compositional functions proposed by Kress & Van Leeuwen (2000). The posts under

analysis integrate text and static images, and were chosen from among the different

sections that compose the website, according to the initial feelings of the researcher

himself, considering the effectiveness of the products in their own proposed criticism,

1 Captulo do livro disponvel em:

http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitenty

p=series&pk=664

http://www.amazon.com/New-Literacies-Agencies-Perspective-

Epistemologies/dp/1433121123/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383864872&sr=1

-2&keywords=New+Literacies%2C+New+Agencies%3F 2 O texto original foi publicado sem as imagens, por questes de direito autoral. Solicito no divulgar esta

verso, com foto.

agency and humor.

New literacies

New Literacy Studies (NLS) proposed a vision of literacy as something beyond the

acquisition of individual skills, that is, as a social practice (Street, 1984), something

related to social, institutional and cultural relationships (Gee, 1996). This relatively new

approach led to the acknowledgement of the existence of multiple literacies and of the

diverse manifestations of writing, according to the different contexts in which they occur.

This is why, according to Gee (op.cit.), writing and reading practices only make sense

when studied in the light of their social, cultural, historical, political and economic

contexts. Such perspective also caused the acknowledgement of dominant and

marginalized literacies, and, consequently, the idea that literacies are not autonomous

technologies, but ideological constructs.

Regarding the term new, Lankshear & Knobel (2004) explain that the new literacies cannot be restricted to the new technologies, for they vary according to the different

contexts and ethical principles that define uses of the available technologies. Thus,

Lankshear and Knobel conclude, there can be recent or current practices employing

recent technologies that are not actually new. For Gee, Hull and Lankshear (1996, p.3), in becoming a literate subject, we start with reading and then proceed to social practices

that integrate speech, action, interaction, beliefs and values and then we arrive at different

and specific ways of being in the world. Becoming literate in a particular literacy is,

therefore, about acquiring new ways of thinking about the world and answering to it

(Lankshear & Knobel, 2008, p.30).

Lewis (2006, p.2) states that new technologies enable new practices, but it is the locally

and globally located practices and not the tools that are central in the new literacies; that is, they form a new ethos, in this case, the ethos of the digital culture, which

emphasizes participation, the production of media that involves advanced knowledge that

is technically and socially distributed. In the case of this current research, we refer to the

production of parodies and remixes utilizing verbal and visual texts. This creative

resource becomes an integral part of digital culture, as a participative practice mediated

by texts, through which alternative versions of events are disseminated. In this study,

such forms appear in humorous and satirical forms. This would be a significant practice of new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2004, p.3), for parody and remix may be viewed

as ways of exercising ones identity, collaboration, authority and socialization, while they may also be regarded as a form of (social) agency.

Agency

The concept of agency, as taken specifically for this research, is related to the social

movements of the twentieth century and, in this way, intersects with NLS which, as

already observed, also represent a yaw from the focus on the individual to the social

context of the practices.

According to Ahearn (2001, p.110), agency can be analyzed as the practices that may

reproduce or transform the structures that shape a certain sociocultural context. Ahearn

warns us that, in many cases, defining the terms is just half the battle. This is especially

true in the case of the concept of agency, as evident when one contrasts, for example, the

works of Giddens (1979), for whom agency is the capability of making a difference and alternative formulations such as Buzatos (this volume), based on Actor-Network Theory, for whom agency is receiving, translating, deviating the action into heterogeneous

networks so as to redefine reality, through to Emirbayer & Misches (1998) more

orthodox definition of agency as a form of social engagement. In Ahearns work (2001), which will be addressed later in more detail, among others, agency is connected to

language itself as a form of social interaction, since people do things with words, as

previously demonstrated in the works of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), among others.

As spoken and written language are also sociocultural constructs, Ahearn (2001, p.111)

invokes Bakhtin (1999) to draw attention towards the fact that words are not neutral and

that language is not just a mere conductor of information, nor do they work as

transparent porters of referential information. More than just reflecting on something that

already exists in the word, words also help create worlds.

Ahearn (op. cit. p.112; 118), states that agency refers to the socioculturally mediated

capability of acting. What seems to lack further discussion in her conceptualization is

whether agency may only be human, or if apes, for instance, or machines, or even

computer avatars (Leffa, this volume) may also exercise agency. This is partially related

to the more fundamental question of whether agency is necessarily enacted consciously

and intentionally.

The concept of agency as will takes us to Action Theory, which separated action from event. Ahearn mentions Davidsons (1980 [1971], p.43) work in which he inquires: which events in the life of a person reveal agency; what the difference is between what he does and what happens to him. Twenty years later, in 1991, says Ahearn (2001), Seagal (1991, p.3), while reflecting on Davidsons question, resorts to the concepts of action and event, stating that hitting a ball is an action, but falling down the stairs is not (it would be just an event).

What seems clear, in Ahearns argumentation, is that the agency requires some kind of intentionality, a form of ownership, motivation, responsibility and expectation of

acknowledgement or reward. In our research, humor is presented as a sort of criticism,

which, in turn, entails all these characteristics.

For Hill & Irvine (1993, p.2 cited in Ahearn, 2001, p.1230), agency, as well as literacy, is

a social practice for it interacts with the ideologies and institutions that shape and define

the possibilities and the paths that individuals follow in their lives. Agency is, therefore, a

form of social engagement (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998, p. 962). Social practices such as

interpreting events, criticizing, commenting, and so on are activities that involve socially

positioned participants who are agents in the construction of knowledge and in social

action. It is exactly such agency in the construction of meaning, that is, the subjects capability of recognizing the affordances of the semiotic material available to produce the

meanings they desire, multi-dimensionally and multi-modally, that parodies and remixes

highlight.

In this research, we seek to extend agency, thus defined, not only to the out-of-school

acquisition of languages, codes and media, but also, more specifically, to the operation of

remixing multimedia discourses intended to produce new discourses, both authorial and

critical.

Parody and Remix

Parody is a text that reduces the characteristics or style of an author, work or topic in

order to satirize and/or ridicule the original author, work or topic. In other words,

parodies turn against their original sources. Parodying is a practice that goes back to the

classical ages, having produced masterpieces in literature, music, movies and, more

recently, in the digital media where its increasingly present. Remix, on the other hand, appears, for its most part, as the result of the youths exploitation of pre-existing content sources, which digital means (cut-and-paste,

sampling, etc.) have broadened in reach and productivity. According to Lankshear &

Knobel (2007, p.1), remix is the practice of combining and manipulating cultural artifacts, originating a creative mixture, without turning back on the original source to criticize or ionize it. It was initially associated, as Lankshear and Knobel recall it, to the

musical assemblies made popular in the 1990s, such as hip hop and other musical genres,

in which the song or the beat was lengthened in order to increase the dance time.

However, remix also began to be used as a form of protest or subversion against the

concept of copyright. Today, it remains a widely spread writing practice and, as such, it is

used for many other communicative situations/intentions. Remix, under a wider scope,

lies at the base of every culture, once the cultural products are created from some kind of

mixture of elements, ideas of other people and our own ones. Lessigs (2005) opinion, quoted in Lankshear & Knobel (2007), reaches further, for it states that every reading is,

in the end, a form of remix of the authors ideas with the readers ones. We also know how much the quality of our academic writing itself owes to other authors with whom we

discuss collaborate, more or less overtly and/or fluently, to build our own arguments

(Ribeiro & Coscarelli, this volume).

Lessig (2005, as cited in Lankshear & Knobel, 2007) provides some samples of remix

writing, from which we highlight some, with minor alterations, that relate to this current

research: video assembling or movie scenes remixed with popular songs that, when

synchronized, create unusual meaning effects, including humor; addition of subtitles or

verbal written content to existing cartoons and animations, or recombination of images,

thus creating political or humorous messages, and so on. For Lankshear & Knobel

(2007), these are extended examples of writing, for they include productive practices,

exchange and negotiation of texts digitally remixed, which may integrate one or several

means/modes.

Humor

According to Travaglia (1990, p.55), humor is a human activity or faculty of which the importance comes for its enormous presence and dissemination in all areas of human

activity, with functions that go beyond making us laugh. For Travaglia, besides being a weapon for whistle blowing, humor is always a way of seeing and revealing realities that

are less evident or hidden. Humor can be understood then as form of social engagement.

Travaglia tells us that, according to Raskin (1987), interdisciplinary research regarding

humor began after the First International Conference on Humor held in 1976, but was not

fully developed until the 1980s. Furthermore, he states that research regarding humor has

trouble being published and recognized. In addition, research regarding humor has

predominantly focused on verbal humor, especially short texts, jokes, leaving aside

longer texts as well as non-verbal and transcultural forms of humor.

Among the diverse approaches to research regarding humor, such as the psychological,

semiotic and communicational ones, we will highlight the sociological approach for,

according to Travaglia (1990. p.59), humor plays a social and political role in society through certain functions, one of which is basic: the attack against predetermined

boundaries, censorship, social control2 Travaglia concludes that it is possible, through

the study of humor, to find out which repressions a society suffers. Besides that, we know

that humor depends on social context, thus it is a situated practice. Therefore, identifying

what is funny is not just a matter of identifying a set of linguistic or semiotic properties of

a text, but understanding how these properties generate humor in a contextual setting. In

other words, what is funny, is always funny for someone, situated somewhere (Raskin,

1987, p. 15 cited in Travaglia, 1990, p. 61).

Moreover, making humor is generally an activity of explicit (or implicit) criticism of

customs, society and politics. An interesting element, in the case of this research, is that

this website is maintained by youngsters, thus providing us with youths vision of the selected topics.

Representational, interactive and compositional meanings

Kress and Van Leeuwens (1996) semiotic proposal for the reading of multimodal texts is based on the Hallidays metafunctions (1978, 1994) and supports the premise that visual

communication, besides representing the world, also promotes social interaction. The

metafunctions refer to three kinds of meanings that operate simultaneously:

representational, interactive and compositional.

Representational meanings are performed by the represented participants (actors whom

are being talked about) or interactive participants (those who interpret the message, speak

and act around it). Represented participants may be individuals, places or things. These

meanings are constructed in two basic kinds of processes: narrative, when there are

vectors pointing out the actions being carried out (roughly equivalent to verbal

constructions employing action verbs), and the conceptual, that is, when the participants

are being described in their attributes, or related to one another in a conceptual manner

(roughly equivalent to verbal constructions employing a copula or linking verb).

The interactive meanings are represented in the offers and demands, of information or

action, made by the participants, which can be coded, basically, by the gaze of the

represented participant (if it points at the interactive participant, there is a demand;

otherwise, there is an offer). They also reflect the attitude and stance of the interactive

participants towards the content of the message, and towards each other. These meanings

are made by means of four resources, basically: contact (determined by the existence or

not of vector originating in the represented participants eyes and pointing to another represented or interactive participant; social distance (expressed by the different

possibilities of framing the image and the represented participants, equivalent to

cinematographic shots such as close up, mid-shot and wide-shot); involvement (coded by

the horizontal angle or point of view from which the represented participants are shown:

frontal, oblique, vertical); power relations (coded by the vertical angle or point of view

from which the represented participants are shown: superior, same level, inferior) and,

finally, modality, that is, the level of reality of lifelikeness of the image, given by a series of variables such as color saturation, depth of field, resolution and so on.

The compositional meanings refer to the organization or combination of representational

and interactional elements in different scales, so that they may produce, together, the

meaning intended by the author. Such meanings are performed through three interrelated

systems: value of the information (place occupied by the represented participant in the

image. In the west, the element on the left of the image is the given or known information

whereas the one to the right is the new or added information about the given. The

elements at the top are usually of an ideal or abstract nature whereas the ones at the

bottom are concrete and down-to-earth); salience (ways of drawing attention to specific

elements of the composition, as one does with word or syllable stress in speech. Usual

resources are: foreground-background, size, color, sharpness, lighting, among others);

and, finally, structure (real or imaginary frames which divide and structure the image as

one does with parts or sections of a written text).

Method

Description of the website Zuei Muito3

Humor websites usually become very popular quite easily. In Brazil, many of them

provide content for television programs, especially sports news. Brazilian radio

broadcasters also have a fixed audience in humor and many of the radio comedy shows

have websites which are widely accessed. There are over 260 million humor websites,

blogs and home pages in Brazil, according to Googles search engine, and such a number seems to be similar in some other countries, also searched through the same engine. That

may show humors great influence in peoples lives as well as its inherent strength to be used by the human being as a form of expression used for several functions. Some

categories of humor that were found in the searched websites, blogs and pages (but which

will not be approached in this study) were: intelligent humor, feminine humor, masculine

humor, political humor, sports humor, etc.

The Zuei Muito website has, according to its own statistics, 6,357 readers. At the

foot of the page, the following statements can be read: Guys, relax because this is all just a joke. The content does not resemble reality. If you got mad with something, contact us

and we will talk about it.4 The site does not contain any information regarding who is responsible for it or who the

authors are. There is only a contact form link available which reads: All contacts must be made through this form. If necessary, other means of contact will be provided.5 Apparently, the websites content is entirely composed of contributions. There are some guidelines under the link send your content: You too can help us make the Zuei Muito! Send us your mockery and we will review it. If good, it will certainly be published, of

course, with its credits.6 All partnerships are subject to terms of use that, as warned by the website, may change

at any time. Thus, through a series of rules and norms, the website orients possible contributors on how to become partners. Such guidelines to the contributors highlight the

interactive metafunction in the sense that it establishes the demands for future partners

along with the offer of a service.

The compositional is at work in the website when it informs about the forms of

participation in which a future partner may be fit: adders, top partners and partners. Its also expressed in the organization of the content into 28 specific sections, mixing

several criteria such as media, genre, theme, intended audience and so on:

(de)motivational; adult; BBB; cinema; sports; I access the zuei muito; facts; fail; partying

hard; flash mobs; futilities; games; gifs; images that speak for themselves; subtitles;

pearls; pqd; offers; commercials that make fun; uncategorized; no kidding!; succeed;

vicarious embarrassment; viral; wtf; wtf; modafoca; joking a lot; eat, pray and love.

This compositional format is congruent to the websites objective (humor) as well as with the remixing technique, that is, the juxtaposition of heterogeneous elements.

The links provided by contributors, top partners and partners lead to their respective

websites, but there is no return link to Zuei Muitos website. This points to organization, too, as it disconnects the other websites from Zuei Muito, but touches the interactive

metafunction as it suggests a separation of responsibilities and objectives among the

interactive participants.

Procedures

The website Zuei Muito was chosen, for personal reasons, from among a large number of

Brazilian humorous websites. Actually, what initially drew our attention to it was the

slogan: if you cant play, dont come down to the playground!, an expression that in Brazil refers to people who live in condominiums where there are playgrounds are on the

ground floor. Therefore, the children who wish to play in such playgrounds must come

down from their apartments. In this website, the expression implies accepting that the

satires must not be taken seriously, since it would be nave, whereas they do not intend to

hurt anyone, or that, as we know, only attempts to protect the people responsible for the

website against possible lawsuits.

The two posts that will be analyzed were also chosen according to personal preferences,

since there is a humongous quantity of topics and it might not have been so productive to

search for a specific categorization for selecting the posts. As a matter of fact, two posts

identified as a remix and a parody were selected in order to compare their proposals and,

because of that, their thematic closeness was also considered. It is important to point out

that the opinions of the authors of the posts and the meanings constructed through the

analyses hereby introduced do not resemble at all, whatsoever, our own research-oriented

opinions or concepts.

Parody: multi-semiotic analysis of the post and sense of humor The post described below

3 (FIG.1) was chosen from a section with a somewhat

suggestive name: Images that speak for themselves.

3 The post is available at: http://www.zueimuito.com/novas-placas-do-mc-donalds/

Fig.1 Parody

In this case, the reading is immediate and the reference to the famous fast-food chain is

evident.

It is a linear drawing emulating an ordinary restroom sign. On a black to dark grey

gradient background are two white silhouettes representing a male and a female. A

straight white vertical line is drawn between the silhouettes and along with white

horizontal arrows on each side, pointing towards the left margin of the sign (male) and

right margin (female). Both figures were drawn with big circles representing the bellies

clearly denoting obesity. At the bottom of the sign, to the right, are the notorious golden

arches of the fast-food companys logo, accompanied by the Im loving it slogan. The logo is about the same size of the circles representing the bellies in the silhouettes above

it.

This is what an analysis of the three kinds of meaning aforementioned shows:

Representational meanings: in the image, they are represented through silhouettes in

which it is possible to clearly distinguish a male and a female participant, whose ages

cannot be easily perceived. They can be thought of as average standard consumers of the

hamburgers provided by the company in question, regardless of age or gender. A narrative

structure is expressed by the arrows men to the left and women to the right. But the

positioning of the figures side to side also suggests a conceptual structure in which both,

male and female, belong to the same class (customers) and share the same attributes (they

are considerably overweight). At the bottom, to the right, is the companys logo which, in this case, is not involved in either process structure and, thus, represents a circumstance

or context for the aforementioned processes.

Interactive meaning: the interaction between the image and the viewer resembles

the one we have when looking for a restroom in bars or restaurants, or that credits a high

degree of reality to the poster above. The contact vector is, nonetheless, inexistent, since the participants do not have eyes. There is maximum involvement coded by the

frontal horizontal code, and a mixture of objective (lack of details and depth) and

subjective (the reader is positioned as someone participating in a real interaction with a

sign at the fast-food store). This strategy decreases the reading time and gives more

credibility to the defended argument: eating hamburgers from this restaurant will make

you gain weight (fact). You have been there and you know it (feeling).

Compositional meanings: the information lies exactly in the center, making its viewing

more comfortable and immediate, with the salience of the white silhouettes over the black

background also contributes to a faster reading. A frame separating the male figure from

the female one divides the display into two exact halves, evidencing criticism towards the

fact that junk food makes both men and women gain weight. The fast-food chains logo in yellow placed at the lower right corner of the poster acts as a secondary element, but

with great salience. The location of the logo draws us to what Kress and Van Leeuwen

accredit to the new + real information value. Therefore, the message may be understood as: men and women in general, who get fat and look ridiculous (ideal),

correspond to the real and concrete case of whomever eats at the referenced fast-food

chain. Apart from that, the slogan Im loving it, which in Brazil was literally translated as: Amo muito tudo isso (I love all of this so much), adds a touch of irony to the reading, for the reader will have to reflect on the possible undesired consequences of

his/her love.

Since the website holds a space for interaction through comments made by the visitors,

we may still have an idea of the impact of the image. Here are translated transcriptions of

two comments that were posted on the day we accessed it:

Now they truly are in accordance with reality hahahahahahahahaha

By the way, going to [fast-food chains name] and ordering a salad is like going to a whorehouse and asking for a hug.

The presence of humor is set but the figure of irony one of the most commonly used figures in the production of humorous texts eliciting the consequences of eating a tasty hamburger: the obesity and ridicule of having exclusive toilets for obese individuals in restaurants. The ironic humor may still appears in the case that rest-rooms

are not reserved for the obese but, on the contrary, that obesity may be a normal pattern

among the regular customers of the fast-food chain. In this case, the source of fun would

be ridiculing those who do not have the willpower to resist the temptation of having the

meal offered. This kind of humor which holds the other individual as the object of humor

is very common in Brazil and is colloquially known as tirar sarro or, in English, to make fun of someone. Yet another interesting aspect can be found in the comments posted by the viewers, which

are also humorous. These comments usually agree with the criticism, as if saying it serves them right! to consumers who get what they deserve. The second comment is a simile in which the pleasures of flesh in a brothel are compared to a healthier order. Such transposition of actors and processes between the brothel and the fast-food store

suggests to the viewer an expansion in the content of the parody towards the argument

that selling fast-food is somehow an immoral exploitation of human desires and

weaknesses for profit. By mixing the images in the simile, the commentator positions him/herself on a public matter of ideological import and invites other viewers to follow.

Analysis of the construction of the parody

The parody under scope is an appropriation of images and discursive situations relatively

common and routine, which makes it more creative and interesting altogether. It is

composed by three elements: the human shapes of a man and a woman, the arrows

pointing the way to follow (left or right) and the companys logo itself which is the target of the criticism. There is still another important element for the construction of the

meaning of this text which is the means of circulation of what is identified as a poster or a

door sign indicating where the restrooms are in a restaurant.

FIG.2 Possible reference image obtained on the internet

The images for the male and female figures may have been obtained from a website on

the internet or made with an image editor from a reference image obtained from a simple

websearch in which I used restroom sign as the key word. The arrows used are graphic elements of common usage, in a simplified and clear

format. These may also have been obtained from the internet or even from the list of

shapes and images available from the preset database of a text processor.

Finally, the fast-food companys logo was, most likely, copied from the companys official website or an advertisement and then pasted into a place where most

advertisements show the companies logos, that is, on the lower right corner. This affords another meaning to the text, apart from the bias for its interpretation, which is that of an

advertisement. Reflexivity and the agency join here in the sense that the author(s) of the

parody turned elements of an advertisement back on the advertised, thereby criticizing it.

This is a similar strategy to the one used by computer hackers who make use of the very

same languages of the programs they intend to invade.

Remix: multi-semiotic analysis of the post and sense of humor

The post described below4 (FIG.3) was chosen from the same section/category as the

early mentioned Images that speak for themselves and refers to the same topic, that is, to a famous fast-food franchise.

FIG.3- Remix

The image is a photo of black granite tombstone, placed on a grave partially covered

with grass, partially with cement. Upon the stone are engraved the fast-food companys golden arches and, bellow the arches, the epitaph I loved it so much5.The logo is centered horizontally and about twice as tall and one-third as wide as the slogan

inscription. Part of a second tombstone, gray in color, can be seen on the background

surrounded by more green grass.

4 This post is available at: http://www.zueimuito.com/category/imagens-que-falam-por-si/page/33/

5 In Portuguese, literally: Amei muito tudo isso.

The epitaph includes the fast-food chain logo and a modified version of the

official company slogan, as it is used in Brazil. The epitaph reads I loved all of this

so much. Let us remark that unlike the parody in the first post, this remix does not deform or turn

against its original text (a tombstone with a regular epitaph, the fast-food chain slogan),

but generates humor and criticism through a more subtle and probably less painstaking

procedure than in the case of the parody: superimposing the text over the tombstone, that

is, a junction of two different ready-made elements with a little adjustment in the tense of a verb in order to turn the epitaph it a narrative.

We will now proceed with the analysis of the meanings:

Representational meanings: in the image, there is a representation of a tombstone

containing an inscription in the form of an epitaph referring to the well-known slogan of

the restaurants advertisement: Im loving it (which in Portuguese was translated as: I love all of this so much), but written in the past tense (I loved all of this so much). The restaurants logo appears above the text, bigger in size and placed on a central position in a way that makes it stand out. Differently from the parody analyzed above, here the

represented human participant is implicit, that is, a deceased fast-food consumer from the

same company. While the visual element carries out a conceptual-symbolic process, the

verbal element realized a narrative process with a transitive verb in the past tense I loved all of this very much. Furthermore, differently from the previous image, there is no mention to gender distinction here: men and women who eat junk-food are equally

destined to die from it.

Interactive meanings: the image has a subjective orientation as it places the reader

in the position of a visitor at the cemetery in front of the tomb (maximum involvement).

The vertical angle places the eyes of the viewer at the level of the inscription, which

suggests that the viewer is kneeling or, in any case, does not have power over the

represented participants, as a superior angle would suggest. The physical distance

between the viewer and the stone is short, suggesting social closeness between the viewer

and the tomb, and thus, metonymically, between the viewer and the deceased too. The

quality of the image and seamlessness of the montage makes the tombstone look real,

with minimum modalization. As in the parody, this remix combines two processes, the

objectivity of the tombstone and the subjectivity of the viewer, as he/she is placed in front

of the tombstone and becomes the receiver of the message that was emitted by the

deceased person or someone who pretended to be him/her.

Compositional meanings: the composition is simple since the focus is frontal and the

message containing the restaurants logo and a phrase, are both in white over a black granite background. The logo gets maximum salience and is placed at the upper part of

the picture, closer to the ideal position, in contrast with the grave (and, consequently, the deceased), which are positioned in the real part of the composition. Once again, a cause-effect relation is implied between eating fast-food and dying from it.

Final Comments What encouraged us to develop this research was the assumption that humor is an

element present in Brazilian culture that highlights agency in several ways, performing a

central role in circus performances, radio, television, cinema and, lately, also on the

internet, noticeably through new textual forms and procedures like remix.

Our objective was to identify the rhetorical resources used in the production of humorous

texts and types of agencies that these posts configured. Therefore, we analyzed the multi-

semiotic group and the relationships of meanings between the elements present in two

posts selected from the section/category Images that speak for themselves from the website Zuei Muito, as samples of a parody and a remix. This website, of which the

slogan is: If you cant play, dont come down to the playground supports, between the lines, the constitutional right of citizens to participate in his/her countrys life in whichever form he/she finds most convenient. In this case, it was through humor. More

often than not, we tell the truth while joking but, even when the truth is told in a

humorous tone, people can feel offended by it, and that is why the website tries to avoid

any legal issues. As far as the stuff of literacy itself is concerned, it is remarkable that the

use of images is an important strategy for making criticism and getting away with it. This

has been the case, in Brazil and elsewhere, of images displayed on the front pages of

some newspapers and magazines during dictatorship or civil rights violation times. If

translated into words, maybe the same messages could not be published at all! Apart from

that, the fact that parodying and remixing resemble the irresponsibility or lack of commitment stereotype of youth somehow invites readers to be lenient, especially in a

paternalistic culture, and removes the social (and political) weight from the humor

thereby presented, even though the messages are highly political.

As to the intentionality and motivation of the agents when creating the posts, it was

noticeable that in both cases the intention of criticizing and ridiculing the consumers of

fast-food by producing a just-making-fun kind of humor was also extended to criticizing

the hamburger franchise itself. Motivation to enact agency in such a way is probably

connected to the expectation of acknowledgement in the authors communities and affinity groups for being able to publish a work on a widely visited website.

If, as seen above, parodying and remixing are new literacy practices that interact with the

ideologies and with the institutions that shape them and define them, then the humorous

aforementioned creations are a counter-discourse and represent a form of social

engagement, and not only of inconsequent leisure.

Despite there being posts on the website which are obviously intended and motivated

differently, we do observe that the partaking in these practices and events, whether

through producing the posts or just viewing or commenting, involves socially situated

agents, that is, social actors, in the construction of knowledge and social action.

Parodying and remixing are important means of contouring discursive restrictions and

structures of power which are current in other media to elaborate and circulate complex

and politically cunning counter-discourses.

References

Ahearn, L. (2001) Language and agency. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30, 109-37.

Austin, J.L. (1962) How to do Things With Words. London: Oxford Univ. Press.

Bakhtin, M. Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem. So Paulo: Hucitec, 1999.

Davidson, D. 1980 (1971) Agency. In Essays on Actions and Events, ed. D. Davidson,

pp.43-61. Oxford: Calrendon Press.

Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998) "What is agency?" The American Journal of

Sociology, 103(4), 962-1023.

Gee, J.P. (1996) The New Literacy Studies and the "Social Turn". Retrieved from <

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED442118>

Gee, J.P., Hull, G. & Lankshear, C. (1996) Literacies, Discourses, and the New Work

Order. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.

Giddens, A. (1979) Central problems in social theory. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Halliday, M.A.K.(1978) Language as Social Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:

Edward Arnold.

Hill, J.H & & Irvine, J.T. (1993) Responsibility and Evidence in Oral Discourse.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Kress, G.&Van Leeuwen. (2000) T. Reading images: the Grammar of visual design.

London: Routledge.

Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2004) New literacies: research and social practices. Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference- San Antonio, 2 December.

Retrieved from .

Lankshear,C., & Knobel, M. (2007) Digital remix: The art and craft of endless

hybridization. Keynote presented to the International Reading Association Pre-

Conference Institute Using Technology to Develop and Extend the Boundaries of Literacy, Toronto, 13 May 2007. Retrieved from < http://extendboundariesofliteracy.pbworks.com/f/remix.pdf>.

Lankshear, C. Knobel, M. (2008) Digital literacies: concepts, policies and practices.

New York: Peter Lang.

Lessig, L. (2005) Creative commons. Paper presented to the Annual ITU conference,

Creative dialogues, Oslo, Network for IT- Research and Competence in Education (ITU), University of Oslo.

Lewis, C. (2006). New Literacies. In: A New Literacies sampler. Lankshear, C &

Knobel, M. (Orgs.) New Literacies and digital epistemologies, vol. 29. New York,

NY: Peter Lang. Retrieved from:

http://umn.academia.edu/CynthiaLewis/Papers/1336908/New_literacies>

Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge,

UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Sewell, W. H. (1992). A theory of structure: Duality, agency and transformation.

American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 1-29.

Raskin, V. (1987) Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel.

Street, B.V. (1984) Literacy in Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University

Press.

Segal, J.M. (1991) Agency and Alienation: A Theory of Human Presence. Savage, MD:

Rowman Littlefield.

Travaglia, L. C. (1990). Uma introduo ao estudo do humor pela lingstica. DELTA,

Revista de Documentao de Estudos em Lingstica Terica e Aplicada, So Paulo,

6(1), pp. 55-82.

1 A literal translation for Se no sabe brincar, no desce para o play, a popular saying roughly

equivalent to if you cant stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen, but focusing situations where one

gets offended by a joke or tease (authors note).

2 In the original: o humor desempenha na sociedade um papel social e poltico atravs de certas funes,

uma das quais bsica: o ataque ao estabelecido, censura, ao controle social (Author's translation). 3 The website address is: http://www.zueimuito.com/ 4 In the original: Galera, relaxa que isso aqui tudo zuao mesmo. O contedo no condiz com a

realidade. Se voc ficou bolado com alguma coisa, entre em contato que conversamos sobre o caso

(Author's translation). Source: http://www.zueimuito.com/contato/ 5 In the original: Todo contato deve ser feito por este formulrio. Caso exista a necessidade iremos passar

outras formas de contato.(Author's translation). Source: http://www.zueimuito.com/contato/ 6 In the original: Voc tambm pode nos ajudar a fazer o Zuei Muito! Envie sua zuao e iremos avaliar.

Se for boa com certeza ser publicada, e claro, com os crditos. (Author's translation). Source:

http://www.zueimuito.com/envie-seu-conteudo/