Page 75 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

a drug-addicted cripple. In Bruno's version, Bruno recasts the act with a dog-faced sad-sack called
Tino, and Nino lives on the streets obsessed with his next meal because Bruno has framed him in an
airport drug bust.
It is worth addressing these sequences, and the transition, in detail, since such moments need to
be understood as privileged moments in the film's interpretation. Moreover, topically speaking, in
Muertos de risa they clearly represent critical moments in the production of recent Spanish history.
Tejero's coup attempt, in Spain popularly called 'F-23' since it occurred on 23 February 1981,
challenged Spain's status as a democracy. Muertos de la risa stresses that the interruption occurred
in virtual reality, just like the Gulf War, or O. J. Simpson's highway chase interrupting President
Clinton's State of the Union address, did. The nation unfolds from within T V E , the national
television station. How do national and global interests play out in this conflict? With these terms in
mind, let us consider the sequence 'Golpe de estado' ('Military Coup').
In the previous sequence Nino and Bruno are filming a comedy routine based on a magic act, a
staple of 1970s television, and a talking animal. Remember Ed the talking horse? The mise-en-scene
is absolutely 1970s television - vaudeville variety in front of a purple shimmery curtain, done on a
sound stage. Bruno is supposed to be interviewing Nino to see if he can manage the part of a rabbit
in the magic act. What shifts the dynamic to allow the long-suffering Nino to finally take revenge on
Bruno, who has always hit him, is the 1990s media subtext. From the perspective of the 1990s, the
rabbit is coded as the Energizer Bunny. This campaign was well distributed throughout Europe and
had a major impact. In Spain, Felipe Gonzalez, the Spanish Socialist president, was caricatured on the
cover of a major news magazine as the Energizer Bunny for his durability in office despite the scandals
emerging over his handling of a covert war against the Basque E T A militia.
What is most interesting about this sequence, which intercuts real T V E footage of the coup,
is the depiction of the commanding officer and his troops as everyday Joes, doing forced military
service, looking for a beer or a cognac, and definitely more interested in cultural icons, in what is on
entertainment television, than in political upheaval. The exchange between the television workers
and the military more closely resembles a common stick-up. Moreover, as important as what Muertos
de risa shows of the event of the coup on television, is what it does not show. History books praise
King Juan Carlos for addressing the nation via television, thus aborting the coup and affirming the
constitution. In The Spectacle of Democracy, the most complete account to date of the relationship
between Spanish political and media history, Richard Maxwell explains:

After midnight, and after many helpless hours, Spaniards watched as the king of Spain
appeared on T V E . No one knew for sure until then that he refused to join the coup or
that he had not been killed; it had been a very long while before he appeared. It was not
clear that T V E had been recaptured by troops loyal to the government, and the king was
the first to report that there was going to be no uprising and no end to democracy. He
calmed fears and, as if speaking directly to them, commanded the insurgents to follow.
Later it was revealed that the king had rallied all but two divisions to the defense of Spanish
democracy. ... That night, many believers in democracy became monarchists, if only for
a brief time. 27

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