To improve their image, the Argentine security forces are establishing an inclusive city guard with members who are disabled or from different minorities. They have no experience, no training or, some of them, a great desire to ensure the safety of the rest of Buenos Aires’ citizens. For all the vigor of life, the fate of this peculiar city guard intersects with a no less peculiar criminal gang. The success of Netflix’s Argentinian comedy División Palermo has surprised its creator Santiago Korovsky, also the protagonist of a story that breaks stereotypes with humor and shows that comedy can be made on any subject if you know how. .
Korovsky worked on an idea for more than four years, which over time took shape, gaining height and power. First there was the idea that the security forces wanted to change their image. Later members with disabilities joined this seed, reaching out to people from these groups to document themselves and to a diverse cast who also brought their own experiences. And everything was sprayed with a very special humor that is not suitable for the offended in times when political correctness dominates. “We felt that if we looked at minorities or people with disabilities with our serious gaze, we would fall into a platitude, reflect them as beings of light, infantilize them, asexualize them,” the screenwriter and actor explains in a video call conversation. Because of this, he explains, it was the people with disabilities or minorities they worked with who came up with the most extreme jokes.
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For example, when one of the City Guardsmen returns to work after a failed operation, his colleagues greet him with three gruesome signs that read, “It was your fault.” A second later, they realize that the first poster is missing, that of Johnny (Hernán Cuevas), who, as a short person, was not visible. Get on a chair and yes, the full message reads, “It wasn’t your fault.” In another episode, a comedy club manager offers wheelchair-bound Sofía (Pilar Gamboa) a job, calling her a “comedian with special skills.” “Spiderman has special abilities,” she replies, dismissing the patronizing treatment.
Some of the members of the protagonist of the city guard of “Palermo Division”, at one point in the series. Courtesy of Netflix
“In general, we are ridiculed for not knowing how to assert ourselves against people with disabilities, institutions and politics, appropriating the so fashionable word inclusion and diversity, to end up making formal but non-formal changes to the background” , Korovsky explains the humor of his series. “The idea was to do humor without avoiding the social issues they are going through, to think about society in a different way. The goal wasn’t to push the boundaries of humor, but to be in the right place. We live in a time when misunderstood political correctness doesn’t allow you to explore some places, and we wanted to laugh at political correctness when it’s hypocrisy.”
Misunderstood political correctness won’t let you explore some places, we wanted to laugh at political correctness when it’s hypocrisy
Santiago Korowski
This peculiar fictional squad consists of a blind man, a trans woman, a wheelchair user, a Bolivian, a man with dwarfism, another with obesity, and a Jew, as well as an instructor and coordinator with a prosthetic arm. For writing the characters, they had the help of a screenwriter, they spoke to the captain of the short Argentinian team, to an actor descended from Bolivian parents… They also documented with the security forces about what kind of guards urban and what not (A Municipal Guard was created in Buenos Aires in 2004, but the body was closed in 2008). “They told us situations that are far more absurd than fiction allows. If you say that, no one will believe it,” laughs the screenwriter, who among the references he has managed for Palermo Division, series like The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm, films like The Untouchables and the humor of Álex de la Iglesias cinema mentioned.
Daniel Hendler, in Palermo Division. Courtesy of Netflix
Although the jokes on the show could offend multiple sensibilities, Korovsky assures that they have not received any complaints from people offended by their jokes, and even recalls that the series was mentioned as an example of visibility at the UN’s Disability Committee . Netflix also gave the creators “quite a lot of freedom”. “There were some clues early on, like the position of each character was that particular character’s position, not the show’s. Sometimes they said you have to be careful with a joke, but I said ‘when the girl in the wheelchair says it’ and they saw it clearly,” explains Korovsky, who is already working on the show’s second season .
The Limits of Humor
In view of the frequent debate about the limits of humor, the screenwriter takes a clear position: of course, comedy has its limits. “Laughing at someone who is vulnerable and a condition they have that they cannot change is a mistake. Laughing at a tragedy that you haven’t spent enough time processing is a mistake. There are limits, it’s common sense to realize where they are. But times have changed and we have all learned what to laugh about and what not to laugh about and we will continue to learn. But I think it’s not the topic that sets the limits, but where you stand on this topic. It’s not about people with disabilities, it’s about where you are to make that humor. If you’re laughing at a problem or these people are the constant punchline of the joke because of their condition, then that’s a problem. Humor is a key tool for thinking about society,” he reflects.
Hernán Cuevas and Martín Garabal, in the first season of ‘División Palermo’ Tomás Francisco Cuesta/Netflix (Tomás Francisco Cuesta/Netflix)
Palermo Division is an example that the maxim that humor does not go down well internationally is not always true because it is closely linked to the socio-cultural context of each place. “Netflix has pushed us to do something local, contrary to what you might think about the platforms. The idea is to start from the local and offer a vision of the world. The beauty that we see is the peculiarities, when we see something Spanish, Mexican, Korean, we like to see the differences and similarities,” defends Korovsky, surprised to receive reactions and interview requests from places as diverse as Brazil or Israel have where the series was dubbed.
Life in Argentina is crazy. With the reality that touches us, we have humor very close
Santiago Korowski
What is special about Argentine humor? “There is an absurdity to the society in which we live that is in itself incredible. Life in Argentina is crazy, it takes you to a level of madness and strangeness that you just need to know where to put the magnifying glass. There’s a Latin magical realism that surrounds us all the time, and it’s better to laugh than cry. We have the plus that is in the series: With the reality that touches us, we have the humor very close.”
Santiago Korovsky, protagonist and creator of “División Palermo” Tomás Francisco Cuesta/Netflix (Tomás Francisco Cuesta/Netflix)
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