Go ahead, I never liked Arévalo. Not even as a child, and not because I was a precocious example of egalitarian consciousness, but because I never liked the culture of jokes. I laughed with Mortadelo and with Asterix. If someone came out and fell on the floor or stepped on shit, I would be upset. I also liked the absurdity: I laughed at Tip and Coll because I didn't understand what they were saying at all, or at Martes and Trece because they shouted a lot, but a man telling jokes left me cold. It's a part of Spanish popular culture that never touched me, even though it was everywhere, especially at gas stations.
Perhaps he felt alienated from her because he lived surrounded by her and associated her with an ugliness that he wanted to escape. I clarify this so that my confusion is not mistaken for an apology, and to emphasize that one cannot perceive Arévalo's humor and at the same time regret his end, understand the tragic sadness of his final years and appreciate his importance to the Iberian pop universe . I didn't laugh with him, but my uncles, my grandparents, my parents' neighbors and many others did. And I wasn't any better than them because I didn't laugh.
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If a foreigner were to read some of the reactions to Arévalo's death – especially in the meat grinder that used to be called Twitter – he would think that a war criminal had died, a vile creature who subjugated homosexuals and patients in the clinics. To the astonishment of some, it appears that Spain's centuries of darkness, shame, persecution and violence were the fault of one man who, for a while, was fooling around on the stage. I am very disgusted by all these very good people dancing on the grave of a man who in his life only told jokes that are no longer funny. How can someone who does not respect mourning or understand how to remain at least politely silent as the procession passes by boast of moral greatness?
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