ABSTRACT
As a subject that has primarily been researched in Western democracies, this chapter provides the key elements for understanding it in a post-authoritarian democracy. First, it defines the working concepts of political entertainment, humor and satire, putting them into the context of the Latin American and Mexican understandings of said ideas. Next, it explains how satirical shows expanded from Western countries to the rest of the world, and why they flourished in post-authoritarian democracies, according to economic, political and cultural factors. Due to a process of domestication, satire has distinctive characteristics in the latter countries that we will describe. Further, we explain those features by using the general framework of the transition of political journalism from an authoritarian to a democratic function, which successfully explains the opening of liberal journalism in those settings and subsequent setbacks. The chapter ends with a description of the main thesis of the book, its general structure and each of its chapters.
