No laughing matter? The ethics of racial humor in Tres sombreros de copa

Miguel Mihura’s Tres sombreros de copa is often celebrated as an irresistibly funny critique of the values of the bourgeoisie in early twentieth-century Spain. Yet the appreciation of some (myself included) is tempered by a discomfort at the handful of references to race and blackness in the play. Drawing on an approach to the ethics of humor that recognizes its performative aspect, this article considers several productions of Mihura’s comedy from 1983 to 2011, and analyzes the various ways in which they do or do not engage with the potentially “racist” humor of the published text and with the issue of how to perform the character of Buby on stage.