‘Los Espookys’ is the First Comedy That Uses Subtitles in a Smart Way

HBO’s newest comedy series Los Espookys is a bonkers look at the zany joy that horror can bring to everyday life. Spooky stuff-obsessive Renaldo (Bernaldo Velasco) pulls three of his best friends into a business that aims to bring real horror to everyday people who need it. Together, Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti), Andrés (Julio Torres), Tati (Ana Fabrega), and Renaldo are “Los Espookys.”
What makes Los Espookys so good is its fastidious attention to both tone and timing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the miraculous way Los Espookys uses subtitles to enhance the humor of the punchlines.

Typically, subtitles can be the death of comedy. In fact, I have a personal rule that I’ll happily watch any drama with the subtitles on, but I turn them off for comedy. The simple act of scanning a line of subtitles quickly can kill a punchline or ruin a surprising line read. Los Espookys, however, can’t avoid subtitles. The show’s concept sets it in Latin America, and co-creators Fred Armisen, Julio Torres, and Ana Fabrega have designed the show to switch between Spanish and English. Subtitles are necessary for Los Espookys to reach its audience.

During a recent press day, Decider’s Kayla Cobb asked Torres and Fabrega if they had any concerns about the subtitles, and it turns out they had “many.”

Ana Fabrega said, “I think the subtitles was a really arduous process of watching them over and over and over…”

“And making sure that the timing – what we’re looking after here is the timing, right? And making sure that you don’t give away a joke before someone said it, but at the same time making sure that they’re up there for enough time for people to read them,” said Julio Torres. “And holding on to a word until the person who says it appears so it feels like people who speak Spanish and English are receiving the information at the same time. We had to be very meticulous about it.”

The careful attention worked. Watching Los Espookys is a delight because of how the subtitles are deployed. Instead of revealing a typical “set up/punchline, set up/punchline” joke structure, the subtitles show just how sharp, smart, odd, and varied Torres, Fabrega, and Armisen’s scripts are. Which each new subtitle, a new variation on a line is revealed, additional punchlines are shared, and sophisticated wordplay is shown off. Sometimes the laugh is even in the disconnect in tonality between what’s being said and how the actors are saying it. Other times, the joke is funnier because of how seeing a word juxtaposed with a setting looks.

In fact, one of the slyest tricks Los Espookys pulls off is using its subtitles to enrich the visual comedy. Los Espookys is set in a strange, dreamy world and each little detail on display either informs the setting or serves as its own wry joke. Take for instance the segment of Gregoria Santos’s Mira Esto we saw. As she runs through a series of hilarious stories — each absurd in their own way, all to satirize the sorry state of news magazines — the visuals behind her only enhance the ridiculousness of what she’s saying. After talking about a boy who has been saved from death five times by the same pet dog, we see a photo of a catastrophically sad little boy behind her cuddling with his dog along with a howler of a punchline.

The way in which Los Espookys uses subtitles isn’t just clever; it’s downright genius. What could have been the show’s biggest hurdle — juggling the surprise of a punchline with the translations needed to reach a wide audience — is now one of its biggest boons. By highlighting each line in bold text, Los Espookys is showing off how good its jokes are, as well as finding inventive ways to play with timing, tone, and visual comedy.
There is, of course, an even more ironic boon to Los Espookys‘ subtitles: it makes sharing the show’s best jokes all the more easier. All you have to do is screenshot a frame, share it on social media, and you’re spreading the ghoulish gospel of Los Espookys.
Los Espookys might be the very first comedy show to conquer subtitles.
Additional reporting by Kayla Cobb.

Where to stream Los Espookys