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El pulso de la República is a Mexican comedy news web video series mostly about taking a Black Comedy approach to news related to current Mexican Politics, delivered by an egocentrical anchorman who's Surrounded by Idiots delivering news two times a week. Chumel Torres is the anchorman of this internet news series in the style of Jon Stewart of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The success of the series led Torres to being offered his own show on HBO, Chumel con Chumel Torres, a late-night political talk show similar to a Spanish-language version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (he can curse as much as he wants without being censored, can recur to high-budget segments). In June of 2020 Torres was invited to speak at a forum on racism and classism in Mexico, and following a tweet by the First Lady tweeted condemning how someone who spoke ill of her underage son was invited, a high level of outrage on twitter erupted. Following this controversy Torres apologized for his remarks, but the conference was cancelled and HBO decided to "temporarily suspend" his late night show without further details and removed the episodes from both YouTube and HBO Go (now renamed HBO Max).

The show also has a radio spin-off, La radio de la República, on the Mexican Radio Fórmula radio network.


Yo soy Chumel Torres y estos son los Tropos de la Republica:

  • Adam Westing: When Enrique Peña Nieto himself appeared on the show, his appearance mostly consisted of lampooning his many gaffes in public, including one time (still recent at the time of the video) where he was unable to do the heart shape hand symbol.
  • Bad Boss: Chumel tends to look down on his colleagues. Poor Victor in particular got it bad for a while.
  • The Cameo:
    • Sam J. Jones himself introduced one of the "Flash" segments.
    • None other than then-President Enrique Peña Nieto himself appeared on one of the show's sketches (around the time where his presidency was ending), to give his farewell to Chumel.
  • Celebrity Resemblance: A Running Gag whenever talking about independent politician Pedro Kumamoto is Chumel claiming that he looks like Kylo Ren (or that he is Kylo Ren).
    Chumel: You killed Han Solo!
  • Creepy Uncle: Mentioned in one of the show's Running Gags, where Chumel would mention an uncle of his who would do things like ask him to wear a GoPro cam while taking a shower, or just asking to take a shower together.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Chumel's friends/production staff (Oswaldo/Kaiser, Ricky, Victor and Gabrielo), who usually aren't seen on camera on El pulso de la República, are Chumel's co-hosts on the La radio de la República spin-off.
  • Eye Beams: If Chumel gets very agitated or angry at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), a clip of him in a Wig, Dress, Accent version of the president shouting "Reconciliation beam! Pew! Pew! ... pew!" and shooting Eye Beams. Chumel then comes back and he becomes considerably calmer and notably more forgiving if not partisan in favor of the president.
  • Fast-Forward Gag: As he's grown older, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador speaks slowly and with fairly large pauses between words and phrases. So of course they make a gag that whenever they show a clip of him speaking, it's sped up with a "Fast Forward" button glowing in the lower left corner.
  • Homoerotic Subtext:
    • Purposely invoked by Chumel, who isn't shy about gushing over other men being covered, or his friends in the production staff.
    • Perhaps the most extreme example was Enrique Peña Nieto. Despite usually mocking him as a pretty inept President, Chumel couldn't help but think that the man was handsome. When Peña Nieto himself eventually appeared on the show around the time his presidency was ending to bid farewell to Chumel, Chumel basically treated it as if his boyfriend was breaking up with him, and he didn't take it very well (complete with lots of bawling and romantic background music).
  • Intentional Engrish for Funny: His Signing-Off Catchphrase, "Los amo, estupeds" ("I love you, estupeds"), "estupeds" seemingly being a bad translation of "stupid."
  • Jerkass: Everyone is a prick, in some degree or other.
  • Of the People: Commented on and lampshaded whenever he criticizes President López Obrador's penchant (both before and after becoming President) for populism that divides the nation into "the people" and "fifís" (tl: conservatives and snobs/yuppies).
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten:
    • Chumel is quite eager to remind famous figures of their sins, such as singer Gloria Trevi, saying that he won't forget her involvement with Sergio Andrade in a sex trafficking ring. Also, ever since Donald Trump got elected, he will often refer to the USA as "La nación más pendeja del mundo" ("The World's Most Stupid Nation").
    • Chumel is, for what it's worth, able to take as much as he gives, as on several occasions he has references some embarrasing incidents of his. This includes the time he was duped into believing a kid who claimed to have received a letter of recomendation from Stephen Hawking (when people who looked into it quickly caught that it was a forgery), the time he claimed something about Karl Marx that anyone with a passing knowledge about Marx knew was unlikely,note  and the time when he was victim of a nude photo hacking.
  • Running Gag: A lot.
    • Whenever a segment covers Donald Trump, they'll run a theme song for him called "Bebe Presidente" (tl: President Baby).
    • When running a story on Mexican President Andes Manuel Lopez Obrador, they'll run a riffed version of "Bebe Presidente", "Viejito Presidente" (tl: President Oldie).
    • The above Eye Beam gag involving Chumel dressed as President López Obrador. In some occasions it is subverted when Chumel uses Heroic Willpower to resist when AMLO does something singularly outrageous.
    • Sometimes Chumel would mention a scenario of a couple in which the female would cheat on her partner or do something that implies so, before adding "... ¿verdad, Carolina?" ("... [isn't that] right, Carolina?"), implying that he was in a relationship with a woman named Carolina who did the same thing. There was even one sketch made by the show as a PSA about drinking where Chumel actually married Carolina and they had children; his life was in a total mess.
    • "... historia real." ("... True story."), usually tacked at the end of the description of an outrageous situation, implying that it did actually happen to him or to someone on his group of friends/production staff.
  • Visual Pun: The "Flash" segments are almost always presented with some picture of The Flash in the background, although Flash Gordon isn't unheard of. The few times that something else has been on the background (like The Joker or The Riddler) it has been an indication that something has gone awry with the show.
  • The Unseen: Chumel's friends in the production staff usually aren't seen on camera. Averted sometimes when Chumel wasn't present but the show continued, when they took turns hosting the show.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: A lot of his bits have him put on a wig, glasses, shawl, sports jersey or other props and an accent for the person he's mocking or mimicking.

"... y les recuerdo como cada semana que: Los amo, estupeds."Translation 

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