Not so trivial

by Gabriela Pedranti, Posted April 28, 2025

The PHOTO OP series — to which SEMIOVOX has invited our semiotician colleagues from around the world to contribute — analyzes photos that we’ve snapped while “off the job.”

The naked truth. The text says: “Smoking damages your economy.” Photo shot in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2022, during a huge financial crisis in that country.

Not so trivial. Another photo from my trip home to Buenos Aires. The impoverished Argentineans who were Juan Perón’s chief supporters during his regime (1946–55, 1973–74) were known as descamisados — that is, “the shirtless.” This Trivial Pursuit-style board game includes seven sub-games, each of which refers to one of the main milestones in the history of Peronism, and each of which features a different dynamic — including tests not only of your historical knowledge of Peronism, but of your capacity for, say, verbal dexterity, mental agility, coming to consensus, and sheer luck.

The never-ending story. “I’m one of those rolls that never ends,” boasts a package of toilet paper fashioned from recycled paper. It’s a pun that works brilliantly if you know that rollo can mean either “roll” [of toilet paper] or “boring story”… and if you accept the idea that recycling is never-ending. Photo taken in Barcelona in 2022.

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Not so trivial