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This article argues that the use of humour and the carnivalesque is not only a productive means to approach the Spanish Civil War, but that a comparison of works that have employed these perspectives reveals the shifting nature of Civil War remembrance in Spain over time. The article compares in particular, Luis García Berlanga's La vaquilla (1986), Eduardo Mendoza's Riña de gatos, Madrid 1936 (2010) and Álex de la Iglesia's Balada triste de trompeta (also 2010). It stresses the role of carnivalesque subversion and of the esperpento tradition as a means of being productively contestatory and thus broadening prevailing memory horizons without disqualifying any one of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]