From Poland to #San Escobar - on strategies subverting political discourse on Twitter

Using the example of the hashtag #SanEscobar, which was triggered by a slip of the tongue made by the then Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski, the chapter shows how Twitter provides a discourse arena for the subversion of political discourse. A multimodal discourse analysis of tweets reveals how participants jointly devise the virtual country of San Escobar. The conceptual structure of the unfolding discourse uses elements from frames which comprise knowledge about South-America, Pablo Escobar and about the national conservative PiS party. Conceptual elements and structure from these frames are combined in a way that associates PiS-governed Poland with the stereotype of a South American narco-democracy (San Escobar) and thus humorously criticises the current political situation in Poland.