This article sets out to analyse how a set of social representations of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro is revealed in public humorous critique. The research is based on a study of around 2,400 covers of the tabloid Meia Hora, famous for its comic presentation of the news, which were published between 2011 and 2017, a period corresponding to a routinization established by Rio’s Pacifying Police Units (UPPs). The analysis reveals how the ridicule deployed in humorous critique expresses the social representations of three main figures in the context of Rio de Janeiro’s urban violence: the criminal, the police officer and Rio de Janeiro itself as a social order