By the time Carajicomedia was penned, Castilians were already acquainted with many Classical satirists, but the word “satire” as a generic designation did not gain currency until Villegas's 1515 translation of Juvenal. Before that date, Iberian medieval satirical poetry was referred to as “poesía de burlas,” “de mofa” (scathing), “jocosa” (funny), or “provocante a risa.” Its objective was either to correct behavior, like the Provenzal “sirventés,” or to insult a person in a veiled or open manner, like the Galician–Portuguese “cantigas d’escarnho e maldizer” (see Appendix B; burlesque songs).

Carajicomedia has more in common with the biting satire of “cantiga d’escarnho e maldizer” than with the “sirventés.” Like the authors of the “cantigas d’escarnho,” the writers of burlesque cancionero poetry included people like Juan de Baena, Alfonso Álvarez de Villasandino, Ferrán Manuel de Lando, Fray Diego de Valencia, Juan de España, Alfonso Ferrández Semuel, Antón de Montoro, and nobles like Rodrigo Manrique, Gómez Manrique, and Fadrique Enríquez, who were not afraid to attach their names to poems that criticized someone else's perceived vices, physical defects, sexual proclivities, ancestry, fashion, religion, or—most importantly—absence of compositional skills.

Carajicomedia, however, is unlike the “cantigas d’escarnho e maldizer” in that it hides the identity of its authors, even though their ostensible targets— Mena, Hernán Núñez, Diego Fajardo, whores, their companions, and minor religious figures—are dead or unimportant enough not to represent a serious threat. Because of its anonymity, Carajicomedia resembles the longer satiric poems of the fifteenth century, perhaps for the very same reasons. A look at some of its characters reveals that while some are indeed minor, others may refer to the principal political figures of the time.

Diego Fajardo