O Pasquim was a weekly periodical established in Rio de Janeiro in 1969. Initially imagined by the cartoonist Jaguar as the neighborhood newsletter of Ipanema, it soon became a national phenomenon. Famous for its role as the most successful oppositional tabloid to the military regime in Brazil, O Pasquim used humor to critique political coercion and the systematic violation of human rights by the Brazilian dictatorship. Financed by Murilo Reis, O Pasquim started with the distribution of 10,000 copies, but its circulation reached more than 200,000 exemplars in the early 1970s.

The newspaper brought together a new generation of artists very critical of the political situation of Brazil, including Millôr Fernandes, Ziraldo, Jaguar, Martha Alencar, Sérgio Noronha, Moacir Scliar, Newton Carlos, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Ferreira Gullar, Glauber Rocha e Cacá Diegues. Its colloquial style profoundly transformed the language of Brazilian journalism. Publicity occupied 25% of the pages of the newspaper, which was purchased first and foremost by the sons and daughters of the Brazilian middle class. Many of its most interesting reports and political cartoons were censored by the military dictatorship, whose police invaded the Pasquim’s headquarters in November of 1970, arresting almost all of its journalists. The newspaper then became a symbol of resistance of civil society before the authoritarianism of the state. Although O Pasquim closed its operations in 1991, it is still considered the alternative newspaper of most longevity in Brazil.