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Charlie Hebdo cartoon on Italy earthquake sparks anger

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UrbanRats

Member
Basically, italians are shit and don't care about anything except their own money and will steal at every opportunity , even if this mean to kill hundred of people because their buildings are supposedly "earthquake proof".

Not true, we'll care at the next seismic event killing another couple of hundreds people... for a week or two, anyway.
 

Koren

Member
CH can make a cartoon with the caption: Look at all these stupid non-french, and some will still say it is all good dark satire. SMH.
Well, they're harsh against french people too.

But there's two debates, unrelated to me:
- whether it's good or bad
- whether they can or can't do it.

Funny how people can pull a complete 180 when they were championing Charlie Hebdo for free speech a year ago.
I'm not sure there's a lot of people doing a 180... You can say a cartoon is bad, awful, or even that all their cartoons are awful, and still defend their right to have bad taste and do awful cartoons.

Everyone wanted to be Charlie not so long ago now they wanna jump off the bandwagon.
I don't think the whole "I am Charlie" has anything to do with liking or not their cartoons, or even thinking they should draw any given cartoon.

It's mostly about not deciding what you can or can't do because some people don't want it done. Again, I don't like them, but for all tasteless their content is, I believe they're entitled to publish it as long as it's not against a law.
 

Keasar

Member
Sounds to me like the message was on point from the Italian posters?

It was tragic and I feel for my fellow Europeans, it is hard however to overlook how trivialized the apparent dangers of the "earthquake proof" houses were, especially considering that Italy is a earthquake active area.

Tasteless joke? Maybe. On point? I must be honest and say I do think so. Charlie Hebdo keeps doing what they've always done. And I still stand by their right to keep doing it.
 

entremet

Member
.

They're not trying to fit a certain narrative-- they've looked at the world through the same lens and aren't interested in qualifying their content based on how it may be perceived or who it may offend.

By all means, feel free to find it tasteless. Feel free to find it uncomfortable. Just don't expect them to apologize. And don't expect their message to somehow shift.

For the record, I think this one was a total miss. But I don't want them to quit swinging.

Kinda my thoughts as well. They will strike out a lot with their type of humor.
 

Violet_0

Banned
it was probably answered already, but is there any deeper meaning behind that cartoon? Because there normally is with CH, but I don't see it right now
e: so apparently it's about shoddy buildings?
 
I have no use for this magazine and I have no particular interest in speaking even-handedly when it comes to their right to shit the bed.

You can't have a thread on GAF about CH without 90% of posters literally interpreting the message backwards.

Which tells me that they write comics with the assumption that a lot of the context will already have been communicated to their (small) audience, and everyone else can get fucked.
 

Alo0oy

Banned
What are you loving? People complain every time a thread about one of their jokes gets posted.
Personally i think they should keep doing what they are doing though, i just wish the joke in the OP was more biting, cutting a little deeper.

Wow, it's one thing to say they have a right to be racist, but it's another thing entirely to say you personally want them to continue to do what they're doing.

That's why racism will never die, when diet racism is not only accepted, but encouraged.
 
Which tells me that they write comics with the assumption that a lot of the context will already have been communicated to their (small) audience, and everyone else can get fucked.

Yeah, that's about it. CH isn't some kind of mainstream magazine, them getting a lot of coverage after the shootings hasn't changed that.

One of the cartoons in a recent CH issue is tasteless. Nothing to see here. I don't get why people are offended (well, I get why Italians would be offended but yeah).

Wow, it's one thing to say they have a right to be racist, but it's another thing entirely to say you personally want them to continue to do what they're doing.

That's why racism will never die, when diet racism is not only accepted, but encouraged.

Today I learned Charlie Hebdo was a racist magazine!
 
Indeed... I don't like their humor (although I really like black humor in general, even if it's tricky to do it well) and I won't buy the magazine. But I really think putting limits on what you can or cannot do (barring lying/diffamation) is dangerous and unwelcome...

Exactly. It's definitively not done for everyone, far from it, and several people said the magazine died because of the shootings, because it can't be looked by everyone, especially out of "context" (by that, I mean that readers of the magazine reckon they have respect virtually for nothing by choice).
Are you saying that we can't criticise it because we're not the audience? The Transformers movies aren't made for me but I sure as Hell criticise them.

This isn't funny, it's tasteless. There's no 'you're just not getting it' here. It's not high-art or intelligently satirical, it's just offensive for the sake of a faux-edginess that it's pseudo-intellectual fanbase can laugh at and feel smugly superior to all those 'silly reactionists'. It's a shame that people would think that laughing at the deaths and losses of others is funny in any way even if you're going to pretend it's actually about Italy's poor housing quality.

So we can expect Italians to shoot up CH offices any day now, right?
giphy.gif
 

Koren

Member
Are you saying that we can't criticise it because we're not the audience?
No, you can criticise all you want, of course...

I'm just referring to people that want to forbid this.

It's a shame that people would think that laughing at the deaths and losses of others is funny in any way
No talking about this cartoon in particular, but I feel like death is not sacred. Although you need to be really, really good when you try it.

It's not new, I mean, 46 years ago, the magazine that became Charlie Hebdo the next year, published this:
1041588-bal-tragique-a-colombey-1-mort.jpg

(tragic party at Colombey, 1 dead)

which was announcing the death of the french president, and alluding at a fire in a dancing room that killed more than 100 people if I'm not mistaken.
 
For the aftermath of the CH shooting they had a drawing with an assembly line making tshirts with "JE SUIS CHARLIE" manned by black slaves IIRC with one of them saying "Et la Santé surtout!".
And a few dozens others making fun of the whole event.

I think you're confusing two of their drawings.

The first one was published on January 7, 2015, actually four days before the Charlie Hebdo shooting:
yP4TCdNm.jpg

Caption: "Happy New Year Wishes: al-Baghdadi said his too!"
Bubble: "And good health especially!"


The second one was indeed published in the aftermath of the shooting:
KtYybgFm.jpg

Caption: "Meanwhile, in Bangladesh..."
Bubble: "Our hearts go out to you!"
 
So is the joke that a bunch of Italians died? Because that's kind of the only thing I can get out of it and, well, christ.

Yes, that's exactly the joke. This satirical magazine loves to mock dead kids and their families, nothing more to it.


Damn it guys get your shit together, have a bit more common sense than just outrage culture.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
If some random dude on twitter was drawing these comics there would be less people defending it. Likewise, CH could probably publish a random swath of racist tweets and people would talk about how CH is recontextualising and satirising racism.
 

UrbanRats

Member
Wow, it's one thing to say they have a right to be racist, but it's another thing entirely to say you personally want them to continue to do what they're doing.

That's why racism will never die, when diet racism is not only accepted, but encouraged.
I don't find most of their jokes particularly funny or interesting myself, but yeah, i'm with them continuing with their brand of humor.
I do like dark humor myself, so it'd be well hypocritical of me to cry out about tastelessness now.

In this particular instance too (and i don't know why it has to do with racism), i'm fine with them making satire about the situation in Italy, i just wished they would attack on the political side deeper, like they did with the second cartoon posted here, instead of just resorting to the Pasta joke, which doesn't really address the corruption/Mafia angle, and is sort of "limp dicked".

But yes, i'm fine with stuff like this existing in the world, whether i personally find it funny or not.
I'm also fine with people giving them shit, this is what you deal with if you want to write edgy, offensive material, people will get offended.
As long as that offense is expressed in civil ways, i should add.

it was probably answered already, but is there any deeper meaning behind that cartoon? Because there normally is with CH, but I don't see it right now
e: so apparently it's about shoddy buildings?

It's not just buildings being shoddy.
Some of these buildings were supposedly restructured to be anti-seismic, with public money, yet here we are.
Those buildings came down anyway, and the money's gone, and the people are dead.

This is honestly exemplary of the number one problem with this country, unfortunately represented by one horrible tragedy.

Not sure how the pasta comic relates to that, but the second one does, at least.
 

okita

Member
Disgusting.

One thing i keep in my mind: better stay away from things like charlie hebdo, just fuel for hate, humanity don't need this , let them have their free of speech alone ...

#jenesuispascharlie
 
If some random dude on twitter was drawing these comics there would be less people defending it. Likewise, CH could probably publish a random swath of racist tweets and people would talk about how CH is recontextualising and satirising racism.

"If you are defending this, it's only because it's Charlie Hebdo!"

No. No one likes Charlie Hebdo, it's a relatively crappy satirical magazine that tries too hard to be edgy more often than not, and that most people don't enjoy. It doesn't mean you are allowed to rewrite history and say CH is some racist right-wing magazine just because you refuse to accept context matters. You know a satirical magazine can be shit and have liberal messages, right? The cartoonists over at CH are assholes who deliberately try to stir shit up, but it doesn't mean they are spreading or even supporting hateful messages. They are just very hit-and-miss (and this cartoon in particular is a complete miss).
 

Pendas

Banned
Freedom of Speech....

if you don't like it, get some guns, bombs, and let them know how you feel.

I can make shitty jokes about disasters too
 

Business

Member
But remember... It's their right to be offensive. I don't remember people being this offended when Islam and Mohammed were being attacked.

I remember some people were so offended they went and shot down CH employees. Hopefully now there will be more sense.
 

Magni

Member
Everytime non French people get exposed to Charlie Hebdo, they freak out. This isn't anything new. Charlie Hebdo has been like this since forever. Since before Charlie Hebdo even existed (the name Charlie comes from Charles de Gaulle - the founding editors' previous magazine Hara Kiri was banned after they published a cartoon mocking Charles de Gaulle's death).

Their whole shtick is "you have to be able to laugh at anything". If you can't, then don't read their comics.

I personally don't really care for them, but I'll defend them against those calling them scum, trash, etc. Let them draw what they want to.
 
You can find this comic tasteless and awful, and still believe in the freedom of speech and support Hebdo's right to publish it. I find the people questioning both to be more offensive than this hugely offensive comic.
 

Jebusman

Banned
I dont see the point in them doing this cartoon.

The fact that the comic gets the reactions it does (both online and in this very thread) is the reason they continue to make these. Because no matter what kind of a reaction it gets, it at least gets one. It gets attention. And hopefully the people who's attention it grabs will take more than 5 seconds to look and it and try to figure out what they're saying. That for all the crudeness CH puts into their comics, they are in fact trying to portray a message. That's what they expect people to look into.

That is, people everywhere except here apparently.

Because no matter how many people actually try to explain the context behind it, or CH's modus operandi in general, people will walk in, see dead people, IMMEDIATELY assume the worst of it and stand their ground on why they believe it's pure racist garbage shit making fun of a tragedy. Each and every time we have a CH thread here.

And it's fine to think that this comic is garbage. I think it is to! It was a poor piece of satire out of them, because it didn't really sell the message they were apparently trying to say, and that the second comic out of them clarified better.

But I'm tired of seeing every single CH thread as being a mix of hot takes and instant, almost reflex like reactions of arguing without stopping and trying to figure out what it's saying, and immediately trying to label all CH as just a burning tire fire of racism and edginess.

It's just a regular old burning tire fire. One with a left leaning message of all things.
 

Koren

Member
The cartoonists over at CH are assholes who deliberately try to stir shit up, but it doesn't mean they are spreading or even supporting hateful messages.
I don't think they are (or were) all assholes. For example, Cabu was a wonderfully nice and gentle person. I don't know well all people working there because I don't care for the magazine (I don't like it either) but I'm sure there's others.

I don't even believe they really try to stir shit up, although they probably all believe that you have to use a freedom to keep it.

Other than that, I agree.
 

Keasar

Member
I dont see the point in them doing this cartoon.

Then all you read was about the horrible earthquake in Italy and none of the background story, that is what Charlie Hebdo from my experience every time one of these threads pop up seem to often make fun of.

In this case, corruption in Italy led to "earthquake proof" houses being built with public money but not really, the money was embezzled and moved over to the mafia and then shitty houses were built in a earthquake prone area. People died. Charlie Hebdo decided to make fun of this fact.
 

Jebusman

Banned
When did the word "edgy" become a meme?

~2005. As part of emo's explosion into mainstream popularity, you had people constantly trying to one up each other in how dark and brooding they were, in more and more ridiculous (and stereotypical) fashion. Typically a lot of love for the occult, grimdark, etc.

When people began doing it as a way to stand out and grab attention, this became known as trying to be "edgy" (in mememic terms)

An edgelord is a specific term to describe someone who is particularly edgy. Thus you would get a lot of people calling CH a bunch of "edgelords".

Edgy has long since lost it's original emo roots, and is more just about people trying to be ultra-contrarian or hold ridiculous positions for the purpose (possibly sole purpose) of shock and attention.

This has been a shitty internet Meme learning minute.
 

ampere

Member
It's not clever and doesn't really make any statement worth making. It's just "lol Italians are dead and pasta lol"

Awful, terrible comic
 

Rembrandt

Banned
But remember... It's their right to be offensive. I don't remember people being this offended when Islam and Mohammed were being attacked.

Neither do I. I came in with that expectation, too.

Seems like a piece of shit magazine. Its mindblowing people defend it as hard as they do on here. They can draw whatever they want but they don't need their purposely offensive shit constantly defended.
 

commedieu

Banned
I gave the muhammed stuff a pass, gotta give this a pass too. They seem to be trolls. Not much more can be said.

Distasteful, for sure. Thats about where it ends. I wonder what their 9/11 covers were like..?
 
I don't think they are (or were) all assholes. For example, Cabu was a wonderfully nice and gentle person. I don't know well all people working there because I don't care for the magazine (I don't like it either) but I'm sure there's others.

I don't even believe they really try to stir shit up, although they probably all believe that you have to use a freedom to keep it.

Other than that, I agree.

I didn't literally mean they are all assholes but collectively, being assholes is what they aim for. They want to stir shit up, but by that I also mean that they want to trigger discussion by pushing the first domino. The issue is that it is often tasteless (although it being tasteless is also the point more often than not).
 
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