• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Russian military outraged after French magazine Charlie Hebdo mocks plane crash

Status
Not open for further replies.
Did somebody say Poutine?

poutine.jpg
 
I always feel the need to point out, in these threads, that you can't really expect to fully understand satire in a language that you don't understand. So much of it is about wordplay and irony that dies when translated.
 
Did Charlie Hebdo made fun of the Nice attack? Serious question.

Yes.

AipHcD5.jpg


First cartoon: Anti-France works even on public holidays: "We get double pay!"

Second cartoon: Radicalization: Here's what happens when you stop drinking
(this is a joke on drunk driving deaths, as well as the fact that most Jihadists didn't have a religious lifestyle at all before their radicalization)

Third cartoon depicts a firework (since this was National Day) made of blood
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Why does this little French magazine still cause outrage? Like, I've seen webcomics way more offensive than what they do

Does it still cause outrage? I don't think anyone really cares anymore, everyone knows their style of humour now.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Everyone posting picture of poutines, but none of them are the original? Seriously.
 

Ambient80

Member
The first two are already in the OP ( left then middle ) :

The third one would be :
After the disaster
The Red Army Choir conquered a new audience.

( I'm not sure the literal translation 'conquered' is really the right word to use in english in this context )

Lol the third one is fucked up but I lol'd so I guess they got me haha
 

EmiPrime

Member
The Charlie Hebdo writers have the right to joke about it and the Russian military and people have the right to be offended by it.

True but government and military officials should be above making statements about a satirical magazine from one country. By getting wound up about it and making it worldwide news more people get exposed to the cartoons.

On a similar note, l'ironie du sort is that if Islamists had never murdered Charlie Hebdo's staff the magazine would eventually have ceased publication and maybe lived on in an obscure part of the Internet, instead it's now an internationally known magazine that now has a very healthy circulation.

Still people don't get that if you don't like Charlie Hebdo the best thing to do is to ignore them.
 
It's very dark but I laughed. Then again, I lived in France and I feel like that type of humor is very prevalent, and not something that Americans are used to seeing in their mainstream media.
 
True but government and military officials should be above making statements about a satirical magazine from one country. By getting wound up about it and making it worldwide news more people get exposed to the cartoons.

It's a form of propaganda. By selectively reporting and responding to outrageous foreign news and media outlets, it paints "the other side" as an vile enemy at worst, a hypocrite at best.
 

Fred-87

Member
Oh, it's time for a new Charlie Hebdo thread already?
I certainly understand why anybody from Russia would be pissed and outraged by these drawings but Charlie mocked their own attack so... Why wouldn't they joke about everything else?
And looking at these drawings, they're not really mocking the victims but are using the situation to shit on Poutine, which is more than fair game.

The one about the singing 'aaa' is certainly mocking the victims. If it was your family member you would be outraged. Its a disgusting 'comic'
 
The one about the singing 'aaa' is certainly mocking the victims. If it was your family member you would be outraged. Its a disgusting 'comic'

Obviously a joke at your expense is not funny to you. I think it's humorous, but if that was a family member I wouldn't like it at all. Doesn't make it a bad joke.
 

Axass

Member
I'm totally against censorship, but I do think their bad taste is unmatched. Would never support them by buying their work frankly, they just keep fomenting anger and hate with their stuff.
 

Charamiwa

Banned
The one about the singing 'aaa' is certainly mocking the victims. If it was your family member you would be outraged. Its a disgusting 'comic'

It's not about mocking the victims. I keep reading this, this notion that Charlie Hebdo punches everyone and everything. But really most of the time it's not so much mocking as it is a way to find a bit of humor inside tragedies and awful things that happen in the world.

They take something horrible, they make a jest out of it, and the average leftist frenchman reading this with his morning coffee has a little giggle. It's a way of coping with awful news. A lot of french humor is built on this notion, one of the pinnacle of french bande dessinée is this comic called Idées Noires (Dark Thoughts) which depicts some horrible stuff from a depressed mind and turns it into morbid jokes. It's not about mocking, it's about coping, making light of dark subjects.

It's fine to not like that type of stuff, but I believe that most people that have a problem with it either lack the context of what a satirical leftist french newspaper is supposed to be, or is simply not the target audience.
 

Pomerlaw

Member
I have a hard time finding humor in such tragedies. I always think about how I would feel if it was someone I know. But that's just me.
 

DarkKyo

Member
They are grotesque to think that anything is on the table to mock. Which tbh anything is, but how fucking tasteless do you have to be to make fun of plane crash victims. These are innocent people's lives.
 
Yes.

AipHcD5.jpg


First cartoon: Anti-France works even on public holidays: "We get double pay!"

Second cartoon: Radicalization: Here's what happens when you stop drinking
(this is a joke on drunk driving deaths, as well as the fact that most Jihadists didn't have a religious lifestyle at all before their radicalization)

Third cartoon depicts a firework (since this was National Day) made of blood

...

That's some dark shit.
 

Tiops

Member
After the cartoon about the earthquake in Italy, nothing surprises me about Charlie Hebdo anymore.

_91011856_c5d12c37-fed7-4640-a150-b74b98162a62.jpg


They're just terrible.
 
This is tasteless!
Imagine people making fun of the people who died in the WTC attacks.
Disgusting.
happened quite a lot outside the US, and even in the US. Gilbert Gottfried had a decent piece on it. It is ok for comedy to be disgusting.
After the cartoon about the earthquake in Italy, nothing surprises me about Charlie Hebdo anymore.
They're just terrible.

Aww come on, the lasagna thing was a great pun.
 

Grug

Member
After the cartoon about the earthquake in Italy, nothing surprises me about Charlie Hebdo anymore.

_91011856_c5d12c37-fed7-4640-a150-b74b98162a62.jpg


They're just terrible.

Yes they are and I can't say I have ever chuckled at anything I have seen them publish.

That said, I am comforted immensely by the fact they still exist. Like an earlier poster said, they are a barometer of free speech. If someone tried to legislate against them I would be very concerned.

The "outrage generation" seems to thirst for harsh consequences for disgusting ideas. In a free society, the appropriate outcome is that we merely shake our heads and call them tasteless flogs.
 

DarkKyo

Member
How do they stay in business? Who is this for? Who actually finds their work tasteful or funny? Are the people of France that shitty as well?
 

Charamiwa

Banned
Hebdo is basically the 4chan of magazines.

Oh please. CH never harmed anybody, they don't doxx, they don't hate... They're a niche newspaper for mostly aging leftists frenchmen. They're the target audience that can handle a little black humor in their daily tragic news. The only contact Gaf has with the paper is when they somehow make the news with drawings taken out of context. I'm sorry but you don't have a say in what Charlie Hebdo is or isn't.
 
82 people died and their joke is that amongst them was a choir?

Tasteless jokes I can live with if they're directed at deserved targets, but this isn't one of them. And it's not even remotely witty or funny.
 

Ambient80

Member
It's not about mocking the victims. I keep reading this, this notion that Charlie Hebdo punches everyone and everything. But really most of the time it's not so much mocking as it is a way to find a bit of humor inside tragedies and awful things that happen in the world.

They take something horrible, they make a jest out of it, and the average leftist frenchman reading this with his morning coffee has a little giggle. It's a way of coping with awful news. A lot of french humor is built on this notion, one of the pinnacle of french bande dessinée is this comic called Idées Noires (Dark Thoughts) which depicts some horrible stuff from a depressed mind and turns it into morbid jokes. It's not about mocking, it's about coping, making light of dark subjects.

It's fine to not like that type of stuff, but I believe that most people that have a problem with it either lack the context of what a satirical leftist french newspaper is supposed to be, or is simply not the target audience.

This.

Humor really is a healthy way to express grief or relieve stress. "Gallows humor" is something used by people in stressful or traumatic situations. This type of cartoon is just an outlet for that. Go and ask any physician or nurse or other medical professsional about it. It's not that we find the situation itself funny, it's that we use it as a coping mechanism to relieve our stress. As a coping mechanism, it's entirely normal and healthy to look for something humorous in the face of tragedy.
 

SummitAve

Banned
82 people died and their joke is that amongst them was a choir?

Tasteless jokes I can live with if they're directed at deserved targets, but this isn't one of them. And it's not even remotely witty or funny.

Why do you assume it is trying to be or has to be a jokey knee slapper? I don't think that's the intention.
 
How do they stay in business? Who is this for? Who actually finds their work tasteful or funny? Are the people of France that shitty as well?

The thing is, outside of the comics, Charlie is an actual paper with opinion pieces, investigative journalism, social commentary etc.

Dark, morbid humor is well established in France (see Fluide Glacial, Gottlieb, Ptitluc etc. in the long tradition of French comics). Media is a generally more PC in North America.
 

Keasar

Member
Yes.

AipHcD5.jpg


First cartoon: Anti-France works even on public holidays: "We get double pay!"

Second cartoon: Radicalization: Here's what happens when you stop drinking
(this is a joke on drunk driving deaths, as well as the fact that most Jihadists didn't have a religious lifestyle at all before their radicalization)

Third cartoon depicts a firework (since this was National Day) made of blood

I giggled at the first two.

Like mentioned. It's a coping mechanism, for me anyway. I try to find the humor in the darkest of times in order not to go fucking insane (which has been needed a lot this year).
 

Dude Abides

Banned
I always feel the need to point out, in these threads, that you can't really expect to fully understand satire in a language that you don't understand. So much of it is about wordplay and irony that dies when translated.

That's not the case for any of the cartoons here.
 
Charlie Hebo is the Milo Yanipoopoo of magazines. Just say vile outlandish shit under the guise of freedom of speech and get publicity.
 

DarkKyo

Member
I try to find the humor in the darkest of times in order not to go fucking insane (which has been needed a lot this year).

While I completely agree with this, I think the humor should redirect your train of thought away from the horrors of existence, not guide you back towards it.

I'm all for free speech and coping with humor but these guys certainly don't help the world get any less dark. In a way they are part of the problem(albeit a tiny part comparatively) because they're all about stoking the shit and clouding the zeitgeist even further.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom