Cartoons about Cartoons about Cartoons

February 14, 2006 12:15 PM

Meta-cartoon-filter: Can't get enough international incident in your funny pages? Dan Cagle has collected cartoons about the cartoon controversy. And, as the Iranian Holocaust cartoon contest starts getting entries, a group of Israeli comics artists have launched their own anti-Semitic cartoon contest. "We'll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published! No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!"
posted by blahblahblah (24 comments total)

This one is my favorite. Universally offensive.
posted by Clay201 at 12:24 PM on February 14, 2006

I personally thought this one was great, by the way. And I also liked the prize offered by the Israeli contest (at the bottom of the announcement).
posted by blahblahblah at 12:33 PM on February 14, 2006

It would be ironic if this whole episode ends up making politically incorrect humor politically correct again.
posted by spock at 12:41 PM on February 14, 2006

"Muhammed descending a staircase" is great, like a Sergio Aragones strip.

Most of these, though... c'mon. You get paid for this? How long did you spend writing this thing?!
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:42 PM on February 14, 2006

Yeah, the Mickey Mouse w/bombs one was the best out of a... really kinda phoned-in lot, huh? This is about the best cartoon I've seen on the subject.

Man, that one sonofsamiam linked to is practically a parody of the whole enterprise! That's so great. I mean, how useless are those labels? The dialogue? Wow.
posted by furiousthought at 12:46 PM on February 14, 2006

I thought this was the funniest and this the most insightful of the lot.
posted by Vaska at 12:55 PM on February 14, 2006

That is Israeli contest is freaking awesome.

Those guys deserve so much credit. Good on them.
posted by sien at 1:50 PM on February 14, 2006

Meanwhile, asshats in Western Canada (the Albertan part, of course) are all about re-publishing the same old cartoons that started this craziness because, you know, that'll show 'em.

Sigh.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:22 PM on February 14, 2006

Old but relevant.
posted by tellurian at 3:08 PM on February 14, 2006

many of these cartoons do indeed suck. if i see one more inkwell dripping blood, or quill pen facing off against a scimitar... i'll... uh...
posted by Miles Long at 3:17 PM on February 14, 2006

love. i will love all mankind.

i will most definitely not burn any embassies. none.
posted by Miles Long at 3:27 PM on February 14, 2006

That's freaky.
posted by tellurian at 3:43 PM on February 14, 2006

Good post. Thanks.
posted by tomplus2 at 4:12 PM on February 14, 2006

tellurian: The whole Leunig thing might be of interest to people here. Maybe worth posting?
posted by sien at 4:32 PM on February 14, 2006

Muhammad Everywhere
posted by wayside at 5:40 PM on February 14, 2006

posted by NinjaPirate at 2:41 AM on February 15, 2006

posted by vbfg at 2:46 AM on February 15, 2006

I've been involved in the wikipedia discussion on this, which has primarily centered round whether or not to have the images in the wikipedia article.

One notable and repeated occurance is for one of the many polite and civil Muslim editors to say something like:

* "it's like if a British newspaper printed an offensive cartoon of the Queen. That wouldn't be allowed, would it? People would be as offended as we are over this".

or

* "it's like someone published a cartoon of Jesus being sexually intimate with a farm animal. That would never get printed. The offense would be so huge".

... or some other variation on the same theme. I think it points to the fundamental cultural difference which is at issue here:

There is NOTHING that Western culture would find offensive on the scale that these cartoons are offensive to Muslims.

That means that we genuinely can't figure out their reaction; as they genuinely can't figure out our lack of one.

At the end of the day this is a freedom of speech vs. fear of fundamentalism issue. I wonder how news corporations like CNN will deal with the next major "offensive to christianity" story to come along - which they no doubt will, rightly, publish - in light of their new found "respect for religious belief".
posted by thparkth at 7:25 AM on February 15, 2006

Who is in the lower right hand of this image? I also liked this one.
posted by delmoi at 8:05 AM on February 15, 2006

There is NOTHING that Western culture would find offensive on the scale that these cartoons are offensive to Muslims.

Really, because the words: Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, 15 dead, are pretty effing offensive to me. way way up there on the offense-o-scale.
posted by dabitch at 8:09 AM on February 15, 2006

Why are we enemies with Wahabists but friends with Salafists?
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:54 AM on February 15, 2006

So, dabitch, when you heard those words, did you suddenly have an uncontrollable urge to burn someone's embassy? Or maybe kill someone?
posted by sour cream at 1:13 PM on February 15, 2006

Really, because the words: Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, 15 dead, are pretty effing offensive to me. way way up there on the offense-o-scale.

Yes, because that's germane how? Or is that just a roundabout way of getting to the inevitable, predictable "Who cares if we offend all Muslims because some of them do bad things" response all these cartoon threads have generated?
posted by Amanojaku at 3:13 PM on February 15, 2006

Gee sour cream, you're right, burning down embassies and killing people didn't cross my mind.

Amanojaku - thparkth stated that
There is NOTHING that Western culture would find offensive on the scale that these cartoons are offensive to Muslims. and I simply retorted that there is. This does not translate to "Who cares if we offend all Muslims because some of them do bad things" except in your own head. It might translate to "those mutaween are frickin' nuts", but hey, I guess it depends on who reads it.
posted by dabitch at 6:44 AM on February 20, 2006