UnNews:Charlie Hebdo in defiantly unfunny issue
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has published its latest issue just seven days after the fatal attack that left 12 people dead - and boasts that it is the "least funny edition ever".
Newly installed editor Jules Lévier explained, "We knew this would be our biggest-selling issue, and we wanted to divide the content up into three categories: 1) jokes that people wouldn't get, 2) jokes people would get but not find funny, 3) jokes people would have described as ignorant and offensive in any other context."
Commentators have lauded the magazine's durability and defiance in producing a huge amount of unamusing material in such difficult circumstances, and praised their steadfast adherence to specious, undergraduate-level bear-baiting.
"The man on the cover could actually have been anyone," explains Joanna Corey. "It could have been one of the lextremists acknowledging the hypocrisy of benefiting from freedom of speech in France and then attacking it... it could have been a regular Muslim, a reference to the noble effort made by the French people since the attack to separate extremism from ordinary Islam.
"But Charlie Hebdo's staff have let it be known that they are depicting Mohammed, because that makes it extra unfunny and offends every Muslim instead of just the ones responsible."
Corey went on to point out that magazine's cover is typical of Charlie Hebdo's work, featuring as it does a delicious replacement of message with puerile impact.
"The initial impression is that it is an interesting paradox, putting this latest slogan of freedom of speech - je suis Charlie - in the hands of the prophet-who-must-not-be-depicted... but then when you think about it a little bit more, it's not that interesting."
Lévier had the last word, saying, "Freedom of speech is not just about saying things which everyone agrees on - it includes the right to be trolling, provocative arseholes."