The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

I doubt that making friends in the UK factored in their decision making when choosing the cover.

No - but I've not seen any sort of defensiveness about the Queen around this. It's more that the cover comes across - to UK sensitivities - as a bit racist (which is relatively standard when CH are in the news here) and making light of George Floyd. Plus lots of comments to the effect that if you continually have to explain why your satire isn't racist and punching down, maybe it's because it's not very good satire (even if it is French).

Then why dump tons of free publicity on CH? CH couldn't give less shits if the UK is offended. They are literally willing to die for their right to be crass, racist, and offensive.

Also this is kind of rich pearl clasping considering the absolute disgusting trash the Brits financially support in their tabloids every day.

[The Larch]

I doubt that making friends in the UK factored in their decision making when choosing the cover.

No - but I've not seen any sort of defensiveness about the Queen around this. It's more that the cover comes across - to UK sensitivities - as a bit racist (which is relatively standard when CH are in the news here) and making light of George Floyd. Plus lots of comments to the effect that if you continually have to explain why your satire isn't racist and punching down, maybe it's because it's not very good satire (even if it is French).

I don't know if racist is what you can accuse that cover of. Of being offensive, crass and rude of course, that's their style, but how is it racist? Maybe I'm not seeing it due to my non-UK sensitivities. 

Also, if anything, this cover punches up, not down, unless I'm not getting your point. Or do you mean past covers?

[Sheilbh]

Then why dump tons of free publicity on CH? CH couldn't give less shits if the UK is offended. They are literally willing to die for their right to be crass, racist, and offensive.

Yeah - so I think that last point is exactly part of it. CH's racism has been brought up before quite often in the UK, largely by the left and there's always been a group of sort-of white liberal opinion that it's actually sophisticated French humour that we just don't get to which the left response is normally that it's just racism. Although I am already seeing some people saying it's actually very clever and nuanced, and thank God for CH being willing to offend etc.

For what it's worth the gammon tendency who you'd expect to be offended about the Queen are relatively quiet/blaming Harry.

Also this is kind of rich pearl clasping considering the absolute disgusting trash the Brits financially support in their tabloids every day.

So the people most likely to be complaing about CH's racism - there's not much of overlap in the venn diagram of people concerned with both anti-racism and a French satirical magazine who also buy the Sun

I don't know if racist is what you can accuse that cover of. Of being offensive, crass and rude of course, that's their style, but how is it racist? Maybe I'm not seeing it due to my non-UK sensitivities. 

Also, if anything, this cover punches up, not down, unless I'm not getting your point. Or do you mean past covers?

Past covers are definitely part of it - there's a healthy CH discourse in the UK. In this case I think it's more a case of demeaning George Floyd's death and using it for a gag - this may not be a perfect analogy, but with CH in mind it feels like using a graphic image of someone murdering journalists to make a joke about "cancel culture".

And connected to that is, I think, a sort of issue of race in the media - we do depict black and brown people being killed or dead fairly regularly in the media. It may raise awareness or shock the conscience and so we justify it on that basis. We tend not to do the same when white people are the victims, and similarly we tend not to use that as part of a joke. I know clever people have been thinking about this for ages but I remember being very aware and uncomfortable with it with all the pictures of Aylan Kurdi but it's in the way we are reported to on other issues from BLM to terrorist attacks in, say, the Middle East or Africa v Europe and North America.

[Duque de Bragança]

Past covers are definitely part of it - there's a healthy CH discourse in the UK. In this case I think it's more a case of demeaning George Floyd's death and using it for a gag - this may not be a perfect analogy, but with CH in mind it feels like using a graphic image of someone murdering journalists to make a joke about "cancel culture".

Almost as great as Martinus mixing up an extreme-right wing parody as propaganda stunt of Charlie Hebdo with the real Charlie Hebdo.

PS: merci Charlie !

[Josquius]

Oh my god this is excellent.
Local election season is approaching and on local facebook groups the populists are on the march. Everything bad under the sun is the fault of the all powerful labour council don't you know.
In response to one particularly fictitious post I decided to post a bit of satire saying that other parties do ever more outlandish things.
I started with the local independent party saying they hang out in the supermarket licking apples and ended by saying the Lib Dems are giant crabs from Uranus and see how easy it is to make up complete rubbish with no proof.
...
And now one of the candidates from this local party is private messaging me, doing the standard thing of showing he has read my profile and can find me, stopping just short of threats, very upset about the sheer disrespect. It seems I might have inadvertently hit very close to home. 

[Sheilbh]

It was the Lib Dem wasn't it

[Malthus]

Oh my god this is excellent.
Local election season is approaching and on local facebook groups the populists are on the march. Everything bad under the sun is the fault of the all powerful labour council don't you know.
In response to one particularly fictitious post I decided to post a bit of satire saying that other parties do ever more outlandish things.
I started with the local independent party saying they hang out in the supermarket licking apples and ended by saying the Lib Dems are giant crabs from Uranus and see how easy it is to make up complete rubbish with no proof.
...
And now one of the candidates from this local party is private messaging me, doing the standard thing of showing he has read my profile and can find me, stopping just short of threats, very upset about the sheer disrespect. It seems I might have inadvertently hit very close to home. 

The simple explanation: the candidate actually is a giant crab from Uranus, and is worried you are on to him.

[Jacob]

An apple licking giant crab from Uranus.

[Malthus]

An apple licking giant crab from Uranus.

Doesn't even use a proper tongue to lick.

Just extends some sort of segmented feeler from his mouth parts to rub alien crab juices over those apples.

And "his" only by convention - these crabs have eight different sexes, and "he" is sex number seven.

[Sheilbh]

Extraordinary population density map from 1841 - so before the famine:


Population in Ireland still hasn't returned to the level here.

[Josquius]

I'm amazed Carlisle stands out so much.
Interesting quite where the density is in Ireland.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah that strip from Armagh/Louth through to Sligo and Limerick is incredible. Because it's not like that now.

Also just the North-West/West Midlands down to Bristol and South Wales - we really should move the capital to Brum.

[Admiral Yi]

Because donors get paid and can remain anonymous here, the US is a net exporter of sperm.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Extraordinary population density map from 1841 - so before the famine:


Population in Ireland still hasn't returned to the level here.

At one point Ireland had about 35% of the population of the British isles. Now less than 10%, though, in compensation, the population of England and Scotland is a lot more Irish than people think.

[mongers]

Yeah that strip from Armagh/Louth through to Sligo and Limerick is incredible. Because it's not like that now.

Also just the North-West/West Midlands down to Bristol and South Wales - we really should move the capital to Brum.

In part because of being better agricultural land?