Ouch, another cartoon contest. The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo wrote an international competition for cartoonists to “express their anger through drawing” about the “stranglehold of religions worldwide”, under the guise: #RireDeDieu (in other words: laughing at God). You might think that mocking God is asking for trouble. But the special issue of Charlie Hebdo – ten years after the brutal terrorist attacks in which twelve cartoonists were murdered – is “unyieldingly” cheerful. 76 percent of French people support the right to make caricatures. The magazine: “More and more people are defending the right to laugh. And even to laugh at God.”
That’s nice, I think, to emphasize the “right to laugh” instead of “the right to offend”. I would like to make that ‘laugh out loud’, now that the Taliban recently decided by decree that women in Afghanistan no longer allowed to laugh in public (also not singing, talking or reciting – all too tempting). Try making a good joke about that.
The right to laugh does not (yet) exist, unless you include ‘humor’ under the right to freedom of expression. But there is less and less to laugh in this world. So come on, laugh more, as an antidote, connector, enlightenment, freedom – about each other, with each other. He who laughs puts things into perspective and can let go. Then of course you need humorists (and/or the humorist within yourself) who can tickle well.
I therefore viewed this special edition with interest Charlie Hebdo. You have to like the drawing style and fixations, I don’t find most cartoons very funny, but that is also a matter of taste. Satire does not have to merely entertain. I share the importance of the possibility of criticism of religion. I was particularly impressed with the article L’avenir de rire (The Future of Laughter) by former teacher and writer Yannick Haenel in the song. He states that laughter presupposes a certain intelligence – you have to recognize layers and absurdity in the world – and that laughter has to do with truth. Fanaticism and nonsense focus on appearances and are the opposite of humor. “So grotesque figures (Trump, Milei, Orbán, Salvini) rule with the eerie severity of torturers,” he writes, they “restrict public discourse.”
Here he puts his finger on the sore spot, because figures like Musk and Trump and now also Zuckerberg often concerns freedom of expression, but the lack of restrictions has little to do with that. That is about nothing more than giving “the dustbin of instincts” free rein in a “vortex of resentment,” according to Haenel. He calls Charlie Hebdo “the loneliest newspaper” in France, because it picks up a glove that others no longer dare to touch, and ends wittily by quoting writer Simon Fieschi, who was the first to be hit by the attacks: “God exists because he is always in Charlie is mentioned”.
In the past ten years, scientists have also investigated the impact of the attack on Charlie Hebdo on society and public debate. I thought it was interesting a comparative study about how newspapers of various stripes in different countries (Norway, Spain and England) wrote after the 2015 attack, and what the role of journalism is. The researchers show that newspapers themselves are a vital part of the conversation about freedom of the press, speech and artistic expression. Newspapers always make choices, such as: whether or not to print a cartoon?
In this regard, cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who recently retired as a cartoonist, explains The Washington Post in her blog also puts your finger on the sore spot. She points out the responsibility of the press itself when it comes to safeguarding press freedom. When it is on the leash of rich tech magnates and politicians (nowadays intimately intertwined), freedom of expression is under pressure. Elsewhere I read aptly that the insulting statements of politicians have now become so dirty and excessive that satirists can hardly offer more. Maybe that’s why I’ve sometimes become a bit tone-deaf when cartoons rely solely on provocation as a stylistic device.
Haenel also quotes Georges Bataille about laughter. In 1944 he wrote: “The fresh, unconditional laugh opens up the worst and maintains in the worst (death) a slight sense of wonder (to hell with God, blasphemy or transcendence! The universe is humble: my laugh is his innocence)”.
Voila. May 2025 also be the year of laughing (out loud).
Stine Jensen is a philosopher and writer. She writes a column here every other week.