The darker side of Humour
Introduction: Many comics have been accused of encouraging racism, political manipulation and sexiest statements.
Funny business is not funny anymore. The lighter side of humor just took a U-turn and disappeared into the horizon. Comic strips are visual representations of characters that are mostly dependant on their appearances and what the cartoonist has to say through them. ‘The Boondocks’,‘Doonesbury’, etc regularly voice their opinions on the allotted pages of newspapers and magazines.
Off late, the strips have been accused of the most horrifying sin, (if you want to call it that) that they have been radical mediums of encouraging racism, political manipulation, and sexiest statements.
Four French cartoonists collaborated to work on a wartime publication, Le Téméraire during the Nazi regime. They printed cartoons strips that vilified Jews and others against Hitler. The publication ran for about 18 months and was read by upto half a million children. Mike Whine, the spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the comic strips might have contributed to France’s ongoing problems with anti-Semitism. “They will have had a lasting effect, like all cartoons. Those that were children at that time will be elderly adults now. It’s a matter of record that many people in France retain anti-Semitic and racist attitudes. These comics may well have played a part.”
Comic strips identify, transform, direct and initiate human reaction towards various sexual and racial subjects. Comic strips subject children to continuous prejudice producing images and hate themes that create an overall stereotypical behavior amidst society. The subtle humor transforms the otherwise racist comic strip to a harmless set of messages and images, which get embedded in our memory.
Are stereotypical characters and accents merely figurative? Adventures of Tin Tin and Asterix are a few of those comic strips that if looked through the conservative eyehole would appear racist, although, they might just signify a representation of a character. Over years comic strips that have been products of racial bias have now been reduced to representation of baseless stereotype figures. The regular Superhero phenomena (Superman, Spiderman, etc) made use of a mask representing a dual personality. A regular helpless man is stereotypically transformed into a Superhero when he is masked.
It is considered ‘Exotic’ to introduce a character that the reader does not identify with; e.g. Indians in Popeye series, Indians and Chinese in Tin-Tin adventure series. Distinctions need to be made between a radically racist and a so-called ‘Exotic’ character. We have several representations in ‘Chandamama’ and others where dark faced Asuras represented as larger than life figures, are construed as an element of the alter ego of an individual. These Asura’s (demons) with dark curly hair and faces could have easily been termed as racist towards Blacks if a Caucasian would have drawn them.
“I hate Pam”, featured in February 4's edition of Matt Vroom's comic strip, was viewed as racist against Filipinos since the ending of the strip has Phil the Filipino being stuffed in a box with a white guy pointing a gun to him. After forwarding the strip to his friends, Moonie Lantion a web-designer was bombarded with hate mails from one of his friend, labeling him a racist freak. Moonie clarified with the illustrator and came to the conclusion that the alleged racist comic strip was in fact a cartoonist’s war against another cartoonist from another paper. It was ‘the war of the Cartoons!’ That’s all. What is nerve racking is that some people will circulate comic strips such as these and create a story that will easily get people riled up.
Cartoons have been used to induce racist ideologies, silly humor at the expense of a race, and are sometimes battlefields for cartoon war-fields while mostly making up for a harmless read. Some cartoonists would defend themselves by saying that they have a right to draw what they want even if it is grossly racist. Others would not agree due to the impact the strip has on its readers. Creative freedom in the arms of democracy is pitted against social prejudice. The real question is, if we for once stop being politically correct and accept that we all are racist at some point of time then how do we determine what is racist?
Funny business is not funny anymore. The lighter side of humor just took a U-turn and disappeared into the horizon. Comic strips are visual representations of characters that are mostly dependant on their appearances and what the cartoonist has to say through them. ‘The Boondocks’,‘Doonesbury’, etc regularly voice their opinions on the allotted pages of newspapers and magazines.
Off late, the strips have been accused of the most horrifying sin, (if you want to call it that) that they have been radical mediums of encouraging racism, political manipulation, and sexiest statements.
Four French cartoonists collaborated to work on a wartime publication, Le Téméraire during the Nazi regime. They printed cartoons strips that vilified Jews and others against Hitler. The publication ran for about 18 months and was read by upto half a million children. Mike Whine, the spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the comic strips might have contributed to France’s ongoing problems with anti-Semitism. “They will have had a lasting effect, like all cartoons. Those that were children at that time will be elderly adults now. It’s a matter of record that many people in France retain anti-Semitic and racist attitudes. These comics may well have played a part.”
Comic strips identify, transform, direct and initiate human reaction towards various sexual and racial subjects. Comic strips subject children to continuous prejudice producing images and hate themes that create an overall stereotypical behavior amidst society. The subtle humor transforms the otherwise racist comic strip to a harmless set of messages and images, which get embedded in our memory.
Are stereotypical characters and accents merely figurative? Adventures of Tin Tin and Asterix are a few of those comic strips that if looked through the conservative eyehole would appear racist, although, they might just signify a representation of a character. Over years comic strips that have been products of racial bias have now been reduced to representation of baseless stereotype figures. The regular Superhero phenomena (Superman, Spiderman, etc) made use of a mask representing a dual personality. A regular helpless man is stereotypically transformed into a Superhero when he is masked.
It is considered ‘Exotic’ to introduce a character that the reader does not identify with; e.g. Indians in Popeye series, Indians and Chinese in Tin-Tin adventure series. Distinctions need to be made between a radically racist and a so-called ‘Exotic’ character. We have several representations in ‘Chandamama’ and others where dark faced Asuras represented as larger than life figures, are construed as an element of the alter ego of an individual. These Asura’s (demons) with dark curly hair and faces could have easily been termed as racist towards Blacks if a Caucasian would have drawn them.
“I hate Pam”, featured in February 4's edition of Matt Vroom's comic strip, was viewed as racist against Filipinos since the ending of the strip has Phil the Filipino being stuffed in a box with a white guy pointing a gun to him. After forwarding the strip to his friends, Moonie Lantion a web-designer was bombarded with hate mails from one of his friend, labeling him a racist freak. Moonie clarified with the illustrator and came to the conclusion that the alleged racist comic strip was in fact a cartoonist’s war against another cartoonist from another paper. It was ‘the war of the Cartoons!’ That’s all. What is nerve racking is that some people will circulate comic strips such as these and create a story that will easily get people riled up.
Cartoons have been used to induce racist ideologies, silly humor at the expense of a race, and are sometimes battlefields for cartoon war-fields while mostly making up for a harmless read. Some cartoonists would defend themselves by saying that they have a right to draw what they want even if it is grossly racist. Others would not agree due to the impact the strip has on its readers. Creative freedom in the arms of democracy is pitted against social prejudice. The real question is, if we for once stop being politically correct and accept that we all are racist at some point of time then how do we determine what is racist?
Copyright 2005 Puja Goyal
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