A series of reports devoted to the theme of laughter. This is what RFI is offering you all this week. And this morning we laugh at God with the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. On January 7, 2015, a terrorist commando entered the newspaper’s editorial office and coldly killed several press cartoonists who were members of Charlie, such as Cabu, Tignous, Wolinski, Charb and Honoré. Ten years later, Charlie Hebdo has abandoned none of its squeaky and cowardly humor, to the point of launching, a few days ago, an international caricature competition for “ laugh at God » and denounce “ the influence of all religions “.
Paris, in a building in the 9th arrondissement. It is up to the agency which manages the communication of Charlie Hebdo that we meet Gérard Biard, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. Ten years later the attack of January 2015it remains impossible to carry out any interviews in the premises of the satirical weekly. The address is kept secret because Charlie is still threatened, which has not dissuaded him from launching this God caricature competition. Gérard Biard has already received some.
“ The most interesting are those without words. Because the whole world understands, there is no need for translation. It’s the kind of drawing that’s very hard to execute and succeed, but when it’s successful, it’s unstoppable. “, he explains.
Around sixty caricatures have already been received and are beginning to be studied. With this competition, Charlie Hebdo recalls that it has lost nothing of its anticlerical editorial line and viscerally opposed to the power of God. “ God is an idea like any otherpoints out Gérard Biard. She is not less respectable than the others, but she is not more respectable than the others. So, like all ideas, we have the right to laugh at it, we have the right to mock it, we have the right to challenge it, to mock what God embodies. We also like to make fun of those who claim to speak in the name of God or the Gods, because there are thousands of deities around the world, so there is something to laugh about! »
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“ There may be surprises! »
It is for this reason that the competition is open to cartoonists from all over the world, because laughing at God is a universal practice, believes Gérard Biard: “ Everyone wants to laugh at God, everywhere in the world. There is not a place in the world where someone, at some point in their life, including the most devout of believers, has not blasphemed. It doesn’t exist. » The editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper expects to receive different caricatures depending on countries, cultures and religions:
“ If Indian cartoonists send us caricatures, I imagine they will be very detailed, because they have thousands of deities. ! So they will already have to choose a God ! For monotheistic religions, it’s practical, but then in certain countries, good luck ! », he laughs.
This competition is also, and perhaps, a way to take the pulsethe temperature and reassurance about the state of health of the caricature, ten years after the attack: “ There is the idea of wondering what designers, throughout the world, allow themselves to do from the moment they are told that they have the right to do so. What will be interesting is to see from which country, from which culture the most virulent caricatures come. There may be surprises. » Surprises and caricatures, the most successful of which will be published in a special issue of Charlie HebdoJanuary 7, 2025.
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