With the time spent reviewing the recent terrorist attacks against Charlie Hebdo, it’s been difficult for me to form an opinion regarding the pairing of the words “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and the quite different version of Charlie Brown; the more aged and morbid appearing version. The image that portrays the aged Charlie could be argued to represent the old-timed character gone wrong, a reality where Charlie had taken a path no one could have predicted. An apparent correlation between the aforementioned pairing of picture and words without reading too much into it doesn’t come easy as it isn’t obvious how the modified Charlie Brown could correspond with despair and tragedy. This is other than my one and only conclusion that the picture may symbolize the unforeseen path of events, however, taking into account the history of the group responsible for the Hebdo attacks, the events could have been predicted by anyone, Nostradamus or not.
The attacks were led by Al-Qaeda members from Yemen who have taken offense to the magazine’s satire of their prophet. Threats have been made by radicals many times in the past before. For example, not too long ago Comedy Central was “forced” to pull the images of Muhammad from a South Park episode immediately before it aired due to threats against their studios. This displays the groups’ (radicals in general, not just Al-Qaeda) sensitivity and intolerance to satire involving their prophet.
Further analyzing the image, it shows Charlie looking malnourished and disgruntled, with a lack of self-preservation and possibly hygiene. With a closer look, it seems that Charlie might be upset or disappointed with someone or something. It could even be asserted that the image paired with the phrase could mean Charlie represents the Charlie Hebdo magazine company as a whole and how they feel with the onset of violence. They might feel lost, like they are stuck on a path similar to the eerie version of Charlie Brown.
Even that, for me, is reading into it a bit much. It is my firm belief that the designer merely wanted to bring a familiar face into the campaign for awareness. There certainly is no Charlie more recognizable than the one and only Charlie Brown! Why the artist made said modifications to Charlie, however, still remains a mystery.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Captain, it’s easy to sympathize with your confusion about the slogan and its image, but you could phrase your reaction clearly. Your first paragraph is all over the map and never resolves. It makes a long list of barely related claims.
1. the pairing of the words “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and the aged Charlie Brown is confusing.
2. The attacks by Al-Qaeda were retribution for blasphemy against their prophet.
3. Threats have been made by radicals in the past.
3a. Comedy Central took the safe course and censored the “offensive” material.
4. Al-Qaeda is touchy.
5. I haven’t mentioned Charlie Hebdo or Charlie Brown in any of these observations, so it’s not surprising I can’t find a correlation. 🙂
6. Who would have guessed Charlie would age so poorly?
It seems apparent that the material in claims 2-5 aren’t helping you resolve the confusion of claims 1 and 6. So why make them?
A perfectly reasonable answer would be that you don’t know what else to do.
P2 suggests you might have more of a clue than you profess. The disgruntled Charlie represents a disappointment (or something stronger) with the violence that satire triggers. If you led with that observation, you might be able to make better use of your material about the violence, and that it results from a terrible sensitivity to the opinions of others. That Charlie might have scorned the weakness of Comedy Central. But today he might have more remorse than pride for the audacity of Charlie Hebdo.
P3. I don’t know. Maybe that cartoon represents the cartoonists. That wouldn’t be such a stretch.
So, go either way with this, Capt.
EITHER: Declare without reservation that the designer of the graphic is merely playing with language, hoping that viewers will redeem his sloppiness by bringing their own meaning.
OR: Decide on one strong possible interpretation and explain the heck out of it. It CAN’T be wrong, since the header does leave so much to the viewer’s imagination.
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This is not the grade you want, Capt. Revisions highly recommended. Leave a feedback request when you’re ready.
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