Hasn't Mel Lazarus Already Won The Prize for Anti-Semitic Cartoons by a Jewish Artist?

Nick Gillespie | February 16, 2006

Reader Rimfax points to this Freakanomics blog post about "a new anti-Semitic cartoon contest, with the submissions drawn by Jews themselves."

Says the contest's sponsor, Amitai Sandy, a 29-year-old graphic artist and comic-book publisher in Tel Aviv:

"We'll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!" Sandy said. "No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!"

More here.

And Mel Lazarus' Momma here.

Comments

|2.16.06 @ 1:58PM|#

I've always admired Jewish humorists for being to take some of the most horrific things said and done to their people and religion, "own it" and throw it back at anti-Semites. Sadly, such a self-effacing move on my part as an African-American would get Al Sharpton's fat ass picketing my front door stoop.

One of my all-time favorite anecdotes in this vein (but not necessarily anti-Semitic) was reading Mel Brooks reflect on when he was a writer for Sid Caesar. Caesar was violently chewing him out one day in a staff meeting and exclaimed, "You ain't NOTHING!!!"

And Brooks replied, "Well, I guess that makes YOU the BOSS OF NOTHING!!"

Pure Genius ...

|2.16.06 @ 2:37PM|#

Self-hating Jews?? That's a stereotype!

Good ol' South Park.

|2.16.06 @ 2:46PM|#

Self-hating Jews??

Not so much self-hating as self-mocking. Shows they don't take themselves too seriously, which is a valuable lesson to those who think the proper response to a cartoon is violence.

brian423|2.16.06 @ 3:30PM|#

For a while, Stanley Kubrick wanted to end Dr. Strangelove with a pie fight in the war room. Armagedtoon is approaching that alternate ending's level of silliness.

|2.16.06 @ 4:54PM|#

Priceless. All racial hatred flare-ups should end with at least one side mocking itself. (Especially if that side had nothing to do with the initial flare-up.)

|2.16.06 @ 5:58PM|#

For a while, Stanley Kubrick wanted to end Dr. Strangelove with a pie fight in the war room.

Somehow, in the hands of the Bush-Cheney crowd, even pies seem threatening. God only knows what they would have done with lemon meringue at Abu Ghraib ....

|2.16.06 @ 7:43PM|#

I can't wait to see the results of this contest next to the results of Ahmedinejad's contest.

I'm also hoping to see an enterprising Jew or two send their entries straight to Ahmedinejad. Sweet, sweet irony.

|2.16.06 @ 7:45PM|#

("...should they win" that last line should read.)

|2.16.06 @ 11:07PM|#

Hypothesis: Jewish self-mockery and self-criticism isn't unique, but the self-critical remarks of other groups are more likely to stay within the group. In other words, Jewish self-criticism is more widely disseminated among non-Jews than the self-criticism of most other groups.