Tuesday, February 14, 2006

You give me such nachas

Israeli group announces anti-Semitic cartoons contest!

Eyal Zusman (30), actor and writer, and Amitai Sandy (29), graphic artist and publisher of Dimona Comix Publishing, both from Tel-Aviv, Israel, have followed the unfolding of the "Muhammad cartoon-gate" events in amazement, until finally Zusman came up with the right answer to all this insanity - and so they announced today the launch of a new anti-Semitic cartoons contest - this time drawn by Jews themselves!

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

The contest has been announced today on the www.boomka.org website, and the initiators accept submissions of cartoons, caricatures and short comic strips from people all over the world. The deadline is Sunday March 5, and the best works will be displayed in an Exhibition in Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Sandy and Zusman are now in the process of arranging sponsorships of large organizations, and promise lucrative prizes for the winners, including of course the famous Matzo-bread baked with the blood of Christian children.


I sent an e-mail to Amitai Sandy saying that as a Jewish comic book writer who has hated himself for many years, this contest and the sentiments behind it honestly make me proud. In return, I got an invitation from Amitai to submit an entry, which makes me even prouder.

Seriously, I was hoping someone would do this. I was amused by the thought of the Iranian competition for cartoons making fun of the Holocaust, but I don't hold out much hope for the results. Nothing should be off-limits as a potential subject for humor...but the Holocaust has defied our finest minds, even Mel Brooks, for generations now. The catch is, it has to be funny -- just making an anti-Semitic remark and saying "ha ha ha" doesn't make it a good joke.

I do recall one extremely funny Holocaust-related joke: Seth Green's show Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network once envisioned The Diary of Anne Frank remade as a Hollywood vehicle for Hillary Duff. Which is more of a joke on the tastelessness of Hollywood than anything else...but it's the best example I can think of.

4 comments:

  1. Ha ha ha...I had this story up before Boing Boing did! In your face, ubertrendy blogonetowebosphere!

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  2. You wrote :

    as a Jewish comic book writer who has hated himself for many years, this contest and the sentiments behind it honestly make me proud

    I know quite a few Jewish comic book writers, but I'm not sure if I've heard of you yet. Your username (rab) sounds similar to Raab and I have heard of Ben Raab.

    Have you ever visited the Jewish comics blog at http://jewishcomics.blogspot.com?

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  3. I hadn't seen that site before, but I'm digging it now! Somewhere I've got a sketch drawn by Jack Kirby himself of Ben Grimm wearing a yarmulke and tallis; I should send you a copy if you haven't already seen it. Actually, I should post it here...

    I've heard of Ben Raab too, but I don't think I've read any of his comics. He started as an intern at Marvel some years after I left. But there's no connection; the letters RAB are simply my initials. And no one has ever heard of me. (But one of my stories appeared in a comic that by chance also had a story drawn by Steve Ditko, so I've actually encountered people who owned the comic without knowing I was in it.)

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