Vomiting on New Friends: Charlie Hebdo and the Legacy of Anarchic Black Humor in French Comics

In the wake of the controversies stirred by its obsession with mocking Islam, [Charlie Hebdo] has weathered violent opposition but it has also discovered a new lease on intellectual life that has allowed it, for the first time since the 1970s, to develop a discursive relationship about politics with broader French society, propelling it into the global spotlight. But even as the editors and staff continue to speak as if they were the enfants terribles of French cartooning, the task of defending the values of the French Republic against their perceived undermining by immigrant populations makes the posture of anarchic rebellion difficult to maintain. Indeed, as Sherene Razack has pointed out, since 9/11 the representation of violent Muslims has proven a powerful weapon for commercial success in many media: "In this climate, to write about violent Muslim men guarantees royalties and the prestige of being on bestseller lists" (Razack 1). CH's circulation has grown in proportion to the controversy it has sparked and sales have spiked whenever the Prophet Muhammad has graced its cover (Ferenčík 48).