8 O'clock news Anchor: (Introes Foreign Affairs Minister) Where does caricature stop?
Minister: Quite so. Well then, caricature is excess, by definition.
Therefore, by definition, it has no limit.
Anchor: Right, total freedom, then?
Minister: Quite so.
Anchor: But, if like today, extremists threaten repraisals against countries that caricature freely?
Minister: Well then, in fact, in that case, we stop right away, and stop caricature.
Anchor: Eh? Ah.. so, total freedom, except if people aren't happy?
Minister:
Well, yes!
Anchor: But, that's an open door to censorship, isn't it?
Minister: Not at all, no.. We must caricature, with
intelligence, with
finesse, critique, yes,
but of quality.
Anchor: In other words?
Minister: Quite so, I'm getting to it. See, here, this morning in "Humanity" [well known rag]..
Anchor: You read Humanity,
you?
Minister: Well, yes, I'm communist... uh, I'm communist, aren't I?
Anchor: Uh, no.
Minister: Ah, all the same to me.. Anyway, see here, this comic strip in Humanity.. there. It's corrosive, incisive, huh? Of an unheard of violence!
Anchor: Uh.. yeah..
Minister: Ah, well,
it is!
[shot of comic strip: 3 frames, minimalistic elements, actors are:
, with snow hats]
See, here, the dog says:
<
>
The cat, there, answers:
<>
..and there, the dog runs out of the frame, grabs a snowball, and throws it, as we can see, with violence, in the cat's face!!..
<>, he tells him.
Anchor: Mhm.. yeah.. And what's corrosive about that?
Minister: But that's obvious! Everybody knows that dogs don't like cats! Who can doubt, here, that this drawing isn't anything else than a metaphor of the Israelo-Palestinian conflict?
Anchor: Uh.. Me!..
Minister: But come on, it is, in fact! Look: There, the cat has a beanie, he's therefore a palestinian! And the dog, there, with his long ears that hang low, there, it's the Payots of an Orthodox-Jewish Israeli! It's obvious!
Anchor: [Meh]..
Minister: And the snowball, thrown.. who can doubt that it's an evoquation of Intifada?
Anchor: Uh.. Me?..
Minister: Yes, but that's because it's a fine caricature, and that because of it, you don't grasp the significance. What do you see?
Anchor: Uh, me? Uh.. Well, just a bogus gag in [Peanuts].