Abbas Naaseri / We went to bed in peace, slept. But we woke up to the sound of war. Our land had been attacked, and we spent twelve days in battle and defense. War is a terrible thing — extremely terrible. But just because there was a war, doesn’t mean we should forget the matters of cartoon and caricature. That battle be over, but now it’s time to defend the rights of cartoonists.
In Iranian culture, there’s a proverb that says, “Reciting Yasin into a donkey’s ears,” which means speaking meaningful and wise words to someone in the hope of guiding them to the right path — someone who not only fails to understand but actively resists. This saying is used when someone is simply unwilling to accept the truth.
But even Nasreddin Hodja donkey is not exempt from this. His donkey, too, refuses to hear what’s right — and even worse, it kicks back hard at the character and dignity of real artists. Nasreddin Hodja donkey learned nothing from last year’s scandal (disqualifying the grand prize due to plagiarism), and this year, a worse catastrophe has occurred. For the past two years, Nasreddin Hodja has truly been riding his donkey inverse, paying no heed to what others say.
With the announcement of this year’s Nasreddin Hodja competition results, both amateur and professional artists were shocked to see an AI-generated image among the winners. The image was so clearly AI-made that it didn’t even need a second look. And yet, it was selected as a winning piece by the Nasreddin Hodja jury.
We’re not only sorry for the fraudsters who submit such works under the guise of being artists, but we are also deeply sorry in a festival of such history — and even more so for its jury panel. The next event was even more shameful: a rootless movement from a deep-rooted festival, a silent removal of the cheating artwork after artists’ protest.
You must invite professional jurors. It’s the jury’s responsibility to detect such fraud — not to expect other artists to clean up the mistake after the results are announced. For a whole year, we’ve been shouting about AI frauds, weak judging, and the chaos in the cartoon world, but it seems like we’re still reciting Yasin into a donkey’s ears.
Nasreddin Hodja is just one example, and unfortunately, there are many festivals like it.
Out of respect for the winner artists and real artists following our usual approach, we at (Cartoonmag.com) will not publish the results of this year’s Nasreddin Hodja Festival.
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Weekly Single Page of Cartoonmag
No 47
Saturday , 28. June . 2025
This single page has been prepared to remind the news and calls published on the cartoonmagazine website and it is supposed to be published every Saturday.
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