Abbas Naaseri / For as long as we can remember, we’ve heard and believed that cartoons and caricatures are a form of visual humor, an art that needs no translation. An art with a visual language an international language—understood with the same meaning across the world. We believed that caricature was a language for direct dialogue with people of all nations, ethnicities, and cultures a language that could make everyone laugh the same, feel the same jolt, and sometimes awaken sleeping consciences.
We heard these things, we believed them and we still do.
But, just between us, I’ve started to have doubts.
When I review the results of recent festivals with various themes, I sometimes find myself genuinely surprised. What we had in mind about the subject often differs greatly from what we see in the final selections. So, what kind of “international language” is this, really? Maybe it’s harder to make people laugh in countries affected by war or economic hardship than it is in wealthy nations. That’s why, in a competition themed “The Funniest Cartoon,” for example, the winning works may reflect a completely different sense of humor one that doesn’t match what makes us burst into laughter in our own country. What we find hilarious might be met with blank stares and shrugged shoulders elsewhere and vice versa. A cartoon that feels dull or tasteless to us might be celebrated as the funniest piece in another culture and win awards.
Or maybe the issue of water is seen very differently by people living in a lush, green country compared to those in a dry, arid one. And the same goes for poverty, discrimination, media, war, addiction — or any other topic, really. So when the perspectives of societies and communities differ, how can cartoons and caricatures serve as a unified international language? Such an approach reduces the global language of caricature to a merely national or at best, regional one.
I create artworks in my own country, based on my personal beliefs and understanding of certain issues which might be seen completely differently in the country where the work is received. Maybe that’s why we sometimes see surprising and from our point of view, even unusual results. The same goes for other subjects as well.
However, if the judges had a more professional and specialized perspective, this kind of variation would be minimized.
To be honest, until a better solution comes along, I prefer to participate in festivals with more diverse themes using them as an excuse to pick up my pen and add to my archive And I wait, hoping that one day, our art will once again become a truly international language.
—————————
Weekly Single Page of Cartoonmag
No 51
Saturday , 09. Aug . 2025
This single page has been prepared to remind the news and calls published on the cartoon magazine website and it is supposed to be published every Saturday.
Follow the published news on our site: CARTOONMAG.COM
