Murdering Laughter

The murder of twelve people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine in Paris, is an unforgivable crime. Ten of the twelve victims- Frédéric Boisseau, Cabu, Elsa Cayat, Charb, Honoré, Bernard Maris, Moustapha Ourad, Michel Renaud, Tignous, and Wolinski, were artists, editors, columnist and staff members in the employ of the magazine. Two policemen, Merabet Ahmed and Franck Brinsolaro, were also killed in the line of duty.  Humor has always been the chief target of those who purvey hatred and oppression, as laughter is one of the most powerfully subversive of human faculties. But humor is also one of the dimensions of our world that makes life most worth living. It thus takes a uniquely vicious sort of monster to destroy laughter. The images that Charlie Hebdo published were transgressive and provocative. But they were also funny in the most profound way. I post two of them here in memory of the slain.