French Comics Festival Receives Bad Publicity for Poor Joke
Image via The Guardian
The Angoulême Comics Festival isn’t doing so well this year. In January the event came under fire when its shortlist of 30 failed to include a single woman, leading many of the nominees to drop out in protest. Now they’re making another round on the web after a particularly poor joke left the audience stunned, reports The Guardian.
Compere Richard Gaitet is responsible for pulling a prank that involved naming a list of fake winners for the festival’s prizes. Those announced were ecstatic—that is, until two women interrupted Gaitet and joked, “Richard, we really have to start now.”
Gaitet then rattled off the list of real winners, leaving those previously called upon to stew in their own misery. Reactions ranged from people leaving the room in tears to sheer outrage. Sam Souibgui, joke winner and editorial director for Komikku, was quoted in saying, “Thank goodness my authors weren’t there, and I didn’t have to explain this shitty French humor to them.”
The festival later defended its actions by stating that the hoax was meant to “briefly instill doubt to raise a smile.”
What would you do if someone pulled such a cruel prank on you?
News by Raine Winters
Raine lives in Cleveland, Ohio and works as a freelance writer and graphic artist. From an early age she has harbored a love of reading and writing, and is lucky enough to incorporate both into her daily work routine. Raine is a lover of all things fantasy and horror related, has a soft spot in her heart for middle grade and young adult fiction, and spends most of her free time running, wakesurfing, or wrangling in her husband and three cats while they perpetrate a massive amount of mischief around the house.
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Comments
Oh, French whimsy!
Perhaps I might recognize that others have a sense of humor that differs from my own. Sometimes that humor might piss me the fuck off. It doesn't make it horrible humor. It makes it humor I don't like. I guess I would just have to get over it.
"Your being offended doesn't make you right."
I feel this was less a "joke," less humor, and more of a prank, and pranksters deserve a kick in the dick.