Clément Renaud

What is the origin of Charlie Hebdo 's name?


The journal was given this nickname as a joke about Charles de Gaulle, who was president in France at the time (source : Wolinski - RIP in  L ‘Écho des savanes no 239)). Charlie Hebdo was born in the 70s as a spin-off of a a monthly publication called Charlie that focused mostly on comics. At that time, another satirical journal called Hara Kiri was shutdown by French government after making jokes about the death of the General de Gaulle in his headline. Both team get together and decided to start a weekly magazine mixing satire, comics and cartoons called Charlie Hebdo (hebdo means weekly in French).

Image : The famous cover that ended Hara-Kiri and therefore started Charlie Hebdo   

This text was originally published in quora.