The First Noel…
December 16th, 2005 by admin
This is one of the BifSniff cartoons, a weekly cartoon that ran online from June 2004 to February 2007.
High resolution versions are available for print publications, please email if you are interested.
Recent Comments
Categories
Entries (RSS)Recent Posts
- 09/25/2008: O’Death - Crane Lane, Cork. Wow.
- 09/23/2008: Cork Rocks. Too many musical acts to mention seen over four days!
- 09/23/2008: Jody O’Neill gets Fringe writing nomination
December 16th, 2005 at 11:02 am
No notes this week… mostly because I´m on holidays in Spain. So what am I doing at the computer? Well, I suspected Bif might not take his responsibilities seriously enough with me away…
December 16th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
It’s nice to come in Friday morning and get a good laugh, my co-workers will definitely be tickled by that.
December 16th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
Good, good. Tell everyone you know. Lucky thing Frank didn’t trust me, eh?
December 20th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
Is this some sort of anti-Zionist jibe? I’m not sure I like it.
December 20th, 2005 at 12:58 pm
How on earth is it anti-Zionist? It’s a joke about a kid misconstruing the lyrics of a very popular hymn. Honestly, if you’re going to stir up a hornets nest like that, at least justify your suspicions.
December 20th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
Who is this fingerstain chap? I suggest we bar him from the site. Him and all other super sensitive eejits.
December 20th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
I wish I knew what Anti-Zionist meant.
December 21st, 2005 at 1:48 pm
Here’s my justification to yesterdays posting of mine-the one which certainly seems to have gotten your back up and your defences raised judging by the ill-tempered tone of your response.
One could easily view this cartoon as a mockery of European Jews returning as settlers to Israel. I don’t think this interpretation is beyond the realms of probability when you read the text of the cartoon and that’s why I asked the question I did yesterday.
The Christmas tree in the corner which is after all a German invention(and we all know what that race inflicted on us during the Shoah), could also easily be viewed as a symbol of anti-Semitic and/or anti-Zionist oppression.
I normally find your cartoons mildly entertaining but this time I do think you have over-stepped the mark and, in future, you should be aware of other peoples’ religious and cultural sensitivities-just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean you can ride rough-shod over the feelings of non-Goyim people.
Although I don’t celebrate it myself, I wish you, in a spirit of reconciliation, a happy Christmas and continued success in the New(not new for us)Year and would like to tell you I am a successful lawyer who specialises in Internet propagated hate incitment and race related matters.
December 21st, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Your comment did get my back up because I could see no justification to it.
The justification you give now had not occured to me and, I guess, it is not beyond the realms of possibility - it is however, in my opinion, stretching it more than just a little bit. I do believe you are being over sensitive but yes, of course, I regret that offense has been caused.
Again, I repeat, the joke is about a girl who hears the lyrics to a very popular hymn and takes them literally, assuming they refer to her. It stems largely from the fact that for many years I heard that song without ever knowing what ‘Noel’ actually meant. If the lyrics had gone ‘Born is the king of Belgium’, that’s where she would be going. I, unfortunately, can’t go back and rewrite the hymn.
I don’t even know how to address your Christmas tree remark. It’s absurd, end of story. Are you honestly suggesting that my mother is anti-Zionist because she has a Christmas tree in her house. And, for that matter, doesn’t the inclusion of a Christmas tree show that Noelle is a Christian and therefore it can’t be inferred that she is a European Jew returning to Israel.
I wish you all the best in the future too. I meant no offense at any stage.
December 21st, 2005 at 2:48 pm
p. finklestein, thanks for coming back to clarify, it’s much appreciated. I do feel the need to again clarify that none of the implications you read into the cartoon were intended - to be honest I’m amazed at the amount you managed to read into an extremely innocent cartoon.
I do appreciate your intentions, and I am really glad you brought it up as it gave us the opportunity to clarify for anyone else who might be reading too much into it.
I don’t apologise for it, but I do hope nobody was offended once they realised the innocence of it.
Your post was most informative, I assure you I am not capable of the kind of suggestive and inciteful symbolism in my artwork you suspected!
I hope you continue to read our cartoons - I’m not sure what what the appropriate best wishes would be right now, this apparent cultural minefield has me bewildered
so I’ll just leave it at ‘Best Wishes’!
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:16 pm
I didn’t get the joke, not knowing anything about that hymn, but I definitely liked the look of the cartoon. Pretty cute
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:21 pm
The first verse and chorus goes thus
‘The first Nowell, the angel did say,
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel.’
Of course, I suspect, a certain degree of familiarity is required aswell. Still, yes it’s a cute pic all the same anyway.
December 22nd, 2005 at 4:40 pm
I would like to thank both of you for your detailed rebuttal of my commentary on your cartoon. I apologize if I seemed over zealous to take offense but I do hope you understand the position I was forced to adopt. Sometimes it is indeed difficult to tell the wood from the trees and in the first instance, experience has taught me, it almost always pays to err on the rash side. Again, kind wishes and Shalom.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Hey, no problem here, it gave us something interesting to talk about in the comments anyway. Thanks for stopping by.
December 22nd, 2005 at 11:17 pm
As a lifelong supporter of JEWISH GUILD FC (I Googled my team and somehow found your site!) I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for clearing up this matter. I too was taken aback by this weeks cartoon at first but now feel a little more at ease. I’ll be closely monitoring your work from now on.
ZION!!
June 3rd, 2006 at 8:23 pm
“One could easily view this cartoon as a mockery of European Jews returning as settlers to Israel. I don’t think this interpret…bla bla bla”
stupid
stupid
stupid
people
You are suposed to be PROUD.
Ofende quien puede, no quien quiere.
June 17th, 2006 at 2:02 am
its just a silly cartoon, making a joke that a child has taken a hymn too seriously. i really can not understand how anyone could take offence unless they were just being plain awkward or had nothing else to do in their spare time. i do understand how this can be linked to european jews returning to israel, but only if someone were to be looking at this cartoon too seriously, and trying to find some sort of offensive meaning to it. it’s humour is clearly innocent, with no sort of references to making fun out of the jewish religion. i think previous comments were far too over sensitive, totally unjustified, and felt those making the comments were just being over protective of there beliefs and making something out of nothing. they obviusly are suffering from paranoia or just have too much time on their hands. i would also like to add that the lads that posted this cartoon and responded to these, which i believe unprecedented and inapropriate, remarks reacted very sensibly and nonprovocative, which those who posted the original comment did not.
July 3rd, 2006 at 5:54 am
Seriously i am getting a way big head ache from this web site, people are way too fuddy duddy sensitive and annoyingly over the top… whhhhhy (as carlton would say)
July 3rd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Who’s Carlton?