El Jueves

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El Jueves (Spanish for "Thursday") is a Spanish satirical weekly magazine published in Barcelona. Its complete title is "El Jueves, la revista que sale los Miércoles" ("Thursday, the magazine that comes out on Wednesdays"). As of 2007, an issue currently costs 2.50 in mainland Spain and Balearic Islands, and 2.70 € in the Canary Islands.

It was founded in 1977 and currently has between 72 and 80 pages, with about 20 pages about current political, economical or social affairs, always in an irreverent tone and in comic format. The rest are weekly strips. An extra is edited every three months, with between 104 and 120 pages about a particular issue: monarchy, religion, videogames or some piece of news related to those or other themes. The magazine has published more than 1500 numbers. Its mascot is the jester that appears since the beginning in the front page.

The July 18, 2007 edition of the magazine was sequestered by law on July 20 considering that it violated laws 490.3 and 491 (both related to insults to the Crown) and was an offence to Prince of Asturias and his wife, which were portrayed with a caricature in the front cover performing a sexual act. This caricature made reference to a new proposal of the government, where 2500€ will be given to parents for each newborn child. Since the prince has never performed a remunerated job, the caricature said that if the princess got pregnant and they got the 2500€, that's the nearest the prince will be to working. [1] Its website was also briefly closed but has since re-opened. In November 13, 2007, Guillermo Torres and Manel Fontdevila were found guilty of having offended the crown, "had vilified the crown in the most gratuitous and unnecessary way", and were fined 3,000€ each. [1]

Some of the recurring sections of El Jueves are:

  • "Te lo juro News", a four-page newspaper parody with comic strips, brief humorous texts and photomontages about current national and international affairs.
  • "Recortes de la prensa seria", a section with News of the Weird-like headlines or curiosities published in ordinary press.
  • "El gilipollas de la semana", about the most ridiculous person of the week according to the El Jueves contributors.
  • "En familia", letters to the editor.
  • A poster, generally by Vizcarra.
  • The editorial, about the current affairs theme that is developed in the first pages of the magazine.

With the issue about United States (number 1428), another magazine was published, Mister K, oriented to children and teeneagers.

In 2003 El Jueves Campus was first published, a supplement to 20 minutos with several comic strips, focused on the student world. It is distributed for free on the second Thursday of every month in university areas.

With its long lifespan and enormous popularity, El Jueves could be best described as the Spanish equivalent to Mad Magazine (although a local version of Mad Magazine is sold in Spain)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spain royal sex cartoonists fined. BBC (2007-11-13). Retrieved on 2007-11-13.