joke

Why comparison of the Turkish president to Gollum is as ridiculous as fantasy

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor
Formerly published in The Other Press. Dec. 9, 2015

In Turkey, insulting, mocking, or showing any dissension to the president is against the law. This case was proven when Bilgin Çiftçi, a Turkish doctor, created a meme of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s face side by side, matching expressions with Gollum, the despicable character from The Lord of the Rings.

Çiftçi has since been fired from his job, but now the courts are determining the next order of action. Since the chief judge—apparently too busy—has never seen any of The Lord of the Ring films, he and the court is turning to some experts of Tolkien’s epic tale in order to determine whether or not the comparison is indeed an insult. The argument in defence of Çiftçi is that Gollum is a hero of the story and therefore the meme was not an insult, but rather a compliment.

Now, I’m going to break this whole situation into two parts.

First off, Gollum, although he redeems himself (in a sense) at the end of the saga, is not a hero of the trilogy. He is a vile creature that succumbed to greed. Gollum is a victim, for sure, but at no point was he a hero. He killed his best friend, Déagol. Gollum is the epitome of a self-destructive addict.

I know what you are thinking: he ended up destroying the One Ring, doesn’t that make him a good guy? No! Because he bit off Frodo’s finger in an outburst of voracity and fell off the edge of Mt. Doom. He had no intention of destroying the ring. While it was the ring that corrupted poor Smeagol and morphed him into Gollum, we cannot honestly say that Gollum is a hero.

The second part of the situation that must be addressed is how stupid the law is. This proves that freedom of speech, no matter how benign it is, is still a luxury in many parts of the world. Moreover, the inability of some to show any sense of humour is even more disturbing than the law itself. The fact that Tayyip didn’t just brush it off and accept the little ball busting is kind of funny, too. You’d think a man with power could poke fun at the fact that his looks are comparable to, say, Orlando Bloom.

Let’s be honest, Çiftçi was not trying to plot Erdoğan’s downfall. Even if he disliked the President, the mere comparison to Gollum did very little harm to the President’s persona. All it did was call attention to the fact that Erdoğan shared similar features to a fictional character—which he totally does! Perhaps Peter Jackson didn’t need to utilize CGI or Andy Serkis. He could have just cast Erdoğan.

I’m sure many in Turkey found the comparison uncanny, too. But when a country has a law that makes it incapable of processing a joke, then it is that country that becomes the joke. Imagine a Canada where we weren’t allowed to satirize our leaders. That wouldn’t be the free country we know and love. Turkey is a beautiful place, one I wish to visit one day, but with a law like that it sounds more like Mordor than Rivendell.

Canadian army should not be mocked for civil service

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor

The city of Toronto has been the butt of jokes for far too long now (though some might say not long enough): their uproarious mayor, Charlie Sheen; the Maple Leafs double-dribbling to the playoffs; and, of course, the freeze storm. Yes, it has been an ice age of comedy for the centre of the universe, but I will not poke fun at Toronto for sending in the army to battle Mother Nature, that cold-hearted bitch.

While we’re living in Vancouver, where anything below 10-degrees Celsius is considered cold, people in Toronto have been pouring cups of hot water outside and watching it turn to ice before their eyes. The sight gave me chills (remember the 1997 movie, Batman & Robin, where Arnold Schwarzenegger a.k.a Mr. Freeze kept making cold puns? I do). I know people in the Prairies are laughing at Toronto for their dramatic call to arms, but let’s be honest, if they weren’t laughing at Toronto, they would probably be shivering. Toronto is a big city that can only function when people are able to leave their households. As someone who has all-season tires on my car for, well, all seasons, I know what it’s like to be stuck at home. So I’m a little surprised that calling in the troops for reinforcement isn’t more common—after all, why shouldn’t we use our resources?

Weather is one of the most devastating forces in the world, and having the military around to back up normal people is a morale boost a country like Canada should have. We are a peaceful nation and we should lead by example. For many in the United States, the idea of sending in the troops for anything but war is still a highly debated proposition. Citizens just don’t want to see the army cruising down the streets—that is not encouraging for a healthy morale. Recent hurricanes have since changed the minds of many, but others are still convinced that a country should not rely on their army for domestic reasons. But as the world continues to face the fury of Mama Nature, it seems that the army lending a hand may become a common trend.

A little deep freeze is far from a humanitarian emergency, but it would be comforting to know that the military would be able to help when disaster strikes. A soldier assisting shouldn’t be something we laugh at; it should be something we expect and respect.

Taking a look closer to home, we wonder what might cause Vancouver to send in the army. How about an earthquake? What they call the inevitable “Big One” could literally happen at any moment. I sure hope and expect someone to help me deal with that crisis, especially if I get stuck on Granville Street when the city shakes.

We can mitigate disaster, but we can never really avoid it. So, let’s use all we have when things get bad and build upon that for when things get worse.