There are two ways to deal with humour.
Written–oral humour, humour with the line.
I’ll try to refer to some experts and sources about these two concepts.
Written–oral humour: As we all know oral ones one jokes (comic short story written using wit), anecdotes (a serious or comic type of writing that appears in market columns of newspapers and magazines and deals with up–to date issues) riddles (a type of game that implies something without mentioning its name and characteristic, and expects the audience to find it out(, tongue–twister (the words that Kavuklu used to use in old Turkish theatrical representation) mockery (satire–insult) satire, jokes (words used to make another person laugh and entertain without offending) irony (satire), wit (a comic word that makes people think and is meaningful–in writing, in pictures, in words it has deep meaning, witty remarks) priceless (comic, entertaining) comedy (situation and events that result in laughing, lies or false manners) “Gülüt” (comic words or situations added to an entertainment show), “Gülmece” (witty remarks that aim at entertaining and making people laugh without offending people, “humour” a form of literaure, that puts down comic sides of reality). The Definitions have been taken from TDK.
What French call “Sens Caricatural” is actual art of drawing. When we have a look at the works of Vinci, Rafael and Michelangelo, what they attempted to do was to get hold of the most beautiful by caricaturing the personalities faces, and characteristics of people they wanted to make a drawing of.
It is necessary to explain what humour is in order to talk about cartoon as a form of art done using the line instead of words. There are differing views about the word “humour”.
Humour: In English it is humour.
Humour: Is a form of arts that mocks at life.
Humour: Is a form of arts that makes people laugh.
Humour: Is a piece of writing that makes you smile and think instead of not paying attention to. (Cocteav)
Humour: Is a form of art equipped with witty remarks that go between laughing and crying. The word humour “mizah” is the equivalent of humour in Arabic. In the oldest Turkish dictionary “Divan–ü Lügat it Türk” Kaþgarlý Mahmud used the word “külüt” meaning “humour”. It means a comic thing among people. As time passed by it has been used as “gülüt”.
Humour is a form of art that puts down comic sides of reality. (Meydan–Larousse)
Humour is laughing but should not be shameless. According to Aziz Nesin, there is laughing in humour. That’s why, the word “gülmece” is also appropriate for us. But he named his book as Turkish Humour in Republican period. This shows that the use of the word “gülmece” in Turkish to refer to humour, I think, is not appropriate.
The duty of humour is not only to make people laugh, but also to make them think at the same time. “Gülmece” has created another discussion.
Humour: There is contradiction in the source of laughing. (Kierkegard),
Humour: sudden superiority feeling. (Thomas Hobbes)
Does humour appear as a result of laughing.
According to Aziz Nesin, anything that makes people laugh in a healthy way is humour. From the outside it is not obvious that the painting called La Jakond by Vinci is full of humour.
After all these there is something definite, which is the existance of humour. The origins of humour is humanbeings. Whereover there is a humanbeing, there is humour. Laughing at various levels shows the existance of comic ssilvations.
What is comic is something real to laugh at.
Comic: The attempt of a thing to resemble a humanbeing and the humanbeing appearance of a person, his/her feelings and existance in short, it is comic to be away from being human. Comic is not only about appearance. Playing Beethoven’s 9th symphony using “a horn” and “a small drum” is comic.
Humour: We can generalize saying that any form of comedy is humour.
Humour: Is strengthening its meaning not all the time by meaning contradictions.
When we consider he history of humour, we see that it was written at that time. It was not taken into account seriously (this is still valid today). As a consequence of this, whether it has been accepted by some people or not may be a discussion topic.
2. Humour with lines: There are the ones followed enthusiastically by: cartoon, strip bonds, illustrations, comics....
There are many definitions of cartoon. Here I would like to give the definitions of cartoon experts.
Cartoon: come from Italian the word “caricare”, in French “caricature”. A picture that makes people think and laugh by dealing with anything as a topic in an exaggerated way. (TDK)
In its figurative meaning cartoon is a rough draft done in a maladroit way. (TDK)
Cartoonist: The artist that draws cartoons. (TDK)
“The reason why cartoonist are not into arts is because they have not understood this type of arts.” O.V. Kanýk.
At the beginning it was drawing people’s faces and appearances in a funny way. The works, which were drawn as cartoons to distort the look, exaggerate and emphasize characteristics of people were drawn by displaying various animal and plants as part of humanbeings and mixed the characteristics of human and animal.
While France was under military occupation of Germany, a German soldier entered Picasso’s workshop and saw Gurnica painting. After praising the artist, by painting at Gurnica he asked, “Did you paint this? Picasso replied”. “No, not me, it was you.” Some tinnes only one work of art could express the situation we are in.
Cartoon obviously is one of the branches of arts that could reflect this most. (Z.Oral)
Cartoon: Is the exaggerated art of drawing.
Cartoon: In my opinion, it should be a branch of fine arts that enable people to think and smile. (Cemal Nadir)
Cartoon: Is to know how to express. (Demirtaþ Ceyhun)
Cartoon: Is something good, produced by the line. If the drawer likes drawing and enjoys when it is finished, I guess, those looking at it think about it and enjoy. (T.Oral)
It is a fact that cartoon is as a weapon stronger than writing, poems and paintings.
It is known that cartoon is the shortest way to reach a large number of people. (Abidin Dino)
Cartoon: Is drawn to make fun of a person with exaggerated lines to make an object look funny and people experience something acrid, sour, sometimes scented.
Cartoon: Means expressing a lot using little.
Cartoon: Is a drawn picture of someone, something or a silvation whose characteristics have been exaggerated In French. (Milliyet Dictionary)
Cartoon: Is a picture drawn without giving details by exaggerating some characteristics of a particular group of people (General Information Encyclopedia from A to Z).
Cartoon: Is a technic in the form of a joke.
Cartoon: Is the most naive and basic of all forms of fine arts. Humour is important in cartoon. But the one that makes people think. (i. Gülgeç)
Cartoon: Is a form of arts that changes with society and undertakes functions. (A.Kanbir)
Cartoon: To me is a tool that defend the good, the truth and the beautiful. A tool for fighting... (Mustafa Doğuer)
Cartoon: Is form of arts that is drawn from one side and discuised from the other. Cartoon is humour from whichever perspective you consider. (S.Poroy)
Cartoon: Is an occupation that requires hard work to produce. (N.Danyal)
Cartoon: Is the mixture of the line and humour.
Cartoon: Is like banana. The word “gülmece” is not enough to define humour.
Cartoon: Is an art form that gives out a message without any consideration regarding language, religion, race, nation, age and tendency differences. (F.Çağla)
Cartoon: As it is today, an art form of producing humour using the line. (T.Selçuk)
Cartoon: A magical art form. (Çetin Altan)
Cartoon: Is a deep concept, to make people laugh using squinted eyes, an exaggerated nose, a grining mouth, sometimes just a line makes people furious and sometimes makes angry while aiming at laughing. (Cemil Cem)
Cartoon: Is the reflection of humanbeings.
Cartoon: Like a joke is a weapon that hits its target.
A Cartoonist: Is a person who draws cartoons.
A Cartoonist: Is a person that combines a wit with the line.
The common point of all these definitions points out that:
Cartoon: Is the exaggerated drawing of people and objects. Today cartoon is form of arts that creates humour using the line. There is not a single definition of cartoon. Cartoon first is created in the mind of the artist and then to show it to other people he uses the paper. The most important part is the audience. Cartoon is not only a single square but is a strip, comics, a story... etc.
The history of cartoon dates back to Paleolitik Age. The engrawings on stones in France 3 brothers cave in Ariege, in East Spain in Cueva, in Ramgia caves, in Castellon, in Algeria Tassilli Rocks look like cartoons. In some the seems to be a sorcerer whose face was covered with the skin of an animal. In some comic living beings. The aim of these is not known. Was it for their beliefs or for pleasure? But it would not be wrong to consider these as the origin of cartoon (Hýfzý Topuz). The artists of Neolithic Age carried on drawing these comic designs on vases and frescos. In Ancient Egypt there are works of cartoon. The portrait of the Egyptian King Iv. Amesofis was drawn to make it resemble him but to propose this, it is necessary to accept that the artist had a bad eyesight. But the artist had exaggerated this work on purpose. What attracts the attention in this portrait is the deformation different from other works. (N.Yoltaş)
Kinds of cartoon:
– political cartoons / editorial cartoons
– advertising cartoons
– caricatures
– absurd cartoons
– humourous cartoons
– surrealist romantic cartoons
– Stenberg – cartoon with no caption
– cartoons with captions
– dark humour cartoons
– surrealist dark humour cartoons
– collage cartoons... etc.
The themes of Turkish cartoons are: criticisms, plays upon words, death, socio–economic situations, extra charge, inflation, unemployment, unions, alienation... Workers–tradesman jokes, minorities and their life stories, characteristics, social events. Hunting, the relationship between men and women, husbands and wives, sex, love, erotizm, bureaucracy, the relationship between schools, teachers and student, parents, business life, football matches, boxing, wrestiling, sports, holidays, advertising campaigns, TV soap operas, absurd topics, cinemas, media etc. and one always valid.
As the last words cartoon and humour are inseparable like Syamese twins. Just like the line that does not have humour cannot be called as cartoon, a humorous story told is not a cartoon. You may narrate it in a comic way but it is not a cartoon.