Pictured here is Georges Wolinski. He was the editor in chief of Charlie Hebdo from 1961-1970. (source) He is quoted as saying “humor is the shortest way from one man to another” (source)
His obituary in Le Monde makes him sound like a consummate libertine. It describes him as having a taste for luxuries and an obsession with women. A party boy until the end. Nevertheless, he was married for 44 years.
In 2012, the National Library of France honored him with a 50 year retrospective of his work. (source) His hippie friends were disgusted, but he did not care — seeing it as an opportunity to express himself in France and abroad.
But, despite the honor, he never took it too seriously to give up an opportunity to be irreverent. The show’s program quoted him as saying that he wanted to be cremated when he died. “I said to my wife, you throw the ashes in the toilet, so that I can see your ass every day.” (source) (J’ai dit à ma femme : tu jetteras les cendres dans les toilettes, comme ça je verrai tes fesses tous les jours.)
His obituary in Le Monde summarizes him so:
This dandy Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a little nonchalant, was a bawdy comedian, an uninhibited stalker, certainly, but also a corrosive moralist. Fertile thoughts always sprang from his writing. Wolinski never stopped drawing : books travel , semi-autobiographical books, sketch-like editorials … “The comedian, he said, does belong to any party, believes in no religion; all acts are suspect, especially those who are not guided by the interest. (source)
We need more irreverent satyrs like him — not less. Fuck you to anyone who thinks this man should have been taken from us.
Remember him.
