Majin Macron

About

Majin Macron refers to a caricature of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, as the devil, which was published in the October 27th issue of Persian newspaper Vatan-e-Emrooz. The image was meant as an attack on President Macron for defending people who draw pictures of Muslim profit Mohammed. The image went viral on social media, particularly Twitter. Soon after, an artist photoshopped a stylized "Majin M" onto the cartoon's forehead, making reference to Majin characters in Dragon Ball^[1] and solidifying the name "Majin Macron."

Origin

On October 16th, 2020 in France, high school teacher Samuel Paty was killed for showing an image of the Muslim prophet Mohammed during a lesson on free speech. A Chechen refugee, suspected to be the father of a student at the school, paid two students to identify the teacher for him after school so he could follow him and kill him.^[1] On October 21st, President Macron made a statement about the killing during a ceremony dedicated to Paty (shown below, left). During his speech, Macron denounces those involved in the murder as cowards and barbarians, and defends free speech, saying "We will not give up cartoons" in reference to the drawing of Mohammed. Macron's statements resulted in protests across Iran, including outside of the french embassy in Tehran (footage shown below, right).

On October 27th, Persian newspaper Vatan-e-Emrooz^[2] published issue number 3057, featuring a caricature of President Macron drawn as the devil, with red skin, long, pointed ears, and sharp, evil-looking features (shown below, left). The cartoon was widely reported on.^[3][4] On the same day, Twitter user Frederic_Molas uploaded a photoshopped version of the issue's cover featuring a "Majin M"^[5] on the cartoon Macron's forehead (shown below, right). The post gained over 4,200 retweets and 23,900 likes in a day.

Spread

Twitter users quickly began making memes out of the images, both in support and opposition of Macron. Many noticed a resemblance between the Dragon Ball character Dabura and Macron, and posted memes pointing out the similarities (examples shown below). That day, "Majin Macron" started trending on French Twitter.

The meme quickly spread outside of French Twitter, with English-speakers also making versions of the meme.^[6] Many of these are photoshop memes, inserting Majin Macron into other meme formats, or Dragon Ball scenes (example shown below, left). Some made jokes about Iran's intentions for the cartoon backfiring, since many French people who oppose Macron adopted the image to make fun of him (example shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References