"Ahmed and Salim", a South Park-style cartoon that makes fun of Palestinian terrorists, is the new big hit on the Israeli Web. It’s supposed to mock terrorists without ridiculing Muslims, but one of our Palestinian observers finds the idea dangerous.
"“When are you going to drop your computer and become real terrorists?” That’s what Ahmed and Salim’s father regularly asks his two sons, Muslim teenagers more interested in Facebook and Guitar Hero than suicide bombings… The cartoon duo stars in a new South Park-style cartoon that made a big splash last week on an Israeli website (www.sugarzaza.com) and on You Tube. The show’s two young authors, Or Paz and Tom Trager, claim to “make fun of terrorists”, but not of Muslims. It’s meant to be taken with a pinch of salt. “If you’re easily offended, please, don’t watch the show” they warn. "
Episode 1 (watched 400 000 times in one week): “When are you going to leave your computer and become real terrorists?” asks their father, before entrusting them with a perilous mission. In the end their plan goes terribly wrong because of… ice cream!
Or Paz and Tom Trager write and direct the videos on the Sugar Zaza website Sugar Zaza
The idea of using a cartoon to depict something evil always attracted us because of its obvious irony. So we came up with Ahmed and Salim, and decided to translate not only to our mother tongue which is Hebrew, but also to English. We had no idea it would create such a buzz online!
We are both huge "South Park" fans, but the main reason we uses the same style is because it's the fastest and cheapest way to animate. We hope to develop over the years and get real animators to work on our projects. Right now it's just us two guys on our computers.
Our main goal is of course to get our work on television. SugarZaza actually stands for stupid nonsense comedy. We've been working on producing short skits, both videos and cartoons, for three years now, so we’re very experienced. We created Ahmed and Salim in less than a week once the skits were written.
The cartoon sparked many reactions, some of them good, some bad. All of them made us just want to keep doing what we’re doing. Even annoying people is good, to a certain extent.
We like annoying groups who take themselves too seriously. We’re not trying to mock Muslims, we are making fun of terrorists who are frankly ridiculous if you can take a good look at them without being afraid. Ahmed and Salim are just two nice naive kids who are just trying to make their terrorist father happy. "
Sameh Akram Habeeb is a Palestinian blogger.
These videos are dangerous and full of lies. Foreigners with limited knowledge of Palestine will think that all Palestinians are terrorists. I’ve never met someone like the cartoon character of Ahmed and Salim’s father. And of course, the authors never once mention the existence of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
This type of video will in no case favour reconciliation between Jewish and Arab communities. On the contrary: it can only spawn hate. What message does it send to those who watch it? That Arabs are terrorists who think only of killing Jews. Our religion has its fundamentalists, like any religion, but we don’t send our children to death like the cartoon father does. I know enough about real life in Palestine to understand what is true and what isn’t, but most viewers won’t have that kind of background. And because the cartoons are subtitled they can be viewed by audiences worldwide.
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Episode 2 : posted January 29 : Ahmed and Salim are assigned to keep an eye on a Jewish prisoner. But the trio’s common love for Guitar Hero soften the would-be jailers, who end up releasing their prisoner.
Comments
WHAT?
Submitted by BETSY AKA DANCES WITH JEWS (not verified) on Fri, 06/02/2009 - 06:41.Seems to me that people are taking this as it is the truth. It is a cartoon and you don't take it as anything but what it is - fiction. It's not the news with Gretta or even worse, on the Daily Show - Cobert Repor. What are you thinking?
The way I see it is if the arab world, muslum world would start putting money into building and creation - not just pay families to have their child blow themselves up, the life there would be so much better. The Jews left an area where they built homes, shops, places of worship and the palastines people - what they did with it - the stupid idiots burned it all down to the ground. Nice homes and buildings - all because a Jew was there. The reason it is the way it is over there is because they don't want peace with Israel. They want Israel off the map. They want every Jew dead.
I have no doubt that there are muslums that don't feel the same way - I have not met one but I am sure they are out there.
The Jews want to live in peace. They research medical treatments - they contribute to wherever they live. Out of more than 720 prizes awarded since 1901, more than 130, or about 18 percent, have gone to Jewish laureates. Jews have won almost three times the number of awards won by either Germany or France (including their Jewish winners), and 10 times those won by Japan. Jews comprise only 0.3 to 0.5 percent of the world's population.
Bite that terrorist pigs. Jews are still here on this earth and you can choke on it.
Dennis Miller's Take: Here we go: The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word.
Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan, " "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention. Before the Israelis won the land in the 1967 war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians."
As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians, " weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation." So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian"anymore to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths, until someone points out they're being taped.
Instead, let's call them what they are: "Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death." I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters."
Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country. Oops, just one more thing. No, they don't. They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years, especially two years ago at Camp David, but if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse, you actually have to figure out some way to make a living. That's no fun.
No, they want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel. They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course --that's where the real fun is -- but mostly they want Israel. Why? For one thing, trying to destroy Israel - or "The Zionist Entity"as their textbooks call it --for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries to divert the attention of their own people away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate, poorest, and tribally backward on God's Earth, and if you've ever been around God's Earth . . . you know that's really saying something.
It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic about the great history and culture of the Muslim Middle East. Unless I'm missing something, the Arabs haven't given anything to the world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that one.
Chew this around & spit it out: 500 million Arabs; 5 million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that, if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals. Really? Wow, what neat news.
Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding.
My friend Kevin Rooney made a gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the numbers. Imagine 500 million Jews and 5 million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves? Of course not. Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea? Nonsense. Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible. Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of children? Disgusting.
No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death.
Mr. Bush, God bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that, with vital operations in Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab allies as much as possible, and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of super models who've just had their drugs taken away.
However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger of losing moral weight. We've already lost some. After September 11th, our president told us and the world he was going to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them. Beautiful.
Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day), start to do the same thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint.
If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day, we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration to just be done with it and kill everything south of the Mediterranean and east of the Jordan.
__________________
'Loz you better take a little breather from SD - just a heads up.'
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You know what. Good for you
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 02/03/2009 - 17:35.You know what. Good for you mr. civilized. Thank you for showing us the value of jews and how much better they are than palestinians. Ok I guess us savages should just accept our destiny and nature and blow more of you civilized (F-16 flying, tank driving, nuclear weapons building) humanitarians up.
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Шик!
Submitted by Petya (not verified) on Tue, 03/02/2009 - 18:42.Шик!
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video's
Submitted by Unregistered user.joseph walker (not verified) on Tue, 03/02/2009 - 10:55.Nobody educated condemns all muslims,it is ignorant to suggest this,but terrorist have no respect for the lives of they own people ,what more the west,unfortunetly we have enough idiots in our broadcasting and media who are just as ignorant as the terrorist.well if they not ,yet to see anything intelligent coming from these people in broadcasting and media.
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Блеск!
Submitted by Вася (not verified) on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 21:05.Блеск!
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Sameh Habeeb, this is a
Submitted by Emet (not verified) on Tue, 03/02/2009 - 08:09.Sameh Habeeb, this is a trueh and you KNOW this !
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