El Jueves

_es. "El Jueves" (Spanish for "Thursday") is a Spanish satirical weekly magazine published in Barcelona. Its complete title is " _es. El Jueves, la revista que sale los Miércoles" ("Thursday, the magazine that comes out on Wednesdays"). As of 2007, an issue costs 2.50 € in mainland Spain and Balearic Islands, and 2.70 € in the Canary Islands.

It was founded in 1977 and currently has between 72 and 80 pages, with about 20 pages about current political, economical or social affairs, always in an irreverent tone and in comic format. The rest are weekly strips. An extra is edited every three months, with between 104 and 120 pages about a particular issue: monarchy, religion, videogames or some piece of news related to those or other themes. The magazine has more than 1500 issues. Its mascot is the jester that appears since the beginning in the front page.

The July 18 2007 edition of the magazine was sequestered by law on July 20 as it violated laws 490.3 and 491 (both related to insults to the Crown) and was an offence to Prince of Asturias and his wife, who were portrayed with a caricature in the front cover performing a sexual act. This cartoon referred to a new proposal of the government, where 2500€ will be given to parents for each newborn child; as the prince has never held a paid job, the caption said that if the princess got pregnant and they got the 2500€, it's the closest he would ever come to working. [http://www.20minutos.es/data/img/2007/07/20/657066.jpg] Its website was also briefly closed but has since re-opened. In November 13 2007, Guillermo Torres and Manel Fontdevila were found guilty of having offended the crown, "had vilified the crown in the most gratuitous and unnecessary way", and were fined 3,000€ each. [cite web
last =
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title = Spain royal sex cartoonists fined
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publisher = BBC
date = 2007-11-13
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7092866.stm
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accessdate = 2007-11-13 ]

Some of the recurring sections of El Jueves are:

*" _es. Te lo juro News", a four-page newspaper parody with comic strips, brief humorous texts and photomontages about current national and international affairs.
*" _es. Recortes de la prensa seria", a section with News of the Weird-like headlines or curiosities published in ordinary press.
*" _es. El gilipollas de la semana", about the most ridiculous person of the week according to the El Jueves contributors.
*" _es. En familia", letters to the editor.
*A poster, generally by Vizcarra.
*The editorial, about the current affairs theme that is developed in the first pages of the magazine.

With the issue about United States (number 1428), another magazine was published, Mister K, oriented to children and teeneagers.

In 2003, _es. "El Jueves Campus" was first published, a supplement to 20 minutos with several comic strips, focused on the student world. It is distributed for free on the second Thursday of every month in university areas.

With its long lifespan and enormous popularity, El Jueves could be best described as the Spanish equivalent to Mad Magazine (although a local version of Mad Magazine is sold in Spain)

External links

* [http://www.eljueves.es/ El Jueves official site]
* [http://www.eitb24.com/archivos/imagenes/eitb24/cultura/2007/07/20/El-Jueves-2007072016163402hg2.jpgcensored cartoon of Felipe and Letizia having sex] Caption reads: "Do you realise, if you get pregnant this will be the closest thing I've done to work in my whole life."

References