Gırgır

Gırgır (meaning Fun in English) was a Turkish weekly humor magazine published from 1972 to 1993 in Turkey.

History and profile[]

Gırgır was founded by the brothers Oğuz Aral (1936-2004) and Tekin Aral (1941-1999).^[1] After having started as a newspaper insert, the magazine's first issue was published on 26 August 1972 with the motto "Life is a hassle, scraping a living, boredom, heartache, fighting with your spouse over money... The solution? Gırgır. Also, Gırgır." Oğuz Aral directed the magazine until 1989, during which time it became Turkey's best-known humor magazine.^[2]

With its sharp political satire cartoons, Gırgır was one of the best selling cartoon magazines in Europe in the 1970s with a circulation of up to 450,000.^[3]

Following the military coup on 12 September 1980 Gırgır was temporarily banned due to the publication of a cartoon, which was deemed by the military authorities to be insulting Turkish national identity.^[4]

In the mid 1980s a group of contributors left Gırgır and established another humor magazine, .^[4] Shortly after that another group from the magazine founded . In 1989, the magazine was taken over by a large publishing group, and Oğuz Aral and other key staff members left. Following this circulation declined rapidly, and Gırgır finally folded in 1993.

Gırgır had a great impact on the satire of its era,^[4] and several later humor magazines followed the example set by the magazine. Many accomplished satirists worked at Gırgır, including , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Galip Tekin, , , , , , , , , , , , Ramize Erer, , , , , , , M. K. Perker, and (who created the Rube-Goldberg-like Zihni Sinir Proceleri for the magazine).

The rights to the name Gırgır are now held by , and a magazine under that name was launched in 2008, but with no connection to the original Gırgır.

References[]