“Kharabeesh,” a maker of sarcastic cartoons, becomes conspicuous with Arab Spring

After the internet became the source for any scoop and websites like Facebook and Twitter became more into journalism than into socializing. It was only ordinary when cartoons turn into one of the ways to express your opinion, maybe it’s the strongest way.

“Kharabeesh” or more accurately “Kharabeesh Toon” became a trademark in the world of making sarcastic cartoons. Especially after the revolutions of “Arab Spring”, they made fun of Hosni Mubarak, Kaddafi, Ali Abdullah Saleh and others, and they’re still making cartons about current events, making use of their professionalism in making characters and making it go with hilarious comments and situations.

What is “Kharabeesh”? It’s an Arabic network for media, entertainment and making cartoons. It originally started in Jordan as an idea proposed by Wael Al Atily, Mohamed Asfor, and Feras Al Atiby back in 2005, they now hold the position of being CEOs, and they joined with the Jordanian Amr AlAbd Allat who is now technical director. They began actual work in 2008; they opened the Tunisian branch in 2011, and the Egyptian branch in 2012 that is managed by the Egyptian Cartoonist, Ashraf Hamdi.

They originally started with short cartoons that spread online on blogs. They also made some commercials, and cartoons to be sold via mobile with the help of a Jordanian communication company. Their breakthrough was their work with Google on making a guide website for new users of internet. Their fame skyrocketed when the revolutions started and they made cartoons of everything, starting with presidents’ speeches ending with how they were thrown off the throne.

“Kharabeesh” includes tens of creative cartoonists and professional animators, as “Kharabeesh” doesn’t include “Kharabeesh Toon” only. “Tahsheesh” is a segment that includes programs hosted by the youth making fun of the wrong aspects in their society. “Kharabeesh Street” includes important discussion programs with topics like, the Arab students’ perspective after returning home from studying abroad, how the youth deal with social media and current political and society changes and so on. “Dawsha/Noise” is a segment that includes musical productions varying between Rap and Folklore.

The main website also includes works of many popular cartoonists and caricaturists.

Even though the network is considered somehow new, they managed to build a reputation for themselves through these few years. Now, there is none who doesn’t know of “Kharabeesh” works, and how, for example, they interpreted one of the most important political events in Egypt, which is the presidential elections, and made it similar to a video game.

Their aim isn’t to make people laugh only; they aim to make people realize serious events in a sarcastic way. They even used famous songs, plays, movie quotes that would go along well with the concept of the cartoon.

One of their creations is using Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in a video about Hosni Mubarak and his allies, comparing them with the famous zombies in the original video.

This and many other ways show the creativity of “Kharabeesh” of mixing sarcasm with politics.