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Mucha (magazine)

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Mucha
Mucha's cover page from 1871
CategoriesSatire
FormatMagazine
FounderJózef Kaufman
Founded1868
Final issue1952
CountryPoland
Based inWarsaw
LanguagePolish

Mucha (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmu.xa] ) was a Polish satirical magazine published in Warsaw in the periods 1868-1939 and 1946–1952. In 1953 it was merged into another satirical one, Szpilki.[1][2]

History

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The magazine was founded and edited by bookseller Józef Kaufman, followed by other owners.[1] It included caricatures, jokes and humorous verses and short stories.

Title

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While mucha means "fly" in Polish, actually the magazine was named after a daredevil acrobat Antoni Mucha, whose caricatures were prominent in the first issues.[1]

Contributors

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Among its many writers, editors, and illustrators were Franciszek Kostrzewski and Bolesław Prus, however the vast majority of contributions were anonymous.[1]

Content

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The pre-1939 version was known for its right-wing, nationalistic, and xenophobic topics.[1][2] The level of the humor was rather low;[1] examples:[3]

– Doctor, please help, my wife ate too much during the holiday and now it hurts her!
– Indeed?
– No, in the belly!
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– Mr. advocate, sir, did you have happy holidays?
– They were happy for me, indeed: three cases of battery, two of insult, and three dozens of rejected promissory notes!
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– Horror! Yesterday a young girl jumped from a bridge!
– Did she fall in love badly?
– No, in Vistula.

Scans of Mucha may be found in the searchable online library polona.pl.[3]

References

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