L'etat, C'est Moi: Jim Berryman crowns Charles de Gaulle, January 1963

L'etat, C'est Moi is a Jim Berryman cartoon for the Washington Evening Star dated 31 January 1963. A seated figure in a bicorne hat and a cloak lettered "De G" sits on a throne under an ermine-style robe, holding a staff topped with "RF," beneath the phrase traditionally attributed to Louis XIV.

The drawing

The archive describes a seated man in a bicorne hat, epaulettes and a cloak lettered "De G." An ermine-style robe is draped over his throne. He holds a staff topped with the letters "RF," and he gazes upward. The title supplies the caption: "L'etat, c'est moi," "I am the state," the phrase traditionally attributed to Louis XIV. FRAME reads the target as Charles de Gaulle.

RF

De G

JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR

How the joke works

The method is a costume change. The figure wears a monarch's regalia and sits on a throne, and the letters "RF" end up on top of his scepter. FRAME's tag is name-calling by royal caricature: the cartoon's argument is that de Gaulle governs like a king.

The drawing gives no reason for the charge. There is no policy named, no event, no quotation from de Gaulle. A reader who already thought him high-handed would nod; a reader who did not is offered a costume, not evidence. That is the limit of the form.

The underlying complaint is a serious one in any republic. A head of state who identifies the state with himself is the danger a constitution of checks and balances exists to prevent. Applying that standard to a foreign ally is fair, and it is a standard American presidents can be held to as well. What prompted it on this date is not in the record.

The archive files it with themes of security and elections, and with Berryman's other cartoons in the Senate's holdings. On this site, see his Easter Bunny cartoon on Kennedy's spending, A Flower Tries to Grow in Birmingham and Let Me Through!.