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An art historical gaze upon the images of Charlie Hebdo would, first of all, reckon with the forms and the iconography of its cartoons within the context they arose—and only then wrestle with the images’ virality, slipperiness, and out-of-context force. Images take on new meanings, new lives, as they move along global and digital networks; second degré irony recedes into premier degré literalism, with painful and, we now know, deadly effects.