Turkish doctor Bilgin Çiftçi is facing a possible two-year prison sentence for posting a meme of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, resembling a character from Lord of the Rings. He was also fired from his job, because in Turkey, it’s apparently very illegal to insult the President, a crime for which more than 200 people have been investigated between August 2014 and March 2015. Being that we’re not in Turkey, here’s the “insulting” picture in question.
A medical doctor's job is terminated by the state for sharing this picture#BilginCiftci #AKP @RT_Erdogan pic.twitter.com/C7E87t1KQ7
— a.kadir yildirim (@akyildirim) October 15, 2015
I put “insulting” in quotes because now director Peter Jackson himself has weighed in with a clarification that this picture is actually a compliment. You see, the Turkish courts are currently deciding — with the help of two academics, two psychologists and a film professor — whether Gollum can be considered a hero instead of a villain, which was Dr. Çiftçi’s argument. Peter Jackson is here just in time with an even more slam dunk argument: That’s not Gollum; it’s Smeagol.
Jackson released a joint statement with screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and what they have to say should clearly exonerate Çiftçi:
“If the images below are in fact the ones forming the basis of this Turkish lawsuit, we can state categorically: None of them feature the character known as Gollum. All of them are images of the character called Smeagol.”
BOOSH.
Even more awesomely, they argued why Smeagol is the coolest and obviously this was a compliment for the Turkish president.
“Smeagol is a joyful, sweet character. Smeagol does not lie, deceive, or attempt to manipulate others. He is not evil, conniving, or malicious — these personality traits belong to Gollum, who should never be confused with Smeagol. Smeagol would never dream of wielding power over those weaker than himself. He is not a bully. In fact he’s very loveable. This is why audiences all over the world have warmed to his character.”
It’s taking all my willpower to not call this precious, so instead I’ll just offer some applause.
We’re still waiting for a comment from Andy Serkis — who played both characters — but, to be fair, he probably has recorded a response and it’ll just take 10 months to polish up all the motion capture in it.
(Via The Wrap)