| Jeremy Nell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jeremy Talfer Nell 1979 (age 44–45) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Jerm |
Notable works | Jerm Warfare |
| jermdraws | |
Jeremy Talfer Nell (born 1979) is a South African cartoonist who writes under the pen name Jerm. In 2020, his public page was removed by Facebook after repeatedly violating the social network's policies against hate speech.[1] He was previously requested to retract a homophobic statement made on another social network, Twitter.[2]
Jeremy Talfer Nell was born in 1979[3] in Cape Town, South Africa. Nell attended Fairmont High School.[4] After graduating, Nell went to study art and sculpture at the University of Cape Town but failed the course and dropped out.[5][6]
Nell became a cartoonist in November 2005, after being retrenched.[7][5] Nell did not complete formal art training.[6]
Nell's first commercially published work and nationally syndicated comic strip Urban Trash (first published November 2005), ended 27 June 2008.[8][9][10]
In 2010, Nell became the first political cartoonist for the newly launched The New Age, a pro-ANC daily newspaper. He was dismissed in 2012.[11][12]
In 2012, Nell became the first political cartoonist for Eyewitness News.[13][14] That year he cited Zapiro and Quentin Blake as being among his favourite cartoonists.[4]
In 2013, Nell became the first political cartoonist for the eNCA television network.[15][16]
In February 2014, Nell voiced his support for David Bullard when Bullard donated to a rape charity (who returned his donation) after being criticised for accusing rape survivor and activist Michelle Solomon of having faked her rape.[17]
In December 2014, Nell was forced to apologise for making a homophobic remark online. After receiving heavy criticism for a tweet regarding the trial of Shrien Dewani, during which the prosecution heard that Dewani was bisexual, Nell apologised and retracted his statement.[18][19][20]
In January 2020, after Democratic Alliance chairperson Helen Zille shared a controversial racial cartoon created by Nell, Facebook closed Nell's public page, which had nearly 60,000 followers. Nell said he had previously violated the site's rules against hate speech.[21] According to Mail & Guardian critic Christopher McMichael, Nell's political cartoons portray black politicians as "baying for white genocide" and reveal crypto-fascist ideas about racial intelligence.[22]
Nell worked for the South African Institute of Race Relations's online publication The Daily Friend between 2019 and 2021.[23][24][25][26]
Nell joined TNT Radio in 2022 and hosts his own show. Jeremy Nell
Penguin Books have published two cartoon collections by Nell, Jerm Warfare (2013) and Comedy Club (2014).[27][28][29] Additionally, some of his work features in (and on the front cover of) the 2009 edition of the South African political cartooning annual Don't Joke: A Year in Cartoons, as well as in the 2010 edition, Just For Kicks.[30][31]
Nell won the national 2011 Vodacom Journalist of the Year Cartoon of the Year award for his cartoon Africa 2.0.[32][33]
The Mail & Guardian named Nell as one of their "Top 200 Young South Africans" in 2012.[34]
Nell was a finalist at the 2014 Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards.[35]
