The Clinic

For other uses, see The Clinic (disambiguation).

The Clinic logo.

The Clinic is a Chilean satirical/investigative newspaper founded by Patricio Fernández Chadwick in November 1998. The paper includes a wide mix of cultural criticism, jokes, in-depth interviews, and investigative work. The name was inspired by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's October 1998 arrest in Britain at The London Clinic, which bears the name The Clinic on its façade. In its first incarnation, it was only a few pages long, distributed only within Santiago, and costing 100 pesos (US¢22 at the time). Over the years, it has changed drastically, and now costs 900 pesos (US$1.80 in 2012) and averages forty pages. Today, it is published every Thursday during normal operation times (it usually takes February off) and published its 262nd edition on October 2, 2008.

Humor

One of its humor features is done in a style reminiscent of Sergio Aragones' marginal cartoons in Mad Magazine: at the bottom of each page (except the covers), the statement Sabía usted que...( Did you know that...?) is printed and followed by a remark which can be obscene, witty, snarky, or impenetrable, but is always very short. Another hallmark of the people is its "shocking" covers, which often contain near-nudity and photoshopped heads, along with ironic or double-entendre captions.

• Examples:
  • It's true: marijuana leads to coke, fries, two burgers, three ice creams...
  • Ghosts don't believe in people.
  • If everybody who says they were there, really was there, the GAP (Group of Personal Friends, an organization established to serve as a paramilitary presidential bodyguard for Allende) had about 70,000 members.
  • To be on the front page of Las Últimas Noticias, all you have to do is bare your butt in a disco.
  • Barney is Godzilla's gay son.
  • For the cost of a missile, you can make 25,000 envelopes with anthrax.

Editorial stance

The Clinic covers current events from a generally leftist position, but has shown contempt for almost all other media outlets in the country, and mocks politicians of all stripes from former military dictator Pinochet to the late communist leader Gladys Marín.
The Clinic is also critical of what it calls "lazy reporting" and many times has criticized the centrist and center-left governments that have ruled Chile after its transition to democratic government.

See also

• The Onion, a US counterpart
• Private Eye, a UK counterpart
• Frank, a Canadian counterpart
• The Phoenix, an Irish counterpart
• El Jueves, a Spanish counterpart
• Le Canard enchaîné, a French counterpart
• Titanic, a German counterpart
• Academia Catavencu, a Romanian counterpart
• Moskovskaya Komsomolka, a Russian counterpart
• Teacher's Diary
• Noseweek,a South African counterpart
• Hermano Lobo

External links

• The Clinic Web site (in Spanish)