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This blog will showcase thoughts on a PhD thesis project looking into the subjecthood of the nineteenth century French caricaturist. Started in 2015, this thesis is a part of a wider network of three PhDs and is sponsored by the White Rose Consortium of Arts and Humanities. The combined project is an analysis of the social and historical consequences of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. This project takes a multidisciplinary approach to the history of caricature, using perspectives from history, history of art, politics and ethics to understand the motivations and the aims of celebrated artists between 1830 and 1914 whose principal output was both humorous and offensive. This project hopes to establish to what extent the caricaturists believed they had a right to offend and whether they valued their political interventions. This is important to understand on what grounds they expected to be tolerated by the political, artistic and social milieux who received and reacted to their art. This in turn will be useful to establish whether there is a tradition in French satirical art which has led to the present caricature culture and social expectations of caricature. A particular focus will be made on anticlerical attacks to establish a clear link between the nineteenth century and the Charlie Hebdo attacks.