Hara‑Kiri n°162 (Mars 1975) is one of the magazine’s most infamous satirical shock‑covers of the 1970s — a period when Hara‑Kiri routinely used grotesque, surreal, and deliberately uncomfortable imagery to lampoon political and social issues. This issue is a prime example of the magazine’s strategy: use absurd provocation to underline the cruelty of public discourse.

The cover depicts a surreal “face” constructed from deliberately distorted, fleshy materials and false hair, topped with glued‑on circular blue “eyes.” This bizarre mask‑like head is not meant to represent a real person but rather to mock the dehumanising way society viewed unemployed people at the time.

The headline reads:

CHÔMEURS ! C’est pas avec cette tête‑là que vous trouverez du boulotRASEZ‑VOUS !(“Unemployed! It’s not with a head like that that you’ll find a job —Shave yourselves!”)

This is biting political satire. In the mid‑1970s, unemployment was rising in France, and public rhetoric often blamed the unemployed themselves for their lack of work. By presenting an absurdly grotesque face, Hara‑Kiri exposes how ridiculous — and cruel — those societal judgements were.

The joke works because it reveals the harshness of the message, not because of the visual shock alone. The absurd face makes the headline’s lecturing tone even more grotesque.