French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala has entertained and exasperated his native country for nearly 20 years, most recently with his one-man shows that touch on race, religion and domestic violence, among other comedic taboos. In 2006, he fell out of favour with France’s media and political establishment, as well as many of his fans, when he declared his admiration of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National party, going so far as making Le Pen godfather to his daughter. Along with running in the upcoming European parliamentary elections on an anti-Zionist platform, Dieudonné is performing five Montreal shows in June, where he remains extremely popular despite (or perhaps because of) the controversies surrounding him.
Q: You are well known in Quebec but not in English Canada. Please introduce yourself.
A: I’m French with African roots. I’m 43 years old. I have been a comedian and a humorist for the better part of 30 years. I have a particular comedic style that provokes a certain reaction from my contemporaries.
Q: This is the point? To elicit a reaction?
A: Yes, that’s my style. I love playing with geographic, religious and ethnic boundaries. It’s an interesting game for me. Here in Canada, you call it reasonable accommodation. Everything that divides people is interesting to me. I have a lot of fun with that.
Q: Tell me about your newest show, Sandrine.
A: Six years ago I did a show called Le divorce de Patrick, which was based on a friend of mine. I revisit Patrick six years on, and he’s married to Sandrine. I touch on the subject of conjugal violence.
Q: How do you find humour in this?
A: Human folly is rich territory for comedians. Conjugal violence is just the preamble to the story. The rest is about Sandrine.
Q: It’s quite a bit less political than your previous shows.
A: A bit less, but it’s a taboo, especially here in Quebec where it is a problem.
Q: Did you write it with Quebec in mind?
A: I come here quite often, so maybe. But the relationship between a man and a woman is universal.
Q: You are suddenly a lot less funny in France, ever since you allied yourself with Jean-Marie Le Pen. Why are you so popular in Quebec?
A: It’s all relative, really. I had a sold-out show in Paris last December with 5,000 people in the audience. I would say that I’m still as popular there, it’s just that I’m in conflict with certain political and media elites.
Q: But you are welcomed in Quebec with open arms.
A: Yes, yes. Quebecers are less affected by the controversies that surround me in France. I have a pretty big following here. The support of the media in Quebec is much more favourable. That’s what I find remarkable.
Q: The media is starting to turn on you.
A: Yes, a little bit. But that doesn’t matter because I don’t work for the media. I work for my public.
Q: A columnist for La Presse recently criticized Quebecers for tolerating, even celebrating, your shows here. He said that in France, criticism of your hateful words has had the effect of diminishing your popularity, whereas in Quebec you are totally accepted.
A: That in itself is a hateful view, and it shows a lack of respect for the Quebec public. He should at least respect that I have a right to say what I please. And anyway, he’s giving me publicity. Attention, buzz, it’s not positive or negative. It just is. I’ll take either. I’ll play the bad guy if that’s what they want.
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Brilliant interview, M. Patriquin. You asked all the right questions.
Dear M. Patriquin,
I think you missed Mr. M'Bala M'Bala's point when at the end you called his ideas "malformed and idiotic." Were you listening when Mr. M'Bala M'Bala said: "I don't know if it's to confuse. It's more to start debates, to make people question themselves"? You seemed not to understand his point that embodying extremist positions as an entertainer is an extremely effective way to start debates, to make people feel foolish for the things they think. He invited you to examine your biases, but you did not, you simply gave him your standard rote response to someone who is anti-Zionist. Pardon me, but while Israelis are reasonable people and Judaism is a reasonable religion, Zionist fundamentalists are some of the most dangerous people in the world, easily on par with the worst Muslim extremists. Unfortunately, Mr. Patriquin, you have proven yourself unable to reexamine your view of Jewish suffering as some kind of incomparable outrage, unmendable by any concession, an outrage that justifies all subsequent affrontery. This is the danger of the Zionism that you so respect, that if a people has gone through an ordeal that is incomparable to any other the world has seen, what should be the end of their vengeance?
All best,
Kevin Solez
Est-ce quelqu'un a vu son dernier spectacle "Sandrine"? Les médias se focalisent trop sur son engagement politique et ne parle pas du tout de son spectacle. Je meure d'envie d'avoir un commentaire sur son nouveau show!!!! Merci.
"but if you look at the transatlantic slave trade, which was legal for 400 years, you see among the traders people who were bankers, people of all sorts of backgrounds, but especially Christians and Jews. To say otherwise is to lie."
To say otherwise is the truth. Jews were locked out of the slave trade unless they converted. There were a few converso slave trader families in the Caribbean. It's funny how he doesn't admit to the Islamic share of the blame, after all European Christians never captured black Africans, they bought them from Arabs. All slave traders in Africa were Arab or black.
Don't get me wrong, buying a slave is as bad as catching one. But his attempt to transfer Islam's culpability onto the Jews shows his true colours. An absolute scumbag and his popularity in Quebec makes me realise that everything Mordechai Richler ever wrote about the Quebecois is true…
He got the slave-trade thing wrong, and a bunch of other things too. But, he's a provocateur. He made it clear in the interview that he pretends to hold bizarre views for the reaction he elicits. The fact that his bizarre views get under people's skin is exactly his point. He's a 'squirm-entertainer,' kinda like the old Denis Leary or Stephen Colbert. I don't believe for a second that his shows actually promote hatred. He's just hit a raw nerve in society, with contemporary political connections, so people think that you're not supposed to say these things. The fact that he bugs people with his strange views is exactly his reason for holding those views.
If you looked at what he said in depth you would realize that he is going after a reaction. He can be considered cheaper than an Indian man when it comes to publicity.
Think about it, he manages to get free publicity and that is precisely what he wants. By outraging people like you he gets what he wants. He likes free publicity, it is for that reason that he likes how people tried to ban him from the elections.
Dieudonne is hardly alone in appropriating the Holocaust in a vulgar way for cheap laughs. The frat boy comedy The Hangover also uses the Holocaust as a crude comedic motif. Four guys spend three days in Vegas getting totally wasted. One of them, a dentist, shows the other three a special ring "my grandmother kept [from the Nazis] during the Holocaust". He reveals his intention to pop The Question ("Will you marry me?") to his live-in girlfriend, a real shrew, and offer her the the so-called "Holocaust ring". Instead, he gets royally pissed and the "Holocaust ring" ends up on the finger of a hooker-stripper he marries in a 3 a.m. ceremony at a Vegas chapel. When he bemoans the loss of his grandmother's "Holocaust ring" on the morning after, his fellow reveler – the Dumbo in the group – voices surprise over the fact that something like a "Holocaust ring" even exists. Dumbo: "I didn't know they give out rings at the Holocaust."
dieudonné is the best !!!!
I´m sorry, you did not understand what he is saying. He is talking about the people who tried to disturb his Show. There were no Moslem there, but a lot of zionist and others.
you're right bloodklat
Zionism is just the Jewish people coming back to a homeland they had lived in for thousands of years and had been ousted from several times. It's called Israel. Two of their temple ruins are under the Dome of the Rock. Israel is Zion and it's not going anywhere anytime soon, so everyone should move on
wow…
Zionist is just a political movement created in response to a huge antisemitist wave in the end of the XIX century, which say that jews should "go back home" (to be simple).
But it is highly criticised by lot of jews saying that the Torah (their bible) implicitly tell them to wait for a messiah to return to israel…
One problem is that this simple fact (jews against israel) is everytime hidden, or assimilated to extremism.
Another problem is that they (the zionist, not the Jews !) have seen in the USA coming to help UK in WW2 their messiah… Eheh. (palestine was an english colony, right ?).
Arabs and Jews lived in peace in Palestine for centuries… Who is making an apartheid in Palestine are not Jews, but zionist. Please look what happening, and not from some Reuters or AFP source…
To end, please do not make the mistake "they" want you to make : antizionist is not antisemitism. And also : Dieudonne is everything but stupid, and less again antisemitist.
(sorry for my bad english)