Someone asked about the best stand up comedians in France, which is something that get asked regularly. Since it’s a fun way to learn about the language and the culture I thought this deserved an elaborate list that could be stickied on the right (?)
I tried to organise them into categories so that it’s easy for readers to find what will suit their tastes. So it’s kinda chronologically listed, that’s the easier way to do it, and I tried my best to find a logical order. Same for the links: I picked the jokes that were the most popular/famous, to me at least. And I looked for the texts!!! Of course it’s not always easy to judge which person or skit is funnier than the other and of course I didn’t put everything (But quite a lot 🙂 ).
It’s not finished: I’ll come back to edit, I actually left out some of the best ones, because they did so many things!
The dead ‘classic’ ones:
Raymond Devos: famous for his clever play on words, he’s franco-belgian and that shows: his sense of humour makes me think of the surrealists. His jokes also make me think of the films by Jacques Tati (Mr Hulot), or also the ones by Francis Veber (Le dĂ®ner de cons).
Examples: Sans dessus-dessous[1] (Texte[2] ), La mer démontée[3] (Texte[4] ), Le plaisir des sens[5] (Texte[6] ), A Caen les vacances[7] (Texte[8] ), Le narcissisme[9] (Texte[10] ), Où courrent-ils?[11] (Texte[12] ), Le bout du bout[13] (Texte[14] ),
Complete show at l’Olympia in 1999[15] .
Coluche: one of the first comedians to use profanities on stage. His character embodies the "beauf" (redneck) and he was not afraid to criticise the institutions or the politicians with an irreverent attitude, but he also addressed racism and bigotry. Interesting facts: He is the founder of "Les restos du coeur" a charity that feeds the poor and he was a candidate at the presidential elections [16] . (He did movies as well and a biopic was made of his last year(?): L’Histoire d’un mec).
Le flic[17] (Texte[18] ), Le schmilblick[19] (Texte[20] ), Je me marre![21] (Texte[22] ), Tel père tel fils/GĂ©rard![23] (Texte[24] ), Mon papa est balaise[25] (Texte[26] ), Le clochard analphabète/ Le philosophe arabe[27] (Texte[28] ), Le CRS arabe[29] (Texte[30] ), Moi ça va[31] (Texte[32] ), Jean Marie[33] (Texte[34] ), L’auto-stoppeur[35] (Texte[36] ), Le chĂ´meur (la politique)[37] (Texte[38] ), L’ancien combattant[39] (Texte[40] ), Les militaires[41] (Texte[42] ), L’administration[43] (Texte[44] ), Le viol de Monique[45] (Texte[46] ). He also wrote lots of songs, like: Misère[47] (Sadly still relevant today, like all of his other sketches :/).
Pierre Desproges: Famous for his dark and dry humour, his cynicism, like Coluche he was very irreverent, he addressed the same themes as him but in a more "classy" way if I may say (= he was not playing the character of the "beauf" and his texts are very well written). He said: "You can laugh about anything, but not with everybody".
On me dit que des juifs se sont glissĂ©s dans la salle[48] (Texte[49] ), Les rues de Paris ne sont plus sĂ»res/Rachid et M. Lefranc[50] (Texte[51] ), RĂ©quisitoire contre Jean-Marie Le Pen au Tribunal des flagrants dĂ©lires(radio show)[52] (Texte[53] ), J’ai envie de tuer quelqu’un[54] , La minute nĂ©cessaire de monsieur Cyclopède: comment reconnaĂ®tre la Joconde du Jocond[55] (this is only an example, there are lots more[56] ), Les chroniques de la haine ordinaire: Dieu n’est pas bien[57] (Same: this is only one of them), Je hais les cintres[58] (Texte[59] ), Ma femme a de l’humour[60] .
Full show[61] .
Elie Kakou: Famous for his character of Mme Sarfati, a stereotypical jewish old lady (he was born in Tunisia in a jewish family himself) and other characters in costumes.
La lessive Plouf (it smell like a flower!)[62] , Mme Sarfati: allĂ´ la police?[63] , Mme Sarfati: sa fille FortunĂ©e au Kibboutz[64] (Texte[65] ), Mme Sarfati: FortunĂ©e et le parfum[66] (Texte[67] ), L’attachĂ©e de presse[68] , Le prof de sport d’italien et de philo[69] .
via Long list of French Comedians with links to videos and texts! : French.
