Can we laugh at everything? In Canada, the Supreme Court will decide!

Can we laugh at everything?

The question, which has been around for decades, continues to bounce back with the news.

Latest episode in France: the rant pushed by Elie Semoun after one of his humorous videos - in which he apologized preventively "to the Portuguese, black, Muslim and Jewish community", but also homosexual, for possible future comedic slip-ups - has been deleted by Instagram.

In Canada, a stronghold of the French-speaking stand-up, another joke has taken on such proportions that it will be examined this Monday by the… judges of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country.

An extremely rare fact for a file on freedom of expression.

Rewinding.

The two central characters in this story that has been causing a stir in Quebec for nearly ten years?

On the one hand, comedian Mike Ward, 47, one of the most illustrious in Canada, who hosts a podcast (we say “podcast” over there) among the most popular in the French-speaking world.

On the other, Jérémy Gabriel, a young singer with a disability, aged 13 in 2010, known in particular for having performed in front of the Pope.

The object of the discord?

A joke, taken from the one-man-show "Mike Ward s'eXpose" played 230 times from 2010 to 2013 and reproduced on DVD, in which the comedian makes fun of the physique of the kid suffering from Treacher-Collins syndrome, disease congenital that generates malformations.

"I prefer to go to jail than to pay this fine"

Since the incriminated sketch, the child who has become a young adult of 24 today claims to be the victim of bullying and threats.

Complaint.

Judicial showdown.

And finally, the ax falls in 2016: Mike Ward is ordered to pay 35,000 dollars (approximately 29,000 euros) to Jérémy Gabriel for his joke deemed “discriminatory”.

Judgment partially upheld on appeal.

End of the story ?

From the outset, the comic hammers him on his Facebook profile: "I'll tell you right away, I prefer to do prison than pay this fine," wrote Mike Ward in November 2019. "Mike Ward, c he is a vigilante of humor, he was not going to stop there, he made it a question of principle, ”confides a comedian based in Quebec.

Twist last July: the Supreme Court agrees to examine the case.

And to decide, this Monday.

"It is a fundamental question of society, chants in the Canadian media master Julius Gray, the lawyer of the comedian.

I hope the result will be an affirmation of freedom of expression.

"An artist" has the responsibility to make good use of it, "retorts Jeremy Gabriel, also interviewed by the Journal de Montréal.

Adept of black humor, willingly divisive

Already strongly relayed across the Atlantic, the thorny affair will again spill a lot of ink in the coming days in Canada.

"Several comedians are very aware that this could set an extraordinary precedent on freedom of expression if he were to be found guilty," comments Raphaël Gendron-Martin, who follows humor at the Journal de Montréal.

The trial caused a lot of talk in 2019 and despite a lull in recent months, surely due to the pandemic, we can bet that the passage to the Supreme Court will be highly publicized.

"

Follower of black humor, willingly divisive, Mike Ward had already illustrated in 2008 with a joke about a missing young girl.

“He's an extremely polarizing comedian.

He has many detractors and has often received death threats, ”explains the Montreal journalist.

Has this affair of the “Petit Jérémy” damaged its image?

“Not really, says Raphaël Gendron-Martin.

People who didn't like him just love him even less!

In 2015, he became one of the co-owners of the Bordel Comédie Club

(Editor's note: an institution of laughter in Montreal)

and he launched a new version of his podcast Sous listening.

He passed the 200 episode mark and received all Quebec comedians.

"

A humorist also "very generous"

The comic has also shown, over time, other facets of his personality.

"Several people reproach him for having laughed at a disabled child but […] they do not know that he is one of the most generous Quebec humorists with the disabled", continues Raphaël Gendron-Martin.

For years, Mike Ward has helped a Quebecer, Alain Gaudet, suffering from muscular dystrophy and has collected tens of thousands of dollars for him.

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A case that recalls, in France, that of Patrick Timsit.

In 1992, the comedian had compared, on stage, Down's syndrome and shrimp.

“Everything is good, except the head.

The joke divides.

Family complaint, summons to the artist's police station and finally trial in January 1999. But, twist, the legal debates deflate at the last moment and, at the end of a conciliation, the actor announces his intention to mount an association to “talk about the exclusion and adaptation of people with Down's syndrome”.

Can we laugh at everything?

The question is still open ...