In his Parisian living room, a 7 d'or takes pride of place in the library, a bust of Voltaire rests nearby and a thick stack of newspapers on the coffee table waits to be devoured.
Laurent Ruquier, 58, does not miss much of the news.
The host dissects it every day, with good humor and irreverence, in “Les Grosses tête”, a radio liner with 2 million listeners on RTL.
He also abuses her in "Finement Con", in bookstores this May 5, collection of witticisms "not politically correct" on the funny time that we are going through.
A compilation embellished with a sharp foreword in which the author affirms that "daring to make people laugh is more and more difficult".
Has it become a dangerous profession to amuse people?
LAURENT RUQUIER.
Dangerous, I don't know, complicated, yes.
The problem is the social networks that get carried away and the use made of them by journalists or government officials.
We can see that the slightest joke, the slightest humorous comment is at the mercy of a lobby, an association.
“Animal rights activists, religions, the left, the right, the powerful, the powerless…” In the book, you cite a host of them…
It is a deliberately surreal list.
The phenomenon is now multiplied, but when I started in “Rien à cirer” on France Inter - I am celebrating my 30 years of radio this year!
- we already had the readers' mail.
We got the typist's as soon as we tapped the typists.
The same goes for Corsicans, Britons, guys, women, homosexuals… If we add them up, we don't laugh at anything!
What has changed is the immediacy of the reaction.
Twitter has become a sample that some believe is representative when it is not.
It has become the barometer of the moment.
And the controversies concerning comedians flourish ...
It takes proportions and instead of assuming, they apologize.
This is what Norman did
(Editor's note: after the broadcast of a passage from his show accused of racism)
, for example.
He was wrong: it is a sin of youth which can be explained by the fact that it was social networks that did it.
These young comedians are devastated as soon as there is a thumbs down, less likes, a negative buzz.
I am fortunate that my career is already made.
The paradox is that it is on Twitter that we read the worst racist, hateful, homophobic comments while we are going to prevent us from making the slightest joke.
Is the humor getting lukewarm?
Fortunately, there are places where we continue to be rather insolent, such as France Inter or “Grosses Têtes”.
I did not hesitate for a year to go against political correctness.
When I see comedians
(Editor's note: YouTubers McFly and Carlito who accepted a bet from Emmanuel Macron)
shoot a video to extol barrier gestures, I am shocked!
I am a civic person, I have always fulfilled my exemption to take my dog out, but the role of comedians is not to say: “Put on your mask, gnagnagna.
"I imagined Coluche and Pierre Desproges: they would have said:" Here is my barrier gesture
(he makes an arm of honor)
.
"
PODCAST.
The success story of McFly and Carlito, the YouTubers invited by the President to the Elysée
Is there more freedom on the radio?
It's the same thing, but "Les Grosses Têtes" is an institution, and when you do hearings, you are protected by your bosses.
If the show didn't work, it would be knocked out within three months, all it would take is a protest.
"Les Grosses Têtes" have recently been accused of homophobia or sexism ...
On the one hand, we were targeted by an association of LGBT journalists who said we were going too far;
on the other, Jean-Jacques Peroni
(Editor's note: a historical figure of the show)
complained that "nothing more could be said".
There is no better demonstration, I have to be in between.
The humor has evolved, of course.
We can no longer say what we said before and that's good.
But to say that "Les Grosses Têtes" can be considered as anti-Semitic or homophobic, that becomes ludicrous.
It all depends on who is speaking, how it is said.
The same joke made today by Élie Semoun or Dieudonné is acceptable to one and not to the other, it is a fact.
A joke between homos, as we sometimes do with Jeanfi, Christophe Beaugrand, Steevy or me at the “Big Heads”, that shouldn't bother anyone.
Is making people laugh in the midst of a health crisis a different exercise?
During this period, not so many of us were so politically unpopular.
We must make people laugh, yes, but also point the finger at absurdities.
Look at Olivier Véran, for example, my number 1 target. A year ago, in the National Assembly, he tried to silence all opposition by trying to make believe, with tremolos in his voice, that all young people of 28 years old in France could die from Covid.
OK, so why, a year later, aren't we vaccinating them?
The comedians should have been more numerous to designate this lie which was only intended to scare people.
What did you think of the action of your ex-columnist, Roselyne Bachelot, as Minister of Culture?
The poor thing, she was quite helpless, she displayed good will, but the one who had the power was Véran.
He was Prime Minister for a year, let's be clear.
And Jean-François Delfraissy
(Editor's note: president of the scientific council)
was President of the Republic!
In recent months, politics has taken over.
Fortunately!
Where were they taking these people to?
Happy, then, with the imminent reopening of the theaters?
Imminent, imminent… Opening a theater with a gauge of 35%, when the good weather returns, what will it do?
Will surely have to wait until September.
Afterwards, we must recognize that they are very well helped.
The year was marred by the preeminence of health, but economically, we are an exemplary country to help people get by.
On TV, you've stopped reviewing the news.
Why ?
The channel liked it, but I did so much.
I got a taste for it again during confinement because there was a real subject.
But otherwise, as soon as there is an event, you have fifteen jokes circulating on Twitter.
So, come and add my two cents… I prefer to write plays.
Well, this book shows the opposite and maybe the presidential election of next year will give me wings… Or zeal!
For this election year, are you going to change the formula of "We are live" on Saturday evening on France 2?
I have to meet the channel, it will be decided in May.
I challenge anyone to find out what will be on Saturday night at the start of the school year.
Neither the channel nor I know.
Ten years ago, you brought out a new generation of comedians in the program "On n'demande que rire".
Why not relaunch it?
I would like to resume this kind of thing one day, I have a look for that.
You have to know how to wait for a new impetus to arrive, a new generation, maybe now is the time.
But it cannot be called "We only ask to laugh": even if it was I who invented both the title and the show, Catherine Barma
(Editor's note: her former producer)
surely has 50. % and, as so far, she still hasn't paid for my last shows, I don't think I'll be working with her again right away!
"Finely con"
, by Laurent Ruquier, Ed. Flammarion, 240 p., 17.90 euros.
