Wednesday November 9, the Belgian humorist Raymond Devos would have been 100 years old, he who died on June 15, 2006 in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse in the Yvelines. City in which is located the house where he lived for more than forty years, before it became a museum. It now allows visitors to (re)discover the comedian through many personal effects, his 17 musical instruments which he knew how to play and used on stage, notes but also to appreciate emblematic sketches.
A way to honor his memory, he who is today considered an emblematic figure of French-speaking humor. He was particularly famous for his puns, his qualities as a mime, his taste for comical paradoxes, nonsense, derision and many other characteristics… Note that in 2003, the Raymond-Devos prize , which is an award given each year to an artist “whose work or action contributes to the progress of the French language, its influence and its promotion“, was created. This shows the influence he had on the evolution of humor in France as well as in French-speaking countries such as Belgium, his native country.
A shower of tributes
It is therefore quite natural that a certain number of celebrities, in particular renowned for their humor, rushed to pay tribute to him on the occasion of his 100th birthday. His great friend and photographer Micheline Pelletier-Decaux “collected” certain testimonies before displaying them on nine large outdoor panels, as reported Le Figaro.
“Raymond Devos played with words as one does with notes. Thank you sir, for so mischievously tickling our ears with scales that belonged only to you“, declared Muriel Robin, while Dany Boon, whom Raymond Devos considered his “spiritual son”, thanked him for having “upset our logic” , having “turned everything upside down and gave it meaning“. Note that Pierre Palmade, François Morel, François-Xavier Demaison, Éric Antoine, Virgine Hocq, Christelle Cholet, Michel Boujenah or Les Frères Taloche also paid tribute to him.
Alex Lutz and Muriel Robin, major winners
On October 22, the outdoor exhibition Raymond Devos and his Heirs was therefore inaugurated in the park of the town hall of Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. The 2022 Raymond-Devos Prize jury composed of Wendy Bouchard, Christelle Chollet, Frédéric Jerome, Pierre Palmade, Micheline Pelletier, Catherine Dolto (president of the Raymond-Devos Foundation), Jacques Rouveyrollis, Jacqueline Franjou, Pierre Palmade, François Morel, Abd al Malik, Michel Boujenah and Paul de Sinety (General Delegate for the French language and the languages of France) met on October 31, 2022 at the Ministry of Culture in the presence of Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, in order to elect the winner of Raymond-Devos 2022.
On November 9, the day of the 100th anniversary of Raymond Devos therefore, the Ministry of Culture communicated: Alex Lutz and the winner of the Raymond Devos Grand Prize for the French language 2022, and Muriel Robin is the winner of the Grand Prize for the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Raymond Devos, an unprecedented prize to mark this exceptional year. Rima Abdul Malak did not fail to congratulate Alex Lutz and Muriel Robin for their new distinctions…