One might think that the new work of humorist and novelist Guillaume Meurice, A little praise of mediocrity, is a big joke. However, this book is not a joke, quite the contrary. Its content is very serious even if the style of the author, far from being serious, is often funny and caustic. His essay also begins with the receipt of an email from a listener who does not mince his words towards the popular columnist and humorist on France Inter radio. ” You are bad. None, none, none. You are even worse than zero. You are mediocre. That’s what you are: mediocre. »
Of this cruel missive, the author of The king did not laugh (JC Lattès, 2021) draws a deep reflection on the human condition, because yes, man is mediocre, so what? He himself describes himself as a deeply mediocre individual, without shame and without complexes. At Meurice, this reality goes back as far as childhood with grades at school. A 10 out of 20 is also the perfect score, “just what is needed”, he underlines.
In fact, Meurice believes that the human being is banal and that everyone does what they can, both ordinary people and leaders. “Imagine Vladimir Putin constipated grimacing on his marble bowl or Kim Jong-un tripping while putting on his SpongeBob briefs, and you’ll take another look at their supposed power,” writes the author with aptness and edge. of humor.
First, let’s agree on the meaning of the word mediocre. From the first pages, Meurice refers to the common dictionary definition. “Average quality, which holds the middle between the large and the small. So far, nothing serious. But, far from positioning himself at the heart of a certain normality, the author adds that mediocrity is often the synonym of a list of pejorative terms such as “imperfection, smallness, weakness or insufficiency”. According to the author, claiming one’s mediocrity is not a fault or a sign of defeat, but rather a political reaction against competition, elitism, capitalism “which is based on a certain idea of merit” and this feeling of superiority so peculiar to man.
Over the chapters that mix biographical anecdotes and philosophical remarks, we quickly realize that the speech of the comedian is not a simple posture and does not do in the second degree. Doing an act of mediocrity has now become, according to him, a gesture of resistance. The approach is also revolutionary since it forces us to rethink our relationship to success. This is undoubtedly why the comedian calls for the right to failure. Thus, the book, an ode to anti-performance and anti-competition, is not just a eulogy to mediocrity, but is also a real denunciation of a system that transforms the constant search for excellence into pressure social to better separate and divide. And if mediocrity can unite ordinary mortals, then that’s it.