“The person you think of the least when you think of literature is Mike Ward. ”
In the fall of 2017, Francis Carrière began his master’s studies at the French-language literatures department of the University of Montreal, with the astonishing project – heretical, some would say – to devote his thesis to the art of stand-up. , as practiced by young Quebec humorists of the proverbial raises. His goal: to dissect the processes on which their invitations to laughter are built, as if he were peeling the text of a novel.
Although he then relies on the support of at least one professor (Jean-Marc Larrue, father of Philippe-Audrey Larrue-St-Jacques, this perhaps explaining that), the student comes up more generally, at his masters, to a barrage of furrowed eyebrows. “We would have liked me to choose a more conservative subject, whether I was working on Balzac or Flaubert. He throws in the towel.
The young researcher returns in 2020 from a long walking trip in Europe with, in his luggage, the renewed conviction that the stand-up deserves the consideration of a learned gaze, in other words, that he has a subject in his hands. fruitful.
He chooses, for good measure, to devote his work no longer to the next generation, or to a darling figure of the intelligentsia, but to one of the most sulphurous representatives of Quebec laughter: Mike Ward. Recall that by proclaiming himself the “Celine of seed jokes”, the comic in black appealed more to the fame of the singer of For you to love me again than that of the writer who loved to travel at the end of the night.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Francis Carriere
Daring bet? Successful bet. Francis Carrière submitted last February, to the Department of Arts, Languages and Literatures of the University of Sherbrooke, a fascinating thesis entitled What comes into the world without disturbing anything deserves neither consideration nor patience – Mike Ward and the humor industry in Quebec, a postural analysis, a title borrowing from the poet René Char a phrase that the comedian would have long adopted as a mantra.
Thanks to an exhaustive analysis of 277 episodes of his podcast Under listening as well as an examination of the media reception of his shows, the academic paints the portrait of an artist who has established himself as a prescriber within the humorous ecosystem, as the power of influence has eroded. from some major players like Just for Laughs. So much so that today, a milestone in Under listening is for a recruit of laughter the equivalent of a dubbing, and offers to a career a propulsion similar to that which a number which received an ovation at a summer gala in the past.
Francis Carrière also shows how Ward used the popular platform of his podcast in order to wash his reputation as a vile provocateur, and to defend an ethic according to which the stand-up constitutes nothing less than a priesthood, to which he We should devote ourselves body and soul, by passion, without regard to fashions or the market.
But his thesis, among the first in Quebec to take an interest in humor from a literary rather than a historical, sociological or anthropological point of view, can also be read as a plea to stop snubbing a form of humor. art responding to its own codes. Among these: the comic gap. “We must see the comic gap as a game between the spectator and the author, writes Francis Carrière, where the latter allows himself editorial freedoms which allow him to say enormities, to transgress and to be subversive, under the covered with the codes of comedy. “He adds in an interview:” People who agree to go see a Mike Ward show accept this process that is offered to them. ”
“I” is another
Without specifically dealing with the case between Mike Ward and the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, which ended in the Supreme Court in favor of the former, Francis Carrière’s brief will provide food for thought to the public. thought of who wishes to pursue a broader reflection on the limits of black humor.
With this public of insiders, connoisseur of the codes necessary for a correct understanding of Ward’s humor, the latter enjoys considerable freedom of action: he can push the limits of the speakable and the public laughs heartily, because he knows that the comedian seeks only to provoke or to play down by hitting on a taboo subject for the sole purpose of making people laugh.
Extract from Francis Carrière’s thesis
By going through dozens and dozens of articles, Francis Carrière observes that while most of the columnists who have commented on the case brought before the courts have attacked Ward, the reviews of his shows have historically been at least positive, if not rave. . How to explain this gap? “It’s simple: critics have necessarily seen the show, they have the full picture,” he says, adding that the analysis of a comedy show supposes that one takes into account the intonations and mimicry of artist, which often point in a different direction than what the text alone indicates.
It would be ill advised, he adds, to confuse the “I” used by a comedian on stage and that of the citizen. I is another, to quote a certain Arthur. “Even the comedian who uses his real first name and who speaks apparently directly to the audience uses a constructed ‘I’, which cannot be equated with the author. ”
Far from presenting himself as a lawyer for Mike Ward (who already has one), Francis Carrière says he is especially proud to have fleshed out the arguments of those for whom it would be a mistake to reject a form of art en bloc, under the pretext that some of its representatives embrace bad taste. “I absolutely wanted to talk about stand-up, because stand-up is an art in its own right, which should be considered as a cousin of literature, which requires a linguistic, aesthetic effort, an effort of originality. Just because we all have a sense of humor doesn’t mean we could all become comedians tomorrow morning. ”