The comedy community leads the way in Quebec. On stage, but also on television, on the radio, on social networks and even in the cinema, comedians are omnipresent. This is too much for the taste of some, who hope that the “dictatorship of laughter” will finally come to an end after the successive scandals of recent years. Faced with this disenchantment, the scriptwriter Pierre-Michel Tremblay felt the need to correct certain perceptions in a short essay to be published on Tuesday, as if to restore the reputation of the industry in which he has been evolving for more than 35 years.
Pierre-Michel Tremblay, who began his career as an author for Blood Group in the late 1980s, later worked with the ultimate of humor in Quebec, from Jean-Michel Anctil to Denis Drolet, from Marc Labrèche to Jean-Thomas Jobin. In The wanderings of a solitary writer, he recognizes the toxicity that has long been inherent in the environment, but he warns against the temptation of “everything rotten”. This book is above all a reflection in nuance on the mistakes of the past and on the future of post-Rozon humor.
“I am very happy that our pedestal has been shaken. It wasn’t good that it had become an institution that took itself too seriously. If the fools who laugh at kings become kings themselves, who will be the fools who will laugh at these fools who think they are kings? […] But sometimes, when I hear certain criticisms of the world of humor, I find it very monolithic. There was a need to add a few nuances,” summarizes Pierre-Michel Tremblay in an interview with To have to.
The fall ?
Among other things, he has some against the novel by Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard High Demolition, immense bookstore success, in which the world of humor is depicted as an unhealthy world, ravaged by narcissistic characters and obsessed with glory. An environment where the culture of rape is systemic, where management companies pay victims to buy their silence.
In The ramblings of a solitary writer, Pierre-Michel devotes an entire chapter to responding to High demolition, which will soon be adapted into a television series. “I found that we were generalizing a lot. After all, the world of humor was not the only one affected by #MeToo”, he retorts, in no way contesting the literary qualities of the book, nor denying that the elements described in the novel actually existed.
Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard did not invent the Rozon affair or the allegations against Julien Lacroix and Philippe Bond. A succession of scandals that have plagued the reputation of the humor industry for five years. After having reigned as king and master of entertainment in Quebec, will the comedy world meet the same fate as the Catholic Church, desacralized by all kinds of stories of sexual assault?
Pierre-Michel Tremblay smiles when we draw the doubtless lame parallel between the two institutions. The humorous author is never far away. This short book of less than 150 pages also contains many quips and many other colorful winks that force at the very least a grin.
Jokes aside, it is in a relatively serious tone that he answers the question: “The difference between the Church and the world of humor is that the world of humor has done its introspection. All is not perfect, but things are changing. We recognize our faults. I don’t feel like the Church has done the same job. »
Promote diversity
This former professor at the National School of Humor does not fail to highlight the arrival of women in recent years, in writing as on the front of the stage. We are far from its beginnings with the Blood group when one proclaimed without embarrassment that a woman was less funny than a man. An aberration that he denounces in this book composed in inclusive writing, while remaining careful not to appropriate the feelings of women. This self-proclaimed veteran, who soberly tries to pose as an ally, is also delighted that efforts have been made to promote diversity and improve working conditions.
I’m from the gang that thinks it’s okay to watch what we say. It is a responsibility to speak up. We have to think about the weight of words, the consequences of our jokes.
A new generation of comedians is emerging. Gone is “the era of straight white male jokes constantly talking about themselves standing in front of a microphone.” This is how he describes, not without a touch of humour, the flagship period of Just for Laughs. A time that many other veterans regret. Many are those who are against this political correctness which restricts the space of freedom of the authors in humor. But Pierre-Marc Tremblay refuses to be among those who complain “that we can’t say anything anymore”.
“I am from gang who thinks it’s okay to watch what you say. It is a responsibility to speak up. You have to think about the weight of the words, the consequences of our jokes, “slips this former writer ofA boy a girl, who readily admits that certain sketches of the cult series are no longer up to date.
The invisible line
To be an author in humor is first and foremost to be aware that everything you write will not last forever. “Comedy ages very badly,” emphasizes Pierre-Michel Tremblay, who doesn’t have any regrets about his former projects. How to regret when you are immediately detached?
Some believe they can escape this expiration date by adopting the eternal mantra “laugh with and not against”. Bullshit, says the author of Digressions of a solitary writer. If this repeated formula ad nauseam was really applied, humor in Quebec would be very boring. We must assume this part of wickedness in laughter.
“Laughter against, mocking laughter, it exists, and it is important. We need that laugh. Infomanwhen he laughs at the candidates a little “picpic” in the elections is a very mocking laugh. But it’s well done, because he chooses his target well. You always have to choose your target carefully. I don’t know where exactly to draw the line, but me, for example, I always wonder if it’s degrading, if it’s racist, if it’s sexist… If it’s more offensive than funny, she’s there , my limit”, confesses the one who also writes for the theater.
In this environment, he knows too well that humor tends to be judged with contempt. A look that he is trying somehow to change by intellectualizing as best he can his main livelihood with this essay. A work that sometimes takes the form of a book on the history of humor, dating back to the time of the Greeks, the Industrial Revolution, and even Poune!
We will always find some to qualify humor as a minor art. Perhaps, but its influence remains major. Might as well take a closer look.