Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-05-10
Source: The Conversation – France in French (3)– By Laélia Véron, Lecturer in Stylistics and French Language, University of Orléans
As the boundaries between information, entertainment, and politics blur, laughter takes center stage. Humor seems to fill the void left by political discourse losing credibility. What does this shift reveal about the state of democratic debate? What does democracy gain (and lose) when laughter claims not only to expose but also to change reality?
“In twenty years of activism for peace, I have influenced twenty people. With a joke about a dictator, twenty million.”
These words are those ofNoam Shuster-Eliassi, Israeli comedian“Entered into humor as others enter into politics”after having left protests and activism at the United Nations for song and committed stand-up comedy. Does humor allow for the renewal of politics?
The relations between the two spheres remain turbulent. This is evidenced by therecent complaintfrom the Ministry of the Interior Laurent Nuñez against the humorist Pierre-Emmanuel Barré (for having compared, in a column on police violence, the police to Daesh) and thenew trial at the labor courtfrom the comedian Guillaume Meurice, who challenges the early termination of his contract by his former employer France InterFollowing a jokeabout Benjamin Netanyahu.
These controversies are not isolated: one can also mention the one about clothing appearance during a sketch on France 5 by the comedian Merwane Benlazar (accused of Islamismbecause of her look) or the controversies around the comedian Sophia Aram, accused of“racism”by the journalists ofParisianFollowing a column in which she mocked the members of the flotilla en route to Gaza, the MEP Rima Hassan (nicknamed “Lady Gaza”) and the activist Greta Thunberg (renamed “Miss Krisprolls”).
If these controversies are not new, as the [source] recallslinguist Nelly Quemener, they seem to take on an unprecedented dimension: Guillaume Meurice’s joke, discussed in the National Assembly and the Senate, has thus provoked more reactions than some serious stances by political leaders.
Spheres that are increasingly less airtight
Political and humorous spheres continue to overlap. Media discursive devices, which increasingly play on“Infotainment”(the intersection of information and theentertainment, entertainment), very often intersect with journalistic, political, and comedic speeches. It is common to see politicians, experts, artists, and comedians gathered around a set, to the point where it is no longer clear which discursive regime a particular intervention belongs to.
A typical example is the broadcast“Quotidien”by Yann Barthès, presented as “a great information session mixing humor and impertinence.” Social networks contribute to this blend of genres by responding, with jokes, to serious information. Thesejokescan go viral and then be relayed by traditional media.
Political speech and humorous political speech intermingle to the point where it is no longer always easy to distinguish them. Who has not experienced bursting out laughing at a headline fromGorafithen to be horrified when, a few days later, the informationa prioriburlesquehas become reality? The indistinction gave rise to a hashtag, #pasgorafi, to designate information that looks like jokes but thatare not. Trump’s close associates docilely wear the shoe brand preferred by the President of the United States, even when they aretoo largefor them? Clownish but #notgorafi.
What do we project onto political humor?
On the part of the public, the devaluation of political speech, which can seem increasingly empty and stereotyped (what is called the“wooden language”) can go hand in hand with a tendency to project frustrated expectations onto other types of discourse. One then looks for politics everywhere… except in institutional political speeches.
It can be scientific speech when researchers are required to find asolution to political problemsor must carry out political alert work in the face of the deafness of certain leaders, as was the case with thepesticides and the Duplomb law. One also thinks of journalistic speech: it is sometimesquite difficultto draw the line between thespeech of an editorialistand the speech of a professional politician. Finally, this is the case of humorous speech.
When political speech is disavowed, appears nonexistent or worthless, political humor can end up being perceived not as a discourse that crosses politics, which can serve it or on the contrary criticize it, but as the embodiment of political speech. The effect, sometimes quite real, of this humor that can tease or even destabilize the power in place can then be mistaken for a political capacity to change the order of things.
The impossible balance of comedians
Faced with this situation, comedians find themselves in an all the more uncomfortable position as they can be sanctioned, as Nelly Quemener points out,“from above”(by institutions, such as theArcom), but also contested “from below” (by the public, notably on social networks).
Caught between contradictory injunctions, these comedians adopt an ambiguous discourse. Some claim a “political” humor while rejecting the label of “partisan” or “activist” humor. The comedian Faryinsistson the importance of not considering oneself a “spokesperson” and prefers to define their show as a moment more “poetic” than political. Very few comedians admit to putting their political commitment front and center (Sophia Aram states that she assumes being“less and less funny”, but that is an exception).
Guillaume Meurice signs many petitions marked to the left, but when La France insoumise (LFI) offered him their endorsement to run in the legislative elections in June-July 2024, he reacted by declaring on social media,
(an ironic allusion to the statements ofJean-Luc Mélenchon).
When analyzing the metadiscourse of comedians about their practices, we notice that those who advocate political humor and who, to defend it, may attribute to it many virtues (educational, democratic, cathartic) also take care to reject the posture of the “preacher” or even of the one who would believe they can act on reality through laughter.
In an interview withWorld, the comedian Charline Vanhoenacker states both that political humor is a means to “reverse the power dynamic” and that it should not be “overinterpreted,” since its only intention is to “make people laugh.” Charline Vanhoenacker tries both to defend her practice (and its usefulness) and to protect herself (knowing that she has been, among others,questioned by the judicial policeFollowing Guillaume Meurice’s joke) by deflating his pretensions.
Do not reduce either humor or politics
The critical strength of humor is no longer to be demonstrated.Political ironythus can allow questioning and reconsidering dominant political discourses by distancing oneself from them. But political discourse should not be reduced to humor or irony. The relief or admiration felt in front of a well-placed joke should not lead us to give up debate, contestation, and reasoned proposal.
It is, moreover, this balance between humor and political seriousness that many programs aim to achieve, which are rarely purely humorous, alternating between moments of cathartic humor and listening to the analyses or proposals of a non-comedian guest.
Political humor can be a step, a means. But if it becomes an end in itself, it risks turning into playfulness, which makes every discourse a game, or cynicism, which points out the shortcomings of each discourse. Derision can become a temptation: it then reduces the world to a set of absurd discourses and places us in a disillusioned and disengaged position vis-à-vis reality. Instead of helping us face politics, it then leads us to abandon it.
Laélia Véron is co-author, with Guillaume Fondu, of Are you serious? Political issues of irony,The Discovery, 2026.
Laelia Véron was a science columnist for several years on the shows “Par Jupiter,” “C’est encore nous,” and “Le Grand Dimanche Soir” with Charline Vanhoenacker and Guillaume Meurice on France Inter. She is currently a columnist on the show “La Dernière,” hosted by Guillaume Meurice, on Radio Nova.
–ref. When humor triumphs over political speech –https://theconversation.com/when-humor-triumphs-over-political-speech-279375