He wasn’t very funny at all. His talent was minimal, far from god-given and his material tediously predictable. One anticipates the outcome of the gag a full hour before the punchline arrives.

Dieudonné is like a black Jerry Lewis, I’d say.

My dislike ( impatience with, actually) of Jerry Lewis is most intense.

“people who feel isolated and shunned by the mainstream tend to pool together for comfort. See also Respect, etc… ”

But does every element in the pool evapourate and dry up at the same pace? And what will the residue be like?

I must say it leaves a nasty taste all this un-necessary hatred.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/19/071119fa_fact_reiss

Dieudonné signalled his “conversion” in early 2002, in two separate magazine interviews, in which he remarked that he preferred “the charisma of bin Laden to that of George Bush” and that Judaism is “a scam. It’s one of the worst, because it’s the first.” His comments were initially taken as bizarre satire, absurdist politics à la Stephen Colbert, but it gradually became clear that Dieudonné meant what he said. No one knows why he developed this obsession. Many of his critics speculate that he used anti-Semitism as a way to increase his wealth and fame, but this seems unlikely, since he was at the peak of his career before his political “coming out,” and his extreme positions seem to have cost him many mainstream film and television roles.’

The thing is, she isn’t a nutjob. She is otherwise perfectly intelligent, witty and charming, and it isn’t as though she was frothing at the mouth with these views or trying to proselytise.

In her world view, Le Pen is beyond the pale and Dieudonné is a victim of Jewish media control. I must find out how she’ll react to the news that they’re now officially on the same team, when yesterday she was defending Dieudonné against paranoid Jewish slander. Maybe it will give her pause for reflection.

Secondly, and more importantly, is Le Pen’s wish to see his daughter Marine succeed him as leader of the FN. Her strategy is to ‘dediabolise’ the party to make it more mainstream. The old man becoming godfather to Dieudonné’s daughter may, in the view of Le Pen père et fille, reinforce the message of the FN in the banlieue.

What’s in it for them? Well people who feel isolated and shunned by the mainstream tend to pool together for comfort. See also Respect, etc…

On a similar note Charlie Hebdo has sacked the awful cartoonist Siné for similarly dodgy comments…

http://www.metrofrance.com/fr/article/afp/2008/07/16/cng_85a9b45a94c3c7ee6e0c75a4fe64422e_d61/index.xml

“shared views on the Holocaust”