Pierre Desproges
1939 - 1988From 1970 to 1976, he worked for the newspaper L'Aurore. Starting in 1975, he became a "reporter" on Le petit rapporteur (The Little Snitch), a satirical TV show hosted by Jacques Martin. He caught the public's attention with unconventional interviews of celebrities, among them novelists Françoise Sagan or Jean-Edern Hallier.
He appeared for the first time on stage at the Olympia theater during a Thierry Le Luron show. Among other things, he became very famous for his Chroniques de la haine ordinaire (Chronicles of Ordinary Hatred), a 1986 radio show.
In the 1980s, he appeared daily on Le tribunal des flagrants délires (a pun on the French term "flagrant délit" meaning red-handed), a comedy show where celebrities were judged in mock-trials. Desproges held the part of the prosecutor for more than two years, a part for which his verve, his scathing humour and his literary erudition were ideally suited.
In 1982, he created La minute nécessaire de Monsieur Cyclopède, a series of shorts for TV, where he played an omniscient professor. He answered to metaphysical and nonsensical questions such as "How to make King Louis XVI fireproof?", proved that Beethoven was not deaf but stupid, and explained why the improbable encounter between the Venus de Milo and Saint Exupéry's 'Petit Prince' was a fiasco. Each episode ended with the catchphrase: "Étonnant, non?" ("Astonishing, isn't it?")
In 1984, he had his first stand-up show at the Théâtre Fontaine. In 1986, his second stand-up, Pierre Desproges se donne en spectacle was presented at the Théâtre Grévin. He started work on a third stand-up, and the drafts were ultimately published in 2010.
In 1987, doctors discovered he had inoperable lung cancer in an advanced stage, and his relatives, in agreement with the doctors, decided to hide the condition from him, so he could spend his final days quietly. He died in 1988, from a disease he had bitterly laughed at time and time again, often saying "I won't have cancer: I'm against it". He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His epitaph reads: "Pierre Desproges est mort d'un cancer, étonnant, non?" ("Pierre Desproges died of cancer, astonishing, isn't it?"). ...
Source: Article "Pierre Desproges" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Le Tribunal Des Flagrants Délires
Michel Hermant, Raoul Sangla
Claude Villers, Pierre Desproges
Le Tribunal des flagrants délires was a comedy show where celebrities were judged in mock-trials. Desproges held the part of the prosecutor for more than two years, a part for which his verve, his scathing humour and his literary erudition were ideally suited.
Le Tribunal Des Flagrants Délires
Pierre Desproges au théâtre Grévin
Jean-Louis Fournier
Pierre Desproges
Recorded at the Grévin Sketches Theater: Intro, The psychotic neurotic, The artist released, IQ 130, Keep Sakharov, The stacks, The hangers, The Jews, Rachid, The wonder, The elevator, I want to kill someone , Ondine
Pierre Desproges au théâtre Grévin
Desproges est vivant
Yves Riou, Philippe Pouchain
Pierre Desproges
It is with a semblance of chronology and to the rhythm of Antoine De Caunes' not unpleasant voice-over that we are told the story of this unusual troublemaker, who, with his extraordinary ease of writing, put the competition light years away in the 1980s. A mini-documentary that reminds us, if it were necessary, that intellectual buffoonery died with Pierre Desproges.
Desproges est vivant
