Pierre Desproges

Pierre Desproges en scène (1985).

Pierre Desproges (May 9, 1939 – April 18, 1988) was a French humorist. He was famous for his elaborate, eloquent and above all, virulent diatribes criticizing anything and everything. He was born in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis. According to himself, he made no significant achievements before the age of 30. From 1967 to 1970, he worked as: life insurance salesman, opinion pool investigator, "lonely hearts" columnist, horse racing forecaster, and sales manager for a styrofoam beam company.

From 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 would answer 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.

Grave of Pierre Desproges at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

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 died in 1988 from lung cancer, 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.

Books

• "Le petit rapporteur" (1999) (The Little Snitch)
• "La seule certitude que j'ai, c'est d'être dans le doute" (1998) (The Only Certainty I Have, Is to Be in Doubt)
• "Les bons conseils du professeur Corbiniou" (1997) (The Good Advice of Professor Corbiniou)
• "La minute nécessaire de Monsieur Cyclopède" (1995) (The Necessary Minute of Mr Cyclopede)
• "Les étrangers sont nuls" (1992) (Foreigners Are Worthless)
• "Fond de tiroir" (1990) (Drawer Bottom)
• "L'almanach" (1989) (The Almanac)
• "Textes de scène" (1988) (Stand-up Texts)
• "Des femmes qui tombent" (1985) (Falling Women)
• "Dictionnaire superflu à l'usage de l'élite et des biens-nantis" (1985) (Superfluous Dictionary for the Elite and the Well-to-do)
• "Vivons heureux en attendant la mort" (1983) (Let Us Live Happily While We're Waiting for Death)
• "Manuel de savoir-vivre à l'usage des rustres et des malpolis" (1981) (Handbook of Good Manners for the Uncouth and the Impolite)

External links

• Official website
• Desproges at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Desproges, Pierre
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Date of birth	May 9, 1939
Place of birth
Date of death	April 18, 1988
Place of death