Born and raised in the Paris suburbs, Yassine Belattar, 35, is the Muslim son of a Moroccan cleaning lady and a taxi driver, and, according to The Guardian, “is the most talked-about French comic of the moment…. Belattar’s irreverent jokes poke a finger into the open wound of French society’s problems and prejudices. One minute he is lacerating dim, homegrown jihadists, the next, he is mocking the small portions at liberal Paris dinner parties, dismantling politicians’ stock phrases on “French Muslims.”
Belattar says he started doing jokes about French jihadis long before the January 2015 terrorist attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent Paris attacks. “We’re all traumatized by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo,” he says. “Me particularly, because I’m French, Muslim and someone who tells jokes. So, even if I don’t agree with the editorial line of Charlie Hebdo, I’d never, ever accept what happened to them.”
Belattar is part of a French standup comedy boom. He estimates that “of the thousand different stage shows performed each night in Paris, one third are standup”. Belattar embraces that fact that comedy is not supposed to be easy. “A comedian isn’t a clown – they’re a tightrope artist walking a line. They can fall at any moment. That’s why it’s funny. When you watch standup, you don’t come to see someone you agree with. It’s someone who takes your hand and leads you somewhere you wouldn’t normally go.”
