“Women driving? Honestly, it shouldn’t exist! » Smiling, a tattooed Southerner responds, “with an accent”, to the falsely innocuous questions of Emmanuel Le Ber (in voice-over) on a beach. The cliché, the clichés are all present. But when the interviewer moves on to the Gypsies suspected of being thieves, the tone of his interlocutor changes. “I’m a gypsy,” he said.
The whole paradox is there. Like all of us, this fifty-year-old is convinced that he has no prejudice, even though he is imbued with it, even victim.
This social trait could only attract the attention of the director of Cons… an almost rare species (2018). By relying on sidewalk microphones and testimonials from guests, he uses humor and second-degree in order to push, once again, everyone – including viewers – to their limits. Stigmatizing can also lead to racism or harassment.
Scientific approach
Is it out of chivalry? The first to go on the grill are women, whether they are behind the wheel, in the kitchen, or simply blonde. With in particular the testimony of Sylvie Tellier, Miss France 2002, who took part in the game, and extracts from “housekeeping” advertisements from the 1960s and 1970s, always funny, as long as we take the necessary distance.
The film then attempts a scientific approach to prejudice with professor and academic Martial Mermillod. Before visiting a sure value, Pierre Perret, 89 years old with a career of sixty, always ready to sing Lily, “she was arriving from the Somalis, Lily/ In a boat full of emigrants/ Who all came of their own free will/ Empty the trash in Paris.” But also The Zizi: is that of Black people really bigger than that of Asians?
Later, the comedian Popeck would define Jewish humor. “It’s telling a story that has a double meaning and that we only half understand. It’s not from me, it’s from Einstein. » As a common thread, two old ladies from Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) – therefore, a priori, rich and reactionary – give their opinions on Asians, Arabs, blacks, young people, lesbians, Travelers…
“Laughing at our stupidity.”
Emmanuel Le Ber also calls on “relatives”, such as Kim Tran, waiter in the Asian restaurant he frequents, and Mohammed, house painter, who reveals, paintbrush in hand, the origin of the expression “a job d’Arabe”, amused by its effect. The next minute, he is no longer joking at all to explain that he is now sometimes compared to an Islamist.
Young dreadlocked journalist, Camille Diao, presenter of “C ce soir” on France 5, “combines”, for her part, the fact of being a woman and black. Also, she says, “I have trouble being taken seriously by some guests.” So classic.
It remains to address the origin of prejudices. For Camille Diao again, they are “inseparable from the colonial history of France”. Supporting archives, others underline the influence of cinema, advertisements (sometimes positive), sketches – including those of the imitator Michel Leeb.
Should we laugh or be offended? For Nonna Mayer, emeritus research director at CNRS and teacher at Sciences Po, “laughing at our stupidity is a way to fight against prejudice”. Let us not sulk, therefore, at our now rare pleasure of having an excellent moment of television.
