Nicolas Bedos: "We are no longer Charlie at all, the right to blasphemy is over"

INTERVIEW

Among the icons in the life of Nicolas Bedos, there is obviously his father, who died in May at the age of 85.

Guy Bedos died a few months before the start of the trial of the January 2015 attacks, and at a time that his son considered rich in sterile controversy.

"I am extremely disturbed that my father disappeared the year which, in any case to my knowledge, is the worst year for freedom of expression there is", he breathes at the microphone of Michel Denisot in

, the new podcast from Europe 1, also to be found every Saturday morning at 8.45 am in Europe Matin week-end, presented by Pierre de Vilno. 

>> Find all of Michel Denisot's interviews in podcast and replay here 

"We were all outside at the time of the

attacks

"

"There is not a day, there is not a week where it is not damaged," said Nicolas Bedos, still on the subject of freedom of expression.

"I have the impression of being 175 years old, I am so dismayed by what I observe. (...) Young people of 20 years, whom I met this summer, held at my table words that made me want to cry: 'Yes, but after all, maybe, at the limit, that we shouldn't laugh about that anymore, that we shouldn't talk about this anymore ...'. "

And to recall: "We were all outside at the time of the

attacks

. And it is currently the

trial

, which I follow daily. But my God, we are no longer Charlie at all. ..) The right to blasphemy is over. "

Deploring a time when "everything is a pretext, at a given moment, to take a volley of green wood", the son of Guy Bedos insists, on the contrary, "that it is necessary to continue to sometimes make mistakes".

"I believe that a good valve, the one that lasts, in general, is the one that flirts with being an atheist. Because if they are marked, if they are obvious, they are not going to scratch anyone, they will not surprise anyone. (...) It is necessary in our daily life to be shocked. "

The director of the third installment of the OSS 117 series,

, in theaters in February 2021, quotes a preface by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, "who said he chose to describe the monster, that is, say fascism, racism, misogyny, physical violence, homophobia ... " 

>> Find Pierre de Vilno's morning show in podcast and replay here 

"Why? Because by describing characters who were, he thought it was the best way for society not to be", explains Nicolas Bedos.

"The day when we will no longer be able to show evil at all through fiction or through humor, (...) it must be nested somewhere, perhaps in our acts", fears- he.

"A joke or a song never killed anyone. On the other hand, there are guys who have killed people."

"I hope we will fight" for freedom of expression

Is the fight, then, already lost?

"I do not hope", responds the comedian.

"I hope that we will fight. Because me, what fascinates me is that the people I meet in the street, the people who come to talk to me, the friends I have, are all more or less agree. But when you turn on that kind of devil's window that is the cell phone, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, all that, you only read bullshit (...) So what I wait, what I call with my wishes, with emotion, is that people revolt. It is that on the occasion of the release of such or such book, when we try to censor such or such joke that we take out of its context, or for such or such interview with a singer to whom we are going to mess around and who screw up a promo and a whole much larger speech, I dream of a moment where we're all going to stick together and say 'enough is enough'. "