Rachid Badouri, the acclaimed French-Canadian comedian, captivated audiences in Montreal with his Netflix comedy special. Badouri’s show, performed in Canadian French, pokes fun at the language and country, particularly at his home city of Laval, Quebec. In his comedy special, “Rachid Badouri: Les fleurs du tapis,” Badouri talks about the pandemic, Islamophobia and life as a father. The comedian utilizes the entire stage and numerous props to enhance his act. With boundless energy, he not only commands the stage but also skillfully engages the audience, overcoming the inherent challenges of connecting with viewers in a special.
Since the special is in the native language of Quebec, Quebecois, viewers unfamiliar with the language relying on subtitles may not understand some of the jokes. However, much of the show is accessible to every audience. He includes jokes that both Canadians and Americans can understand, as he references both Canadian and American politics. Along with that, a lot of his jokes are not specific to one country.
Badouri does what many current comedians do by touching on current events and sharing his opinions thorugh comedy. Often, however, Badouri shares his perspective without a punchline, taking away from the comedy format and falling flat. An important aspect of comedy is including relevant information, and for many their own opinions and views on generally controversial topics. However, in a comedy show, the most important aspect is to make it funny. People are there to laugh, not to hear about your opinions with no punchline.
While he brought up important conversations throughout the special, Badouri occasionally did so in a non-comedic sense. While I do understand wanting to use your platform to spread awareness about certain issues, you won’t have that platform very long if you advertise yourself as a comedian then use your stage-time to lecture the audience. Although many of his stories drew laughs, it was apparent that some were shared with the priority of forcing a personal story into his show, detracting from the comedy itself.
Badouri also chose to poke fun at other people rather than using self-deprecating humor, which is generally less effective. Since he mostly tells personal stories, one would expect the humor to revolve around himself rather than other disconnected individuals — as a result, the humor feels jarring. I also felt that he could have used more subtle twists to make the jokes less predictable. Along with that, while big comedy can be funny, humor requires some subtlety which he did not utilize in his act. He was very upfront, mostly being loud and constantly making faces and noises.
He also spent nearly 10 minutes rudely speaking on his dislike for his daughter and the unatractiveness of his wife. There were few jokes in that segment, and I found it to be more insulting than funny. It was rather exhausting and I can only imagine the audience, tired of being told when to laugh, was exhausted after having to fake laugh at yet another poor-taste joke about his daughter.
Overall this special was a bit mixed for me. Rachid Badouri is loved by many and very energetic. It’s also good for those who are looking for French media to practice French, specifically Quebecois. A lot of his jokes weren’t for me, but comedy is subjective, so if you like loud, energetic and physical comedy, this special may be enjoyable for you.
Rating: 2/5
Fair review. But I liked it, since he’s been introspective and self-deprecating in addition to joking about others, it takes the edge off and allows it to be funny. For example he made jokes about his daughter’s appearance as a baby (not his wife’s,btw! Kept calling her a hero in that segment) but added that he himself was an ugly child and she looked like him as a baby. He later says she’s grown to become beautiful now like her mother.