Dieudonné M'bala M'bala (; born 11 February 1966), known mononymously as Dieudonné and popularly as Dieudo (), is a French comedian, actor, and political activist.
He has been convicted for hate speech, advocating terrorism, Holocaust denial, and slander in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
Dieudonné initially achieved success working with Jewish comedian Élie Semoun, humorously exploiting racial stereotypes. He was a candidate in the 1997 and 2001 legislative elections in Champagny-en-Vanoise against the National Front. In 2003, Dieudonné performed a sketch on a TV show about an Israeli settler whom he depicted as a Nazi. Several organizations sued him for incitement to racial hatred. Dieudonné refused to apologize and denounced Zionism.
In 2007, Dieudonné approached Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the National Front that he had fought earlier, and the men became political allies and friends.Valérie Zoydo, Le Pen à 20minutes.fr: "Je suis le parrain de la troisième fille de Dieudonné devant Dieu et devant les hommes" ("I am the godfather of the third daughter of Dieudonné, in front of God and in front of mankind."), 20minutes.fr, 16 July 2008. Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson appeared in one of his shows in 2008. Dieudonné described Holocaust remembrance as "memorial pornography". He subsequently found himself regularly banned from mainstream media, and many of his shows were cancelled by local authorities.Metronews.fr Active on the internet and in his Paris theater, Dieudonné has continued to have a following.Hugh Schofield (31 December 2013) Dieudonne: The bizarre journey of a controversial comic BBC. Retrieved 7 January 2014 His quenelle signature gesture became notorious in 2013, particularly after footballer Nicolas Anelka used it during a match in December 2013.
In 2013, after Dieudonné was recorded during a performance mocking a Jewish journalist, suggesting it was a pity that he was not sent to the gas chambers, Minister of Interior Manuel Valls stated that Dieudonné was "no longer a comedian" but was rather an "anti-Semite and racist" and that he would seek to ban all Dieudonné's public gatherings as a public safety risk.France24, 28 December 2013. His shows have been banned in several French cities. On 20 January 2017, the court of appeal of Liège confirmed a first instance sentence of two months of jail time and a €9,000 fine for Dieudonné's antisemitic remarks in a performance in Herstal on 14 March 2012.
Dieudonné has also been known to associate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran from 2005 to 2013, who has himself been accused of describing the Holocaust as a myth. On 25 February 2015, Ahmadinejad tweeted, "Visiting an old friend, a great artist." The tweet included photographs of himself and Dieudonné, arms around each other, smiling. The two also met in 2009 during a visit by Dieudonné to Iran where they reportedly discussed their shared anti-Zionist views.
Personal life Dieudonné M'bala M'bala was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. He is the son of a retired sociologist from Brittany, who is also a painter and exhibits under the name Josiane Grué, and an accountant from Ekoudendi, Cameroon.Scott Sayare "Concern Over an Increasingly Seen Gesture Grows in France", The New York Times, 2 January 2014 His parents divorced when he was one year old, and he was brought up by his mother. He attended Catholic school, though his mother was a New Age Buddhist. From 2006 to 2020, Dieudonné was in a relationship with Noémie Montagne, his producer, and has five children with her. After their separation, Montagne accused Dieudonné of psychological abuse and filed a complaint against him.
Performing career Dieudonné began writing and practicing routines with his childhood friend, Jewish comedian and actor Élie Semoun. They formed a comedic duo, Élie et Dieudonné (Élie and Dieudonné), and performed in local cafés and bars while Dieudonné worked as a salesman, selling cars, telephones, and photocopy machines. In 1992, a Paris comedian spotted them and helped them stage their first professional show. In the 1990s, they appeared on stage and on television together as "Élie et Dieudonné". In 1997 they split and each went on to a solo theater career. In 1998, they reunited in a screen comedy, Le Clone, which was a failure critically and financially. From the mid-1990s Dieudonné appeared in several French film comedies, primarily in supporting roles. His most successful screen appearance to date was in Alain Chabat's box-office hit Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra in 2002; in 2004 he appeared in Maurice Barthélemy's box office bomb Casablanca Driver.
Dieudonné's successful one-man shows include Pardon Judas (2000), Le divorce de Patrick (2003), and 1905 (2005). Other one-man shows were Mes Excuses (2004), Dépôt de bilan (2006) and J'ai fait l'con (2008), all understood as attacks on political and social opponents and defences of his own positions. Antisemitic statements made within and around these productions led to intense controversy and numerous lawsuits.Dieudonné : rappel des principaux faits entourant la polémique, Observatoire du communautarisme, 26 February 2005 Following the 2005 civil unrest in France, Dieudonné also penned a play called Émeutes en banlieue (Riots in the Suburbs, February 2006). In 2009, surrounded by scandals (see below, "Political activities"), Dieudonné launched two one-man shows: Liberté d’expression (Freedom of expression) and Sandrine. While the latter was a follow-up to Le divorce de Patrick, the former was conceived as a series of itinerant "conferences" on "free speech"., Le Nouvel Observateur, 18 March 2009 Started on 18 June 2010 in his theater, Dieudonné's most recent show to date, Mahmoud (standing for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) has an openly antisemitic tone, Dieudonné de retour dans un spectacle qui s'en prend ouvertement aux juifs, Agence France Presse, 18 June 2010 caricaturing Jews, slavery and "official" versions of history.Dieudonné, la croisade du bouffon , Lesoir.be, 10 August 2010
Dieudonné's production company first acted under the name Bonnie Productions and now under the name Les productions de la Plume.
In 2012, Dieudonné made his directorial debut in a film called L'Antisémite (The Anti-Semite), in which he starred as a violent and alcoholic character who dresses as a Nazi officer at a party, and also features the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, as well as imagery that mocked Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners. The movie, which was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center, is also known by the title "Yahod Setiz". Its scheduled screening at the Cannes Film Festival's Marché du Film (the parallel film market event) was canceled. The film released exclusively on VOD for subscribers to Dieudonné's website.
Théâtre de la Main d'Or Dieudonné is the lease holder of the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, which is used for both stand-up comedy and political events by himself and friends.
Political activities and views The quenelle gesture
The quenelle, invented by Dieudonné, is a gesture consisting of a downward straight arm touched at the shoulder by the opposite hand. In French, quenelle normally refers to a type of dumpling. Images of the quenelle were widely shared in 2013, with many individuals posing while performing the quenelle in photos posted to the internet. Dieudonné claims that the gesture is an anti-establishment protest. The gesture has also been described as a reverse Nazi salute. Officially, French authorities have said the gesture is too vague to take any action against Dieudonné. In December 2013, the French Minister for Sport Valérie Fourneyron publicly criticised the footballer Nicolas Anelka for using the gesture as a goal celebration in an English Premier League match. French international and NBA basketball player Tony Parker also came under fire during the same time period for his use of the gesture. On 30 December 2013, Parker apologized for making the gesture, saying that the photograph had been taken three years earlier and that he had been unaware at the time that it had any antisemitic connotation.
On 31 December 2013, Dieudonné released a 15-minute video proposing that "2014 will be the year of the quenelle!". In it, Dieudonné attacks "bankers" and "slavers", so as not to say "Jews" and end up in a lawsuit, and calls upon his followers, "quenelleurs"—those who listen and follow him—towards a hatred of Jews. "Antisemite? I'm not of that opinion," he says in the video. "I'm not saying I'd never be one.... I leave myself open to that possibility, but for the moment, no." Later, he added, "I don't have to choose between the Jews and the Nazis."
An official January 2014 circular issued by Interior Minister Manuel Valls besides laying out a legal justification for banning antisemitic performances by Dieudonné also specifically linked the quenelle gesture to antisemitism and extremism.
Beginnings Dieudonné was initially active on the anti-racist left. In the 1997 French legislative election, he worked with his party, "Les Utopistes", in Dreux against National Front candidate Marie-France Stirbois and received 8 percent of the vote.Dieudonné – Bouffon de cour , voir.ca (reissued on Vigile.net), 14 June 2007 Verbally and in demonstrations, he also supported migrants without a residence permit (the so-called "sans papiers") and the Palestinians.
2002–2006
Since 2002, Dieudonné has attracted attention by making increasingly polemical statements. In an interview for the magazine Lyon Capitale in January 2002, he described "the Jews" as "a sect, a fraud, which is the worst of all, because it was the first" and said he preferred "the charisma of bin Laden to that of Bush".Dieudonné jugé raciste en cassation, L'Express, 25 October 2007 He subsequently tried to run for president in the 2002 presidential election, but failed to get in the race.
On 1 December 2003, he appeared live on a television show disguised as a parody of an Israeli settler wearing military fatigues and a Haredi (Orthodox) Jewish hat. The sketch climaxed with a Hitler salute, after which Dieudonné shouts out a word. According to Dieudonné, he shouted "Israël" in the persona of the Haredi. In the following days, some news agencies stated that he shouted "Isra – Heil" or "Heil Israel".Là où la blague blesse , libération, 20 February 2004Dieudonné, la promo par le pire , 24 heures, 7 January 2009 He was cleared of charges of antisemitism in a Paris court after the judge said this was not an attack against Jews in general but against a type of person "distinguished by their political views". At the 2004 European Parliament election, Dieudonné was a candidate for the extreme left-wing party "Euro-Palestine", but left a few months after the election due to disagreement with its leaders.Dieudonné sur une pente très glissante , Euro-Palestine, 29 October 2004
Dieudonné is the director of Les Ogres website, where he makes plain his denial of the historical version of the 9/11 events. Following this television appearance, a Dieudonné show in Lyon (at La Bourse du Travail) on 5 February 2004 was picketed and a bottle containing a corrosive product was thrown in the venue, injuring a spectator.Incident spectacle Dieudonné INA clip On 11 November, Dieudonné organized a debate with four rabbis of Naturei Karta in the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in Paris.Dieudonné n’est pas antisémite : il aime les Juifs intégristes, prochoix.org, 24 November 2004