Pierre Desproges

Pierre Desproges (9 May 1939 - 18 April 1988), born Pierre Marcel Desproges in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis, was a French humorist. According to himself, he made no significant achievements before the age of 30. From 1967 to 1970 he worked as a life insurance salesman, opinion poll investigator, advice columnist, horse racing forecaster, and sales manager for a styrofoam beam company, and from 1970 to 1976 he worked for the newspaper L'Aurore.

Starting in 1975 he became a reporter on Le petit rapporteur, a satirical TV show hosted by Jacques Martin, catching the public's attention with unconventional interviews of celebrities such as novelists Francoise Sagan and Jean-Edern Hallier. He became famous for his Chroniques de la haine ordinaire, a 1986 radio show, and in the 1980s appeared daily on Le tribunal des flagrants delires, a comedy show where celebrities were judged in mock-trials and Desproges held the part of the prosecutor for more than two years. In 1982 he created La minute necessaire de Monsieur Cyclopede, a series of TV shorts in which he played an omniscient professor, each episode ending with the catchphrase "Etonnant, non ?".

In 1984 he performed his first stand-up show at the Theatre Fontaine, followed in 1986 by his second, Pierre Desproges se donne en spectacle, presented at the Theatre Grevin. He is the author of many memorable quotes, in particular "you can laugh about everything, but not with everyone". In 1987 doctors discovered he had inoperable lung cancer; he died in 1988 and is buried in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His family announced his death with a sentence he had prepared: "Pierre Desproges est mort d'un cancer, etonnant, non ?".