Looks like the mainstream is pretty stagnant over there, and stagnant water gets scum on the top.

Just another example that the Left's big thinkers are unfunny comedians.

He's not even funnier than Al Franken.

Comedian?

Further proof of OJ's theory that all humor is conservative.

I caution all that just because this goofball describes himself as a comic it doesn't make him one.

Recall also that the French heap praise and awards upon Jerry Lewis, and, regardless of your opinion of Mr. Lewis, the fact that the French single him out, among all our current and past "comics," speaks volumes about what they consider to be humorous-- and about the cultural moat between us and them.

This Dieudonn� character is no more a comedian than is, say, Karen Finley or Henry Rollins or any one of a number of performance artist/spoken word provocateurs whom the NPR crowd have deemed to be hysterical (in the funny sense, not the crazy sense).

They aren't really funny, but the folks who lack a genuine sense of humor need NPR and others to direct them to the funny. Kinda like those PMRC labels on CD's direct the kids to the real "subversive" music with the "meaningful" lyrics.

"Dieudonn� is so popular in modern France that he is planning to run for President in 2007."

Substitute "Alec Baldwin" or "George Clooney" for "Dieudonne" and then substitute "Hollywood" for "modern France" and you get a sense of just how popular or serious Mr. Dieudonne (or modern France) is about this clown.

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating
victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all
captured English soldiers,

Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned
English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in
the future.

This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree,
and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or
"pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset
and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the
defeated French, saying, ��See, we can still pluck yew!�

Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant
cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals
fricative F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the
one-finger-salute!

It is also because of the pheasant feathers of the arrows used with
the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."

It is still an appropriate salute to the French Today.

And yew thought yew knew everything!

h-man, thanks for the great history lesson.

Apocryphal, but quiant.

Brian:

Substitute Le Pen and you have the runner-up for president last time.

h-man: Um, except that the English don't give the middle finger...

The longbow was a necessary but not sufficient factor in the Agincourt victory.

The choice of battleground was the true genius of the English position.
The French ended up charging through a chokepoint, then up a hill, in a cleared field.

Fire at will.

b.

It's the Americans that carry on the English traditions.

(Or at least the vulgar ones)

h: The English have an analogous vulgarity, of course--their equivalent is to raise two fingers, the middle and the index. Which makes much more sense in the Agincourt story you quoted (though doesn't mean it's not apocryphal).