After having been a hit around the world with Ten percent, Fanny Herrero is back with Funny, a series that dives into the stand-up world.
The creator and showrunner explained during a press conference organized by Netflix on March 10 that she wanted through this series to be interested, no longer in the agents, but in the artists themselves, “to be as close as possible to them in their daily galleys”. The series is carried by four new faces. “It was important for us. They each have their own uniqueness and freshness”.
THE STORY
Funny follows the daily life of Aïssatou (Mariama Gueye), Nezir (Younes Boucif), Bling (Jean Siuen), and Apolline (Elsa Guedj). Four young people who come from different backgrounds, but who share the same dream: to conquer the Parisian boards. They are going to perform in turn on the stage of a comedy club in the capital, the Funny, in the hope of becoming the new star of laughter.
Nezir lives in a suburban HLM with his sick father and multiplies odd jobs to meet their needs, Aissatou is a young mother who will experience sudden notoriety after years of hardship, Bling is an arrogant young man who, if he had her small success, lost the spark, finally Appoline is a young woman from a family of the upper middle class and who, however promised to a brilliant future, dreams only of going on stage with her jokes.
Four young comedians do everything they can to (re)make a name for themselves in the world of stand-up.
Funny, a series created by Fanny Herrero (Dix pour Cent), available on March 18! pic.twitter.com/DLHSxg3T0A
— Netflix France (@NetflixFR) February 15, 2022
TEAM WORK
“When I started to get interested in the stand-up scene, I was a big fan of Blanche Gardin but I didn’t know much, so I spent time in comedy clubs, spent time with people who do stand-up, says Fanny Herrero. I met around thirty comedians to ask them lots of questions and after this immersion phase I put reality aside”, explains the designer who wanted to “get away from the true/false mix of Dix pour Cent “.
“We invented characters. I brought Marion Rollman, Fanny Ruwet, Thomas Wiesel and Shirley Souagnon into the team to write the sketches, “says the one for whom Funny is also an opportunity to paint a portrait of today’s youth in all its diversity. .
A portrait of today’s youth
“The stand-up is a prism to talk about contemporary youth,” she believes. “As it’s a modest art (you just need a microphone), it attracts very different people, with different stories and backgrounds, so it’s a kind of photography of French youth.”
The characters are between 25 and 30 years old. “They are at a crossroads,” said Fanny Herrero. It also speaks of vocation. It’s an age where you have to make choices: do I build a family life or do I step aside to do what I want? I immersed myself in this age which is very beautiful.
©Mika Cotellon
Post-MeToo humor
“Humour is both a gift for others and a pleasure for oneself”, considers the showrunner. “The characters are like superheroes whose weapon is humor. For them it is a passport, the way to be loved”.
For the designer, Funny talks about artists who create links, “not those who divide”. “We are in a post Me Too, post Black Lives Matter series, and I hope it shows. […] It’s also a response to this idea that I don’t find very healthy of ‘we can’t say anything more'”, had confided the screenwriter during the Series Mania festival, according to the comments reported by Konbini, before adding: ” We are going to make fewer jokes about blondes, and more jokes about DSK”.
Diffusion
Composed of six episodes, Funny will be online this March 18 on Netflix. The series will be available in 190 countries and translated into 30 languages. “You shouldn’t think about it when you write,” says Fanny Herrero. You have to keep your line and your truth. »