The next days

in Paris, people treated me differently

After making the sound of the worlds horniest elephant, things changed for me in Paris. I was funny. I don’t know how. I’m not certain why, but I always found a way to play.

It became a compulsion. I could’t turn it off. After class, many of us would go to the cafe nearby for red wine and quiche.

I loved my newfound power. Others did not. There were some in my class who hated Philippe’s jokes. Especially the Americans. They tended to lean left and his ‘anything goes as long as they laugh’ attitude was highly problematic to them.

When it came to funny, nothing was off the table. This was alienating for the Americans. There are things that apparently should not be said. If there was something you were not supposed to make fun of someone about? He joked about that.

He went directly to where any perceived weakness or flaw could be. He was universally offensive. I was accused of being a genocidal German. I was regularly told that I needed to visit The Hague as my attempts at humour were akin…