Rémi Gaillard (; born 7 February 1975 in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

, France) is a French prankster,

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and animal rights activist. Well known for his videos on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, his channel is the 100th most subscribed comedy channel on YouTube with more than 7.4 million subscribers as of August 2024. After losing his job at a shoe store, Rémi began to use his free time to run pranks on the public. Gaillard gained attention in the French media after performing a series of pranks, including an appearance disguised as a

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player in the '' 2002 Coupe de France'' final match, during which he took part in the winners' celebrations and was greeted by then president of the French Republic,

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

. He plays football non-professionally, and has posted numerous trick shot videos, including one with Brazilian footballer Ronaldo. Gaillard has appeared in several sports events, TV game shows and political rallies as well as the 2011 Banksy-produced documentary, '' The Antics Roadshow''. On November 30, 2023, Gaillard published a video on his YouTube channel titled "EPILOGUE" in which he symbolically buried various logos of social media websites of which his content was uploaded to, alluding to a possible hiatus in his content.

Concept

Rémi Gaillard became known for his videos, in which he displays an "outrageous" style of humour. Recurring themes include dressing up as and interpreting the behaviour of various animals in public, racing unsuspecting car-drivers whilst dressed up as

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

''à la'' ''

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...

'', and numerous provocative interactions with parking enforcement officers and the police. Gaillard's satirical motto is ''C'est en faisant n'importe quoi qu'on devient n'importe qui'' whose literal meaning is "It is by doing whatever that we become whoever". The understood meaning is satirical because "n'importe quoi" implies doing something ridiculous and "n'importe qui" implies no one important. It plays on a classic French proverb ''C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron.'' Literally translated the proverb reads, "It is by smithing that one becomes a blacksmith".

Sketches

The majority of Gaillard's sketches are of the

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

type, often disguising himself in outlandish costumes for his pranks. In some videos, Gaillard is accompanied by a crowd of friends, giving the action a flashmob-like nature. Gaillard shot his first sketch in 1999 with a friend in

, and in 2001, he launched his website nimportequi.com. He gained fame in 2002 at the finals of the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

. He achieved further YouTube popularity through his

Rocky Balboa Robert "Rocky" Balboa (also known by his ring name the Italian Stallion) is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of the ''Rocky'' franchise. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who has also portrayed him in eight of ...

parodies,

Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...

, ''

'' and

Santa Claus Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...

pranks, as well as his football videos. His recent pranks often entail dressing up in large animal costumes; including a kangaroo and a bat. He has also dressed up as a bomb and a

traffic enforcement camera A traffic enforcement camera (also a red light camera, speed camera, road safety camera, bus lane camera, depending on use) is a camera which may be mounted beside or over a road or installed in an enforcement vehicle to detect motoring offense ...

, and has stayed locked in an animal cage for 87 hours to raise funds for animal shelters. On his official site, Gaillard claims over 2.5 billion views on his videos on the web. His YouTube channel has 1.8 billion total views and his most popular YouTube video, "Kangaroo", has 90 million views. In 2010, English comedian Dom Joly claimed that some of Gaillard's sketches plagiarize from Joly's show, '' Trigger Happy TV'', as shown by

channel CopyComic in December 2017. Gaillard responded by demonstrating that many of Dom Joly's own pranks may have equally been plagiarized from his own work as well as the work of other comedians including

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...

Movie

Gaillard starred in his first full-length feature film titled ''N'importe qui''. It was directed by Raphaël Frydman and released on 5 March 2014, in France.

Personal life

On 27 May 2024 Gaillard was hospitalised following a heart attack.

References

External links