Gad Elmaleh Is About To Prove Himself As The "Seinfeld Of France"

Gad Elmaleh's life is funny. I mean, moving to the US. to try and become as famous as you are in Europe when nobody knows your name here is about the biggest reality check someone could seek out. Which, it turns out, makes for some really great comedy material. Which is why you're probably already wondering if there will be a Season 2 of Huge In France. Season 1 was so funny, you deserve another one, and you want Elmaleh to really have the chance to make it big in America.

I feel you. But, it's way too soon to know if there will be a Season 2 of the show yet. Elmaleh may have Jerry Seinfeld in his corner, but if I can be real for a minute — most of the country will still pronounce his name wrong when reading it off of a screen. Apparently, it is pronounced like "gawd" as in "ohmygawd." Having grown up in Long Island, this comes pretty naturally to me.

Elmaleh has a sense of humor about it. He said in an interview with Vanity Fair, "Americans sometimes call me ‘God,’ which is, you know, super-flattering," he said. "But even worse is when someone says, ‘Gode,’ because that means ‘dildo’ in French.”

Thank goodness my struggle with getting people to pronounce my name right are not that real. But back to Elmaleh. It's important to remember that while Huge In France is based on his life, it's not a carbon copy. For example, one of his sons — Noé Elmaleh is 18 and a model — as Gad's son is in the show. But Elmaleh's other son is not. His name is Raphaël Elmaleh, he's five, and had Elmaleh and his mother, Charlotte Casiraghi, is a member of Monaco's royal family (seriously).

It's important to Elmaleh that people understand that while he might be playing a version of himself on the show, it's definitely not the same as being himself on a stand-up comedy stage. “I’ve been doing stand-up for so long and I wanted to find something where I could play me," he told TV Insider ahead of the Huge In France release. “I wanted to be grounded in reality. I didn’t want to present myself like I do in my act.”

We all know now that his reality is funny and at times intense. But the Huge In France showrunners Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel wanted to see for themselves. "We went to Paris with him — and it’s honestly like walking around with George Clooney there," Paul said to TV Insider. "When he’s out on the street, people constantly come up to him. And then here it’s nothing.”

To reinforce that point Mogel added, "We were at a party in LA and the waiters kept pushing him out of the way!” That's just rude. But with friends like Seinfeld and Chris Rock, it probably won't last long. In the meantime, the more stories like that Elmaleh can collect, the more material there will be for Season 2 of Huge In France. So, stay humble in America, Mr. Elmaleh.