On 20 January 2017, the court of appeal of Liège confirmed a first instance sentence of two months of jail time and a €9,000 fine for Dieudonné's anti-Semitic remarks in a performance in Herstal on 14 March 2012.

[27] Dieudonné began writing and practicing routines with his childhood friend, Jewish comedian and actor Élie Semoun.

Other one-man shows were Mes Excuses (2004), Dépôt de bilan (2006) and J'ai fait l'con (2008), all understood as attacks on political and social opponents and defences of his own positions.

[29] Following the 2005 civil unrest in France, Dieudonné also penned a play called Émeutes en banlieue (Riots in the Suburbs, February 2006).

In 2012, Dieudonné made his directorial debut in a film called L'Antisémite (The Anti-Semite),[33] in which he starred as a violent and alcoholic character who dresses as a Nazi officer at a party, and also features the Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, as well as imagery that mocks Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners.

[36] Dieudonné is the lease holder of the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, which is used for both stand-up comedy and political events by himself and friends.

[38] In December 2013, the French Minister for Sport Valérie Fourneyron publicly criticised the footballer Nicolas Anelka for using the gesture as a goal celebration in an English Premier League match.

"[42][43] An official January 2014 circular issued by Interior Minister Manuel Valls besides laying out a legal justification for banning antisemitic performances by Dieudonné also specifically linked the quenelle gesture to anti-Semitism and extremism.

In the 1997 French legislative election, he worked with his party, "Les Utopistes", in Dreux against National Front candidate Marie-France Stirbois and received 8 percent of the vote.

In an interview for the magazine Lyon Capitale in January 2002, he described "the Jews" as "a sect, a fraud, which is the worst of all, because it was the first" and said he preferred "the charisma of bin Laden to that of Bush".

On 1 December 2003, he appeared live on a television show disguised as a parody of an Israeli settler wearing military fatigues and a Haredi (Orthodox) Jewish hat.

[47][48] He was cleared of charges of antisemitism in a Paris court after the judge said this was not an attack against Jews in general but against a type of person "distinguished by their political views".

Following this television appearance, a Dieudonné show in Lyon (at La Bourse du Travail) on 5 February 2004 was picketed and a bottle containing a corrosive product was thrown in the venue, injuring a spectator.

[51][52] On 11 November, Dieudonné organized a debate with four rabbis of Naturei Karta in the Théâtre de la Main d'Or in Paris.

[54][55] Dieudonné was also trying to appear as a spokesman for French blacks, but, after some initial sympathy, from the novelist Calixthe Beyala, the journalists Antoine Garnier and Claudy Siar, as well as the founding members of the Conseil représentatif des associations noires (CRAN), he increasingly met with their rejection.

[59] Dieudonné also frequently appeared together with the conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan and the former Marxist and current right-wing radical Alain Soral, a confidant of Marine and Jean-Marie Le Pen.

In France and abroad, Dieudonné became increasingly perceived as an extremist of a type until then uncommon in Europe: in the introduction to a March 2006 interview, The Sunday Independent of South Africa called him a "French Louis Farrakhan... obsessed with Jews".

[64] Dieudonné wanted to finally represent politically these ever-radicalized positions in the 2007 presidential election, but for logistical reasons he could not maintain his candidacy, which was organized by Marc Robert (a.k.a.

[76] In early May 2009, the French government studied the possibility of banning the party,[77][78] but on 24 May, Justice minister Rachida Dati found there was no legal ground to do so.

[82] On 12 May 2012, event producer Evenko forced the cancellation of Dieudonné's shows in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 14, 15, 16, and 17 May, citing "contractual conflicts".

Valls stated that Dieudonne was "no longer a comedian" but was rather an "anti-Semite and racist" who had run afoul of France's laws against incitement to racial hatred.

"[11] On 6 January, France's interior minister Manuel Valls said that performances considered anti-Semitic may be banned by local officials.

With respect to freedom of speech in France and banning scheduled performances ahead of time, Valls wrote: "The struggle against racism and antisemitism is an essential concern of government and demands vigorous action."

He takes note of the liberty of expression in France, but goes on to say that in exceptional circumstances, the police are invested with the power to prohibit an event if its intent is to prevent "a grave disturbance of public order" and cites the 1933 law supporting this.

[16] Some officials from both sides of the political spectrum have reservations about the legal validity of the Valls circular, and believe that cancellations could leave their cities liable for judgments of millions of euros in damages to Dieudonné if he sues and wins, as actually occurred in La Rochelle in 2012.

[89] According to a poll by IFOP for Metronews taken on 8–9 January 2014, 71% of the French population had a negative image of Dieudonné while 16% held a positive view.

[90] On 11 January 2014, he announced he would not perform his show Le Mur but would replace it with another one, Asus Zoa, that he wrote in three nights and that would talk about "dance and music inspired by ancestral myths".

[92] In September, French authorities opened an investigation into Dieudonné on grounds that he condoned terrorism after mocking and showing footage of the killing of U.S. journalist James Foley.