Bouffon
According to Gaulier, Bouffon is a genre which originated with the 'Ugly People' of France during the French Renaissance. Gaulier said excessively ugly people, lepers, and those with disfiguring scars or deformities were "banished to the swamp." The exception was during festivals, when the bouffon (or ugly people) were expected to entertain the 'beautiful people'.
During these performances, the bouffon's goal was to get away with insulting or disgusting the beautiful people as much as possible. Typically, the bouffon would target their attack on the leaders within the mainstream of society, such as the Government or the Church.
The ideal performance for a bouffon would be one where the audience is wildly entertained, go home, realize that their lives are meaningless and commit suicide. This of course is an theoretic fantasy rather than a plausible outcome.
His teachings, similar to Lecoq, work on a 'Via Negativa' approach wherein he encourages students to find the most successful performance outcome for themselves, by harshly rejecting their technique or creative ideas with insults if he considers the concept to be 'rubbish'.
Read more about this topic: Philippe Gaulier