Feature: French humour every which way

Those foreigners who make the French laugh

The French are not chauvinists when it comes to laughter. They even reserve a special welcome to the different forms of humour that come from other countries, from the English to the Italians by way of Americans, French Canadians, Belgians and all French speakers. A brief tour of the scene.

Didier Jacob, journalist on the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur

We all know that humour was born in England. But as early as 1762, Voltaire observed that the British use this word, "that they pronounce "youmor"" and "believe they are the only people who have it, that other nations have no word to describe this character of spirit" that they patented from the beginning of the 18th century through the voice of Laurence Sterne, author of the masterpiece of English literature, Tristram Shandy (1759-1767), or that of Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s creator.

As pioneers, in France even today, the English are still considered masters of the genre. We still read Lewis Carroll, a surrealist before his time with his Alice in Wonderland (1865), Charles Dickens and his penchant for the burlesque and eccentric, Oscar Wilde, sardonic depicter of the manners and morals of the British aristocracy, not forgetting Jerome K. Jerome, whose hilarious Three Men in a Boat (1889) gave the picaresque novel a new youth. We must not forget the comical self-mockery of P.G. Wodehouse or, more recently, the novels of David Lodge which go down very well in France, a consummate satirist who ridicules contemporary British society like no other.

The masters of British humour

British film and television comedians also have their fervent admirers in France. The cast of Monty Python, which seemed to have been inspired equally by Rabelais and the Marx Brothers, have perhaps had the strongest influence on the new French comics, through their crazy and fast-paced sketches for the BBC in the 1970s or their film parodies (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, The Meaning of Life, 1983).

More recently, we have roared with laughter at the antics of the infantile and feather-brained Mr. Bean on the television, played by Rowan Atkinson, while the off-the-wall series Absolutely Fabulous, by and with Jennifer Saunders, giving a rough ride to several French icons of the fashion world amongst other things, has plenty of fans over here.

The British comedy revival has also been a triumphant success, whether romantic or riotous, from A Fish Called Wanda (1989), with two former members of the Monty Python team, to Love Actually (2003) by Richard Curtis, the subtle screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Notting Hill (1999), not forgetting The Full Monty (1997) and Chicken Run (2000).

It is difficult, however, to say whether it is British humour or American comedy that the French enjoy most. It was the Americans, after all, who invented deadpan comedy with the English-born Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and displayed, with the Marx Brothers, an astonishing talent for total lunacy.

Alongside influential comedies enjoying worldwide success (from Spielberg to Jim Carrey), France likes those American film-makers with a more personal and laid-back humour, whether poetic, or frankly burlesque or satirical - from Woody Allen’s early work (Bananas, 1971), the Coen brothers (Arizona Junior, 1987, Fargo, 1995), Tim Burton (Beetle Juice, 1988, Mars Attacks!, 1996) and the Farrelly brothers (There’s Something About Mary, 1998, Stuck on You, 2003), to the amazing animations, both comically and technically, of the Walt Disney and Dreamworks studios (Toy Story, 1995, Finding Nemo, 2003, Shrek 1 and 2, 2001 and 2004) which clearly show the extent to which laughter, in today’s Hollywood output, can be a huge weapon of persuasion. Nor has France escaped the craze for cult television series, such as Friends, Seinfeld or Sex in the City.

Laughter, a huge weapon of persuasion

 

A feeling for comedy is not, of course, the prerogative of the British and Americans. It is impossible to mention all the humorists who have an audience in France. Nonetheless, the community of laughter is international: it is the fraternity of nations who share a common language - the language of humour.

Source:  diplomatie.gouv.fr

Comments

[Rédigé par : Sarah Diligenti]

There is no example after 2004, and even that is only a Walt Disney movie.
The article is either old (as in publishe some years ago) or whomever wrote it has not been in touch with what has been going on in the world since 2004...
Generalizing by saying all the French love Monty Python or Absolutely Fabulous is taking a risk at French backlash. Not all French people fall for sarcasm, and French cynicism is very different from British humor.
A lot of French people recognize themselves more in that old British series called "Are you being served?" because of the sexual innuendos, closer to French humor than the surrealistic Monty Python. If John Cleese made the French laugh, it was more for Faulty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda than the lampoons like Life of Brian or the Holy Grail. Mr. Bean is preferred to Rowan Atkinson's role as Black Adder, for instance...
American humor such as Seinfeld is appreciated amongst the French intellectual elite.
But mostly French prefer their own people: Gad Elmaleh is the new Fernand Raynaud, like Boujjenah had been back in the 80s.