Zeus

The French military is quite a joke.

indytravel

I saw "Brokeback Mountain" in Lyon in February. It was the dubbed version so no subtitles, but a theater filled with fluent French speakers.

I found a couple of spots in the film interesting where I laughed but no one around me did.

The first time was when Jack and Ennis were discussing Jack being thrown by a mare. "She got lucky," said Jack. Ennis said if he'd been lucky the harmonica would have been broken. I laughed. No one else did.

The second time was when Lureen had picked up Jack in a cowboy bar. "What're you waitin' for cowboy, a matin' call?" In the backseat of the car Lureen was stripping down and all over Jack. She suddenly stopped and asked, "Am I goin' too fast?" I had to stop laughing out loud as no one else did. Maybe the French thought that was a normal pace.

cigalechanta

weadles, a few years ago I called my favorite waiter at the Bistro du Paradou a mouse in French when I meant smile because he looked down that day. He knowing my poor French told the rest of the staff and loud laughter was around me

John

ZEUS

Did you read the book

French War Heroes by Jacques Chirac

John

Forgot to mention, Shortest book ever written.

francophile03

People are people and like rudeness, a sense of humor is personal. It doesn't matter what the nationality is.

Weadles

cigalechanta,

Now that's funny!! Thanks!

laclaire

The French crack me up in the weirdest way! My host mother is from Paris and though she has lived in Spain for almost 40 years, she still has a very specific sense of humor. First of all, she so appreciates a really good dirty joke as long as it is all in good taste (yes, dirty jokes can be tasteful). I have spent a lot of time with her family (particularly one of her sisters and her family) and they are just hilarious. They are very sarcastic and even the little girl (who was 9 last time I was over there) is bitingly witty.

I have never found them to be crude, but yes, silly and fun, indeed.

Rillifane

Weasel,

The funniest thing in the French war museum is the display describing the surrender of France and the esatablishment of the collobrationist Vichy regime as "France changes her tactics."

That and the fact that the models of the French and German tanks are done in different scales to give the false impression that the German tanks wwere larger than the French (they weren't).

tondalaya

The French are funny,
The French can be funnier,
Th French at times are the funny of all time,
This post is funny.

DejaVu

One word: Moliere.

BTilke

Of course the French have a sense of humor. However, it may be different from yours. For example, the French may not think puns are funny (in the very darkly funny French movie, Ridicule, one of the lead characters tells another "puns are the death of wit&quot.

Guy18

I don't know if this is about a sense of humor exactly, and I know this doesn't represent all French people. I was at an art and antiques fair in the U.S. and an exhibitor from Paris was there. I asked where her shop was and when the young lady told me, I said "So you get to stop in at Dalloyau when you want." Now I don't pretend this is particularly witty, but I was trying to be friendly and make some chit-chat. You should have seen the supercilious look on her face as she proceeded to ignore my comment! I imagined her to be thinking "Not another American showing off his rudimentary knowledge of Paris." It's hard not to think of this as a sign of a distinctly French dourness. If I were in a foreign country and someone was familiar with the neighborhood where I live or work, I'd be very excited to hear about it...

Heavens

But do they like limericks? Just kidding. Personally, I love limericks. But they aren't for everyone;

There once was a man from Nantucket...

parners

I think the French get a bad rep - similarly to the British they're not overly friendly until you get to know them and sarcasm is often misinterpreted as rudeness. ps some very harsh comments on the British by certain respondents...

Powell

See the film "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" (1952). It rivals Chaplin for itds hilarity and poignancy.

Though I like British dry humor best the French certainly have a wonderful sense of humor.

Powell

See the film "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" (1952). It rivals Chaplin for its hilarity and poignancy.

Though I like British dry humor best the French certainly have a wonderful sense of humor.

docdan

Sorry if you are reading this for the second time, but I thought it was worth repeating:

While visiting Versailles, I accidentally referred to my three daughters as my three wives, and the security guards there all had a good natured laugh over my mistake, commending me on my good taste!
Later, I was attempting to tell a waiter that everyone at my table liked (soccer) football. My daughter, who understands some French but was intimidated to say much, blurts out:
"Dad, you just said, 'I love you, you good football, you!" With that, the three daughters __and_ the waiter laughed until their eyes started to water. (Is there a laugh in the human experience more pure and sincere than a daughter laughing at her dad when he embarrasses himself?)

GalavantingReprobate

Sure the French have a sense of humor. One of the hottest comics there is a guy named Dieudonne. He's a riot.
He's also viciously anti-semetic and a fascist and a big fan of OBL. The French love him.

Christina

I think every nationality or ethnic group has some kind of humor, it may just not be what you think is funny, or at least not the same kind of funny you think of. I think the French sense of humor is subtler or more ironique, or something (but so is British in many ways, but differently), but at another level I just think it is bad/silly. I've personally never seen a French film comedy that I thought was very good, they have a lot of silly ones.

I don't know about the Jerry Lewis thing, and suspect that is some other thing than just thinking he is funny. Maybe not, I don't know, and that's what I'm talking about as I can't stand him, either. I don't think the "cartoons" in LeMonde are remotely funny, either, even though they are supposed to be editorial/political, they still aren't even very funny for that genre IMO.

On the other hand, I thought Cocteau and Voltaire said a lot of rather amusing things, for example. I'm taking a French literature class now and reading La Promesse de l'Aube by Romain Gary, and he is pretty funny in parts, but not in a real outlandish way.

I do have a book of French cartoons that I think are funny, but I found out the author is really Belgian (a woman, Claire Bretecher).