Humor

When most people think of French culture, one inevitably thinks of the "7ème art", or cinema - and most people will think of the Nouvelle Vague movement in French cinema, which produced some really great films like "Le Mépris" starring Brigitte Bardot or "A bout de souffle" with Jean Seberg.

However, I would like to point out that for the French, however, these movies are not as beloved nor have made as big of an impact on French culture than a group of movies that have most likely never even been internationally released.

Flashback to the years 1998-200, when I was an exchange student here in Paris and spent all my time in the company of my Frenchies. They insisted that I absolutely MUST watch some "very important French movies" as "this will really immerse you in our culture" and "every French person has seen these movies." I was all on board, thinking I would be watching the classic works of Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut.

Instead, I sat through a marathon of movies that included "La Boum", which starred a teenage Sophie Marceau as a high school student who goes to some party, "Les Bronzés" about a group of friends who vacation on a beach, and the even more popular sequel, "Les Bronzés font du ski" in which the same group of friends go on a winter skiing vacation together.

Fast forward to when I came back to France semi-permanently back in 2005, and I was pretty confident of my integration in French culture, having seen "Les Bronzés font du ski" about 4 times already. Insted, the H was horrified that I had never seen the films of Louis de Funès or Coluche; as it turns out, these two actors are the absolute beloved icons of French culture and cinema (and who have been dead for about 20 years), though I suppose de Funès is maybe a bit more popular.

And so I ended up sitting through "La Grande Vadrouille", "Le grand restaurant" (starring de Funès) and "Banzaï" and "Le maître de l'école" (starring Coluche).
All I can say, after having watched (many times) these beloved French movies, is that the French are crazy about slapstick humor. (The closest American equivalent I can think of off the top of my head is that movie "Airplane").

I have noticed an interesting phenomenon, though: the mere mention of "Louis de Funès" is enough to send any French person into bouts of hysterical laughter.

At first I thought maybe it was just the H. Then I thought maybe it was just the H and his entire family (even his 18-year old sister and her 17-year old BF dissolve into laughter). But then I realized that it works with ALL French people.

For example, last night the H and I went out for dinner with his friend R and R's girlfriend C. We got into a discussion about humor, and how the concept of humor is so extremely different in various cultures and countries. I think I innocently said something along the lines of, "Yeah, that's like how everyone in France cracks up when you mention Louis de Funès, but no one else thinks it's funny."

This sentence caused quite a sensation: The H, R, and C all went into hysterical laughter, with the guys nearly snorting beer out of their noses and C almost choking on her sushi.

30 minutes later, no one had said a single word, but they were still laughing hysterically, to the point where they were crying.

I waited patiently while they wiped their tears and gradually stopped laughing, but then I said, "I did think "La Grande Vaudrouille" was actually funny."

Everyone started laughing hysterically again, just thinking about all the funny scenes in the movie. Except they absolutely had to act out all the scenes and jokes which meant they started crying again with laughter.

So basically, the best way to make French people like you is to say "Louis de Funès".
I'm pretty sure it would work on even the most hard-hearted functionnaire.