Image via WikipediaI had a wonderful week with my English students in the little town of Le Mourtis. I was teaching a week-long intensive English course. We had formal lessons, games and activities, and general English interactions. The students tried hard to speak mostly in English. One of the highlights of the week was the game time’s up. This also brought to light a few things I find strange about the French.
- Their love of the Smurfs
- Their love of Queen
- Their love of Jim Carrey not Jerry Lewis
You can read all about it in my Hub Pages article.
Popularity: 6% [?]
-Love of smurfs! Come on, they’re one of the greatest thing coming out of France (ok, they come from Belgium, but nobody has ever heard of the country out of Europe)
-Love of Queen. You mean, the band? Come on, they’re one of the greatest band ever (I don’t listen to them anymore, but I just grew up listening to them… literally. The oldest “non-kid” song I can remember is Bicycle Race.
-Love of Jim Carrey. I didn’t know about this one… But the thing with Jerry Lewis, I never understood why Americans are so obsessed with the French being obsessed with him. Sure he was big in the 60′s, but he was big(ger) in the US too at the time.
Yup, those smurfs, or schtroumpfs in French, are a mystery. Belgium has a huge impact on French culture, and obviously the world. Frites and smurfs. Not to mention all the singers. Wow.
I’m sorry if it sounded like I was passing judgement so strongly. I know probably every Queen song and many I could sing at the top of my lungs, but like you I no longer listen to them. So for me it would be a mystery that they were popular again. It was a bigger mystery to find out they never stopped being popular.
I watched the Smurfs every Saturday morning for years but they stopped being on TV. It would be amusing to find out that they had become popular again. I found it more amusing that they seem to be a part of the French cultural landscape. Not exactly of the highbrow sort Americans envision the French to admire.
Frites et les schtroumpfs et Jacques Brel, vive la Belgique.
You forgot Axelle Red (among others). One of the things that I’ve always found endearing about France is the fact that once one becomes popular in France, they remain popular almost forever. We Americans are quick to jump ship and champion the latest star, craze or technology.
I just Queen on my ipod, and while I’m not a fan of the Smurfs, Ines does love Alf. In fact, the show Alf is partially responsible for his English!
Sorry Owen,
I was just pretending to be offended… (that’s my strange sense of humor, doesn’t always translate well in the written form (and even less in English))
The thing with the smurfs is that in France (and Belgium) they are mostly known as a comic book series, not a cartoon…
So their popularity is very different than the one they have/had in the US.
Here they’ve been famous for several decades without any real peak (well, they were more popular in the 80′s I think, but I’m not too sure about that).
Hmmm. Maybe you should add these in a comment to my stereotypes post!
http://cyberfrance.blogspot.com/2006/10/french-stereotypes-of-french.html
@lost in france, I will get around to it, or you could add them, I don’t mind.
@Michelle, but back in the day did you listen to Queen? I did but in a carefully locked room when no one else was around, I was afraid of being banned from Gilman for listening to Queen.
@David
I have been told many times recently why the Smurfs are popular. I understand it now, but I still find it strange. They weren’t even very good.
@Bob
I tread cautiously here, but who is Axelle Red? Unleash the storm. It is nice that France, and other countries just not the US, have a sense that the latest isn’t always the best. They hold onto cultural icons for longer periods of time and revere them more. Of course this can work against a country too, Johnny Hallyday anyone. The kids in the English class knew a wide variety of music, much more than I, and certainly much more than any American 22 year old would have known. It was refreshing, ‘the kids these days’ but in a good way.