As some of you may know, I happen to live in France. This is for numerous reasons that include wine, garlic butter and much better weather than we get in England! The one thing the French are not renowned for, however, is comedy. I was discussing this fact with my local 'Boulanger' (Pascale the baker)who informed me that the French in fact love the English sense of humour, and surely I was a fan of 'Mottay peeten'. I assured him I had heard of no such comedian but he pursued this line of discussion with much zeal,eventually ending in a French adaptation of the dead parrot sketch from none other than Monty Python! I have to say that this is one of my favourite Python sketches but it took on a whole new dimension when performed in French amongst a queue of old ladies waiting for their daily Baguette! In short, the French seem to be gaining a sense of humour which I have to say seems to be diminishing in the English speaking parts of the world. Clever comedy seems to be being replaced by foul mouthed sexually explicit ranting, television in particular seems to be the worst culprit. Thank goodness the likes of the dead parrot sketch are still being remembered somewhere in the world, even if it is in the most unexpected of places! I'm going to go and buy my daily Baguette now, I wonder if I can persuade Pascale to do the Ministry of Silly Walks?
Cheers,
Ed Halliday
Author of The Expected Demise of Bernard Fish, The Grinning Dog ,Burnt Toast and Bent Noses and the almost perfect plot