Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* A recent{{when}} Dunkin' Donut commercial is a [[Take That]] to this trend, where befuddled would-be customers of what's obviously Starbucks walk out of the line because they can't speak "Fritalian".

* An advertisement for New Zealand language month featured a couple talking to each other in sultry French. The subtitles revealed there was something wrong with their car, and ended with "I dunno. I'm not a bloody mechanic."

* A fake ad, but one of the pitch ads on [[The Gruen Transfer]] used the classiness of the French language to sell ''urine''.

 

* In the dub of ''[[Baccano!]]'', [[Raven Hair, Ivory Skin|Chane]] [[Knife Nut|Laforet]] has a french accent...[[Cute Mute|as an inner monologue]]. Then again, the [[Monica Rial|voice]] sure helped. YMMV on her father [[Eric Vale|Huey]] [[Mad Scientist|Laforet]].

* ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'''s one and only France, of course!

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieXEZM-Lt7A&feature=related C'est vrai. Je suis Kira.]

* This trope is parodied in both ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' and ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', by Tamaki and Femio respectively. Given that they're voiced by the same guy in the English dubs...

* ''[[The Familiar of Zero]]'': According to Kirche, this trope is inverted. From what she says, Germania (which could be [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|that world's]] [[Captain Obvious|Germany]]) is the land of sexiness and passion.

 

* ''[[Y: The Last Man]]''. Yorick's fidelity to his fiancée Beth is tested when riding in the back of a pickup with [[I Sound Like a Retard In English|Russian agent Natalya]], who starts unbuttoning her shirt in the heat... "And would you mind not muttering to yourself in Russian, your accent is disturbingly sexy." (Ironically she's actually talking about finding the dead body of her husband).

** Possibly a bit of an aversion; Yorick accused French of being the opposite of the [[Language of Love]], calling it it chauvinistic. (Which is actually a bit of [[Truth in Television]])

{{quote|'''Jon:''' None of the girls I called want to go out with me on New Year's Eve. ''(beat)'' Maybe if I called them again and used a French accent...}}

 

* Want to see this trope in action? Go to [[YouTube]] and search any song in the [[Disney Animated Canon]] in another language and then compare it to your native one. Seriously. Compare [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkIdM9bXef8 French][[Characterization Tags|!]]"Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKOJ5bEKPLY&feature=related German][[Characterization Tags|!]]"Be Prepared" to their [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKrAA6cwzzY English] variants.

** The French and English versions of "Can you feel the love tonight?" have ''completely different'' lyrics. Probably due to trying to fit an existing melody.

*** This may be a common thing with French dubs of Disney movies; the French lyrics for Hellfire, the [[Villain Song]] in [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|Hunchback of Notre Dame]], are significantly darker than the English ones. And with this song, that's saying something.

** And the french version of the song "[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Prince Ali]]", to make things "worse", also has a hilarious [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] moment: the Genie spouts the line "Il y a du monde au balcon!" (roughly "there's quite some people at the balcony") just as we see three well-endowed girls swooning over Al on a balcony. And that expression is also an "elegant" way of saying that a woman has, erm, [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|large... tracts of land]].

* ''[[Le Divorce]]'' is named in reference to this trope.

** Though the person doing the preview's voiceover apparently couldn't be bothered to learn the proper French pronunciation, saying the first word as "lay" (which would be how one would pronounce "les", the plural article) rather than the proper "luh" (or close to it).

** Possibly also because Otto just knows scattered words and phrases in Italian, while Archie is actually fluent in Russian.

** Averted in that Kevin Kline asked for Otto's dialog to be changed to French because he (Kline) [[Completely Missing the Point|actually knows the language.]] John Cleese refused.

* In ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded'', the Merovingian states:

{{quote|"Château Haut-Brion 1959, magnificent wine, I love French wine, like I love the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favorite -- fantastic language, especially to curse with. ''Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère''. It's like wiping your arse with silk, I love it."}}

'''Woody:''' What about Hebrew? }}

* In ''[[Police Academy]]'', George Martin, third generation American, pretends to be Hispanic to get girls. It works.

 

** Given the extravagance of culinary French, this is not even [[Lost in Translation]].

* Bill Bryson noted this with the descriptions on a box in ''Neither Here Nor There'', that the Italian translation sounded pleasant and romantic, and something you might order in a restaurant, while the German text sounded "coarse and bestial", like something yelled at you in a prison camp. All the more amusing because the box in question was for a blow-up sex doll, and notes the same is often true (to his ear anyway) of more wholesome and mundane things. Ordering a coffee ''mit schlag'' may not sound particularly desirable to English speaking ears, yet is perfectly innocuous.

* [[Older Than Steam]]: [[wikipedia:Samuel Pepys|Samuel Pepys]] used to write the more... ''interesting''... passages of his diary in French or Spanish.

* A similar thing occurs with one of the only full translations of ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'' into English. All the sex is in [[Altum Videtur|Latin]].

 

* ''[[The Addams Family]]'': The French language has an aphrodisiac effect on Gomez Addams, no matter who (or [[Weirdness Coupon|what]]) said it:

{{quote|'''Gomez:''' Why Morticia, that's French!

* An episode of ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' had the guys picking up their tuxedos for Walker's wedding. After one of the guys complements the tailor on his skills and asks if he learned them in Italy (where he claims to be from), an amused Walker reveals that the man's name is something wholly dull and American and that he learned his skills in prison. Upon being released and determined to turn his life around, the man opened a store and used the Italian translation of his name, correctly surmising that this would make people flock to his store.

 

* French death metal band Eths subverts this trope [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afhbfvdDSw8 pretty] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR0T-CPgdf4 damn] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7dM7okmeZc hard].

** Possible exception (?): their song "Entends Tu".

* [[Julien-K]]'s song "Systeme De Sexe": a [[Intercourse with You|blatantly sexual]] song, with one of the verses being a woman speaking/moaning in French. See also: the title.

 

* An episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' featured a guest, French singer Charles Aznavour ([[Mobile Suit Gundam|Char Aznable's]] namesake), who demonstrated to Kermit how easy it is to seduce women by saying anything, ''anything'' in French to them.

{{quote|'''Kermit:''' Wow, what did you just say? ''(meanwhile, Piggy is swooning)''

'''Charles:''' I said, "Your oil filter has a leak and your transmission is sagging." -- Now watch this, I'm going to tell her the phone number of the Paris garbage dump. }}

 

* [[Kenny Everett]]'s character Marcel Wave was a Gallic charmer with an overinflated ego. On one occasion he pronounced "EEC" as "Ehh! Ehh! Sehhh!" and commented that "Ze French letters are so much more exciting."

* The ''[[National Lampoon]]'' radio show/lp records had a mock ad for the Indianapolis Academy of the French Accent, promising a better life from speaking in a sexy cool accent.

 

* In ''[[Peer Gynt]]'', Ibsen has a quartet of characters representing national stereotypes of the English, German, French and Swedish. When the Frenchman makes a comment in his native tongue, the German comments (Ibsen being sarcastic), "Oh! French is such a stiff language."

* The finale of the 10th anniversary concert for ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]''. Compare the performances of all seventeen singers, all singing lines from the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4924xJl38E same song.]

 

* In ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]'', we have a few instances where something is referred to in Spanish to make it seem cool and dangerous, such as ''El Pollo Diablo'' ("The Devil Chicken"). To further drive home the fact, you have four conversation choices in a dialogue on the subject: "What?", pretending to be El Pollo Diablo, and the translations in Spanish of the first two options.

** There's also an option to have Guybrush say "ouch!" in a (fictional) foreign language -- "Papapichu!" -- ''every time he gets hurt''.

* Waka in ''[[Okami]]'' speaks with a French [[Funetik Aksent]], even though the game doesn't have any recorded voices.

 

* A ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' Halloween toon has a potion that turns Homestar French, whereupon he instantaneously seduces a delighted Marzipan. "A-yesh, Mahzipan, let us away to mah chateau in the Fantastique Mountahns!"

 

* In ''[[Troy]],'' the title character's mother (from Ohio) calls and his Hispanic roommate answers the phone. When she's intrigued by his accent and asks him to say something in Spanish, he says several things such as "My garbage can is overflowing and stinking up the kitchen." She swoons nonetheless.

 

* Used in [[That Guy With The Glasses|Benzaie's]] "Working at Channel Awesome" sitcom, where what he's saying both is and sounds violent... but it's in French, so at least one of the girls still swoons over it.

** His entire character seems to be [[Anything That Moves|based on this]].

* Inverted in ''[[Ilivais X]]''. Mille Chanteau has a blatantly French name and happens to speak French, but she doesn't have an accent and hardly ever says anything in French. She gets around regardless.

 

* In an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', the Simpsons are stranded in a jungle, making their way downstream on a raft. They pass natives staring ominously at them. We see the natives discussing something in low, scary voices. According to the subtitles they're discussing helping the travellers, possibly offering them some food.

** In another episode, Lisa asks an Russian man for directions. He proceeds to spew angry proclamations that leave Lisa running for her life. Subtitles indicate that he was giving her the directions. "What's her problem?" Taking it an extra step, the man resumes and is beaten in a game of chess by his companion. After flipping over the chessboard, he yells "Good game, how about another?!"

* In a ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode, a fashion designer gets Candace to model his outfits and he flatters her by calling her his "cou de crayon". It's not until the end of the episode that she learns it translates to "pencil neck".

 

* What would you rather drink in a chic cafe — coffee with milk or "café au lait"?, not to mention that both "Chic" and "Cafe" are <s>derived</s> directly copied from French.

* [[Isabel Allende]] lampshades this culinary version in her book about eroticism, ''Aphrodite'', saying that everything sounds aphrodisiac (and tastier) when said in French: "Is not the same serving mushrooms with garlic than serving ''champignons à la provençale'', bread toast with egg fish than ''croque-monsieur au caviar''."

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Language Tropes]]

[[Category:Accent Tropes]]