3

I am looking for small comedy skits in French language. I need this to learn French and also act the skit for my teacher. It would be great if I have some links to some website containing these skits.

2
  • Les mots d'Éric et Ramzy si tu veux désapprendre c'est pas mal. De l'autre côté du spectre tu as le Professeur Rollin.
    – Knu
    Mar 8, 2016 at 3:30
  • @pradeept : a famous French tv seri youtube.com/… As it’s on youtube, automatic translation is available through subtitling. Jan 20, 2017 at 12:09

2 Answers 2

7

Comedy in French quite often rely on play of words, regional / foreign accents and idiosyncracies, or pre-conceived ideas tightly linked to the French culture. This is definitely not the easiest way to learn the language.

However, if you are a motivated beginner, you can look for sketches by Raymond Devos, Pierre Desproges or Daniel Prévost, which in my opinion are easiest to understand.

For an intermediate level, you could be interested in sketches by Jamel Debbouze, Gad Elmaleh, Florence Foresti or Anthony Cavanagh. But keep in mind these comedians have or fake accents, and often use slang.

And for very advanced levels, you can try the best of them all : Coluche.

5
  • 2
    Let's maybe add to these already good references just this one : Pierre Dac (perfect and clear language, but maybe slightly harder to find). May 11, 2013 at 2:42
  • On another note, I'd find Jamel Debbouze much harder to understand for a foreign learner than Coluche. (I like them both very much, that's really not the point please let's not fall in that trolling trap) May 11, 2013 at 2:44
  • @RomainVALERI Really? Well, I might be biaised because I was a kid when I heard Coluche for the first time (and almost didn't get a word of it), while I kind of grew up with Jamel later in my teen years, and the slang he uses is the exact same slang I use(d) everyday. And thanks for reminding me of Pierre Dac! May 12, 2013 at 15:56
  • I'm 37 and still have issues understanding Djamel. I also (and probably it's related) hardly laugh at him, but that's another story. From my point of view, Raymond Devos is also very hard to understand, a lot of very complicated play of words. That said, it seems you just forgot (or omitted) about almost 2 decades of comedians in your list. I would suggest Pierre Palmade, Muriel Robin, Bigard, Anne Roumanoff, patrick Timsit, Elie Semoun, Elie Kakou; And for the more recent ones, Jeremie Ferrari, Olivier Debenoist, Arnaud Tsamère. This list is of course also very incomplete...
    – Laurent S.
    Mar 10, 2016 at 16:57
  • Not an omission, just an overlook from my side. That's definitely a list of comedians worth looking into for an intermediate level, and I'd also add Les Nuls and Les Inconnus, for which material can be very easily found online, perhaps even more than the others. Mar 16, 2016 at 15:14
3

Like Alexis said, it might be hard to learn French with Comedy Skit since most of humorists rely on slang and "inside-jokes" of the culture they are talking to.

I would like to add some to his list, mostly people from Quebec, since that's where I'm from.

If you want really short sketches, I think François Pérusse is a good choice. You can find most of his work on Grooveshark right here. He made a lot of « 2 minutes du peuple » both in Quebec and France (so sometimes you can even compare the same sketch in Quebec French and France French).

Else, you could go for sketches written by some very well known stand-up comics like Yvon Deschamps, Louis-José Houde or Martin Matte.

If you really want a challenge, and you are up to analyze the texts after listening them, I would consider listening to Marc Favreau and his famous character Sol. His sketches are very well known but could be hard to understand as they play a lot with the meaning of words. His text L'Adversité is very well written (Sorry I couldn't find a better source).

You might also want to watch this small sketch with Marc Favreau which is an educational and funny episode from a TV show meant to teach [English] students basic French linguistics. The first 8 minutes get you through the whole sketch with translations and then the last 6 minute are the same sketch without any stop (so you can see if you remember).

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.