I just learned about this show, Passe-Partout, that S (and apparently everyone in Québec in his age range) watched as a kid. This generation is even called "Génération Passe-Partout." From my limited glimpse of it, it seems to be something along the lines of Mr. Rogers crossed with Sesame Street, and is very funny to me as someone who did not grow up on it. Along the lines of: "Oh my, I can't believe this song is for real." Check out this link to a Passe-Partout song about vegetables. Hilarious. It's sung by two grown men and goes through a whole bunch of vegetables saying stuff that translates like, "I am a cucumber-ber-ber" and "Yum, yum, yum...I am eager to eat some of them."
WOW.
(And yet, by the end of the song, I found myself wanting to watch it again. And again. What can I say? It's catchy. And ridiculously funny. And you have to see the guy's "bow tie." And it teaches French vegetable vocabulary. So, I wonder why didn't we ever watch this in French I or II? Oh yes, that's right...we only studied French from France. Sigh.)
Aaaah Passe-Partout! This brings me back. It was one of the only francophone shows that us Anglos watched. Oh, those Youtube clips will be addictive, I can already see.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah for sure we are the Passe-Partout generation. In university I happened to have a professor who was one of the writers for the show. He confessed what I had always suspected: it was the early-seventies, so there was a lot of pot involved. Which explains a lot! Not just the vegetables song but also a utterly strange scene I remember in which Passe-Montagne was slowly combing an orange.
ReplyDeleteWe received the DVD at our baby shower, and I tried to watch it, but it seems a little gloomier than what I remember (and I think most stuff from this era has not aged well)... Although LP has surprised us by learning a few songs at daycare and singing them to us (he never watched it)! Hilarious!