Monsieur et Madame jokes

A Monsieur et Madame joke is originally a French type of joke, which takes the form of a riddle. It involves providing the surname of a husband and wife and asking for their child's given name, with the answer forming a pun. For example, Monsier and Madame Mauve are said to have a son called Guy, where his name is a homophone for guimauve ("marshmallow").

History

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The inventor of this type of joke has never been clearly determined. Several historic examples have been recorded.

Origins

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Wordplay that links an actual surname (or a title) to an imaginary family name has been around since the 18th century:

  • In 1770, Marquis de Bièvre invented comtesse Tation and l'abbé Quille.[1]
    • comtesse Tation – same pronunciation in French as contestation ("dispute")
    • l'abbé Quille – same pronunciation as la béquille ("the crutch")
  • In 1882, Alphonse Allais invented Jean Rougy de Ontt, Tony Truand, Tom Hatt, Sarah Vigott, Azutat Laure.
    • Jean Rougy de Ontt – j'en rougis de honte ("I blush from shame")
    • Tom Hatt – tomate ("tomato")
  • In 1893, Christophe from the comic strip La Famille Fenouillard invented Guy Mauve and Max Hillaire.[2]

The game of in-memoriam

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"M. et Mme Hocquard de Tours (I. & V.) have the joy of announcing the birth of their son Adhémar.".[4]
— (a [= elle] démarre au quart de tour), referring to a car that "starts within a quarter turn" (from the time cars were cranked manually).

The first Monsieur et Madame jokes

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They found:

    • Judas ... Nana (jus d'ananas → pineapple juice)
    • Elvira ... Sacuti (elle vira sa cuti → she dramatically changed her mind)
    • Ferdinand ... Saint-Malo à la nage c'est pas d'la tarte (faire Dinan - Saint-Malo à la nage, c'est pas d'la tarte → swimming from Dinan to Saint-Malo is not a piece of cake)[5][6]

Mr. and Mrs. Gre have a daughter, what's her name?
- Nadine! (Gre, Nadine → grenadine)

In French culture

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Music

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The song Le Papa du papa (1966) by Boby Lapointe[7] is based partially on this idea, mixing births, marriages, genealogy, first names and extended surnames in a complicated manner, in order to end up in the last line with a son with the contrived name of:

  • Yvan-Sévère-Aimé Bossac de Noyau Dépêche
    • same pronunciation as: il vend ses verres et mes beaux sacs de noyaux de pêche, meaning "he sells his glasses and my beautiful bags of peach stones"

Comic strip

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Example of a dialogue :

Monsieur et Madame Naiempalépourmoinsqueça ont un fils...

- Jean?

Goscinny / Tabary, La Tête de turc d'Iznogoud

Theatre

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In the 1972 play Le noir te va si bien, Maria Pacôme and Jean le Poulain play a « surname game » (with « Mr. and Mrs. have... »), with the loser having to throw him or herself off a cliff. Following the example (the daughter of Micoton (Mylène)), they successively came up with: the son of Danleta (Alphonse), the son of Teuzemani (Gédéon), the daughter of Enfaillite (Mélusine) and the son of Dalor (Homère).[8]

Other media

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Television series

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This type of word play was also used by Bart and Lisa in their telephone gags, in the series The Simpsons.

In English

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"Mr & Mrs jokes" have been commonly featured in the "late arrivals" round of the radio panel show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 1972, where the contestants announce the arrival of fictional guests.[9] For example, "And will you welcome Mr and Mrs O'Reef, and their wonderful son Great Barry O'Reef!"[10]

Use in speech therapy

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The joke has been employed by some speech therapists as an activity while interacting with adolescents. It may be done in the usual form, or in reverse: the therapist gives the first name, and the adolescent needs to find the surname.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Marquis de Bièvre : Lettre écrite à Madame la comtesse Tation, par le sieur de Bois-Flotté, Etudiant en droit-Fil (1770)". www.miscellanees.com.
  2. ^ "Info" (PDF). ebooks-bnr.com.
  3. ^ Bernard Gourbin, L'esprit des années 60.
  4. ^ Georges Perec, La Vie mode d'emploi, Hachette, 1978, édition Le Livre de Poche, January 2000, p. 291.
  5. ^ Mina Guillois et André Guillois, Le dictionnaire malicieux des histoires drôles: Témoins de notre temps, 2015.
  6. ^ Claude-Jean Philippe, Un rire par jour, Hachette, 1971, 254 pages
  7. ^ on the album Anthologie - Comprend qui peut, 1966, Philips.
  8. ^ Le noir te va si bien – via YouTube. Advance to 11 min 15 s).{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  9. ^ en.wikiquote.
  10. ^ Roberts, Jem (2010). The Fully Authorised History of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue: The Clue Bible from Footlights to Mornington Crescent. Penguin Random House. p. 438. ISBN 978-1-84809-132-0.
  11. ^ "Data" (PDF). docnum.univ-lorraine.fr. 2003.

Further reading

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  • A. Nonyme (pseudonyme), Monsieur et Madame ont un fils, tome 1, Michel Lafon, 1994; rééd. J'ai Lu, 1995
  • A. Nonyme (pseudonyme), Monsieur et Madame ont un fils, tome 2, Michel Lafon, 1995; rééd. J'ai Lu, 1996
  • Michaël Dupont, Monsieur et madame ont un fils, Grancher, 2003 ISBN 2-7339-0824-3
  • Quentin Le Goff, illustrations de Bérangère Delaporte, Monsieur et madame ont un fils, Tourbillon, 2009 ISBN 9782848014654
  • Laurent Gaulet, Monsieur et madame ont un fils ! ou une fille : comment l'appellent-ils ? , First éd., 2010 ISBN 9782754015752
  • Collectif, Monsieur et madame ont un fils, collection « Les blagues culte », Marabout, 2012 ISBN 9782501080125
  • Arnaud Demanche et Stéphane Rose, Monsieur et madame Timètre ont un fils, comment s'appelle-t-il ? : spécial sexe, coll. « Le sexe qui rit », éd. La Musardine, 2014 ISBN 9782842719807
  • Éric Mathivet, 400 monsieur & madame ont un fils : & autres blagues, Hachette loisirs, 2016