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MYTHS

Parisians poke fun at themselves in exhibition

Who says Parisians have no sense of humour? The city of Paris this week launched a public exhibition of cartoons, intended to poke fun at the foibles and follies of life in the capital city, mocking natives, tourists and expats alike.

Paris has a reputation for  being a joyless place at times, and locals are not often praised for their ability to take a joke, or get involved in the kind of banter that English-speaking expats and visitors are accustomed to.

A new public exhibition, however, looks likely to cause a few laughs, as residents of the capital are encouraged to take the you-know-what out of themselves, as well as tourists and expats.

“Les Parisiens,” a series of 50 cartoons from the hand of Japan-born artist Kanako Kuno, was launched on Wednesday in collaboration with the city of Paris, the “My Little Paris” website, and Editions du Chêne.

The panels, which play out typical snapshots of daily life in the City of Light, will be displayed until August 28th on 1,000 billboards and bus shelters in famous parts of the city such as Champs Elysées, Saint-Germain-des-Pres, and in Montmartre.

One cartoon shows a café terrace packed with diners, uniformly staring at the sky, wearing shades and phoning a friend, with the caption: “Hurry up! They say there’ll be seven minutes of sun.”

Another shows a couple stuck in a queue outside a popular breakfast spot, as the server tells them happily: “For brunch, I have one table left, at 6pm.”

And anyone who’s ever tried to take a taxi in the city late at night will recognize the pair of lovers kissing on a rooftop, the Eiffel Tower gleaming in a starlit sky behind them, as the caption reads: “Must remember not to miss the last Metro.”

Every caption is displayed in both French and English, so that tourists and non-francophones can get in on the joke, and appreciate that Parisians, despite their reputation, are funny people.

“There is this cliché that Parisians are serious and rude,” Amandine Péchiodat, from My Little Paris, told The Local.

“And because it's so powerful, tourists come here and only look for that kind of behaviour. What I want them to know is that, actually, Parisians have a great ability to laugh at themselves,” she added.

And laughter, it would seem, is the main goal of “Les Parisiens,” as Lionel Bordeaux, deputy communications director for the city, told French TV TF1.

“These billboards have no purpose other than to make people laugh,” he said.

“We’re always putting up notices about serious stuff like social housing and AIDS prevention. It’s nice to be able to have a bit of light relief, and to take a comical and critical look at the lives we lead,” he added.

For her part, Kuno, who moved to Paris from Tokyo in 2005, insists that her cartoons, despite sometimes being bitingly funny, are born out of a love for the city.

“Living in Paris is wonderful…I love Parisians who don’t act particularly ‘Parisian,’ and aren’t really trendy,” she said.

“Like an old gentleman sitting outside a café with his dog, but not far from him, there’s this really glamorous girl. I love these little snapshots of life,” she added.

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COMEDY

Does humour really exist in German-speaking Switzerland?

It’s the perception of many foreigners, that in the cold calm controlled social landscape of the German speaking cantons, humour does not exist. But it does, writes Shane Norton, who runs comedy nights in Basel and Zurich that are taking place this weekend.

Does humour really exist in German-speaking Switzerland?
Photo: AFP
It’s not that Swiss Germans don’t have a sense of humour it’s just they bury it very deeply below a shield of neutrality and politeness.
 
Give them time (think years rather than minutes) and you’ll finally get to it. In stark contrast to my own British culture, humour in German speaking Switzerland has a clear time and place.
 
And that place is not public, it’s confined to loved ones and friends and as we know, making friends in Switzerland takes time.
 
And as foreigners that’s hard to understand. When I first arrived, I started work and after just two weeks my colleague came to me with a stern warning.
 
They had noticed something bad in my behaviour.
 
Her claim “When we have meetings, for the first five minutes you make jokes”, I stood there feeling shocked as she explained “and it just comes across as you don’t take it very seriously.”
 
So I apologised profusely and promised to take things very seriously and stop making jokes. Later that
afternoon. The managing director for that part of the business came in and she jumped out of her seat, she was like “Herr Müller, it is so nice for you to come visit us. Let me introduce you to our new colleague, Shane Norton, he's an expert is this, that and everything, we're so happy to have him he’s been such a great help”.
 
To which I replied, “Don’t listen to her, I only make the tea”.
 
He didn’t even blink, her shoulders sunk and I stood there realising that old habits break hard.
 
In its most obvious form, Swiss German humour consists of an apologetic inward self-depreciation, dig deeper and you’ll find much of the normal venting of sarcastic frustration.
 
 
Shane Norton. Pic Shane Norton.
 
 
I once got told by Swiss colleagues that I had the Swiss German humour down perfectly. I don’t know how I did that, innine years of living in Zurich and speaking German, I’ve hardly seen it.
 
My colleagues’ comments can only lead me to think that the stripped-down British humour that I now deliver is now comparable to Swiss humour.
 
After years living here and countless awkward reactions I feel I have shed many of the fine things in British humour that the Swiss don’t understand.
 
Double meanings, extreme points of view, dry faced irony and full absurdity have all been weened out to leave nothing but grumbled sarcasm.
 
You see those things don’t go down well in a country that values neutrality, reliability and harmony.
 
You can’t mock a colleague, without breaking neutrality and risking their feelings.
 
You can’t present a strange and wacky idea, if people will believe you. And you certainly can’t get wild, noisy and outspoken without upsetting the Swiss social harmony.
 
And as is so common, it takes a foreigner to break that social harmony.
 
I never wanted to become a comedian. I just told jokes and Swiss people pulled up chairs. In other countries, if you tell a joke, people tell jokes back.
 
In Switzerland, you need immigrants for that. And that’s how it happened.
 
 
Rather than being one of the joking Brits, in Switzerland, I commonly found myself being the lone entertainer to groups of laughing Swiss Germans. So finally, I thought I might as well take it to the stage.
 
That was all a little over one year ago. It’s been a whirlwind since with weekly shows, a developing repertoire and a slow return of my comical freedom, which has seen me develop a growing ease to once again say what
 
I want, express my emotions and act outside the socially expected Swiss boundaries, albeit all within the safe boundaries of the stage.
 
The Zurich scene has exploded since then, with numerous open mic nights and professional shows.
 
The number of performers is growing and audiences can’t get enough. I think there is a huge demand with laughter starved expats who know the world can be different and open mind Swiss people who realise the world can be different.
 
The Swiss germans in our ranks are getting funnier, but in my opinion, they’ll always have an uphill struggle while the strong social pressure to conform remains.
 
Shane Norton is organiser and host of Comedy Kiss’s English-Speaking Stand-Up events. His new
series “The Big Comedy Kiss” is premiering this weekend on Saturday at Theater Fauteuil in Basel
and on Sunday at Labor5 in Zurich. Headlining the show is award winning UK comedian Alun
Cochrane alongside Scottish Comedian of the year finalist Grant Gallacher. Also appearing will be
local comics Eddie Ramirez and Jack Roberts, there to ensure a local twist and a good laugh at the
expense of local Swiss people and expats alike. Find more details under www.comedykiss.ch
 
 
 
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