Marissa Macy Last updated: 7 Funny French Songs to Add Laughs to Your Listening
French music isn’t limited to romantic crooners and cool indie bands.
The French music scene boasts a whole catalog of humorous songs.
A lot of French comedy is about body language and slapstick, so music (and funny dances) are a natural fit.
These seven songs will have you chuckling as you brush up on grammar and pick up new vocabulary.
With everything from dry humor from the 1950s to modern YouTube crazes, there’s bound to be one that tickles your fancy.
Contents
- 1. “Ça plane pour moi” (Everything’s going well for me) by Plastic Bertrand
- 2. “La Tristitude” (Sadness) by Oldelaf
- 3. “Je ne suis pas bien portant” (I’m not in good health) by Gaston Ouvrard
- 4. “Le temps ne fait rien à l’affaire” (Time doesn’t make a difference) by Georges Brassens
- 5. “Moustache” (Mustache) by Twin Twin
- 6. “La complainte du progrès” (The lament of progress) by Boris Vian
- 7. “La chanson de l’humour” (The song of humor) by Natoo
- How to Learn the Language with Funny French Songs
- And one more thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. “Ça plane pour moi” (Everything’s going well for me) by Plastic Bertrand
See the lyrics (in French and English)
The lyrics of this playful song sound a lot like nonsense. While you might not get the best grammar lesson from listening, there’s some vocabulary to take away.
The song also provides a great exercise for French comprehension: the more of the nonsense you can understand, the funnier it gets. Here are some words and phrases to aid your understanding:
- Ça plane pour moi — This phrase literally translates to “That glides for me” in English. It basically means “It’s all going well for me” or “I’m doing great.”
- Nana — While at first glance this seems like it means a nanny or a grandma, it’s actually the French way of saying “girl” or “chick.”
- Bouffer — This is a good verb to use in place of manger (to eat), but it’s closer to “stuffing your face.” In the song, Plastic Bertrand refers to his cat eating its tongue. Pure nonsense!
If New Wave grooves are your cup of tea, check out more of Plastic Bertrand’s songs.
2. “La Tristitude” (Sadness) by Oldelaf
Tristitude is a playful and informal French term that is a blend of tristesse (sadness) and solitude (loneliness). Another appropriate title for this song would have been “First World Problems.”
Some of the tragic things talked about in this song include:
- Quand un copain t’appelle pour son déménagement — When a friend calls you for his move
- Quand des jeunes t’appellent Monsieur pour la première fois — When the young people call you Mister for the first time
- La tristitude…C’est faire les courses le samedi d’avant Noël — Sadness…It’s going shopping on the Saturday before Christmas
If you want more of Oldelaf, check out the song “Le Cafe.”
3. “Je ne suis pas bien portant” (I’m not in good health) by Gaston Ouvrard
If you’re not familiar with your body part vocabulary, then skip the songs for school children and let Gaston Ouvrard lead you through the human body.
With the song making a play on a hypochondriac’s state of mind, it’s essentially a laundry list of bodily ailments. Listen closely for these phrases (he sings fast!):
- bien portant — While it literally means “well running,” it refers to good health.
- C’est embêtant — “It’s annoying.” Most of the injuries and illnesses in this list rate somewhere on the annoying scale.
- Ce n’est pas rigolo — “It’s not funny.” Rigolo is an informal and colloquial word that can be translated to “funny” or “amusing.”
For more oldies from Ouvrard, listen to “L’internationalisation.”
4. “Le temps ne fait rien à l’affaire” (Time doesn’t make a difference) by Georges Brassens
Des cons is a phrase used to call someone an idiot or a fool in French. This song is all about how once you’re an idiot, you’re always an idiot ( “Quand on est con, on est con” )—time and age don’t make a difference.
The song also provides a funny way to learn that sometimes French adjectives go in different places depending on their meaning:
Vous les cons âgés (You the aged jerks)
les cons usagés (the worn jerks)
les vieux cons (the old jerks)
This song plays at the opening of the film “Le Dîner de Cons” (“The Dinner Game,” lit. “Fool’s Dinner”), which is a great film to check out if you want more laughs as you advance your French.
5. “Moustache” (Mustache) by Twin Twin
In this silly song, the singer describes all the great things he has in his life but says he’d give it all up for une moustache (a mustache).
Here are a few things that he boasts about, which pale in comparison to having a mustache:
- Tout les jours, j’ai un nouveau costard — Every day, I’m in a new suit
- Y’a du cuir, dans ma voiture — There’s leather in my car
- Mon corps est une machine de guerre — My body is a war machine
This song was the French entry in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, but apparently, the judges didn’t appreciate the humor enough to choose it as the winner. It made it to the final but finished last.
6. “La complainte du progrès” (The lament of progress) by Boris Vian
According to this song, the best way to woo a lady is to get her fine home furnishings. While this may be a dated way of thinking, this song provides some good laughs, a fun beat and vocabulary for household items.
To give you a few ideas of what the ladies were looking for according to Boris Vian, we’ve got:
Une tourniquette, pour faire la vinaigrette
Un bel aérateur pour bouffer les odeurs
Des draps qui chauffent
Un pistolet à gaufres
Un avion pour deux
An electric mixer to make vinaigrette
A nice aerator to eat up odors
Heated sheets
A waffle gun
A plane for two
For more of Boris, check out his song “Je suis snob” (I’m a snob).
7. “La chanson de l’humour” (The song of humor) by Natoo
Funny songs can be a gateway to the world of French vlogging, as evidenced by Natoo and other popular French vloggers.
This video is a great source of vocabulary about jokes. Here are a few words to listen for:
If you like this one, check out more of Natoo’s songs and funny videos.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
How to Learn the Language with Funny French Songs
It’s no secret that some French songs are hard to understand. Here are a few ways to make sure that you’re getting the most out of each laugh, and getting the most laughs out of each song.
- Sing along with the songs. Why not clear out those old windpipes and get a real feeling for their rhythm? You can use Paroles.net or Lyricstranslate.com to find the lyrics to other French songs. Listen to the song once through to get a feel for it and look up any new words to improve your understanding. Then start singing along!
- Use the translation to understand the jokes. While it’s normally not advised to rely on translations when learning a new language, they can be useful when you have no idea why a song is funny. If you just don’t get the joke, read the English translation of the lyrics, focusing on the jokes and the general comedic tone. Then listen again in French and see if it makes you laugh.
- Write your own funny French song. Find a song you like along with the lyrics. Then write your own funny version by replacing the lyrics with French slang, idioms and humor. To take it a step further, record yourself performing your parody song!
Music and comedy make a great combination that will give you a nice break from your routine French practice.
With these songs, you can test your comprehension and pick up some new slang and casual language.
There’s no better feeling than being in on the joke in a foreign language!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And one more thing...
If you like learning French on your own time and from the comfort of your smart device, then I'd be remiss to not tell you about FluentU.
FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:
Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."
All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
