"C'est good for you, c'est bad for me"
July 15, 2014 9:37 PM Subscribe
"C'est La Vie" an ABBA parody by French and Saunders. A tiny bit of pitch-perfect delightful fun for your Tuesday evening.
The specific Abba song, and video, that it is -- devastatingly -- parodying is, of course, Knowing Me, Knowing You
Which is a brilliant song, and reminded me that ABBA was in fact that brilliant. Apparently the trick of a band is to record albums as relationships are collapsing. (see Fleetwood Mac, Rumors.) I'm not sure I'm happy about this, but the music that comes out of it is amazing.
Also, they were my gateway into Kirsty MacColl
Right, I have to go there.
You scumbag, you faggot, you cheap lousy maggot
Merry Christmas my arse, pray God it's our last.
If there's an afterlife, I pray you have the best one, Kirsty MacColl. Justice has failed you.
posted by eriko at 11:00 PM on July 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Nothing can really compare to Jennifer Saunders as Alanis Morissette
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:11 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:11 PM on July 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
god that might have been the funniest thing i've seen in weeks
posted by PinkMoose at 12:01 AM on July 16, 2014
posted by PinkMoose at 12:01 AM on July 16, 2014
That was hysterical.
(And not to derail, but there's never been an FPP on Kirsty MacColl. How is that even possible?)
posted by mochapickle at 12:41 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
(And not to derail, but there's never been an FPP on Kirsty MacColl. How is that even possible?)
posted by mochapickle at 12:41 AM on July 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
Hilarious. Love ABBA, love the parody, it is so spot on.
posted by marienbad at 1:28 AM on July 16, 2014
posted by marienbad at 1:28 AM on July 16, 2014
I recently watched Psychoville, in which Dawn French is amazing.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:59 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:59 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Nailed it. Which is important because ABBA is the best!
posted by oceanjesse at 4:03 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 4:03 AM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Seconding the "no FPP for Kirsty MacColl"?
Anyway, French and Saunders was always more miss than hit for me, but they gatewayed me to Kirsty MacColl and Rowland Rivron thanks to the 'cabaret' portion in the shows where "Kirsty and Raw Sex" would run through some covers, Kirsty being the perfect foil for Rowland and Simon Brint.
Something Stupid (YouTube), Trains and Boats and Planes (YouTube), are up. Wish there was more...
posted by ewan at 5:15 AM on July 16, 2014
Anyway, French and Saunders was always more miss than hit for me, but they gatewayed me to Kirsty MacColl and Rowland Rivron thanks to the 'cabaret' portion in the shows where "Kirsty and Raw Sex" would run through some covers, Kirsty being the perfect foil for Rowland and Simon Brint.
Something Stupid (YouTube), Trains and Boats and Planes (YouTube), are up. Wish there was more...
posted by ewan at 5:15 AM on July 16, 2014
Love French and Saunders, and this video is awesome, but laugh tracks on filmed videos are hard for me to sit through.
That said, here's my annual Xmas fb post (with Alison Moyet!)
posted by Mchelly at 5:50 AM on July 16, 2014
That said, here's my annual Xmas fb post (with Alison Moyet!)
posted by Mchelly at 5:50 AM on July 16, 2014
Apparently these "cabaret" sections were put in to exploit some sort of BBC programming loophole, where sitcoms and sketch shows could be differently classified and differently funded if they included a musical segment. Which is delightfully daffy and British, and led to things like Amazulu or John Otway inexplicably turning up in the middle of The Young Ones to play a song, with the cast riffing off the performance.
posted by running order squabble fest at 7:23 AM on July 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by running order squabble fest at 7:23 AM on July 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
The other French & Saunders parody I remember vividly is their version of Shakespear's Sister's Stay With Me: original, F&S.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:03 AM on July 16, 2014
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:03 AM on July 16, 2014
Ah, that equally vocally talented duo, Shakespear's Sister.
(This is actually pretty unfair - Siobhan Fahey has a perfectly workable contralto, and I think a lot of the criticism was based on her voice being low, rather than poor. It is funny, though.)
posted by running order squabble fest at 8:17 AM on July 16, 2014
(This is actually pretty unfair - Siobhan Fahey has a perfectly workable contralto, and I think a lot of the criticism was based on her voice being low, rather than poor. It is funny, though.)
posted by running order squabble fest at 8:17 AM on July 16, 2014
Apparently the trick of a band is to record albums as relationships are collapsing. (see Fleetwood Mac, Rumors.)
Also, the entire career of X.
posted by lumpenprole at 10:03 AM on July 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Also, the entire career of X.
posted by lumpenprole at 10:03 AM on July 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
French & Saunders (the TV show) was very much hit or miss.
French and Saunders (the creative people, together or alone) are two of the funniest people on the planet.
HOW HAS NOBODY MENTIONED VICAR OF DIBLEY YET
Also: one season of The F-Word, French came to dine at Ramsay's restaurant. And snogged him but good. Cheeky!
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:11 AM on July 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
French and Saunders (the creative people, together or alone) are two of the funniest people on the planet.
HOW HAS NOBODY MENTIONED VICAR OF DIBLEY YET
Also: one season of The F-Word, French came to dine at Ramsay's restaurant. And snogged him but good. Cheeky!
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:11 AM on July 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
HOW HAS NOBODY MENTIONED VICAR OF DIBLEY YET
BECAUSE ITS ENORMOUS POPULARITY UTTERLY BAFFLES ME.
Seriously: it always seemed to me like precisely the kind of safe, nice sitcom that F&S's alt-comedy cohort rebelled against in the 1980s.
(Although I think secretly, deep down they all really loved The Good Life; it was just so ubiquitously representative that it was the obvious target for Vyv's rant.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:27 AM on July 16, 2014
BECAUSE ITS ENORMOUS POPULARITY UTTERLY BAFFLES ME.
Seriously: it always seemed to me like precisely the kind of safe, nice sitcom that F&S's alt-comedy cohort rebelled against in the 1980s.
(Although I think secretly, deep down they all really loved The Good Life; it was just so ubiquitously representative that it was the obvious target for Vyv's rant.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:27 AM on July 16, 2014
It's so charming though!
I'm still ambivalent on whether I liked Vivian Vyle though.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:43 AM on July 16, 2014
I'm still ambivalent on whether I liked Vivian Vyle though.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:43 AM on July 16, 2014
Apparently these "cabaret" sections were put in to exploit some sort of BBC programming loophole, where sitcoms and sketch shows could be differently classified and differently funded if they included a musical segment. Which is delightfully daffy and British, and led to things like Amazulu or John Otway inexplicably turning up in the middle of The Young Ones to play a song, with the cast riffing off the performance.
Ah, well this explains a lot. I could never figure out why they kept having some band suddenly turn up out of nowhere and do a song in the guys' living room.
posted by Naberius at 12:33 PM on July 16, 2014
Ah, well this explains a lot. I could never figure out why they kept having some band suddenly turn up out of nowhere and do a song in the guys' living room.
posted by Naberius at 12:33 PM on July 16, 2014
I'd love to know more about the BBC "variety criteria".
The Young Ones wikipedia article alludes to it (and notes that the one episode that didn't feature a musical guest qualified as variety by including a lion-tamer) but doesn't provide any citations to back it. TVTropes has a very similar description. Every other article on The Young Ones repeats the same unsourced claim.
Was this a real thing? or is it an alt-comedy urban legend?
I could never figure out why they kept having some band suddenly turn up out of nowhere and do a song in the guys' living room.
I dunno; I think it fit quite well into the show's absurdist anarchy.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:01 PM on July 16, 2014
The Young Ones wikipedia article alludes to it (and notes that the one episode that didn't feature a musical guest qualified as variety by including a lion-tamer) but doesn't provide any citations to back it. TVTropes has a very similar description. Every other article on The Young Ones repeats the same unsourced claim.
Was this a real thing? or is it an alt-comedy urban legend?
I could never figure out why they kept having some band suddenly turn up out of nowhere and do a song in the guys' living room.
I dunno; I think it fit quite well into the show's absurdist anarchy.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:01 PM on July 16, 2014
Was this a real thing? or is it an alt-comedy urban legend?
It fits in with the sort of number-crunching philosophy that often bedeviled other shows such as Doctor Who. And the claim did sneak in to the BBC's own obit for Mayall yes News division, so there's that. Also this Independent (fact checked?) listicle about BBC2.
posted by dhartung at 12:03 AM on July 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
It fits in with the sort of number-crunching philosophy that often bedeviled other shows such as Doctor Who. And the claim did sneak in to the BBC's own obit for Mayall yes News division, so there's that. Also this Independent (fact checked?) listicle about BBC2.
posted by dhartung at 12:03 AM on July 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
The specific Abba song, and video, that it is -- devastatingly -- parodying is, of course, Knowing Me, Knowing You.
Au contraire. It sounds more like "The Winner Takes It All".
posted by grubi at 2:34 PM on July 17, 2014
Au contraire. It sounds more like "The Winner Takes It All".
posted by grubi at 2:34 PM on July 17, 2014
It sounds like "The Winner Takes it All," but it looks like "Knowing Me, Knowing You." It's a parody of both.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:15 PM on July 17, 2014
posted by ocherdraco at 3:15 PM on July 17, 2014
And other elements of ABBA - much as the Shakespear's Sister parody pulls bits out of several of their videos. So, for example:
I have way overthought this.
posted by running order squabble fest at 3:49 PM on July 17, 2014
So like a Danish prince in olden timesSeems, in its awkward citing of high school English Literature, to be a reference to "Waterloo".
Are we to be or not to be?
I have way overthought this.
posted by running order squabble fest at 3:49 PM on July 17, 2014
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I always found F&S a little hit-and-miss; but at their best they were really, really good.
(Also, they were my gateway into Kirsty MacColl, who appeared a number of times on the show.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:50 PM on July 15, 2014 [3 favorites]