The other day, The Country Boy looked at me with relative shock as I burst out laughing. I’m not without humor; it’s what made me laugh that made him so confused.
Le Grand Journal is Canal+’s “news” program in the evening, but the weather girl speaks with a strong Québécois accent and spends her entire segment making plays on words that I don’t understand, much of the weekly world news is presented by marionnette puppets — with a Sylvester Stallone puppet playing every American–, and the “on location” segments involve the journalist asking famous people from Anna Wintour to François Hollande to take strange dares.
In related news, France may be the birthplace of irony.
I don’t really like watching Le Grand Journal. I’ve assimilated fairly well into French culture — at least, that’s what I’m currently trying to convince the French government–, but if there’s one thing that still eludes me here, it’s the humor. You can’t just translate French jokes and have them still be funny — although apparently the opposite works, because when I told TCB about one of my father’s favorite phrases — saying an ugly person has a “face for radio” — he burst out laughing and didn’t calm down for a good two minutes. But French jokes — like French conversation, really — involve something different, something elusive, something that, for me, still remains very foreign. La culture générale: general culture.
It’s telling that, in France, when you say to someone, “I’m not an idiot,” what you actually say is, “Je ne suis pas sans culture“: I am not without culture. Here, the difference between “smart” and “intelligent” that isn’t really made in American English is very, very evident. Smart implies wit, a vast sea of knowledge and the ability to call upon the appropriate reference at the appropriate time. Smart is important here if you want to follow a conversation or laugh at a punchline… and I’m still left grinning like an idiot at the end of most of them.
Which is why I think it was so important to TCB when, during a Petit Journal skit, I cracked up laughing. To explain it would require a lot of lengthy references. I will say that it involves Zaz and the German occupation of Paris (I didn’t say that French humor was always light). Maybe it’s because ever since we visited Normandy, I’ve been reading up more and more on the occupation. Maybe it’s because we’ve just started watching Un Village français, a series that charts the occupation in a small French village. Maybe it’s a combination of these things or none of these things and I just found la légèreté sous l’occupation française to be funny. Who knows?
What I do know is that I sometimes laugh at French jokes. I’m shocked, on occasion, when I see an American do something that I deem American — talk loudly, order off-menu, drink soda with a meal — , and then I wonder how long it’s been since I did the same, or if I ever did those things at all. I do the crossword in French now. It’s no New York Times, but it’s something.
Bento Bowl (ingredients per person)
60 grams uncooked sushi rice
1-2 tsp. sushi vinegar
1 chicken breast
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup prepared seaweed salad
1/4 cucumber
1/2 avocado
1 sheet nori
2 Tbsp. salmon roe
1 tsp. sesame oil
sesame seeds
salt
Prepare the sushi rice according to package directions. Mix with the sushi vinegar and place at the bottom of a salad plate.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Season the chicken breast with salt on both sides and cook until browned on the outside and cooked through on the inside, about 4 minutes per side. Set aside and allow to cool slightly before slicing.
Finely slice the cucumber on the slicing side of a box grater or with a mandoline. Toss with a heavy pinch of salt and place in a strainer. Allow to drain slightly while you finish preparing the other ingredients.
Remove the avocado flesh from the skin with a spoon and slice into lengthwise strips.
Use scissors to cut the nori into strips.
Slice the chicken and place on the rice. Place the seaweed salad and avocado on the rice. Press down on the cucumber to remove any remaining water, then place on the rice. Sprinkle with the nori strips and spoon the salmon roe into the middle. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top and drizzle with sesame oil. Serve with soy sauce on the side.
