The Humor of Quasimodo d’El Paris

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Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Richard Berry as Frollo

Do you know the old saying Dying is easy, Comedy is hard? That is so very, very true because what makes people sad is very universal but comedy differs person to person country to country, culture to culture.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo

The French defiantly have their own style of humor. First off the like puns a.k.a witty use of their language. The French love their language. Now my command of French is terrible so I can’t say if they use any Puns in this movie. If you want a witty Pun loving French movie I would HIGHLY recommend Ridicule.

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Melanie Thierry as Esmeralda

The style of French humor that  Quasimodo d’El Paris uses the most it would be more cruel mockery directed at other people. Basically insulting people in over the tops ways. This style of perfectly suited for Hunchback since Quasimodo is an easy target. But the don’t just target him, after all Esmeralda can’t dance.

Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Richard Berry as Frollo

There is also the just plain excessive exageration, which is also a form of humor in other cultures notably in Asian ones. Frollo has a weird sense of exaggeration since he so dead-pan but very over the top about it. I sort of love that style of humor but it a weird on to pin down. I really like the dead pan devilry of “Let’s party”

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo Quasimodo d'El Paris picture image

Patrick Timsit as Quasimodo & Richard Berry as Frollo

The humor of Quasimodo  d’El Paris is very French in style so it’s understandable why other people may not like it but it fit the characters and the style of parody.

The Secret of the Hunchback; That weird Humor

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Frollo and his goon The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Frollo and his goon

If I might generalize for a moment, most Disney Knock-off movies try to capture and fail to make their work as Disneyesque as they can. They do this the first the story, songs, and characters designs. But they lack the charm that Disney has in terms of likabilty and even humor.

Rotten Vegetable vendor The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Rotten Vegetable vendor

While Disney’s humor is very hit or miss The Secret of the Hunchback is very different and it isn’t really trying to be like Disney in the way the approach their silliness.

Bell guy getting bumped on the head The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Bell guy getting bumped on the head

The jokes and visual gags of The Secret of the Hunchback is one of the first thing that you notice about this version, even before the main characters are introduced you get the style of humor.

Andre in drag with some guy drooling over him The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Andre in drag with some guy drooling over him

The humor is more akin to that of Animanicas or saturday morning cartoon. It’s very tough and cheek. From the rotten vegetable vendor, from Quasimodo telling Pierre that someone could get hurt from his poems, to one the thieves dressing in drag and having an extra sexually attractive to him, to Frollo comparing Quasimodo to his first wife,  and lastly Pierre saying that he is a Protestant, which technically shouldn’t have been a joke but they treat it as one. There is more example and more slapstick, plus jazzy gargoyles.

Esmeralda and Pierre The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Esmeralda and Pierre

This humor isn’t the Disney style. It’s  watered Looney tunes humor which makes this version weirdly interesting on that front. Without it would suck so much more but it does add to The Secret of the Hunchback’s over all dumbness.  It defiantly makes it stand out though from just another stupid insipid Disney knock-off.

Next Time Quasimodo

Quasimodo The Secret of the Hunchback picture image

Quasimodo