[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frenchandsaunders.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Creator/DawnFrench and Creator/JenniferSaunders]]

A British comedy sketch show that was widely popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ''French and Saunders'' was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities and art. The duo continue to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been successful starring in their own shows. French went on to star in ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley''. Saunders won a BAFTA, an Emmy Award and international acclaim for writing and playing the lead role of Edina Monsoon in ''Series/AbsolutelyFabulous'', which led to her minor cameo roles in the American sitcoms ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' and ''Series/{{Friends}}''.
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!!This series provides examples of:

* CrossCastRole: Many of the parodies involve Dawn and/or Jen playing male characters, for example [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Dawn as Gandalf and Jen as Frodo]]; [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Dawn as Obi-Wan, Jen as Qui-Gon]]; or [[Music/GunsNRoses Dawn as Slash, Jen as Axl]].
* TheDungAges: Featured in one of the regular sketches.
* EnglishRose: Parodied in a fake commercial for an actress advertising a how-to book, as the way she exploits her career is most definitely not the way an English Rose is supposed to act.
* LampshadeHanging: In the ''Gone with the Wind'' parody, they talk about how bad Scarlett's accent is.
* LaughTrack: A sketch (featuring Dame Creator/HelenMirren and Creator/JuliaSawalha) parodying sitcoms had the incessant laugh track constantly interrupting the already terrible punchlines, ruining the timing of the actors by cutting them off when they were speaking, until they got annoyed and walked off the sketch.
* LongRunner: 20 years, not counting the 2009 UsefulNotes/ComicRelief special.
* {{Parody}}: They did a series of parodies of films such ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'' and ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''.
* ParodyAssistance: A sketch parodying ''Series/DoctorWho'' (featuring two extras playing alien guards having a SeinfeldianConversation while the set is redressed) was actually shot on the set of "Trial of the Timelord"; the ''Series/DoctorWho'' season being made at the time.
* PlayingATree
** In the sketch with Jennifer and Dawn playing extras, Dawn complains she's "Fed up with being typecast as 'woman', or 'tree', or whatever."
** In a number for the French & Saunders ShowWithinAShow that's supposed to be from ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'', there are actors actually playing trees.
* ShowWithinAShow: The first series followed the (fictional) unbelievably low-budget cringey 'French & Saunders Show' that consisted of frequent {{epic fail}}s. This got increasingly meta; for instance one Season 4 episode is based around a ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise'' pastiche, in which the story is that they're filming a ''Thelma & Louise'' pastiche, but get stopped by an actual policeman, and much to Jen's horror, Dawn decides to keep going with the plot of the film.
* StylisticSuck: The fictional ''French & Saunders Show'' in general, and many of the parodies in particular (for instance, in the parody of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'', when the ForcedPerspective used to make Frodo seem noticably smaller than Gandalf keeps on not ''quite'' working.)
* SpiritualSuccessor: Consider this a live action ''Series/TheMuppetShow''.[[note]]Both appeared in an episode of ''Series/TheStoryteller'', no less.[[/note]]
* TimeShiftedActor: In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' parody, Toby-Jugs Kenobi (French) wants to know if she'll grow up to become Creator/AlecGuinness.
* WallpaperCamouflage: Played for laughs in a sketch parodying some current CostumeDrama. Part of a pair of curtains turn out to be our heroines' voluminous dresses.
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