Characters / Les 2 Minutes du Peuple

Bob Hartley

In real life, Bob Hartley is the coach of the Calgary Flames. In the Pérusseverse he screams creative insults at people. Notably, the real life Bob Hartley found Pérusse's portrayal of him Actually Pretty Funny and gave him his blessing to keep going.

• Burger Fool: At one point ended up managing the interphone of a burger joint's drive-thru.
• Catchphrase: An angry "OUAIS!" (*"YEAAH!")
• The Dreaded: Other characters are generally terrified of him. Played for Laughs.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: The coach variant of this trope.
• Large Ham
• The Nicknamer: Rivals "Le gars qui magasine" in the creativity of his insults.
• No Indoor Voice
• Phrase Catcher: People encountering him frequently drop an "Oh no, not Bob Hartley..."

Detective Bocolon

A parody of Columbo from the days when Pérusse did more TV show parodies. The sketches involving him follow the Reverse Whodunnit formula of the series, though sometimes more focus is put on the murder during the sketch's two minutes than on Bocolon solving it - if he does at all.

• Adaptation Distillation: The sketches often put far more detail on the crimes themselves, but Bocolon still shows up and (sometimes) solves the crime.
• And Another Thing...: Is fond of it, just like his inspiration.
• The Ghost: Mentions his wife frequently, not unlike the actual Columbo.
• Iconic Outfit: The animated adaptations of these sketches in the Série du Peuple give him the coat, oversized tie, and cigar the original was known for.
• Insane Troll Logic: Due to the Surreal Humor of the series, this is often a plausible tactic. A highlight is the time he investigated a man who killed his wife, unplugged his phone and plugged her body in its place, claiming she's an art déco phone. The killer insists to Bocolon that this is the phone, not his wife. Bocolon then arrests him after finding "his wife" (read: the original phone) unplugged and thrown in the trash.
• News Travels Fast: On more than occasion, Bocolon is shown already investigating (if not outright telling the killer about) the murder mere seconds after it has happened.
• Punny Name: "Bocolon", on top of being the swapped syllables of "Columbo" said in French, is also a pun on "Beau colon", a Quebec expression to refer to a moron. The pun may evade the European French audiences, despite Bocolon's sketches being made far more often on that side of the ocean.
• Villain Opening Scene
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Happened on at least two occasions. One culprit straight-up admitted the murder right as Bocolon was giving him the news about it (roughly 10 seconds after it happened, no less!). In another, he just happened to see the murder happen through a window (the killer tried to mask the noise of the murder by turning on the radio, but didn't think of closing the curtains!).

Le gars qui magasine (Guy Who Shops)

One of Pérusse's most popular characters, he's a guy who usually talks over the phone, usually calling various shops and services for information. Things go haywire due to his stupidity, meanness, the stupidity of the sales staff, or all three. He has a girlfriend named Mona. As one of the most famous and longest running character he has a significant amount of characterization.

• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Most of his calls have him try to buy everyday items: A radio, patio equipment, a couch... then others have him attempting to buy a Boeing 747 or the planet Mars.
• Catchphrase: MONA!
  • Also, calling his girlfriend Mona a "brain" ("Heille toé le cerveau") is common enough to count.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The cartoon version of the "Pauvre Père Noël" song has his character significantly smaller than Mona.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the biggest examples in the series.
• Jerkass: One of his main character traits, usually manifested towards his girlfriend or shop staff.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Though sometimes the people he interacts with are so stupid or annoying that it comes across as a coping mechanism for him.
• Malaproper: Frequently mangles common sayings, with his girlfriend correcting him.
• Mall Santa: Played this at one point, he was noticeably nicer to the little kid than he is to adults.
• The Nicknamer: Loves doing this. He regularly calls his girlfriend "Le Cerveau" ("The Brain") but he'll sometimes drop outlandish and overly-complicated nicknames (read: insults) to address people who annoy him.
• No Name Given: He's never named.
• Pet the Dog: When he's a Mall Santa, he's nice to kids, in his own way.
• Too Much Information: Has a weird tendency to reference his sex life with Mona or the porn movies he rents.
• You Don't Look Like You: In the cartoons he has various appearances. When he plays Mall Santa he has a mustache, while in the "Pauvre Père Noël" song he doesn't have one and is abnormally short.

Jean-Charles

Another popular character. An absurdly nice guy who's always eager to help.

• Early-Installment Weirdness: In his first appearance he was very nice and generous with his coworkers but when he returned home he was rude to his (implied to be) girlfriend and told her to shut up.
• First-Name Basis: Only his first name is known.
• Nice Guy: Exaggerated
• Unwanted Assistance: Described by Pérusse as "willing to give you his shirt, but you don't necessarily want it."

Louis-Paul Fafard-Allard

Another popular character. He's the DJ of the community radio station CDKC (A pun on "CD cassés" - broken CDs, or "c'est des cassés" - they're flat out broke). He is legendarily bad at his job and his station has very limited means.

• Self-Deprecation: A meta example, Pérusse himself stated he once worked as a community radio host in his late teens and young adulthood and he was extremely bad at his job, which is what inspired Louis-Paul Fafard-Allard.
• Ultimate Job Security: Despite his obvious incompetence as a radio show host, he has never been fired or had his airtime given to someone else. Possibly justified in that this is a community radio, and not a commercial one.

Mona

Girlfriend of Le gars qui magazine. Often argues with him, usually when he's being an idiot.

• Babies Ever After: Gets pregnant in sketches made around the late 2000s.
• Like an Old Married Couple: It's not mentioned if she's married with her significant other, but they fit the trope of bitching each other yet staying together for over two decades.
• Women Are Wiser: Her general characterization, she often argues with her boyfriend during his dumber moments, to the point where her boyfriend refers to her as "The Brain".

Phil Fredette

An animator for a TV/Radio pastoral religious show that usually airs at the wee hours of the morning on week days. He frequently finds himself replacing Raymond Foublier and having to comment on sports, where he's way out of his depth.

• Catchphrase: "Eh que j'connais pas ça" ^Translation "Oh I know nothing about this." and variations on this phrase. Usually dropped after he showed complete ignorance on hockey topics.
• Ultimate Job Security: Despite having zero knowledge about sports (mostly hockey) he's still chosen as replacement to pick up the calls of sport (usually hockey) fans on radio when Raymond Foublier is unavailable.

Pierrette and her assistant

Pierrette is a relatively old lady working on a cooking show called "Les recettes à Pierette" ("Pierette's Recipes"). Her assistant is much younger. The two do not get along and spend most time throwing cracks at each other rather than exercising their mediocre cooking skills. The show's quality is abysmal as a result.

• Brainless Beauty: It's heavily implied that the younger assistant is rather attractive, but isn't particularly bright.
• Everything Is an Instrument: Some of the gags in their skits involve various kitchen sounds being repurposed to make music, or a kitchen tool somehow starting to produce music.
  Blender whirr noises
  "Oh me and the "Blender in the Night", I find it so romantic.
• Hostility on the Set: In-universe example, this trope is Played for Laughs and is the main schtick of their sketches.
• No Name Given: The name of the assistant is unknown.
• Sex For Favor: According to Pierette, this is how her assistant got her job, and any other job for that matter.
• Slut-Shaming: The bulk of Pierette's insults and degrading comments towards her assistant involve her rather liberal sexuality.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Played for Laughs.

Raymond Foublier

A radio show host who comments on sports.

• Expy: Of radio show host/sports journalist Ron Fournier.
• Malaproper: He's achieved a mastery of these.

Le Trouducteur

A pun on "Traducteur" ^Translation Translator and "Trou du cul" ^Translation Asshole. He's extremely bad at his job and utterly mangles his English-to-French translation.

• "Blind Idiot" Translation: In-universe.
• Good Bad Translation: A meta example, the jokes of his sketches revolve around Pérusse deliberately botching a translation for comedic effects.
• Tactful Translation: He does have the wisdom to do these. For instance, when John McCain starts ranting about "FUCKING ASSHOLES" during a discourse he hesitates a bit and translates it as "chenapans" (roughly meaning "little rascal")
• Translation Train Wreck: His entire schtick.
• Ultimate Job Security: He somehow still gets hired as a translator despite his near-total lack of English comprehension.

Mister Yoko Who-Knows

Yoko Who-Knows is a man who knows absolutely everything, and organizes press conferences to answer questions. Every time the journalists present all collectively decide to ask him ridiculously specific questions on one specific topics such as "furniture salespeople" or "people who know wine and brag about it", much to Mr. Who-Knows exasperation.

• The Omniscient: He's this, but his talents are wasted unfortunately.

L'animatrice de Sexe Conseils (The host of Sex Advice)

The host of hit radio show Sexe Conseils (lit. Sex Advice), who boasts about her 450,000 listeners, and who will disregard any sincere attempt at helping the callers with their sexual problems by instead laughing constantly and cracking puns at them.

• Actually Pretty Funny: Some of the callers actually take her gags pretty well! Then, later on in the series' history, some callers actually contribute jokes themselves.
• Characterization Marches On: In her first skit, she seemed ready to give genuine advice, only turning to laughter and wordplay at the sheer ludicrousness of her callers' issues. In later skits she's cackling before she even starts taking calls.
• The Hyena: You could probably count on one hand the number of calls she's gotten on her show where she didn't burst out into complete hysterical laughter over what she's hearing.
• Jerkass: Has no interest in actually helping people, instead she just laughs and humiliates them live on air.
• No Name Given
• Too Much Information: Is frequently on the receiving end of this, being the so-called advice giver for the various outlandish sexual situations being brought up to her by callers... all the more fuel for her to laugh and crack puns.