On n'demande qu'à en rire ("We ask only to laugh at it"), often abbreviated as ONDAR, is a French sketch comedy talent show created by comedian and TV and radio host Laurent Ruquier and produced by him and Catherine Barma. It involves little-known aspiring comedians performing before a panel of judges (the "jury") for the chance to return to the programme. Each of the four jury members scores them out of 20, as does the audience: the scores are added together, and comedians with at least 60/100 may return for future broadcasts.
The show has been broadcast daily on France 2 for four series, starting in September 2010. For the first two, daily shows were presented by Laurent Ruquier, who acted as the fourth jury member and scored the participants, but in the third the position was taken over by Jérémy Michalak, who does not score them. In the fourth, Michalak was replaced by Bruno Guillon.
ONDAR has spawned prime time specials, the ONDAR Show (a spinoff in which the best comedians performed without judges; it was critically panned and did not return) and the series finale gala at the Casino de Paris. The daily shows ended in 2013 to make way for the new current affairs talk show 18H Précisément, but ONDAR was brought back for a fourth series in 2014 after France 2 failed to get comparable viewing figures from other shows. The show is not expected to return for a fifth series.
Aside from a few rare YouTube Fansubs, no consistent translation exists, and the series has never been broadcast in an English-speaking country.
This show provides examples of:
- Attending Your Own Funeral / Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Jérémy Ferrari in this sketch
. - Audience Participation Failure: Played for Laughs by Mr Fraize when he holds out his microphone to the audience while singing Cock Robin's "The Promise You Made" badly (in English).
- Back to Front: Arnaud Tsamere's sketch about a "backwards house".
- Black Comedy: Jérémy Ferrari.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:Jérémy Ferrari: I do tennis and gang rape.Arnaud Tsamere: Oh my, tennis?
- Broken Record / Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: "Les limites de la spéculation philosophique et théorique de l'expérience de la gomme quantique à choix retardé"
- Broke the Rating Scale: During a live show in which their votes did not count, the jury decided to all give Olivier de Benoist zero points: this lead to Laurent being told that they had not yet voted, since 0 is presumably the default setting. When Éric Métayer revealed his score out loud, the production team caught on and displayed their 0s.
- Care-Bear Stare: Jérémy Ferrari drives Arnaud Tsamere mad by literally dressing up as a Care Bear and spewing sweet talk.
- Catchphrase:Laurent Ruquier: On n'demande qu'à...Audience: EN RIRE !
- Arnaud Tsamere's "Quoi ?!"
- Clip Show: France 2's "best of" compilations.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Arnaud Tsamere is known for his Surreal Humor and whimsical themes, as well as telling long, rambling stories.
- Cringe Comedy: Mr Fraize.
- Disabled Means Helpless: Spectacularly averted by Guillaume Bats in Jérémy Ferrari's "Adoption for Dummies" sketch, when he displays a Fagin-like savviness of how to extort people by begging.
- Disapproving Look: Catherine Barma, if she finds a joke in poor taste.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral" / Lonely Funeral: In this sketch, Arnaud dances to Patrick Sébastien's "Tourner les serviettes" at Jérémy's funeral, which nobody else came to.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: Tsamere's name ("sa mère" means "his/her mother" in French) is sometimes jokingly translated into English (or German).
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: When Arnaud Tsamere's stuffed Snowy (Milou) is kicked off stage during Garnier and Sentou's sketch, he has to go and retrieve it from a female audience member.
- Gratuitous English: Many sketches have used English, often deliberately badly.
- Handicapped Badass: Guillaume Bats.
- Hurricane of Puns: Arnaud Tsamere's popular food sketch (explanation here).
- I Want My Jerk Back: Arnaud Tsamère in the "Jérémy Ferrari is a Carebear" sketch. "Come back, buddy!"
- Last-Name Basis: There is a sketch about ''tutoiement'' and ''vouvoiement'', based on Daniel Cohn-Bendit's tutoiement of François Hollande at the European Parliament.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Tsamere and Ferrari, with a splash of Vitriolic Best Buds thrown in.
- Live Episode: The Prime Time specials, and formerly once a week to allow the public to vote by telephone.
- Mirror Routine / Slapstick: Garnier and Sentou in "Tintin in 3D".
- The Napoleon: Host Jérémy Michalak is often picked on because of his height.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Arnaud Tsamere, Garnier and Sentou went undercover to prank Laurent Ruquier and the jury by posing as a new group called "Les Potes'H"; despite prosthetic makeup and a change of dress and voice, including Tsamere shaving off his trademark goatee for the first time in 7 years, they were recognised within minutes (leading Arnaud to walk off stage) and there was no big reveal.
- Pen Name: Arnaud Tsamere is listed under his real name, Arnaud Tsedri, in writing credits.
- Poor Communication Kills: In this sketch, Tsamere believes Ferrari to be dead because he misunderstood a TV programme about Ferrari in the Grand Prix.
- Product Placement: Played with when Tsamere offers Ferrari Laurent Ruquier's book Vu à la radio.Jérémy Ferrari: Can't I have your watch instead?
- Score Screen: Each judge's score is revealed on a display on their podium; the public's score is counted up to build suspense.
- Averted when Arnaud Tsamere spilled water on Catherine Barma's and she had to shout out her score.
- Averted when Arnaud Tsamere spilled water on Catherine Barma's and she had to shout out her score
- Snub by Omission: Laurent converses with Jérémy Ferrari when he appears on the show in a duo with Arnaud Tsamere, neglecting to talk to the latter. The leads Arnaud to say "I'm here too, by the way!"
- Spinoff: The ONDAR Show, which allowed the show's best performers to do sketches by themselves, with no jury.
- Spy Speak: "The Queen of England is knitting."
- Studio Audience: They vote for contestants, and often boo scores lower than around 16, or even lower than 20 if everyone else has given it.
- Surreal Humor: Arnaud Tsamere.
- Talent Show
- Translation Convention: Lampshaded by Arnaud Tsamere while playing Jack Bauer talking to the President of the United States:Arnaud Tsamere: Yes, one euro 99. I know we're in the US, but we've been speaking French for five minutes!
