Judith et Olivia
- Nos corps sont des instruments comiques!("Our bodies are our comic tools!")
Created by and starring Judith Siboni and Olivia Côte, Vous - Les Femmes was a sketch-format comedy show that ran for five series and 360 episodes between 2007 and 2016.
Heavily inspired by the anarchic and absurdist British sketch show Smack the Pony which was also an all-female comedy ensemble playing in the Theatre of the Absurd, a typical VLF episode on French TV would be an ultra-short cartoonish presentation offering two short sketches each of no longer than three minutes' duration, punctuated by the show's distinctive credits and theme music. The original short presentations have since been repackaged as "standard length" half-hour and one hour shows, and have been extensively broadcast around the world, taken up, among others, by the BBC, who subtitled them for British audiences.
The series came to a definitive end in March 2021, following the sad and early passing of its co-creator, Judith Siboni.
It is also worth stressing that most of the sketches would be Safe For Work. However, be advised that every so often, at seemingly random intervals... online compilations will include some NSFW stuff.
Tropes to be found in the Pause Café include:
- Does This Make Me Look Fat?: Judith Siboni and Olivia Cotê are clothes-shopping together. The visibly slender Judith takes a summer sundress from a rack and asks Olivia for a honest opinion as to whether she'd look fat wearing this. Olivia suggests trying it on. Judith retreats to the changing room. When she comes out, she is visibly about four clothes sizes larger under the new dress.note . Olivia takes a critical look and says "Yes, it does make your bum look a little bit bigger".
- European Version: Not long after VLF began in France, a sketch comedy series in Germany using the same premise began, called Knallerfrauen. And shortly afterwards, there was a licenced Italian version, a local and faithful adaptation of the format, called Cosi Fani Tutte.
- Everybody Smokes: The show takes this as a self-evident truth. This is France, after all.note . Quite often, central actress Judith Siboni is seen nursing a cigarette.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: The show definitely looks this way from outside, as if special care has been taken to make the sketches into visual gems or even, cinematically, to resemble extracts from longer arty French movies. Most of the time the cast are dressed stylishly and more than presentably - even (or especially) when indignities or social humiliation are about to be perpetrated.
- Expository Theme Tune: A jaunty mariachi-flavoured piece, sounding very reminiscent of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire, to which the only words are Vous - les Femmes!note . This runs over silhouetted animations of the girls coming to embarrassing grief in various ways, indicating that this show is about women who try hard (to conform to social expectations) but never quite succeed.
- Fan Disservice: Frequently, Judith and Olivia have taken the roles of single thirty-something women who alternate between hopeful optimism and naked desperation in their search to attract suitable males. While both women are attractive, their attempts to be seductive, alluring and interesting to men frequently fail in ways that can be gawky, awkward, clumsy, gauche and sometimes just plain off-putting. Their characters just try too hard, and it shows. While both have gone wholly or partly naked in the service of visual comedy, it is very rarely titillating. Quite the opposite, in fact.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: Olivia's excessive and histrionic reaction to being advised she puts a little bit too much wine in her coq au vin. She is not happy at all and throws a hurricane-force wobbly about this.
- French Maid: Judith Siboni seeks to spice up her sex life by donning the classic French Maid's outfit
. Unfortunately for her husband, she gets rather too much into character as a maid and begins to spot little cleaning imperfections around the house; she impatiently bats him away as she has become too intent in eliminating a stubborn stain in the carpet - Homage:
- As the show takes inspiration from Smack the Pony, it sets a lot of its sketches in and around swimming baths.
- A sketch where a woman (Olivia) explains to a friend in the swimming pool changing room that she really hasn't bothered to shave very much this winter as there's no point really, (then turns to reveal a small undergrowth of pubic hair escaping from her swimming costume), is lifted completely from Smack the Pony.
- It Amused Me: On the beach, Judith preens and poses and tries to look as sexy as possible, taking time over touching up her makeup before reclining back on her towel to sunbathe in as alluring a way as possible. Several seconds later, Olivia tips a bucket of water over her. Judith splutters indignantly and demands to know why. Olivia leers up close and says "Pour le plaisir!"
- Kinky Role-Playing: There is a recurring gag where Judith Siboni thinks of ever new scenarios to get her husband interested in sex. The problem is that she gets so wrapped up in the role that she loses sight of the reason why she is role-playing in the first place. Dressed as a French Maid, she is distracted by a stubborn stain in the carpet and ignores her husband so as to get the cleaning kit out. Dressed as a stern teacher, she begins the play with a pop-quiz about the capital cities of various countries. Then she becomes outraged that he does not know Lima is the capital of Peru, and ends up sitting him down in front of an atlas for a long geography lesson.
- Manchild: Olivia throws a massive toddler tantrum at being told the shocking truth, that, you know, just now and again, you could be putting too much vin in the coq au vin. She refuses to accept this and rolls around in the grass and mud and dead leaves in the park, a late-thirty-something toddler screaming that she does not put too much wine into her coq au vin, punching and kicking the ground as she does so.
- Naked People Are Funny: Neither of the female leads is shy about taking her clothes off or appearing wholly or partly nude, if it's likely to get a laugh. A typical sketch might involve, for instance, Judith Siboni methodically getting changed at the beach under a modesty blanket - only to emerge, because she couldn't see what she was doing, with her bikini on back to front and both breasts exposed.
- National Stereotypes: One sketch Lamp Shades the fact French people still smoke despite multiple public health drives to provoke them into stopping. Straightaway, the Santé Publique sketch highlights one stereotype - All French People Smoke. It then follows through with another: the only thing known to make French people scream with horror and give up fags is a public health warning on the packet. Fumer donne l'accent Belge. Judith shrugs this off and lights up anyway. Two drags later - she finds herself speaking in a thick unlovely Belgian accent. She shrieks and runs off in panic. Olivia picks up the dropped cigarette and tries it. Then she too starts speaking French with a Belgian accent and shrieks in horror.
- Nipple and Dimed: This show has a moderate (but not excessive) amount of nudity which would make it near-impossible to screen on American television, as in those sketches the nudity is part of the set-up and punchline. Simply, it cannot be edited out or post-produced for American broadcast sensibilities without losing the joke. If anything illustrates the difference between European and American attitudes to nudity, it's a prime-time comedy show where the principal actresses/comediennes going nude is seen as no big deal and a natural part of the comedy. Even the similar British show Smack the Pony stopped well short of its cast doing nude scenes; the comparable British attitude is that people in sitcoms are funny enough in their underwear (if the script calls for it) and should not go any further. note
- Plumber's Crack: The plumber called out to fix the sink in Olivia Cotê's kitchen is wearing disappointingly covering trousers that avert this. But Olivia fancies him. To make this clear, she crouches down next to him on the pretence she wants to see the problem for herself. Sure enough, the back of her jeans gapes and she is wearing the skimpiest possible thong. The plumber makes his excuses and leaves.
- Sexy Silhouette: subverted. The opening and in-between-sketch title credits show the instantly recognisable figures of Judith and Olivia, in (rotoscoped) silhouette. The episodes might start out conventionally enough - Olivia, in a miniskirt, walking along looking chic and attractive - until she picks up something on her shoe and then inelegantly tries to shake it off. Or else she shakes out her long hair in a sexy sort of way - then loses her balance and falls over backwards. Or Judith, looking chic, French and sexy - until her skirt falls off.
- Sexy Soaked Shirt: A wet t-shirt contest is taking place in front of a roomful of rowdy drunken men. The first three or four contestants are received to huge cheers and roars of appreciation, as they parade and do what is expected of them. The fifth girl up is Olivia Côte, who shambles on, hunched over, awkward, gawky and bedraggled, complaining that somebody has just thrown a bucket of water over her and that she's cold and uncomfortable and she doesn't find this funny at all. Seeing the antithesis of a sexy girl parading her best features, the crowd gets restive and starts to jeer and boo. Annoyed, Olivia gets angry, throws her shoulders back and stands up straight, and starts shouting back, the t-shirt now tight across her body as opposed to hanging in soggy drapes. She wins the contest completely by accident.
- Slapstick Knows no Gender: The visual aspects of the comedy ensure that comic indignities happen to both the girls, frequently.
- Straight Man: The girls alternate in the role of the straight man and the comic lead. Frequently, Judith is the "straight man" and butt of the joke, while Olivia delivers the comic punchline or provides some slapstick visual humour. This is not an absolute and the roles have reversed, leading to a lot of Sanity Ball playing where the ball frequently changes hands and is frequently fumbled by both. .
- Wardrobe Malfunction: The girls find they are at the same job interview. When Judith suffers from a severe wardrobe malfunction, of which she is oblivious, it's plain that Olivia is struggling with her conscience and on the verge of telling her. She opts to remain silent and wishes Judith good luck as she goes in. With her left breast exposed.
