Frootch is a French Spotify-exclusive narrative Podcast created by Sarah Treille Stefani, starring As Herself.
Sarah is an aspiring comedian who went to Les Cours Florent (a prestigious French acting school) and is now a teacher of said school. However, she doesn't have any acting project in mind and only has her YouTube channel with a mere 99 subscribers. She records her daily life for her audience as she goes through different hassles in life.
The first season was released in 2019 and a second one came out two years later, the first one following a 30-minute format and the second one following a shorter format. A particular feature in the second season is a variety of special guests playing as themselves. A third (and possibly last) season is in preparation.
This podcast provides examples of:
- As Herself: Many characters are played by their real-life counterpart.
- Sarah is played by... Sarah Treille Stefani (and some of her relatives play under their own name).
- Marc, the classically-trained actor, is played by Marc Tourneboeuf, an actor who studied at the prestigious Cours Florent.
- The second season has some episodes featuring personalities played by themselves (mainly Juliette Katz, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Alex Ramires, Jérôme Niel and Camille Combal).
- Awkward Kiss: On the first date between Sarah and Marc, he acknowledges that there shouldn't be a kiss on the mouth, so he kisses her on the nose, the forehead and the eyes (while making analogies in-between each kiss).
- Bad Date: The second episode (called "The Tinder Date") is one, with Sarah having the most awkward moment with a presomptuous actor.
- Beat: Happens at Sarah's unsuccessful shows or whenever Sarah tells something inappropriate during an event.
- Biography à Clef: Alice, Marc and most of the characters in the second are played by their real-life counterpart but are set in a fictional setting.
- Bittersweet Ending: The first season ends with Sarah failing her first stage show, being scolded by Marc, and arguing with Louise who calls her a failure, leaving Sarah in tears. However, she later gets the call of an agent who attended the show and is interested by her work. A similar ending happens in the second season, with Sarah being set up into a Casting Couch by a producer, flopping a stand-up show and being dropped out by Marc and Jean-Pascal who were her two writers (as well as her shrink Juliette who can't stand her). Benjamin tells her she'll play at a comedy show (promoted by that same sleazy producer) and takes advantage of that to tell her story, ending the season with Sarah finally having a standing ovation.
- Black Comedy: Jean-Pascal Zadi endorses that humour and thinks Sarah could upgrade her stand-up game this way.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sarah talks to her audience, Vlog-style, before embarking in the main subject of an episode (going to a meeting, an event or a date).
- Broken Tears: Sarah, after having a tough argument or making a scene while being drunk.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Sarah goes into a alcohol-induced rant after having a few drinks at parties, leading her to being forced out of the premises and breaking down in tears.
- Casting Couch: The fifteenth episode of the second season has Sarah being set up by a producer who wants to make out with her.
- Character Narrator: The description for each episode is done by Sarah.
- City Mouse: Sarah has a narrow-minded view of rural life when she talks to François.
- Condescending Compassion: Everybody talks to Sarah in a condescending tone, even the ones who try to act nice towards her.
- Content Warnings: The fifteenth episode of the second season starts with the warning that it could hurt people with sensibilities.
- Cringe Comedy: Most of the jokes rely on situations where Sarah is embarrassed by whoever she's talking to, leading to awkward silence (and the audience is either laughing with Sarah or at Sarah). Other times, it is about how Sarah doesn't know what do with her life.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jean-Pascal Zadi (which is also the comedic style of the actual Jean-Pascal Zadi who plays him).
- Doom Magnet: Sarah, who constantly gets into trouble in each episode.
- Dramedy: Particularly evident in the second season which has its moments of comedy but also episodes which don't feature any joke whatsoever.
- Embarrassing Voicemail: During a drunken night, Sarah leaves a voicemail at François at 4 AM. François never tells her what the voice mail is about but Sarah remains ashamed about it.
- Face on the Cover: An illustration of Sarah. Some episodes feature a portrait of the Special Guest as the cover.
- The Finicky One: François is uptight about the treatment of his goats and takes his farm business seriously.
- Gaslighting: Happens constantly to Sarah when she wants to make a point and is interrupted or has words put into her mouth.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: On the second episode, Marc says a German quote out of nowhere. He also doesn't know who wrote it.
- Grumpy Old Man: A female variant with Marc's grandmother who gets incredibly nasty towards Sarah after knowing that she doesn't eat meat.
- In Vino Veritas: Sarah believes that drinking removes people's barriers (and her drinking experience proves it).
- Insufferable Genius: Marc proves to have a wide knowledge about a variety of things, and that doesn't stop him from constantly dropping random trivia in any circonstance.
- Interrupted Intimacy: The fifth episode has Sarah paying a visit to Marc. She discovers that her mother and grandmother are also here.
- Jerkass: Marc and his grandmother.
- Kitsch Collection: Jérôme Niel has a collection of Ricoré boxes he got from his father.
- Large Ham: Marc is way more energetic when she sees Sarah at a park in the second episode of the second season.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Sarah rarely drinks the soup made by Marc during their first date and finds it, instead of calling it disgusting, "curious".
- Married to the Job: François doesn't have a lot of time outside of his job as a farm owner.
- Mirthless Laughter: Sarah constantly laughs nervously.
- Non-Indicative Name: The title, Froutch, is made-up and has no relation to the story.
- Old Flame Fizzle: Zigzagged with Sarah and François, who were childhood friends and meet again twenty years later in a more conflicting context. They later attempt to get back together, to no avail
- One-Word Title
- Rapid-Fire Interrupting: Sarah gets constantly interrupted mid-sentence by her family in the fourth episode.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Most of the characters are based on real-life personalities (who even play as themselves) who talk about real-life events in their career. However, the plot of Frootch remains fictional when it comes to Sarah's misadventures.
- Real Time: All episodes have a continuous time flow and don't use time skip.
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: No soundtrack is heard outside of the opening and ending sequence.
- Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy: Sarah aspires to have her own stand-up show.
- Running Away to Cry: Felix can't stand Sarah's new attitude as a bossing teacher and leaves the class in tears.
- Sadist Teacher: In an attempt to be respected by others, Sarah becomes overbearing as an acting teacher, [[to no success]].
- Self-Deprecation: Sarah casually does it.
- Shout-Out: Since the show is about an actress and her work, most references are related to acting.
- Marc brags about having worked with french actor Denis Podalydès.
- The TV Show Dix Pourcent (also known as Call My Agent) is name-dropped on the fourth episode when Sarah compares the agency she went to with the show.
- Sarah isn't worrying about not getting a job three years after graduating, comparing herself to Florence Foresti whose career took a some moment before getting off.
- Marc's grandmother used to know classic French actor Jean Gabin.
- Marc's mother has a call with French director Eric Toledano. This becomes a huge opportunity for Marc.
- Marc pretends to tell a quote by Louis Jouvet (which the French actor never said).
- French actress Isabelle Nanty is reported to have seen Sarah's show at the end of the first season.
- Benjamin knows French actor Jean-Pascal Zadi and calls him for a casting opportunity with Sarah.
- Sarah steals a joke from Baptiste Lecaplain during the preparation of her stand-up routine, which is acknowledged by Jean-Pascal Zadi.
- Sarah and François used to sing "Something Stupid" by Frank Sinatra when they were together.
- Marc mistakes Jean-Pascal Zadi with French director Claude Zidi.
- The Shrink: Juliette Katz might be one of the worst life coaches to ever exist. She only gives advice to Sarah through phone voicemails and hardly, if not never, supports her patient when she goes through a tough time. To top it all off, she doesn't have any credential. At the end of the second season, Sarah rips her apart on her last stand-up performance.
- Slice of Life
- Speaking Simlish: Sarah speaks in total gibberish in an acting bit written by Marc.
- Special Guest: Compared to the first season, the second one has special guests playing as themselves.
- The first episode starts with Sarah having a therapeutic meeting with Juliette Katz, also known as "Coucou les girls".
- The second episode has Sarah having a call with Jean-Pascal Zadi. They later meet on the fourth episode and rehearse on the sixth.
- The seventh episode has Sarah visiting French TV personality Camille Combal and his friends for the night.
- The eigth episode feature French comedians Alex Ramires, Gérémy Crédeville and Jerome Niel. After attempting to kiss Alex and Gérémy during a drunken night, Sarah sleeps with Jérôme.
- Spoiler Title: The last episode of the first season is called "The flop of the Century", referring to Sarah's show.
- Take That!
- Marc has a strong dislike of vegans and believes in some sort of single thought conspiracy regarding their practice and how it influences the world. His grandmother
- The third episode of the second season has Sarah and her friends taking a part in a game of telling harsh truths about each other.
- Jean-Pascal Zadi trains Sarah's stand-up skills by trash-talking her down.
- Vlog Series: Audio logs, considering the podcast's format. The whole story is about the daily life of Sarah as she records herself before she partakes into socializing.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never know if François did find his missing goat back.
- Wrongfully Attributed: Marc tells quotes and attributes them to the wrong people.
