by hilzoy
You may, by now, have heard about the prank call made to Sarah Palin by two Canadian comics pretending to be Nicholas Sarkozy. If not, here it is:
And here’s the Palin campaign’s response:
“Gov. Palin received a phone call on Saturday from a French Canadian talk show host claiming to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy,” emailed spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. “Gov. Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie.”
Now: I do not want to make fun of Sarah Palin over this. (I would be prepared to make fun of whomever it is who screens her calls, but that’s different.) After I first heard this, I tried to imagine being in her position — wondering what on earth was going on, not wanting to say “huh?” to someone who might, after all, be Sarkozy, etc. And sometime around the point at which the non-Sarkozy says” “I love the documentary they made on your life — you know, Hustler’s “Nailin’ Paylin”?”, it seemed pretty clear to me that she had caught on. (That said, I do think she should have known the name of the Prime Minister of Canada.)
What I want to do is footnote the call, because it’s funny. (This was definitely a moment when it would have been good to speak French: she would have caught on a lot quicker. I was in stitches.) Here are the bits I’ve figured out:
“My special American advisor, Johnny Hallyday”: Johnny Hallyday was an established rock star back when I was in junior high. During the Ford Nixon administration. I believe that Jimi Hendrix played his first concert opening for Johnny Hallyday. This YouTube is kind of funny, both for the alarming 60s-esqueness and for the little “Waoww!” bits on the bridge, which for some reason reduced me to hysterics.
Hunting: “Like we say in French, on peut tuer des bebe phoques” — trans.: we could kill some baby seals.
“The Prime Minister of Canada, Stef Carse”: this one I only know because Politico flagged it (though I did know that whatever the comedian said, it wasn’t “Stephen Harper”.) This YouTube is definitely worth checking out: it’s his French version of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’.
I don’t know who the comedian says is the Prime Minister of Quebec, but it’s not Jean Charest.
The song Carla allegedly wrote for Palin: “Le Rouge A Levres Sur Un Cochon”, or: Lipstick on a pig.
Anyone else catch other funny bits?
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Update: not funny, but in the interests of completeness:
From the very beginning: “This is Franck Louvrier; I’m with President Sarkozy…” Franck Louvrier is, in fact, Sarkozy’s communications advisor.
