Heh.
Mr Rude, a new Mr Men character with a French accent and a flatulence problem, is threatening to put the wind up Anglo-French relations.
The new bright orange cartoon is the first with a foreign accent to join the children’s book and television series, whose more traditional characters include Mr Happy and Little Miss Helpful.
“Oh, parr-donne me!” says the ball-shaped figure in a heavy Gallic accent, after noisily breaking wind in a game where children are invited to pull his finger on the Mr Men website www.mrmen.com/uk.
“Oh, don’t seem soo sur-praased,” he adds, before emitting another fart.
“You pulled it.”
A new series of the Mr Men show, featuring the classic childrens’ characters, is starting later this month on Britain’s Channel Five, which insists it did not intend to offend the French.
“Mr Men is a comedy show for four to seven-year-olds … The fact Mr Rude has a French accent is meant to be light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek and no offence to the French people is intended,” a Five spokesman told the Daily Telegraph.
The French embassy in London refused to comment, but a source quoted by the paper said: “It is obviously meant in a light-hearted way but it won’t improve Anglo-French relations.”
A spokeswoman for Chorion, the show’s makers, defended the use of a French accent.
“It is a kids’ comedy show, it is not meant to be offensive or anything like that,” she said.
In the late 19th century a French baker, Joseph Pujol, who could break wind at will, played to packed houses with an act that included imitating animals and blowing out candles, styling himself Le Ptomane, or “fartiste”.
Yeah, that’s why they gave him a French accent.
Who wrote this report? Mr Oblivious?
