Téléfrançais fantastique!

After (perhaps rashly and unwisely) quitting my job as a telesurveyist, I am now taking library and information technician classes at Algonquin. I'm having mixed feelings about this program so far and I'm sure I'll write about it in potentially career-limiting detail later (ideally once I figure out how to get my full name off of my Google account), but for now, the important part is that I'm taking a French class.

I took core French up until grade ten and have not used any of it for the last eight years, so it's pretty rusty. Rusty to the extent that yesterday while doing an activity on futur proche, I wrote a whole paragraph about what I am going to do demain thinking that demain meant today. Needless to say, I do not have class on Saturday and my whole paragraph was fundamentally flawed/full of lies.

When I mentioned to Paul that a classmate had suggested watching children's shows for French practice because 1.) they use basic vocabulary and 2.) they repeat everything until your ears bleed, he drew my attention to Téléfrançais, which I've heard of before but don't personally remember. After watching a few episodes, though, it's pretty much my new favourite thing.

For those who were, like me, robbed of this beautiful childhood experience, the premise of Téléfrançais is that there is this wide-eyed and somewhat aggressive pineapple who lives in a junkyard and speaks French. Neighborhood children Jacques and Sophie have parents who clearly do not love them or care about their welfare and thus these kids spend all of their time hanging out with the talking pineapple, occasionally leaving the junkyard to have age-appropriate adventures such as skydiving, foraying into the forest alone, etc. They also spend a lot of time having circular discussions about whether or not things are possible. Sample dialogue:

Jacques: Et tu parles? Ce n'est pas possible!

L'ananas: Oui, c'est possible.

Jacques: Non! Ce n'est pas possible!

L'ananas: [angrily wielding cane] Oui, c'est possible!

Téléfrançais is basically what would happen if Tommy Wiseau and TVOntario ever had a baby. And if all of this hasn't already sold you, you should probably know what the ananas looks like:

Paul changed my iPhone background to this picture the other day when I wasn't looking.

I've been asking around and people in my age group seem to either have super vivid memories of this show or have no recollection whatsoever. I asked my mom if she remembered my watching this as a kid; she responded with complete certainty that there was no way in hell I ever saw it because she would remember my subsequent nightmares. While this may have been the case at age four, it's twenty years later and I'm pretty sure this pineapple is going to change my life for the better.