Camping it up in French (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Camping it up in French
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

sonsenfrancais Groupie United Kingdom sonsenfrancais. Joined 5979 days ago 75 posts - 85 votes Speaks: French^C2	Message 1 of 2 23 July 2009 at 11:02am \| IP Logged
	No, not spending a rainy summer under canvas... There's a traditional type of English humour where the comic adopts an 'effeminate' voice, and the hand gestures of the exuberant gay. I hasten to add - to avoid offending anyone - that this is not at all homophobic humour. Great comics like Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams were greatly admired by the British, and achieved cult status. I thought the French didn't do this type of humour at all, but I saw Pierre Palmède recently in a sketch where a gay army recruit tries to persuade his Colonel to change the uniforms from dingy camouflage green to something more chic. So - two questions for the sages of this forum. Can anyone come up with an French expression for 'camp' and 'to camp it up' ? Idiomatic for preference. Secondly, have there been any French comics in the 20th century who have made this a hall-mark of their act ? 1 person has voted this message useful
DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6151 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian	Message 2 of 2 23 July 2009 at 12:05pm \| IP Logged
	In the case of Frankie Howard and Kenneth Williams, I don't think they adopted the manner of an exuberant gay, as both men were actually gay, but had to keep it hidden. Homosexuality being illegal in Britain until 1967. I believe the words can be translated as le style camp/l'humour gay as detailed here. [EDIT - I just realised your from the UK, so you may have know this already. I can't think of any comic who was or is camp but not gay. Some camp presenters only realising the latter fact later. E.g. Dale Winters] Edited by DaraghM on 23 July 2009 at 12:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful

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