Updated on October 9, 2024
The best French jokes and puns
This is one of the most interesting but most complicated subjects to transmit. It is often when you try to explain a joke that it loses all its effect. Understanding humor is a sign that you have fully moved from an elementary level in French to a French intermediate B1 level. Do you want to make a funny or silly joke in French? I’ll give you some examples below.
Have you ever tasted these delicious caramels? If so, your dentist must be rich, because it sticks to your teeth. And if not, I suggest you get some, because you won’t only get the caramel… You’ll also get a joke on the inside of the paper when you unwrap the sweet. Carambar jokes are very famous in France, it is especially children who love them and they are passed on from generation to generation. Why is that? Because children love to read the joke inside. Try it yourself:
“Chut” is the sound that French people do when they ask for silence.
Yes, you got it, the Carambar jokes aren’t hilarious and are pretty basic. They often play on French words and phrases. If you are inspired, you can also propose some directly on the Carambar website.
Other kinds of French jokes, still quite childish, are Toto’s jokes. Toto is a boy who goes to school, he often talks to the teacher, and he always responds to situations with an ironic repartee. See for yourself:
La maîtresse dit :
Et Toto se lève.
The teacher says:
And Toto gets up.
La maîtresse demande à Toto :
The mistress asked Toto:
You probably know these jokes in your mother tongue. It’s a pun in the form of “Monsieur et Madame _____ ont un (ou plusieurs) fils/fille, comment s’appellent-ils ?” (“Mr. and Mrs. _____ have a son/daughter, what are their names”). The first names must be said in the right order to form a sentence with the surname.
Here is one that works well:
The French often make fun of their neighbours, the Belgians. The principle of the Belgian joke is to tell a story with a Belgian in it who is going to make a fool of himself by his ignorance by taking everything that is said to the letter. The story is usually told by imitating the Belgian accent.
Why do Belgians go to mass with a bucket of water?
For the Hail Mary. (to wash Mary)
But the Belgians defend themselves well, and also make similar jokes about the French, where they are either silly or arrogant.
How many Frenchmen does it take to unscrew a light bulb? Only one, to hold the light bulb: he thinks the world turns around him!
If we had to define French humour, I think many would define it as follows: without any limits. Everything is acceptable to make a good French pun. The proof, the most listened to radio show in France “Les grosses têtes” is a series of vulgar, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic jokes (even if the presenter is homosexual, he is the first to make jokes of this type). They make fun of everything and themselves in order to laugh and make people laugh.
Alas, French humour has come up against the realities of our current world in 2015 with the attack on Charlie Hebdo. But the newspaper has risen again and its front-page headlines are as provocative as ever.
In short, you’ve understood, humour is everywhere in France. Even in its supermarkets! Monoprix had the good idea to write some tasty puns on the packaging of its products. Read on for more silly French jokes!
Quand on a en besoin Papa est là…
(When we need him, Daddy’s here…)
Let’s finish with a quick selection:
I have a joke about the stores
But it didn’t work very well (marcher = to work / supermarché=stores)
Why are we putting all the crocodiles in jail?
Because crocs deal. (Here the pronunciation is important)
Why do sheep like gum?
Because it’s good for the wool. (Wool = la laine / L’haleine = breath)
A mathematician doesn’t urinate.
He pees. (pipi= twice the Greek letter Pi, same pronunciation in French).
