the people's 2 minutes

If you speak French, you'll probably enjoy this this parody of "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country" by a comedy sketch group called Les 2 Minutes du Peuple (The People's 2 Minutes). In the Trek vid, several things happen in rapid succession. Among them:

Chekov tells Kirk he has a funny joke; he starts to tell it ("There's this dude who--") but gets cut off by Valeris, who asks where Spock is. Kirk says he doesn't know, and when he asks Chekov to continue after the interruption, Chekov shrugs, "That was it."

Valeris tells Kirk she thinks that Spock is increasingly unhappy with the Enterprise crew; Spock appears. Kirk tells Spock he's never thought of him as an organic being (this leads to a brief interlude with sped-up organ music-- get it?). Spock insists he is organic, despite being unable to cry. Kirk goads Spock into revealing what he thinks of Kirk overall as a human being, but cautions Spock to keep his comments general, and to avoid personal attacks. After some prodding, Spock finally reveals his repressed fury, letting loose with a stream of insults including "coward, liar, brainless, stinky, cretinous," and concluding with "small dick!" ("I said not to make this personal," Kirk chides.)

Spock confesses that he thinks he's going to cry, but that he doesn't know how. Kirk encourages him to try: "It'll do you some good." Spock attempts to cry but succeeds only in making strange noises. He then reveals to the bridge crew that he had a girlfriend on Vulcan: Spockette. Last name: Cigarette. Kirk jokes at the expense of Vulcans; Spock attempts a lame guffaw, which prompts Kirk to observe that Vulcans don't know how to laugh, either.

The Enterprise is hailed by the Klingons, who issue an ultimatum to which Kirk responds, "My answer is that your face looks like an asshole." The Klingon boasts, "That's because I'm showing you my asshole! Here's my face!"-- at which point we see the face of Chancellor Gorkon.

There's more, including a lame "teleporter" (i.e., transporter) joke at the end.

The French-language Wikipedia entry about Les 2 Minutes du Peuple is here. For true geeks, a French-language article on Vulcan mind melding (la fusion mentale vulcaine) is here.

The Trek video is a decent sample of francophone humor, which often has a lot in common with the groan-inducing sight gags and puns of the Zucker Brothers. The folks behind The People's 2 Minutes are Québecois, if I'm not mistaken. The Wikipedia article notes that their sketches are broadcast in different versions of French for different French-speaking countries.

This 2MdP Columbo parody is also hilarious.

The "chérie, passe-moi le revolver qui est sous le fauteuil!" part of the video had me busting a gut.


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