OK, if you're not French and/or are less than 40 years old this photo won't bring any memory. But if you are, I am sure you already have a smile on your face... These two characters, called Les Shadoks, became a major French TV phenomenon in the late 60s where they would appear every night around 8 pm - if I recall well. They were birds, pretty stupid and rude and they were supposed to have left their two dimensional planet to come on earth. One of their major occupation was pumping but nobody - including them - knew exactly why! I found these two ones on rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, #71 (11th arrondissement) where Jacques Rouxel, the late "father" of the Shadoks used to live.
Happy New Year, Eric!
ReplyDeleteAre you back in Paris?
Oh, my goodness!!! Now there is a blast from the past! For some reason, I thought they were blue originally? Superbe design, though. Maybe, behind these doors lives a baby-boomer ...
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I'm not familiar with this but great looking character.
ReplyDeleteSame question: are you posting from Boston or are you back in Paris.
ReplyDeleteI'm still in Boston, will be back in Paris Thursday morning.
ReplyDeleteThey look so familiar, but can't imagine where I've seen them before. Hey, do you think the owner of the rights to these characters live behind these gates?
ReplyDeleteHow fun! They remind me of the little guys that used to be in Mad Magazine.
ReplyDeleteSusan--You're right, they do!
ReplyDeleteEric--While I'm quite a bit over 40, I don't have the honour of being French, tho' I love France in my heart as my second patrie, so, my question is, does anyone know of any online videos of the characters?
I'm relieved to see you posting pics of Paris again. You got a little creative yesterday, which is fine, but still--I get the sense that people were worried.
ReplyDeleteSilly me! Sometimes I'm a bit slow! Did a google vid search and found a few episodes!
ReplyDeleteI'm Chilean and just under 30. You guessed right... I don't know Les Shadoks...
ReplyDeleteBonjour Eric,
ReplyDeleteThe birds were Crows in English - shiny black birds which are huge, larger than a magpie but in the magpie family, as are kurrawongs (en Australie) - can't remember the name they were called but I recall the cartoons et oui, moi j'ai plus de cinqante ans!! Mon mari, M. Benaut, a plus de soixante ans! Il est le grandpere de William!
What is "pumping"? I'm not familiar with that term or the birds. They are cute though.
ReplyDeleteSusan: There is no real logic behind it, but I think - if memory serves - these Shadok things were always saying "on pompe, on pompe." (we're pumping, we're pumping.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the joke behind it was. To tell the truth, I can hardly remember the characters.
Duh.. I just realized... Is there no such word as "pumping"?
ReplyDeleteOK. I mean by that the action of activating a pump, like you would if you were inflating a bicycle tire or something. On pompe, quoi! :-)
And, yes, I absolutely do realize how silly it sounds. That was kind of the point :->
ReplyDeleteBelated best wishes for 2007 to Eric and all those who contribute to - or lurk at the margins of - Paris Daily Photo!
ReplyDelete"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it."
Johann Wolfgang Goethe
I vaguely remember them - I was born in Australia (more than 40 yrs ago!!) so not sure why this is so?? Maybe they came through from the BBC??
ReplyDeleteI'm a great fan of those absurd birds ;o))
ReplyDeleteOne important lesson of shadock philosophy :
"The more you try, the better chances you have it'll work in the end. So the more you fail, the more you succeed."
Thanks for the picture ;o)
En fait si les shadoks sont là c'est parce qu'il y a leur studio dans cette cours.
ReplyDeleteShaddocks is my youth. These crzy birds where living in a strange planet, they were illogical, anti-cartesian. a shaddok' s philosophy :" you have 1 chance to 1.000.000 to succeed, try to fail 999.999 times to succed ! " OK, I know : " je pompe, je pompe ! " . Happy new year everybody.
ReplyDeleteThey remind me of the popular blackbirds called "Heckle and Jeckle". They were rude and stupid. As I recall they were always in trouble. The cartoons were very funny, indeed. The photo is great fun to see. Happy New Year, Eric and fans.
ReplyDeleteThe goal of their pumping was, as Eric said, to reach Planet Earth and leave their stupid planet. Because of big number of changing of their planet shape, they were atrocious number of Shadock dying by falling out of their planet.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing was also famous because of Claude Piéplu telling the story, he's one of the most famous voices in french.
I kinda hated the Gibis, who were arch enemies of the shadock, animals pretty much like dogs with a melon hat. These were very intelligent, and had the same goal: planet earth.
And I'm 26! Shadock is not a matter of age: it's a matter of loving silly stuff or not :)
lesshadocks pompaient et ils pompaiente l'impompable...
ReplyDeleteWell of course i wouldn't know what you're talking about Eric because i'm simply too young! (ssh! I'm sticking to that one) - great pic!
ReplyDeleteI adored them. And I agree that Claude Piéplu's voice made the show. I'd love to get a hold of old episodes of Les Shadoks - a true classic of French popular culture.
ReplyDeleteHeckle and Jeckle Johnny? Ooooh! Thanks for reminding me about them; i absolutely adored them. I'd love to see them again.
ReplyDeletelol lynn! You stick to that, for sure! Around 7 or 8 years ago I was friends with the owner of my favorite coffee shop ever (pity it was forced to shut down) and he insisted that he was no older than 35. He'd been 35 since at least the '60s! And you know what? He may not have looked 35 (he did look young for his age, though!), but he certainly had the stamina and energy of a 35 year old!
ReplyDeleteObviously I'm neither French or over 40, but these guys and the premise of their show sounds very familiar. Doubtful I've ever seen them, though. Perhaps a rip off show from another country? Dunno, but they sre are cute!
Have a safe flight home, Eric!
I found this site, but no videos yet...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lesshadoks.com/
Yes hurry home to us Eric - we need you in Paris again, we've lit the fire haven't we Soosha and have fresh croissants and coffee and a gorgeous cheese board waiting for you. I wish. :(
ReplyDeleteWell, that 35 year old had the right idea, Soosha. I've been saying 32 with tongue in cheek to my sons for so long now i think they no longer have a clue themselves how old i am! And yes energy and stamina doesn't seem to be a problem as yet. Big wink. ;)
ReplyDeleteoui ils pompaient ils pompaient et ils n arretaient pas ! mais gegene et les gibis ou sont ils passés ?
ReplyDeleteil existe des videos des schadocks que l on trouve a la fnac... je suis un fan :-)
all the best
pascal / parismarais.com
Lynn and Soosha - I usually say I'm 25 (before tax)!
ReplyDeleteYou can watch the videos on Youtube.com just do a search for "shadoks". Thanks for introducing me to these très ludique characters.
ReplyDeleteWell, I found where Eric took this photo by looking for the studio of the Shadoks. Located at 71, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine (Paris 11ème) it is called the "La Cour des Shadoks".
ReplyDeleteAs Eric mentioned, it is the location of the old studio of the creator of the characters. If you're interested in purchasing an apartment in this courtyard, you can click here to have all the details. However, it looks like this was a project in 1999, so probably they are already sold.
Happy New Year!
ReplyDeletetrès sympa ton blog, je le suis régulièrement meme si je suis Parisienne d'origine j'apprécie ta façon de montrer la capitale ^^
HEY! I wanna jump into this partay!!! HI Eric in Boston & Hi GANG!
ReplyDeleteJust had to add that I'm not French or over 40 and have NEVER seen these cute little guys and have never let the word "pumping" come out of my mouth! How exactly is the word "liar" defined in the dictionary? LOL! ;-)
HAHAHAHA!
Hurry back safe and sound Eric...and watch out for those Bostonian drivers...SCARY! LOL! ;-)
Sorry to all your Bostononian fans out there...I LOVE YOUR CITY!
=)))
Funny how Eric makes you feel little-girl-like isn't it ; kind of a whiney "...when's DAD coming home?" - well not, clearly, if you're a boy. So when ARE you home ERIC? We've nearly eaten all the croissants! I've saved one for you, it's wrapped in a napkin in my pocket (ugh yes i know) but that SOOSHA well she's got her eye on it - so hurry! I can't hold it for..ev...ER... NO SOOSHA GET OFF!
ReplyDeleteDe-lurking to say that this is a fascinating subject! I don't quite understand the pumping - I mean, I understand they did it to get to Earth, but how exactly did they do it?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind seeing more photos of this beautiful courtyard, Eric!
HAPPY NEW YEAR Eric and PDP friends!
I agree with Tomate Farcie, I remember them blue ! They were great ! I was young at the time and now understand from the comments why I did not understand much about the Shadoks.... I loved them anyhow and my dad also.
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric !
Bises
The Shadoks are "pumping", doing complicated, tiring and useless things, according to their own logic, which is far away from the initial purpose.
ReplyDeleteKids find it funny, but it is also funny for adults, because the hopeless shadoks' story is a hint to all human activity...lol
Basically, the competition between Shadoks and Gibi (or Gibbi?), comes from the competition between 2 prestigious french military schools "Saint Cyr" and "Ecole Polytechnique".
The names Shadok and Gib(b)i are close to the names of the respective hats weared by the students of those schools.
Interesting comment Haxo (as usual ;) but now I really wonder if there is a connection between "on pompe, on pompe" and the word "pomper" which used to be slang for students cheating on exams (I think?)
ReplyDeleteTF
Je retrouve ton blog avec d'autant plus de plaisir que j'adore les Shadoks
ReplyDeletethe shadoks seem to have caused quite a stir...and i just realized that i actually had a dream about them the other night after reading this ... can't quite remember the details as... i'm over 40!!! :@) ..something about them transforming into 3-D characters ... oh well...must've been deep ... :~>
ReplyDeletebarbara
Sorry, been busy! lynn, dah-ling, it's not the croissant I was after in your pocket! ;oP
ReplyDeleteMichael, I'm ure you're not a day over 28, so you go on and keep telling people you're 25!
Ooh saucy Soosh! Well, you were quite persistent, now you come to mention it. I thought when you wrestled me to the ground it was my confectionery you were after! lol
ReplyDeleteI do love confections, but not croissants!
ReplyDeleteshadok! les devise de shadok sont trop drôles. merci pour la photo
ReplyDeletefriend new poem poetry
ReplyDelete