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Têtes à claques

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Le Willi Waller, one of the most popular shorts

Têtes à Claques is a Canadian humour website created on August 16 2006. Over one million short videos are watched per day, making it the most popular francophone website in Quebec.

The creator, Michel Beaudet, has expressed surprise at the popularity of his site, and has said it has reached a size he would never have dreamed of.

Description

The characters are all sculpted from modelling clay, and are fairly simplistic. Michel Beaudet creates the figures himself, and superimposes his own moving eyes and mouth on their faces using a computer. This gives them their characteristically ugly appearance. In addition, Beaudet has a box of fake, grotesque teeth, which he puts in while his face is being filmed. The phrase tête à claques translates loosely as someone who is highly annoying or someone with "a face so ugly, you want to slap it" (i.e. "a face for slapping").

The site has also become very popular in France, not only because of the intentional humour and wit, but also because of a stereotypical Quebec French pronunciation, which can differ greatly from pronunciations used in France.

History

Beaudet has said that "Têtes à Claques was an accident." He was originally trying to make a series using stop motion animation, but quickly discovered that "90% of the time it takes to animate is spent moving the eyes and mouth." He tried doing it the regular way, but because he was "too lazy" he decided to film his own face and superimpose his eyes and mouth on the figurines.

Every day, Beaudet receives new offers from telephone companies and television stations. Incidentally, the first offer was from a French, not Canadian company. The popularity has surged to the point that he has employed two other people, Simon Parizeau and Hugo Caron to help with the production at his home in Boucherville. Work is underway to convert Têtes à Claques to formats viewable on cell phones and iPods. There are also plans to make a Têtes à Claques DVD in time for Christmas 2007.

On November 12 2006, the creators appeared on the Quebec television show Tout le monde en parle (Everyone's Talking About It) hosted by Guy A. Lepage. During the interview, it came up that the site has become so popular that many offices have blocked their employees from accessing it.

List of videos in order of appearance

  1. Les grenouilles
  2. SuperBol
  3. On sort (Part 1)
  4. Top Gun
  5. Le Taliban
  6. CPT News
  7. Le juge
  8. Le VJ
  9. La photo Disney
  10. Le boxeur
  11. La secrétaire
  12. So sexy (withdrawn over a problem of authorship rights)
  13. Les martiens
  14. Wow minute
  15. La voyante
  16. Le cauchemar
  17. Les ti-papoutes
  18. Le pilote (Part 1)
  19. La visite
  20. Les Vikings
  21. On sort Part 2
  22. Le lapin
  23. Le camping
  24. La présentation
  25. Les ti-papoutes au zoo
  26. Le Willi Waller
  27. Halloween
  28. Les orignaux
  29. L'anniversaire
  30. La police
  31. On sort Part 3
  32. Les cadeaux de Noël
  33. Le pilote Part 2
  34. Le père Noël
  35. Bonne année 2007
  36. Move your body
  37. La pénalité

References

  1. Michel Beaudet (2007). "FAQ". tetesaclaques.tv (in French). Retrieved 2007-01-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |2= (help)
  2. TVA (2006). "Michel Beaudet Interview". Interview (in French). Retrieved 2007-01-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. Guy A. Lepage, Michel Beaudet (12 Nov 2006). Tout le monde en parle (TV-Series) (in French). Boucherville, QC: Radio-Canada.

External links

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