Home Forums Blogs Articles Photos Videos Contact FAQ

Asterix - Humour

Asterix - Humour: Encyclopedia II - Asterix - Humour

Asterix - Stereotypes and allusions. Everywhere they visit, Asterix and Obelix encounter people and things borrowed and caricatured from 20th century real life. In the early album Asterix and the Goths, for instance, the Goths are represented as militaristic and regimented, reminiscent of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germans. The helmets worn by these Goths even resemble the German Pickelhaube helmets worn up to World War I and one of their leaders bears an uncanny resemblance to Otto von Bi ...

Asterix: Encyclopedia II - Asterix - Humour

Asterix - Humour

Asterix - Stereotypes and allusions

Everywhere they visit, Asterix and Obelix encounter people and things borrowed and caricatured from 20th century real life. In the early album Asterix and the Goths, for instance, the Goths are represented as militaristic and regimented, reminiscent of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germans. The helmets worn by these Goths even resemble the German Pickelhaube helmets worn up to World War I and one of their leaders bears an uncanny resemblance to Otto von Bismarck. The British are shown as polite and phlegmatic, drinking warm beer or hot water with a drop of milk (before the first tea has been brought to what would become England by Asterix); they boil all their food and serve it with mint sauce, and they drive their chariots on the wrong side of the road. Spain is the cheap country down south where people from the North vacation (and demand to eat the same food as they are used to at home). All the tribes represented are treated humorously as prototypes for their modern counterparts, and many aspects of them are satirised. However, the French are not exempt from satire, and almost all of the peoples Asterix meets are portrayed positively, even the Romans. The only tribe depicted completely unflatteringly is the Goths, possibly a result of the Second World War.

Some caricatures of the traits of certain French regions are also used: the people from Normandy smother their food in cream and cannot give a straight answer; the people from Marseille play boules and exaggerate matters, and Corsicans don't like to do any work, are easily angered and have long-standing vendettas that they settle violently, and make cheese that smells so bad that it actually becomes an explosive.

Minor characters often resemble famous people or fictional characters, usually caricatures of existing French people of the same era, particularly from television and the spectacles. In Obelix and Co., for example, the young Roman bureaucrat is a caricature of a young Jacques Chirac, and it includes two Roman legionaries drawn to the likeness of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In Asterix and the Falling Sky, the super-clones are a caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those characters usually stick out visually, by not having the round, oversized noses otherwise typical of Uderzo's style.

Other side characters allude to people related to the place Asterix is visiting. Notable examples include a very Elizabeth Taylor-like Cleopatra in Asterix and Cleopatra; Britain's most famous bards in the story Asterix in Britain, who are four in number and look remarkably like the Beatles; a pair of Belgian warriors in Asterix in Belgium who resemble and also speak like Thomson and Thompson of Tintin-fame; and both Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are depicted in Asterix in Spain. More recently, this spoofing has occasionally extended to major characters as well: in Asterix and the Black Gold, a Roman spy is a young Sean Connery named Dubbelosix drawn in James Bond style, and in Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, the leader of the escaped slaves (named Spartakis, being Greek) is based on Kirk Douglas' Spartacus. In Asterix and the Cauldron, the head of the theatre is Laurensolivius, based on the actor Laurence Olivier.

The stories also feature allusions to major artistic works (such as Pieter Bruegel's Peasant Wedding and Victor Hugo's story of the Battle of Waterloo from Les Châtiments, in Asterix in Belgium), as well as historical personalities (Napoleon, Louis XIV of France), and famous places (the Moulin Rouge, Bethlehem) and the Statue of Liberty (played by Asterix)).

However, in many other respects the series reflects life in the 1st century BC fairly accurately for the medium. For example, the multi-storied apartments in Rome—the insulae—which have Obelix remarking that one man's roof is another man's floor, and consequently, "These Romans are crazy": his favourite line. This line itself is also an intrinsic joke on Rome and the Romans, as its Italian equivalent is "Sono pazzi questi romani", which abbreviates as "SPQR", as does the motto of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, the presence of chimneys in the Gaulish huts is not accurate, as they used gabled openings in the roof to let smoke escape. Also, menhirs are now believed to have been erected long before the Gauls.

The text also makes relatively regular use of original Latin phrases, and allusions to Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico, a book about the conquest of Gaul, later used as an introductory text to Latin. Some jokes are made about Caesar's use of the third person to write about himself. Such allusions were likely to be well-received by the better-educated sections of the French and Belgian public in the 1960s, when the teaching of Latin was still widespread in high schools.

Asterix - Puns in names

A key feature of the text of the Asterix books are the constant puns used as names of characters; The names of the two protagonists come from asterisk and obelisk, Asterix being the star of the books (Latin aster (derived from the Greek word αστήρ (astir) [star] and Celtic rix [king, cognate to Latin rex, Sanskrit raj, German reich, English rich, etc]), and Obelix being a menhir delivery-man. This is a double pun, since as well as meaning a stone monolith, the word obelisk can also refer to the typographical dagger (†) that is often used to denote the second footnote on a page after an asterisk (*) has been used to reference the first. In fact, nearly all the Gaulish characters' names end in -ix, probably a reference to the real-life Gaulish chieftain such as Vercingetorix (though in life only the names of Gaulish kings—and not even all of them—ended in -ix, and if they did it was always -rix). English language examples include the chief (Vitalstatistix), the druid (Getafix), the fishmonger (Unhygienix), and an old man (Geriatrix) with a young wife. Roman characters' names end with -us as in Noxious Vapus and Crismusbonus. In the case of one Roman couple, (Radius) and (Ulna), is the exception. Other nations have their own style of naming—Vikings use -af (Bathyscaf, Toocleverbyhaf), Egyptians use -is (Edefis), Britons use -ax (Hiphiphurrax, Notax, and the notable exception Zebigbos), Goths use -ic (Tonnic) and Spaniards use Spanish-sounding names such as Huevos Y Bacon (Eggs and Bacon). Most names stand as solitary puns, like Getafix or Geriatrix, and some play on each other, as in the example of a Roman guard talking through a closed door to another guard: "Open up, Sendervictorius! It's me, Appianglorius!" This is a pun on the UK national anthem "God Save the Queen" and the lines "Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us, God save the Queen".

Many of these puns reflect the French original, in which, for example, the Egyptian in Astérix Légionnaire is named Courdeténis (cour de tennis, i.e. "tennis court") in French and Ptenisnet in English. But the translation of puns is difficult, and Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge do a good job in the English language edition. For example, the translation of Ordralfabétix (referring to ordre alphabétique, "alphabetical order"), is Unhygienix, given that this character is a fishmonger infamous for his rotting product. The original Panoramix, which perhaps represents the druid who sees the whole picture, is named Getafix in the English version, as "get a fix" conveys the fact he makes potent potions. Assurancetourix (assurance tous risques or "comprehensive insurance"), the ear-offending bard of the village, becomes the apt Cacofonix. Another clever translation is that of Idéfix, a dog who has very strong views on the environment (he howls whenever he sees an uprooted tree). An idée fixe is a "fixed idea", i.e. an obsession, a dogma. The translation, Dogmatix, manages to conserve the "fixed idea" meaning and also include the syllable dog. Note that the American English version of the comic was done by a different translator, and tends to use different names. Since these translations were of such poor quality, many North American fans of the series seek out the British translations instead. The word asterix is also commonly mis-used by English language speakers and writers in place of asterisk.

The chief is called Abraracourcix, derived from the phrase à bras racourci meaning "with arm shortened, ready to punch." Another series of puns, at least in the original French include the names of the four camps (castra) which surround Asterix's village, e.g. one of them is called "Babaorum", a pun on baba au rhum, a popular kind of pastry.

Asterix - Running gags

A number of running gags recur in various albums. One of these is that the bard Cacofonix wants to create a spontaneous song whenever Asterix and Obelix leave or come back for a grand journey, but is usually prevented from doing so by Fulliautomatix (the blacksmith). At the end of most adventures (most notable exceptions in Asterix and the Normans, Asterix and the Magic Carpet and Asterix and the Falling Sky), he ends up not attending the final banquet which usually marks the end of an episode; instead he is seen tied up and gagged up in his tree-house in the same panel in which the feast takes place, so as not to disrupt the festivities.

Another running gag is a group of pirates that tend to get caught in the middle of conflict and have their ship sunk, resembling the painting The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, most notably in Asterix the Legionary. The ship is often sunk for a variety of reasons, such as a stray thrown menhir, though usually through Asterix and Obelix boarding them. In one episode, they attack a ship carrying a Roman agent, who points at a random crew member and states he gave him a bagful of gold if he would not attack the agent. In the ensuing battle over the nonexistent bag of gold, the pirates sink their own ship. In another, tired of being sunk, they give up pirating completely and open a ship-themed restaurant. Asterix and Obelix arrive and the restaurant is soon smashed to pieces. Those pirates—most notably the red-bearded captain, the constantly Latin-quoting peg-legged second-in-command, and the African lookout—are caricatures of the characters of "Barbe Rouge, Le Démon des Caraïbes", a pirate series that was published at the same time in Pilote, the weekly comics magazine in which Asterix appeared, and which Goscinny also edited.

Asterix - Revisionist explanations

In the albums, some historical facts are retold, and attributed to Asterix & Obelix.

In Asterix and Cleopatra, when visiting Egypt, Obelix scales the sphinx. He then falls down, grabs the sphinx's nose, but it breaks. Immediately all the souvenir-shops nearby chisel off the noses of their souvenir-sphinxes.
In Asterix in Britain, the Britons are used to drinking hot water with a drop of milk. Only when Asterix puts in tea-leaves, given by the druid, the habit becomes tea-drinking.
In Asterix in Spain, Asterix ends up in a circus in front of a bull (not a lion, there). He evades the bull nicely, and gets an applause from the audience. A guest of the Roman general drops her red cape in the arena. When Asterix wants to hand it back, the bull reacts and is finished after some dancing moves of Asterix, giving us the first bullfight.
In the same book, Unhygenix the fishmonger agrees to take payment for his boat rental in menhirs, as he wants to develop land on Salisbury Plain—which explains the mystery of Stonehenge.
In Asterix and the Banquet (Le Tour de Gaule) Obelix travels around Gaul with a yellow knapsack on his back, as if wearing the yellow jersey in the modern Tour de France. Complete with a white square patch on the backside, where we can imagine the cyclist's number.
In Asterix in Switzerland, Asterix manages to carry an unconscious Obelix through the Alps, by tying ropes around himself, Obelix, and their guides, creating a famous technique in mountain-climbing.
In Asterix in Belgium, the chieftain of Asterix's Belgian hosts gains inspiration for patates frites (chips) and mussels, Belgium's two most famous culinary ambassadors, from a vat of boiling oil prepared as a Roman weapon, and a damp wooden plank belonging to the pirates (note that potatoes were unknown in Europe at the time).
In Asterix and Caesar's Gift, Cacofonix composes the protest anthem "We shall Overcome", which became the US civil rights movement song.
In Asterix the Gladiator, Julius Caesar asks Brutus to clap for him using the famous Shakespearean phrase "Et tu Brute".

Asterix - Influences

The first satellite launched by France in 1965 received the name of the character, and during the campaign for Paris to obtain the right to host the 1992 Summer Olympics Asterix appeared in many posters over the Eiffel Tower.