Non-English Versions of The Simpsons - By Language - French

French

The Simpsons has been dubbed into the French language twice, once in the Canadian province of Quebec and again in France. The show is titled "Les Simpson" in Canada and "Les Simpsons" in France, following local orthography standards. The French audio on the Region 1 DVDs is the Quebec dub. It is one of only a handful of American television shows that have wholly separate versions in Quebec and France, and a number of studies have been made comparing them. In France all the characters speak standard French, with the exception of the ethnic minorities: Apu is given the Indian accent, while Carl, who has no accent in the American version, also speaks affected French. Kirk Van Houten is given a stereotypical Brussels accent, as "Van Houten" is a name which can be assumed to be Belgian. In the Quebec version, only the town élite, such as Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy, speak with a French accent. The Simpson family and most of the townsfolk speak with a strong Quebec accent. In the Quebec version the ethnic minorities also have accents. Noticeably, Carl has the accent of a Black immigrant from Africa or the Caribbean.

Local idioms are occasionally adopted in place of direct translation. American cultural and political jokes are occasionally replaced with local references. For instance, a reference to Newt Gingrich in Quebec is generally replaced with one to Mike Harris. Most of the recurring characters keep their English names in each French version. Two exceptions are Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Mel, who are known as Tahiti Bob and Tahiti Mel in France, as the word sideshow has no direct translation. In Quebec, the title sideshow is kept as an Anglicism. Another exception is made for the Simpsons family's dog, Santa's Little Helper, who is called "Le p'tit renne au nez rouge" (the French name for the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which literally means "Little Red-Nosed Reindeer") in the Quebec version and "Petit Papa Noël" (name of a French Christmas song that literally means "Little Santa Claus") in the French one.

In addition, although the location and setting of the show are not changed in the Quebec dub (still takes place in the United States), many references to the characters watching American TV shows, movies, etc. are changed to references to Québécois ones. For example, a reference to Homer watching CSI: Miami in the original was changed to Fortier, a similar Québécois show. Although these changed references would be familiar to the French-Canadian viewer, in real life these would be awkward because almost all Québécois media is unknown in the USA. This is an example of localizing the humour for the Quebec market. In addition, most instances of the word "English" are changed to "French". Due to this, in one episode where Homer visits Canada, the roles of anglophones and francophones are completely reversed, resulting in a stereotypical English Canadian speaking French and a stereotypical French Canadian speaking English. In another episode, English-Canadians were given stereotypical American accents speaking French, even when the main characters from the U.S.A. were not. The same practice is done in the Quebec dub of King of the Hill, done by the same company and many of the same actors, but to a greater extent: instead of taking place in Arlen, Texas, the show takes place in "Ste-Irène", a Québécois town, and many of the characters' names are changed. However, American flags and pictures of Texas state (such as on the side of police cars) are not edited.

The episodes are dubbed by a team of voice actors, similar to the one that does the original. The team does about two episodes per day. In general these voice actors also do the characters who were voiced by celebrities in the American version. In the French version, on occasion, official dubbers are brought in. For instance for the episode where Mulder and Scully from The X-Files appear the voice actors who do their voices on the French version of the X-Files guest starred.

Up to a certain point, the animation of the show was not changed, and what is written in English appears in English, either subtitled in French or spoken by a character in French, in the two French versions. One important exception is the blackboard joke at the beginning of each episode. The Quebec and France versions share these French language blackboard scenes. However, for later episodes of the Quebec version, other text was changed as well, such as movie titles ("Cosmic Wars" became "La guerre de l'espace" in the episode "Co-Dependent's Day").

Most Québécois who know about the version produced in France are not too fond of it; the humor is completely different. Télétoon, which broadcasts the Quebec Simpsons dub, also once broadcast dubs from France of Futurama (also created by Matt Groening) and Family Guy, two shows similar to The Simpsons whose French dubs were also similar to The Simpsons' Parisian dub. Although The Simpsons has been on Télétoon for a much longer period than the other two shows, Futurama and Family Guy were no longer shown on the network, while The Simpsons continues to be aired. (Family Guy was brought back to the air in 2011 with a Quebec translated version)

In July 2007 Matt Groening said in an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that the actor (Phillippe Peythieu) who does the voice of France French Homer says "T'oh!" instead of Homer's trademark "D'oh!". This comes from the actor misreading the line the first time he did Homer's voice and has been that way ever since. In the Parisian version of the show, many other catch phrases are also translated: Bart's "Eat my shorts" becomes "Va te faire shampouiner" ("Go shampoo yourself", similar to "go to hell"). When Homer tries to throttle Bart, his phrase "Why you little..." becomes "espèce de sale petit..." (literally "you dirty lil'..."). The France French version has also its popular catchphrases, to translate some terms that in the original versions are not catchphrases. Thereby, instead of "Oh my god!", Homer says "Ouh pinaise!", a deformation of "Oh punaise!" (Oh darn!), a watered-down form of the expletive "Oh putain!" (Oh damn!). "Oh pinaise!" is in French as much essential to characterize Homer as "D'oh" is in English. Homer is also unable to pronounce some terms like "bibliothèque" (library) and says "bibiliothèque".

Gérard Rinaldi, after March 2012, was replaced by Xavier Fagnon.