Creator / Palmashow

The Palmashow is a French comedy duo composed of university friends Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais. They made themselves known first online, then on Direct 8, D8, C8, then TMC and TF1. The Palmashow has since created three primetime shows on Direct 8 and two on TF1, the last of which was broadcast in 2023.

In late 2010, Direct 8 broadcast the duo's first TV show, La Folle Histoire du Palmashow^note The Mad Tale of the Palmashow. From 2011 to 2012, the show Very Bad Blagues^note Very Bad Jokes was created for two consecutive seasons. In December 2012, it was broadcast on Canal+. In 2013, they started a new programme called Palmashow, l'émission^note Palmashow, the Show, this time on Canal+ and D8. In May 2014 their first primetime show La Folle Soirée du Palmashow^note The Mad Evening of the Palmashow was born.

In May 2015, after the success of their first special, they returned with a second one, La Folle Soirée du Palmashow 2 and then La Folle Soirée du Palmashow 3 in October 2016.

In November 2016, the duo released their first movie, La Folle Histoire de Max et Léon.

In February 2019, a new primetime special entitled Ce soir c'est Palmashow^note Tonight It’s Palmashow was broadcast on TF1.

In February 2022, the duo released their second movie, Les Vedettes. They won two César awards, one for best special effects and the other for best fiction short film.

In March 2023, they returned for their second prime-time special on TF1, entitled Ce Soir C'est Palmashow 2.

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Tropes associated with the Palmashow:

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Got the door slammed on them at a party because they arrived already drunk in La Bouteille^note The Bottle.
• All Love Is Unrequited: In Quand on vend des téléphones^note When you sell phones, Fabian develops a crush on his boss, Miss Gwendoline. She has a boyfriend.
• Ambiguously Gay: Enzo and Sydney share a very deep Bromance and everyone around them believes that they should take a moment to think on that.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When characters in French films d'auteur try to one up each other.
  Woman: Well, I'm sick.
  Man 1: And I'm gay.
  Man 2: And I was raped by my father before going to war. And I'm about to be deported. And I have diabetes.
• Awful Wedded Life: Jean & Catherine and Pierre & Françoise from the skits set in The '50s. Pierre verbally abuses his wife till she cries and Jean considers his and their son to be weighing him down.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Quand ils se font chier^note When they’re bored, the third man in the car who is more professional than the other two is not a cop, he’s the suspect.
• Bit Character: A bunch of bit characters often return in various skits, notably:
  • Gaspard and Balthazar, deep country perverts who are generally well-meaning but struggling hard socially.
  • Morgan and Fabian, outer city wannabe thugs.
  • Enzo and Sydney, an indescribable mix of the Jersey Shore, Turn of the Millennium club culture and sexual ambiguity.
  • Francis and Michel, completely incompetent government employees.
  • Jean-Eudes and Jean-Paul (or Amaury, depending on the skit), rich racist daddy’s boys.
  • Batman and Robin, who are, well, [[Franchise/Batman Batman and Robin]].
  • Jean “Jeannot” and Pierre “Pierrot”, vacationers from The '50s, along with their wives Françoise ‘’Fanfan’’ and Catherine, and Jean and Catherine’s son Victor.
  • Maurice and René, elderly men who don’t have all their brains left.
  • Cristiano Fury and Dark Ranger, parodies of classic action movie villains.
  • The middle-aged father with a Porn Stache, a pipe and and tendency to cheat on his wife with much younger women.
  • The ninja.
  • The moronic cops.
  • The crooked carnies.
• Black Comedy: A staple of the pair. They never shy away from brutal jokes.
• Blatant Lies: In Quand on passe l’oral d’Histoire-géo^note When you take your history finals.
  Examiner: Any preferred subjects?
  David, dressed in full crusade armor: Not really, no.
• British Teeth: Fake ones worn by every character in the parodies of The Crown and Peaky Blinders.
• Brother–Sister Incest: The Bobo’s reveal at the end of their song that the reason why they’re Star-Crossed Lovers is that they're siblings. Cue general discomfort.
• The Casanova: Greg’s character in Quand on rentre avec une fille^note When You Bring a Girl Home keeps telling every girl he brings to his place that it’s not a thing he usually does.
• Crosses the Line Twice: In Quand on fait son coming-out^note When You Come Out
  David: Dad, I’m gay.
  Dad: Me too, son.
  David: Uh?
  Dad: And your mom as well.
  David: What???
• Deal with the Devil: In Quand ils ont des vœux^note When they have wishes, in which the Devil gives a guy ten wishes to get with a girl at a party.
• Disguised in Drag: The pair often plays their own female Bit Characters, notably Nathalie and Mélanie.
  • In-universe, David’s gay characters tend to be really into dresses.
  • In-universe in Les Clubs, in which two guys badly dress as women to sneak into a lingerie sale in hopes to see them being tried on.
  • In-universe with Didier, the gardener who dresses up as his employer's wife to get a kiss from him in Les Retrouvailles^note The Reunion.
• Double Standard: In Quand on croise l'ex de sa copine^note When you run into your girlfriend's ex runs into a dozen exes in a grocery store and excitedly starts talking with all of them, but blows up when her boyfriend says hi to his own ex.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Quand on est dans les bouchons^note When you’re stuck in traffic.
  Greg, seething as cars honk everywhere: Sometimes I understand guys who go home, beat their kids and rape their wife.
• Eagleland: Everywhere in Quand on est un soldat US^note When you're a US soldier.
  Deyvid: A good thing we're American, sir. 'Cause we're gonna win the war. 'Cause we're American.
  Gweg: Sure thing. Here. Have some more of that good burger.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Greg and David have jokes they won’t make, and Kad Merad uses this in La Proposition^note The Offer to get out of a cameo, by offering to play a "drooling farting retard".
• Executive Meddling: Here, government meddling: Le Cinéma Réglementé^note Regulated Cinema is entirely about taking classic tropes and making them politically correct, such as replacing a film noir detective’s whisky with orange juice, or not blowing up a wall during a heist because it’s load-bearing.
• Fake Nationality: In Le Centre Commercial^note The Mall, two standholders put on a Corsican accent and call each other Corsican names (that they forget to answer to) to sell Corsican products better. Except it was Savoy products that day.
• Failed a Spot Check: Frequent in the Michel and Francis skits, for example when they’re doctors asking a guy in a wheelchair to step on a scale, or a blind woman to read the letters on the wall.
  Michel: Can you read that?
  Blind woman: … No.
  Michel: Mh. You’re astigmatic.
• Flyover Country: The French version, at least.
  David: You’re listening to Auvergne Radio, and right now, nothing is happening.
• From Bad to Worse: In Quand on est dans les bouchons^note When you’re stuck in traffic, the pair is stuck in an static ocean of honking car… then their radio breaks down in the middle of a high note that gets stuck on a loop.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Invoked in Quand on prend une amende^note When you get a parking ticket, with Greg asking the meter maid if she was molested as a child.
  • Parodied in Quand on est avocat^note When you're a lawyer.
  David: Sometimes there are mitigating circusmtances. Yes, my client killed and ate his wife and daughter. But your Honor. Have you ever been hungry? Like, really?
• The Ghost: Jeanne, Francis and Michel’s elusive colleague. She actually appears in Dans les toilettes de boîte de nuit^note In the club bathroom.
• Global Ignorance: The weatherman character places Nancy in on the French Rivera.
• Heel Realization: At the end of the parody of shortcoms.
  David: Wait. We're a short comedy show.
• Historical Hilarity: Many of the skits are set at various time periods, notably the World Wars, The '50s, the Middle Ages or the 17th century.
• How We Got Here: Quand ils font un enterrement de vie de garçon^note When they do a stag party starts in a church and explains what the groomsmen did to the groom during his bachelor’s… that ends up killing him. They’re at his funeral.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A staple of the duo. Even the most unlikeable strawman characters can give their skit a happy ending; for example, the truckers in Quand on est camionneur^note When're you're a trucker are racist, homophobic hicks and perverts, but they’re good with kids and help a lost one reunite with his mom.
• La Résistance: Several episodes are centered on La Résistance against the Germans during WWII. However, most of the characters are Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys, meaning they only get involved when the war is about to be won, are profoundly incompetant, and start eagerly denouncing as soon as the SS bring out their guns.
• Line-of-Sight Name: To get into a fancy restaurant, David gave the names "Mr Rolex" and "Mr Swatch".
• Mistaken for Gay: The first part of Les Internets^note The Internets is caused because a tweet claiming David and Greg are secretly in a relationship goes viral.
  • Given that the pair present as Heterosexual Life-Partners, this is pretty much a running gag.
• Multiboobage: Martians exist, and all we know about them is that they have three tits and "everything is better where they're from".
• Musical Episode: A number of the skits are in song format, such as Le Rap des Papas Modernes^note The Modern Dads' Rap, Les Monos de Ski^note The Ski Instructors or Quand on fait une comédie musicale^note When you do a musical.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Names and puns galore, notably Marine Le Peck (Marine Le Pen), Jean-Luc Tréronchon (Jean-Luc Mélenchon), Viannouche (Vianney), Fréro de la Ciotat (Fréro Delavega), Alain Vazy (Laurent Voulzy), Ken'Vi (Keen'V), Maître Grimm (Maître Gims), Garsroux (Garou), Miga (Mika), Florent Pagnini (Florent Pagny), Jenyfer (Jennifer), Nikos Ilagas (Nikos Aliagas), Denis Grognard (Denis Brogniart), Stéphane Ibis (Stéphane Plaza)...
• Panicky Expectant Father: David as the dad-to-be in Quand on passe une échographie^note When you take an ultrasound repeatedly punches the ob-gyn in the face and faints several times.
• Parody: A significant number of their skits are parodies of shows on French TV.
• Side Bet: The theme of Quand ils se font chier^note When they're bored: three cops at a stakeout making snowballing bets.
• Stage Mom: Both of the parents in the parody of The Voice Kids.
• Take That!: No one is spared when they get into political parodies:
  • The Right-wingers are rich lecherous assholes and a number of them are white-collar criminals.
  • The Left-wingers are the exact same, just stick-in-the-muds about it.
  • The Communists are deeply out of touch and no one cares about them.
  • The Far right are drunkards and hypocrites on top of the mass of unabashed discrimination.
  • The ecologists are so ecological that they can’t even drive to the meetings and keep ruining themselves.
  • The Hunt & Fishing guys (yes, this is a real political party) are just a bunch of your weird uncle who owns too many guns.
  • The Catholics are… there, technically.
  • The new Centrists are business school graduates and possibly robots.
• Refuge in Audacity: In C’est pour un sketch^note It’s for a skit, the pair quickly realizes that claiming that they’re shooting a skit allows them to get away with anything.
• Those Two Guys: More like Those Two Guys, the show.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: In Quand ils organisent une manif^note When they plan a protest, alternating between the protesting highschoolers and the cops. It's eventually revealed that the leader of the protest is the son of the head cop.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: A staple. The characters of their skits are seldom pleasant people, though some go through surprisingly touching developments.
• Witch Doctor: Nathalie and Mélanie in Les Médecines Parallèles^note Parallel Medicine. Of course, they don’t know anything about medicine or plants.
• Ye Olde Butchered English: Attempted in Quand on est au restaurant de luxe^note When you’re at a fancy restaurant because "it’s all a matter of attitude".