Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre

Subject: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Oct 21 - 08:54 AM

Sung by bored Francophone schoolchildren:

Dans un amphithéatre (x3) phithéatre (x3), tsoin tsoin

Y'avait un maccabé... Maccabé

Ce maccabé disait... Il disait ...

Ah, c'qu'on s'emmerde ici... Merde ici

Roughly translated it means In an amphitheater theater trala there was a corpse corpse trala, this corpse said it said trala, Oh, how boring it is here poop here, trala.

Separate conversations: why is maccabé French slang for stiff? As in dead person?

Second separate conversation: why is To be bored to empoop oneself in French?

Not at all sure what inspired this post, either.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 27 Oct 21 - 04:47 PM

Normally Monique beats me to all French topics.

As for the Maccabees (see Wiki), they surely are all dead, aren't they? More specifically, they appeared in and gave their names to medieval events called danse macabre.

Now, s'emmerder must be a rather mechanical vulgarization of s'ennuyer without any deeper meaning, as so often found in slang. Not that I know such words, once gracing a schoolyard in France ...

The ditty seems to allude to boring sightseeing tours, specifically of Roman amphitheatres, when the guide talks and talks in the hot sun, so that the listeners (school classes) start to feel like macabre Egyptian mummies that could be dissected with a "speculum" and turned to revolting food, as the song continues. Easily found on YouTube etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: Monique
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 02:27 AM

I didn't answer because I couldn't find any online explanation about "s'emmerder". The fact is we also use "emmerder" to mean to bore/bother/annoy/piss someone off -the latter being the closest as "emmerder" would literally translate as "en-shit" = to pour shit on/over somebody. The reflexive verb is just about oneself.

About what the ditty is alluding to, I see it more as a medical students song (chanson de carabins) -Cf. this article in French about medical students, dissection of corpses etc. "1000 chants" 3, J.E. Berthier, Presses d'Île de France, 1979, has it as a students ditty. (Canon à trois voix sur un refrain d'étudiants)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 07:10 AM

I agree; the "amphitheatre" may well be a theatre for anatomic demonstrations at a university. Experienced students will know that specula are not used for dissecting and could only do any service in that direction if the corpse is already decomposed – that seems to be the point of the ditty.

My experiences in ruined Roman amphitheatres are not quite as revolting, but nearly so.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 10:02 AM

Does Maccabee mean corpse in any other language?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 01:12 PM

Interesting question, Mrrzy. I don't know of any. The adjective "macabre" exists in many languages, and although its actual etymology is disputed, many authors associated it with the Maccabees who used to figure in Danxes Macabres.

Someone else who knows?

Another symbolic usage of the word Maccabee (always capitalised), in many languages but probably not older than from the 19th century, is in the sense of "hero of a lost cause".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: Monique
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 02:41 PM

It doesn't seem so but I found that on Wiki Spanish (translated by Google and fixed by yours truly because some stuff didn't make sense):

The term "Macabeo" is usually used in the popular slang of Chile. Its meaning refers to a man who lives subject to the decisions, actions and / or orders of his partner, unable to do something on his own or without her authorization.
The origin of this Chileanism has no relationship with the historical Jewish family but is due to a local comic published between 1940 and 1977 by the cartoonist Leoncio Rojas Cruzat (Leo) in which the main character, Macabeo, was dominated by his wife . The choice of this name was simply to rhyme with the pseudonym of the cartoonist when presenting the strip with the title "Macabeo por" (Macabeo by Leo).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Dans un amphithéatre
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 09:47 AM

Fascinating. From dead to pussywhipped. Them Maccabees haz a lot to answer for...