Tetes a claques moves closer to world stage as Quebec phenomenon spreads

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This article was published 18/01/2007 (6908 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL (CP) – The popping, rolling eyes of the goofy yet hugely popular Tetes a claques characters are looking beyond Quebec’s borders.

The Quebec Internet phenomenon – which has been blocked in some offices because employees’ fingers were typing in its Web address when they should have been working – is on the verge of inking a distribution deal with the Just For Laughs comedy festival.

Festival officials weren’t talking Thursday about the deal, saying an official announcement is still weeks away and discussions are still going on.

Hooking up with Just For Laughs, which bills itself as the world’s biggest comedy festival, would take Tetes a claques to another level from its humble beginnings in a basement studio south of Montreal.

Tetes a claques is the brainchild of “three ordinary guys who are still ordinary,” the site proclaims.

The title roughly translates as “a face for slapping.”

The cast features a stable of regulars including a couple of abrasive children who appear in one of the most popular videos demanding Pop Tarts from a hapless man on Halloween.

The site helpfully explains PopTarts to puzzled web surfers from France in its Frequently Asked Questions section, informing viewers the pastry is “a classic for an entire generation of Quebec children.”

The Tetes a claques creators were not immediately available for an interview Thursday and were reportedly working the National Associates of Television Program Executives convention – North America’s television marketplace – in Las Vegas.

The signature characteristics of the site apparently began as a happy accident, creator Michel Beaudet has said. He didn’t want to take the time for the labour-intensive animation of the characters’ faces so he superimposed his own eyes and mouth over the clay figures.

The result is the characters’ expressions are often just as funny as their lines.

Now a DVD is planned for Christmas 2007 and there’s work underway to make the clips available on iPods and cellphones.

Another favourite character is the sly looking man who pitches the Willi Waller vegetable peeler in a sendup of infomercials.

Some stores over the holiday period reported jovial shoppers asking for Willi Wallers. Even Premier Jean Charest, when asked in a TV interview what he wanted for Christmas, replied “an election victory and a Willi Waller 2007.”

But not everyone’s laughing.

Some government agencies and school boards have blocked the site, either because they disagree with its portrayals – or because it’s too distracting for employees and students.

Other organizations, such as Public Works Canada and the City of Gatineau, have said they blocked Tetes a claques and similar video-intensive sites because having employees surf them reduces the bandwidth available to conduct official business.