When a new international poster for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie movie went viral last week, it caught the attention of the internet for all the wrong reasons. The French version of the poster seemed innocent enough, featuring Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as her sidekick Ken. However, it was the French tagline that caused a stir. The tagline, “Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken,” translates to “She can do everything. He’s just Ken.” But in French slang, “ken” is another word for “fuck,” giving the tagline a raunchy double entendre.
What may have been intended as a PG-13 comedy satire turned into an R-rated sex comedy when viewed through the lens of French slang. The internet quickly picked up on the translation, and several French Twitter users shared photos of the poster with comments about the “accidental” or “unfortunate” translation. The tweets went viral, with some even reaching millions of views.
To understand why this translation is so hilarious for French speakers, we need to delve into the world of verlan slang. Verlan is a type of slang that became popular in France in the 1980s. It involves switching the syllables of words to create new meanings. For example, the word “tomber” (meaning “to fall”) is transformed into “be-ton” (meaning “concrete”). In the case of the Barbie tagline, the word “forniquer” (meaning “to fuck”) or its shortened version “niquer” becomes “queni” or “keni,” which has been further shortened to just “ken.”
So, when the tagline “Lui, c’est juste Ken” is translated, it takes on a different meaning due to the homophones “c’est” (meaning “he is”) and “sait” (meaning “knows how”). “He is just Ken” becomes “He just knows how to fuck.” French speakers initially assumed that the double entendre was a result of a poor or overly literal translation. However, given that “ken” as slang for “fuck” is common among anyone under 30 in France, many began to suspect that the NSFW message was a deliberate act of guerrilla marketing.
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Taking a closer look at the tagline seems to confirm this suspicion. The original English Barbie tagline is: “Barbie is everything. He’s just Ken.” The French translation of the first line isn’t a direct translation, but rather “[Barbie] peut tout faire” (“Barbie can do anything”), which pairs nicely with the slang-y Ken line with its dirty connotations.
A French marketing executive from a competing studio commented that the raunchy pun in the Barbie poster was undoubtedly intentional, noting, “It’s sort of genius, really, that they slipped that in.” When approached for comment, Warner Bros. refused to confirm or deny whether the pun was deliberate or accidental but expressed their delight in the social media buzz the poster generated in France and around the world.
A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson stated, “The speculation around the Barbie marketing campaign shows that there is a high level of awareness and major excitement from the public surrounding the upcoming release of our film in France. We can’t wait for audiences around the world to see the film upon its release next month.”
In conclusion, what initially seemed like an innocent poster for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie became an internet sensation due to a raunchy double entendre in the French tagline. The clever play on words in French slang led to speculation about whether the pun was intentional or accidental. Regardless, the buzz generated by the poster demonstrates the high level of awareness and excitement surrounding the film’s release.
