About

Bonne nuit les petits ("Good night little ones") is a popular French TV show aimed at young children first broadcast in 1962. It got multiple seasons over time, with the last broadcast between December 1994 and January 1997.^[1] This particular season became a popular material for French YouTube Poops during the 2010s.

Origin

Bonne nuit les petits was created in 1962 by Claude Laydu and his wife Christine, and was first broadcast on French television on December 10th, 1962.^[1] During each of the 5-minute episodes, a large teddy bear nicknamed Nounours visits children just before they go to bed to ask them about their day, teach them good manners or tell them a story. Each episode concludes with the Sandman^[2] throwing a handful of magical sand on the children to help them have a good sleep before he flies away with Nounours on a magical cloud. Bonne nuit les petits is considered to be a classic of French television, with an official website,^[3] several social media accounts^[4][5] (despite the last season ending in 1997) and a musical that came out in 2015.^[1]

Online History

During the 2010s, Bonne nuit les petits became a very popular material for French YouTube Poops, much like The Adventures of Tintin anime or the French dubs of the Zelda CD-i games. This surge in popularity is usually attributed to Le Père Doriot's Nounours se fait expulser d'Internet, which can be translated in English as "Nounours gets kicked out of the Internet". Ironically, the original video (first published around 2012) has been taken down by YouTube. However, it has been re-uploaded multiple times by fans in addition to being featured in reaction videos. The latest reupload currently has more than 200,000 views (below, left) while a reaction video by AYOUB (below, right) has been viewed more than 2.4 million times. The original video may have been watched as many times as 2 million times, and gained more exposure in 2015 after prominent French YouTuber Antoine Daniel tweeted about it, stating it was "the best video I've seen in a while" ^[6].

Le Père Doriot would continue to make YTPs based on Bonne nuit les petits until 2017, most of which are still online. His latest video, Nounours va finir au zoo ("Nounours will end up in a zoo"), has been watched more than 1.7 million times. Much like other YouTube Poops parodying shows aimed at children, Le Père Doriot's works portray Nounours as a gross, depraved, and abusive character.

The most popular parody of Bonne nuit les petits is EnflureDeRenard's Bonne nuit les Tipeu, in which Nounours is not only abusive but also an aspiring rapper. The video gained over 5 million views (shown below, top left). Other YouTube Poops based on Bonne nuit les petits have gained hundreds of thousands of views, with Capitaine Sadako's Le cas Nounours garnering a bit less than 800k views since its publication on August 31st, 2019 (shown below, bottom left).

Censorship and Acknowledgement

Due to their offensive nature, several popular YTPs based on Bonne nuit les petits have been removed by YouTube, as demonstrated by the case of Le Père Doriot's Nounours se fait expulser d'Internet. However, some have been eventually put back with restricted access: EnflureDeRenard's Bonne nuit les Tipeu has been removed shortly after garnering 3 million views, but was made available again for logged in adult users a little while later, as attested by a series of tweets made by EnflureDeRenard on August 22nd, 2019 ^[7].

These removals didn't prevent Bonne nuit les petits YTPs from staying popular. French voice actress Brigitte Lecordier (the French voice of Son Goku in Dragon Ball), who voiced Nicolas (the little boy) on Bonne nuit les petits, even reacted positively to Bonne nuit les Tipeu, calling the montage and sentence mixing "incredible". She noted, though, that the original team, who she described in her reaction video as "very prude," may not have approved. This reaction video, published on November 29th, 2019, has been watched more than 800,000 times.

Search Interest

External References