Two points:
It’s “voulez-vous coucher”, not “voulez vous couchez”.
Cecil missed the chance to explain drolly that since she’s using the plural/formal pronoun “vous”, the singer is either making the offer to lots of people at once, or she’s making it to someone she wishes to treat with professional dignity.
(Warning: for this reason, do not ask a French person, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” It’s better to ask, “Veux-tu coucher avec moi?”, using the singular informal “tu”.)
The column is here.
And, I must say that this is a particularly juicy column in the traditional Cecil style. BTW, where does Cecil go on vacation? Did he phone in his column from some idyllic spot where he’s lazing about?
Of course, if Lady Marmalade really wants to be down with the Native Americans local to Gitchee-Gumee (Lake Superior), she would use her multi-lingual skills to speak Objibway or Chippewa, not Iroquois.
(Here’s a link to the Gutenberg version of the poem which has an introduction explaining that Longfellow’s Hiawatha was most likely an Objibway.)
I just wanted to say that I was hanging out with my friends last night, and a public reading of this column caused mass paroxyms of laughter. Cecil was in absolute top form on this one.
Matt, I think that’s a reflection of how we merricans learn French.
Since we’re such a buncha informal louts, French teachers tend to overcompensate by telling us to use “vous” until we’re quite familiar with someone.
So in this example, Ms. Marmalade would switch to “tu” if she were asking if they could do it again. 
Top of his form? Cecil picked a creampuff this time. Why in the world would he want to publish a moronic question about a song that’s over 25 years old? And the answer to which is already known by at least 25% of Americans who went to high school, and a huge percentage of everyone else?
Plus the American Indian gibberish–I mean, Cecil does like to use humor and sarcasm, but this is too much.
I know there’s a thread in here somewhere that discussed possible translations of “gitchy gitchy yaya heeya” and damned if I can find it.
I dunno shrug I mean, it’s all cool Cecil’s gonna pick on some knuckleloaf that probably never even heard of Lady Marmalade until the abomination on MTV (you wouldn’t believe how many times requests for translating that same phrase popped up on a translation job site I frequent - five hundred translators driven rabid from annoyance is not a pretty sight) but it seems kinda disingenuous to go for the cheap laugh at the expense of research done by the Teeming Millions.
Didn’t see that thread, but why would anyone think that would translate to anything? After all, when the Beatles sang, “O bla di, o bla da” did everyone run around trying to translate it? OK, OK, maybe they did. But nonsense words have been in songs forever.
Maresey doats and
Dosey doats and
Little lambsey divey
turns out to be English, fer cryin’ out loud.
Do little lambsey divey?
I don’t know, but a kiddley divey too. Wouldn’t you?
The theory was that it was heavily accented English, being “get your, get your yaya here”, ‘yaya’ being a slang term for the goods on sale, big daddy, and it’s “mocha chocolatte yaya” to boot.
I always thought it was
Mares eat oat
and does (as in female deer) eat oat
and little lambs eat ivy too.
Doesn’t make any more sense then the other version, just
thought I’d share that
and I think if you do a search in the Pit for a thread titled “Whores on Parade” , you can find several translations
Some points in return:
a) matt_mcl forgot to include the link to the online column. Thank you Humble Servant for providing it.
b) The spelling in the Straight Dope column has been corrected.
c) Historically, in french, it was not unheard of for “dignified” people to use “vous” even when addressing their husband or wife. Of course, nowadays, “vous” is typically used by adults only for addressing people that are not initimate friends.
Just to be completely, irredeemably and annoyingly anal (a girl’s gotta have a hobby), you should change the words in Slug’s cartoon too.
By God, that’s the thread I was looking for! For some unknown reason I just didn’t think it was in the Pit.
its my favorite thread title, how could I forget
Cecil identified Lady Marmalade as a “badass chick from the Moulin Rouge.” But in the 1975 original the narrator tells us she met Marmalade “down in Old New Orleans.” True, the song doesn’t say she DOESN’T come from the Moulin Rouge, but it doesn’t say she does, either. In the remake, the narrator meets Marmalade at the Moulin Rouge, but she’s “strutting her stuff on the street.” So she may be NEAR the Moulin Rouge, but she’s still not necessarily FROM it.
My word, Cecil, how can you let columns into print with this kind of glaring error? (insert vapid smiley here)
In regards to Slug Signorino’s cartoon on this column, I of course understand that the lady on the sofa is a chippie, but what is the significance of the “Igor” dude with an eye hanging out? What did I miss in the column?
pugluvr - my guess is that it’s an allusion to Cecil’s first paragraph where he is “riffing” on smilies. (See the reference to Igor?)
True, but I don’t think that ladies of easy virtue ever used it for their tricks, not even if they were the president of the République. When is Moulin Rouge set, anyway?
singing Rich men, poor men, leaders of the land,
See them with their trousers off, they’re never quite as grand…