Barbie is already rated PG-13, but an NSFW joke included in an overseas promotional poster has fans begging for the French cut of the summer blockbuster.
The poster went viral on Twitter after fans caught onto the film’s tagline — “She’s everything. He’s just Ken” — and how it was translated from English to French, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Though everything else about the poster is normal, albeit a little silly, the tagline was translated to read, “Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken.”
French speakers on Twitter were quick to point out that this could be read two very different ways. On one hand, it could be read as, “She can do everything. He’s just Ken.” On the other hand, Ken is also a French slang word for “fuck.” The word c’est, which means he is, and sait, which means he knows how, are homophones, meaning the French tagline can be read as, “She knows how to do everything. He just knows how to fuck.”
Fans jumped on the double entendre, with one tweeting,”This is actually 100% my understanding of their relationship,” and another adding, “French twitter losing its mind right now because they translated the Barbie poster literally and accidentally made a pun that reads ‘She knows how to do everything. He just knows how to f*ck.'”
And all that buzz was exactly what Warner Bros. was hoping for, according to THR. A French marketing executive employed by a Warner Bros. competitor told the outlet, “It’s definitely deliberate; there’s no way a French speaker wouldn’t have noticed the dirty pun,” adding, “It’s sort of genius, really, that they slipped that in.”
Warner Bros. wouldn’t tell THR if the poster’s tagline was “deliberate or accidental,” but they did offer these words: “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.”
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, stars Margot Robbie as the titular doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend, Ken. The movie shows Barbie leaving Barbie Land for the first time ever. The movie’s tagline reads: “To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.”
The film features an all-star cast including Will Ferrell, Issa Rae, America Ferrera and Simu Liu. Barbie premieres in theaters July 21.