Encorutilfaluquejelesus!

[kanewai]

Above us the name of the préfet of Lugdunum (Lyon) in Le tour de Gaule d’Astérix.

I don’t get the joke, and it’s killing me. I’m sure it’s some French-Latin pun. Aidez-moi, svp!

[kulaputra]

Encore eût-il fallu que je le susse

in English, "Would that I had known"

[Arnaud]

Savoir ou sucer, telle est la question
(Ces subjonctifs sont une source intarissable de jeux de mots foireux...)

[kulaputra]

Savoir ou sucer, telle est la question
(Ces subjonctifs sont une source intarissable de jeux de mots foireux...)

Wouldn't the equivalent form for sucer be "suçasse"?

[Arnaud]

Wouldn't the equivalent form for sucer be "suçasse"?

Of course, the author is playing with the (generally young) readers (those who don't know their subjunctives don't hear the same thing as those who know them...)

[grey_squirrel]

That reminds me of La belle lisse poire du prince de Motordu:

https://www.amazon.fr/belle-lisse-poire-prince-Motordu/dp/2070629872/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1533061348&sr=8-2&keywords=lisse+poire

Despite it being for kids aged 3-5, I had to ask for an explanation more than once...

[zKing]

That reminds me of when I worked at a small video game company many years ago. We generated a lot of grand ideas that were not feasible with our resources. We joked that we wanted to make up T-shirts with our motto: "That Would Have Been Cool", perhaps translated into Latin.

Anyone want to take a stab at the translation?

[kanewai]

I got stuck trying to work out something with encore and utile ... encore eût-il never crossed my mind.