This inquiry on conversational humour in French and Australian English explores how speakers employ humour spontaneously in naturally occurring conversations during social visits among friends. Following the four dimensional model outlined in Béal and Mullan (2013), this article centers on the speaker/target/recipient interplay and the various pragmatic functions of conversational humour in a number of representative examples from the two languages-cultures. For example, Australians display a marked predilection for recipient-oriented humour, creating complicity with the other participants by threatening another's face for the sake of humour. French speakers on the other hand, choose to increase complicity at the expense of an absent third party through third-party oriented humour.