Why do some poodles have such funny “fru fru” haircuts?

Because most of us only see standard poodles in a dog show on TV or at the end of a leash in an old movie, we’ve developed a faulty perception of poodles. I’ve heard of many men who refuse to have a poodle because they’re viewed as a feminine dog; when in truth, they’re wonderful water hunting dogs. Can’t get much more manly than that!
The “fru fru” haircut, began when hunters wanted to remove some of the heavy coat from their dogs so that when wet, they weren’t so weighted down. The hair trimmed from the torso helped them not to hold as much water and to be more streamlined swimmers. The hair was left in places where the dog needed more protection and warmth. So the chest and back, brain, and joints of the legs were usually left untrimmed. The tuft on the end of the tail was left so that a ribbon was tied to it to be able to identify individual dogs when they came together for hunting events. With a raised tail, the ribbons were easy to spot so you could see which dog in a sea of poodles was your own even from a distance.
Since poodles have very little if any doggy odor, even when they get wet they’re more pleasant to be around than breeds that smell like a “wet dog.” Because their mature coats are wooley, poodles can shake themselves fairly dry and remain quite warm even when fresh out of the water. In Europe, Poodles are quite widely used as the hunting dogs they were bred to be. They make wonderful pets, but that’s not what they were bred for and not how they got their hair cut style.