“Here, it’s chocolatine!” : This humor program carried by Toulouse residents Mélissa Billard, Fred Menuet and Pat Borg, is available free of charge on the France.TV platform. Invited to the premises of France 3 Occitanie, they return to this project.
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The comedy show “Here, it’s chocolatine!” is already available on the france.tv platform. Initiated by France 3 Occitanie and France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine and produced by Anoki, this program is inspired by the clichés that circulate around the inhabitants of the south-west of France.
In a studio near the France 3 Occitanie editorial office, we find Mélissa Billard, Fred Menuet and Pat Borg, actors and humorists. If they tried to keep their seriousness when answering our questions, it was difficult to stay focused in the face of this strange trio. Interview
Fred Menuet : It’s a family program which deals with the habits and customs and failings of the people of the south-west of France.
Mélissa Billard: Yes, the project is full of parodies around the great southwest, unifying to make the whole region laugh and more if there is affinity.
Pat Borg: La chocolatine is what sums up a little bit of all the rivalries between the north, south and southwest of France. It’s a pretty funny little point of tension in the end.
Mélissa Billard: Because here, it’s chocolate if I understood correctly. In any case, when entering any bakery, you have to say “chocolatine”. I don’t say it initially and I have learned to do it. In my instinct for survival, I decided to say “chocolatine”.
Fred Menuet : This is the great debate that divides: chocolatine or pain au chocolat? Personally, I eat croissants.
Fred Menuet : The program is constructed in two parts; a first with sketches and songs live on stage with the public and a second part with pre-shot video capsules which parody television shows with a southwest twist.
Crime TV films, game shows, flea market shows, family programs and even investigative shows are parodied. Each time, the actors make references to the southwest of France: the accent, the expressions, the gastronomy, etc.
Mélissa Billard, Fred Menuet and Pat Borg in a well-known game parodied in “A family in order”
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© Anoki/France televisions
Mélissa Billard: Yes, that’s it, around parodies and live performances. The new side is that we mix in a lot of live performances, and that’s great! We have real feedback from the public.
Pat Borg: The mix is really interesting. With the public, that changes everything. There is a beautiful energy.
Pat Borg: The objective is to laugh at the little quirks of the southwest as we usually do in our shows.
Mélissa Billard: Exactly. It’s about making people laugh and having fun.
Pat Borg: Our inspirations are Les Inconnus. These are The Dummies. It’s the Palmashow.
Mélissa Billard: I would say: the people, the people we were able to meet, the people from the southwest who come to see us at our shows and who tell us anecdotes.
Mélissa Billard: Because we realized that people liked being talked about. We do a lot of shows around the southwest. At the end, they came to us to tell us that we needed to do more. We said to ourselves that we had to go all out to please them. The idea is not to make fun of people, but rather to laugh with them.
Pat Borg: It’s a bit of a trademark of all three of us. We’re used to it and there’s so much to say about the rivalry between north and south. And then, the clichés are what make you laugh too.
Fred Menuet : Me, I eat croissants.
Mélissa Billard: Yes, calling it fat.
Pat Borg: It must be said. We will never be able to close this debate. It is eternal even if for people from the southwest, the debate does not exist since we say “chocolatine” and that’s it.
Find the entire this show on the france.tv platform.
