“We had to remove the baccalaureate, considered too difficult”: when the Unknowns made fun (gently) of Bernard Pivot

“Ben Nard Pivot, the one who is stupid.” At the start of the 1990s, Les Inconnus gently made fun of French tastes in television in “La Famille enplomb” (a parody of “Une famille en or”). Bernard Pivot, who died this Monday, May 6 at the age of 89, was obviously one of the star hosts who presented “Bouillon de culture” on Antenne 2 (the program dedicated to books which succeeded “Apostrophes”).

Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus always knew how to capture the spirit of the times and went beyond humor and parody to tell the story of the era. In “Apostrofes”, they imagined Franck Pivot, Bernard's grandson, presenting the belles lettres in 2033. “Hello, today “Apostrofes” is celebrating its 50th anniversary,” said Bernard Campan as a literary journalist and rock. He receives Bob Fleece for “a unique challenge, but a serious one”: the reform of the spelling of verlan.

“When I knew that it came from the dean of the Academy, I wanted to take my 'Suzuk' and go 'over', far from the dome,” continues Didier Bourdon in a truer-than-life Franglais. , who portrays a member of the French Academy with a banana cut and an earring, author of a book Phlepan (for pamphlet). “I am “over” disillusioned. We totally “dream”. And then we are surprised that the “keums” at school do not pass the exams (...) and that we had to eliminate the baccalaureate, considered too difficult.

A hilarious sketch with prophetic accuracy. Bob Toison, who released an anthology of French poetry in verlan, defends his choice of not having cited François Villon. “I’m a big fan of François Villon, but transcribing the old “frenchie” into verlan is “over difficult”.” The program concludes with the promotion of the release in the Pléiade of the works of Didier Barbelivien “with a preface by Félix Gray”. As everything is prophetic with the Unknowns, this will undoubtedly happen.

A sketch to review: