Apparently, many devotees of Everybody talks about it scream and tear out fistfuls of hair as soon as co-host MC Gilles shoots an arrow at a beloved artist or scratches an influential person on Radio-Canada’s television high mass.
After his muscular exchanges with Mayor Valérie Plante on Sunday evening, justified and polite discussions, I would point out, MC Gilles was nicely peppered on X and Facebook. The reproaches ? He upset the head of Projet Montréal too much, he was insolent, arrogant, disrespectful and in bad faith.
Also, the drooling smile of MC Gilles, 50, disturbed several viewers, who judged that Guy A. Lepage’s sidekick intervened too much in the interviews.
The same type of angry remarks abounded when MC Gilles crossed swords with filmmaker Denys Arcand at the beginning of October. As if the public completely rejected any form of debate or discomfort. As if the squeaky television irritated more than 20 years ago, when Everybody talks about it landed on our airwaves.
Pierre-Yves Lord, Alexandre Barrette, Kim Lévesque Lizotte, Marie-Lyne Joncas and MC Gilles assisted Guy A. Lepage this fall. But it is MC Gilles, by far, who has disturbed the most, probably because he sticks more to the function of the king’s fool, inscribed in the French bible of Everybody talks about it.
“I polarize a lot. People who love me, love me too much. The people who hate me, hate me too much. I see my role more as devil’s advocate. You have to challenge people. When someone doesn’t respond or responds vaguely, I come back. I am not complacent. You don’t take me if you don’t want graffiti. This job is a punching bag job. I know that Dany Turcotte suffered a lot,” MC Gilles, alias Dave-Éric Ouellet, explains to me in an interview.
Difficult to contradict MC Gilles on this. As a regular, I love it when an edition of Everybody talks about it contains strong moments where unusual things happen, which go beyond the framework, let’s say, more indulgent.
With the hectic weeks – understatement! – that she crossed, Valérie Plante knew that her passage to Everybody talks about it would not be sweet or pleasant. The staging of oysters and champagne was not so necessary, but hey, the image hit hard and MC Gilles does not regret it, even if he admits that this gesture was a bit populist.
And asking the mayor, elected by Montrealers, if she has control of her city is not inappropriate or brazen. It’s just legit.
Officially, the work of the king’s jester Everybody talks about it was abolished with the departure of Dany Turcotte, in February 2021. The person who accompanies Guy A. Lepage has the title of co-host.
“At the beginning, the king’s fool sent jokes and nonsense. We’re not here at all anymore. And this is not the mandate that we give to the co-hosts,” specifies the co-producer of Everybody talks about itGuillaume Lspérance.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
MC Gilles and Janette Bertrand, in an “indulgent” moment of the show Everybody talks about it
True, the first seasons of Everyone speaks contained more corrosive material. “I am about 10% of what Laurent Baffie was doing at Everybody talks about it in France,” says MC Gilles, who says he puts himself in the place of the viewers at home when he asks tough questions.
It must be said that since the pandemic, the “world is not good”, to quote colleague Patrick Lagacé. At the slightest annoyance, people vomit their gall – or their poop, like Kevin in STAT – on the Internet. You have to hold your nose when you connect to the X platform. It’s less heavy on Facebook, but until when?
This is perhaps what explains why Quebec television is moving further and further away from what could shake up the consensus and trigger media storms. Channel bosses hate controversies, which also put off advertisers, who should not be frightened in times of crisis.
When he received Ginette Reno on October 29, Guy A. Lepage was also accused of having been mean and odious with the 77-year-old singer. Let’s see, let’s calm down. Do we suffer from television hypersensitivity to this extent?
Rotating co-hosts at Everybody talks about it, who practice live, let’s not forget, each have a different style. Marie-Lyne Joncas is more familiar and comical, Alexandre Barrette remains stoic and deadpan, Kim Lévesque Lizotte brings sparkle and MC Gilles often rushes into the crowd.
The variety of points of view and approaches of the co-hosts prevents Everybody talks about it to put on slippers that are too comfortable and become predictable. And it works: at its 20e season, the popular Canadian radio show still attracts its million fans.
We should not lose this weekly meeting because crazy people are showing off in CAPITAL LETTERS on social networks, with a bunch of French mistakes, “what nonsense about the town”.