The comedian is back on the encrypted channel. He was hired by Vincent Bolloré, three years after being fired for a parody of “L’heure des pros” having displeased the same Vincent Bolloré. Aware of the incomprehension that this situation can generate, he is now offering an improbable fiction, in which he imagines himself as director of programs for the encrypted channel. Thanks boss ! will be broadcast Thursday, December 21, at 10:45 p.m., and will of course remain available to subscribers of the platform.
franceinfo: vsIt’s a big surprise to see you again on Canal. You were fired for a parody of “L’Heure des pros”, a program from Cnews, which belongs to the Canal group. This didn’t make management laugh at all. How can you return to a house that has treated you so badly?
Sébastien Thoen: This is not obvious. In the meantime I left, I was in Dubai, I became an influencer, I did lots of things. The eviction, obviously, is sad. I’m actually moving on. I make jokes, I say I’m going to come back, I take out a book, I go to “Grosses Têtes”, thanks to Laurent Ruquier. They call me back three years later. I tell myself that it’s normal in fact, I wrote a book in which I said that I was going to come back.
“It was all a joke, not necessarily in very good taste at the time. But everyone relaxed. Water has flowed under the bridge.”
Sébastien Thoento franceifno
People come to see me, they ask me if I would like to make jokes again, in my house where I stayed for 30 years, where I did things that I could never have done elsewhere. I did “Action discreet”, the “Journal du hard”, lots of things.
But it’s no longer the same house as 30 years ago, Canal?
Yes, but I don’t care who is in HR or “accounting”. Like you, you don’t wonder who and who the franceinfo cantoche is when you sign here. I see what you mean, but honestly, there was a desire for appeasement when Maxime Saada called me. And there, it’s not just the hired artist who speaks, it’s the committed artist. The boss of Canal told me: “We messed around three years ago, now it’s calmed down, come back, we’ll have a laugh.” And I am also offered to do Thanks boss !, well I had the idea, but there is an ironic side to making fun of it. It is rather a desire for appeasement.
He regrets firing you, is that what he told you?
Yes, it was mishandled, of course. We can say it. You can make a mistake and admit it, it doesn’t matter, it’s human.
You say “everyone relaxed”, but perhaps not the 20-25 employees who supported you, who signed a petition and who, for that, were fired. Did you write to them?
Yes of course. I suspected you were going to tell me about it. You’re right and it’s going to buzz, that’s very good, you have a sense of buzz on the radio. Obviously, I’m not very comfortable with that. Obviously, when it happened, you should know that there was the social plan at Canal, which had started in 2015. For “x” reasons, I’m not in accounting, but it’s true, it It is factual, Canal+ separated itself from people. Because there were more broadcasts, they were no longer going to buy Ligue 1… When I arrived in sport in 2019, I met people who told me that we had still signed for a year, but it was complicated, there was no more work in fact. It doesn’t minimize what happened, but it shouldn’t make it hysterical either.
“People left by signing a petition for me. I was obviously very touched. I have called them all back since, almost. They all bounced back, did something else.”
Sébastien Thoenat franceinfo
Do you think they understand your feedback?
I’ve had it all, but I understand, I’m not completely crazy. Behind the uncontrollable punk, there is also a beating heart and I understand. People have told me: “Like everyone else, you only think about yourself, enjoy yourself.” Others told me: “I wouldn’t have come back, you’re being abusive.” Others: “I left but since then, I have been selling docs to Canal+.” Some do something else… I’ve heard all the bells and whistles, but it’s important to talk about it. I’m not being smart about it yet, even if like everyone else, I’m also thinking about myself. And then I say to myself three years later, we have all bounced back, so much the better. And fortunately, I think that if we hadn’t all more or less bounced back, I wouldn’t have come back like that. My only job, my only boss, is the subscriber. And my only job is to make jokes.
So let’s talk about fiction, Thanks boss ! which we will see Thursday evening on Canal+. It’s a surreal situation: Jonathan Cohen is supposed to be appointed director of programs at Canal and they make a typo, and your name comes out. Thoen for Cohen. Everyone is surprised, especially you. You are going to look for new programs to put on the air, you imagine games, fictions that are completely rubbish, can we say that?
I have a slightly 1990s vision of TV. So I obviously have a burlesque vision and then, I make fun of myself in that. So we see me exploring ideas… A series on Urssaf, for example.
And there are lots of “guests” with you, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Baptiste Lecaplain, Patrick Sébastien, Chantal Ladesou, Julien Lepers…
And Jérémy Ferrari. Only friends who came, who play their own role and who come to help me in my quest.
There is Gérard Jugnot, who replays a cult scene from “Bronzés”, we won’t say which one. So you will also return to Canal next year with the Tourism agency, with Gérard Jugnot and Baptiste Lecaplain again. It’s what ? A quirky road trip?
In fact, we assume that Gérard Jugnot has a travel agency near Paris. No one knows. He is trying to renew his weekend catalog a little for his customers. It doesn’t work very well. So he sends Baptiste and me. We are really travel agents and we go to the cities of Europe to bring good hotel deals, good museum deals, for an affordable price, it will be nice.
So you are an employee of Canal+ again?
It is not going good, no ! I am an artist. There are no employees, no fixed-term or permanent contracts. But I committed to it for a little while anyway. But obviously, in a year, I get fired again and I wrote my legend. We’re going to try to have a laugh because my only boss is the subscriber.
Watch this interview on video: