France honours crazy pledges after Ukraine win

November 21, 2013 2:58 PM

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France honours crazy pledges after Ukraine win

France will be competing in the 2014 World Cup after its team won 3-0 against Ukraine on Tuesday. But few were expecting the team to pull it off, so TV and radio hosts thought they could safely pledge to do crazy things in the case of victory. Most have kept their word, writes Olivia Sorrel-Dejerine.

Antoine de Caunes, the host of the French TV show Le Grand Journal on Canal +, said live that he would present his show in English and "fully dressed as an Englishman" if the Bleus won. The next day, he donned his strongest French accent and was elegantly dressed on set in a brown-and-yellow checked jacket over a blue cardigan with floral tie.

Doria Tillier, the Grand Journal's weather forecaster, promised she would present the forecast "à poil," ie naked. Would she fulfil the promise? She finally presented the weather report in Poil, a village in the centre of France, though there was, at the end, a distant shot of her running naked across a field, chanting "Et un, et deux, et trois zeros" - "And one, and two, and three-nil."

Meanwhile, Cyril Hanouna, host of the French TV show Touche pas à mon Poste! (Don't touch my television!) said he would bleach his hair if the team won. The following day he appeared on set, as promised, with blond hair.

Marc Dorcel, a French producer of pornographic films tweeted an hour before the game that all of his movies would be available for free during the entire night on his website. Twenty minutes after the game started, his post had been retweeted more than 700 times, and 45 seconds after the team's victory, Dorcel's website was inaccessible due to heavy traffic.

Sebastien Cauet, a host on NRJ radio, said he would take a bath in the studio with another radio columnist. At the final whistle, Cauet jumped in.

Politicians also took part in the fun. The MP Philippe Gosselin came to the French National Assembly wearing flip-flops as he had promised while the MP Daniel Fasquelle came wearing the French team's jersey.

What French public figures will do if the team wins in Brazil is unclear - but the scale of the achievement would clearly demand an even crazier response.


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