Michaël Youn confides without tongue in cheek at "20 Minutes"

"20 Minutes" met Michaël Youn before his return Thursday, at 9:05 pm, on M6 at the controls of the "Morning Night"

Michaël Youn, at the La Rochelle Festival, in September 2016. - NIVIERE / SIPA

This Thursday, and next Thursday, at 9:05 pm, M6 broadcasts "Morning Night", a program presented by Michaël Youn and recorded several weeks ago.
Michaël Youn makes his return to the small screen on this occasion, twenty years after the launch of his "Morning Live", a program broadcast in the morning on M6 between 2000 and 2003.
For "20 Minutes", Michaël Youn talks about his career, the concept of this new program and his relationship with humor.

He returns. And he is very happy. Twenty years after having earned a reputation as a troublemaker of French TV thanks to his crazy happenings in Morning Live , Michaël Youn returns to the small screen, Thursday, at 9:05 pm on M6. At the helm of the Morning Night , he will encourage six guests (Audrey Fleurot, François-Xavier Demaison, Claudia Tagbo, Philippe Lacheau, etc.) to take up challenges crossed between two sketches and parodies. 20 Minutes met him last Thursday while he was supervising the editing of the show. An interview without tongue-in-cheek with a acrobat, as he defines himself, who wants more than screaming in a megaphone.

How does it feel to come back on TV?

That's a lot of emotions. This could not have been done on another channel. I couldn't go play a game on TF1, an entertainment show on France 2 or a sketch on Canal +. I am a child of M6 and I do not deny it, even if, like all children, from time to time, I criticize my parents. I was very moved to find the public. The idea is the three morons of the Morning Live team who return in the evening with an original concept but the same spirit of stupidity.

You come back with Benjamin Morgaine and Vincent Desagnat. But not with other figures of "Morning Live" such as Magloire or Zuméo…

Magloire will be in the second part of the evening [ Michaël Youn: From “Morning Live” to “Divorce Club” , broadcast at 11:10 pm], because we did a documentary together to retrace my journey. He couldn't do both. He is still my friend. Zuméo is now doing TV production. And then, since we didn't have columnists, it ended there.

In twenty years, what has changed in the way of making TV to M6?

Nothing in freedom, since we had carte blanche. We had discussions on the format of the program, but it was an artistic exchange between broadcaster and creator. We make fun of the chain in the Morning Night , they didn't tell us anything. I know that it annoys them a little that we say "M6 has no money, M6 is stingy". But they know that with me, freedom of tone is article number 1 in the charter of what we have to do together. I cannot be good if I am not given complete freedom. Now I'm a responsible guy. My goal is to make other shows. We are not going to behead a chicken on the air just because we have carte blanche. We went very far in our humor which is sometimes trash, sometimes transgressive, sometimes frankly stupid. But we do not disrespect any community, we will not start desecrating in prime time on M6, we will also not show stouquettes history of not cutting ourselves off from the family. We did what we wanted to do by saying it was a prime time show.

The show is also in public…

It was better when there weren't any, because now when we make flops, we realize that ( laughs ).

Did you keep some flaws during assembly?

Some, but the valves that do not hit the mark, I do not know if there is really interest in keeping them. To give an example, we had a sequence with a song with holes, which did not work. We were leaving Bring the cup to Vegedream's house and wondering what would have happened if he had had psoriasis. ( He sings :) "Bring crusts home, go the Blues, go". I made myself five minutes of tunnel where, as well my guests as the public, nobody laughed. Except at the end, because I rowed so much that it got funny. But the slightly pointed or absurd things, which I believe in, I left them. When I'm going to fart plates because I'm sick of M6 not being there, for example. I'm not sure everyone likes it, but it makes me laugh. So I go to the end of the process.

Resuming service with the megaphone, did you feel good?

It was hard. I thought I was done with this because it is violent for others but also for me. I put myself in danger, sometimes literally when I do this with the cops. That's what stresses me. I have the ball in my stomach every time, except when I do it to my mother - it will be shown in the second show. I don't think I could make a megaphone all my life. I also have trouble with phone hoaxes, I can't do it anymore. Because it costs me to get people into something that is wrong.

In an extract that it was possible to view, some of the “victims” of your hoaxes from twenty years ago were not blurred. There, all those you trapped in 2020 are blurred ... Your reputation has not helped to convince them to give up their image rights?

Most people now recognize me, but that's not why they approve. The difference is especially that twenty years ago, we were a little oblivious. We didn't blur people when we didn't necessarily have the authorizations. We just didn't care. We didn't even know we had to blur. We were broadcasting this at the bottom of the truck. Today we have a greater responsibility. I also understood, from past mistakes, because I don't want to hurt people, the guy who went to the sex shop for example. I want a funny sequence, I don't want to destroy her life.

Do you regret some of the things you did at "Morning Live"?

Fortunately. When you do two hours live per day, inevitably, there are things that escape you: valves on a community or on a person. The violation of human dignity from time to time, when you make happenings, you don't always know where the border is. I tied a guy to a tree and I left him for six hours, no way. It is also the defect of wanting to make people laugh and to be ready for anything for that. As Laurent Ruquier says, sometimes you would sell father and mother for a laugh. We do not realize it at the time but a posteriori. I am trying today not to hurt anyone. We have a humor that is never very political, nor very social. We don't talk about religion, we don't blaspheme. In the Morning Night they see me dressed as a nun but it was more for the costume. What I prefer above all is to disguise myself as a woman, much to my mother's chagrin. We like to make fun of ourselves. That's what made people smile.

The "Morning Live" is well anchored in the memories of the 30s and quadras. Do you feel like you have marked a generation?

I don't have that impression. I analyze myself personally with a therapist ( he smiles ) to be in greater harmony in the world in which I live, but not professionally. Am I cult, have I left a trace? It scares me way too much. I don't look like that because often people think I'm a pretty presumptuous person but I try to be humble. It is a quality that I admire and that I try to have. One thing is certain, it is that people look at me with a lot of tenderness, a little bit like little or big brothers. I feel like we grew up together.

On the street, the people you meet still ask you when you will repeat the "Morning Live"?

When asked, I always say the same thing: "Never again, because it's too early". I want to have a social life, a family life. I can no longer get up at three in the morning every day. This is why we imagined these events, as a bonus, where we find the spirit of the Morning but in another package, with guests, more fictions, things turned. I wanted to bring "production value". We recorded two and I think we will shoot four more next season. We chat with M6 to do the show live, it would be called Morning Night Live .

Do you regret not having pursued your career on television?

I am happy with all that I have been able to do in my journey, including moments when I made mistakes, when I got confused, when I should have reacted less spontaneously to a project proposal or to a question. This is Mandela's famous phrase: "I never lose, either I win or I learn. "There are few acrobats in France who can boast of having made an amazing TV program, songs, directing, having played in dramas, in comedies, having made a show, coming back on TV ... When we say that in France we put people in boxes, this is not true, I am the first example. Aside from maybe getting into sports or literature, I did everything I wanted to do.

Television

Guests, parody (and megaphone)… What we know about the return of Michaël Youn on M6