Strange world: From grumps to cheats

Published on Thursday 16 October 2008 22:04

THEY take their television seriously in Quebec. A TV show called Les Bougon, which portrays a dysfunctional family surviving by social security fraud and shoplifting, has become enormously popular. As a result, "bougon" has become part of Quebec's vernacular. Originally, the word meant a grumpy complainer but with the show's success it has morphed into a term of abuse for politicians and fraudsters. Politicians are now called "the real Bougon".

However, this wordplay has not gone down well in France, where a version of the programme is now airing. Sixty people with the surname Bougon have gone to court to get the show retitled, claiming their name was being associated with tax cheats, scroungers and fraudsters – though, so far, not French politicians.

But the French courts have rejected the claim. Madame Catherine Bougon, who is appealing against the court's decision, says the original show made life unbearable for people in Quebec called Bougon. "It's come to mean a tax cheat because of the programme," she said. "In fact, they don't call them cheats any more, they call them 'bougons'."

Earlier this month, the son of the late president Francois Mitterrand and 41 other prominent figures in the French business and political elite went on trial for … tax fraud.