Netflix is launching “Dans la Sauce” on June 3, a 1 hour and 30 minute comedy special hosted by Paul de Saint Sernin that aims to bring the American-style roast to France. The program features some of the sharpest voices in French comedy, including Monsieur Poulpe, Pablo Mira, Kheiron, Sarah Lélé, Emy, and Waly Dia, who take turns roasting well-known French football figures. The targets are not just any celebrities: the show focuses on members of France’s 1998 and 2018 World Cup-winning teams, making the jokes land on some of the country’s most beloved sports heroes.
The concept of a roast, long popular in the United States, is built around playful but cutting jokes aimed at a guest who has agreed to be the target. The humor depends on a clear contract: the person being mocked knows the format in advance and accepts the teasing with self-deprecation. The best roasts are not only harsh but also genuinely funny, and the tension between insult and affection is what gives the format its appeal.
In France, however, the roast has struggled to become a mainstream comedy format. French humor often leans more heavily on irony, double meaning, and second-degree wit, while American comedy tends to favor directness and clearer emotional signals. That difference has made the roast harder to adapt for French audiences, even though the idea has circulated in the French entertainment industry for years.
Paul de Saint Sernin has described it as a long-running “white whale” in French television, a concept many have tried to develop without fully breaking through. Still, some adaptations have worked better than others. The YouTube duo McFly and Carlito found some success with their “Auto-roast” format in 2023 and 2024, where participants wrote jokes about one another without knowing in advance who had written them. Their videos drew millions of views, showing that French audiences can respond to roast-style comedy when the format feels accessible and less confrontational.
Other French examples include roast-inspired segments in Drag Race France, where the practice fits naturally within drag culture, and recurring appearances by Paul de Saint Sernin on Quelle Époque!, where he has become known for sharp remarks directed at guests. His style recalls earlier French television “snipers” such as Laurent Baffie, who built a reputation for unsparing one-liners.
For Netflix, “Dans la Sauce” is both an experiment and a test of whether French audiences are ready for a more direct form of insult comedy. According to Paul de Saint Sernin, the key to making a roast work is to target someone who is deeply admired. In his view, joking about someone of equal status or lesser popularity risks feeling mean rather than funny, but taking aim at an idol can transform the same joke into a shared moment of laughter.
