French comedian Louis Cattelat has poked fun at the Mounaques of Campan, traditional life-size straw dolls displayed in the streets and windows of the Hautes-Pyrenees village each summer, in a video that has been shared more than 2,000 times on Instagram.
Cattelat, a comedian and regular contributor to the television programme Quotidien on TMC, posted the video on 31 July while on tour for his show Arecibo. The clip compiled footage of the dolls set to unsettling music from the series Dexter, introduced with the caption saying viewers had booked their holidays on nightmare.com.
On his Instagram account, Cattelat joked that he would not name the village but suggested its municipal team should be removed, adding that the comment was not meant to be taken literally.
The video featured masked dolls, one lying on its side from a balcony and another wearing a pirate bandana. Locals responded with good humour. One resident said they had grown up with the dolls and had always wondered why nobody had made a horror film about the Mounaques of Campan. Comedian and singer Lola Dubini wrote that, while not a churchgoer, she would pray for exactly that.
The Mounaques are handmade cloth dolls stuffed with hay and dressed with clothing and accessories by enthusiasts who have kept the tradition alive since the 19th century.
