Obviously, the words in “The Idol” multiverse are different as well. Following the debut of the fourth episode of “The Idol” on June 25, fans were whisked away from the saga of Jocelyn’s chaotic music career by the sound of two unfamiliar words: “carte blanche.” In the scene, Tedros, the rattle-wearing head of The Weeknd, brought a little extra flair to each syllable, and uttered the words “cart-à blanche-à,” amusing audiences everywhere in the process. One Twitter user said, “Idol is worth watching over the weekend for the inventive pronunciation of ‘Carte Blanche’ alone.” wrote, Another person agreed, Tweet that he became “forever haunted” by creative eloquence.
As amusing as the opening moment was to watch, many quickly pointed out that the mix-up was likely a purposeful character choice made to emphasize Tedros’ false sense of grandeur. “I’m not on record as being The Idol’s biggest fan, but pretending the mispronunciation of ‘carte blanche’ is a technical mistake rather than an intentional character-based joke probably isn’t the angle you want to take.” ,” a Twitter user wrote in defence. And speaking of him, The Weeknd has also made it clear that he is not his character.
“He’s disgusting, a psychopath – why put so much importance on it?” The Weeknd said this about Tedros in a June 14 Billboard interview published after the controversial sex scene in episode two. He added, “We intentionally did this with his look, his outfit, his hair – this guy is a moron.” “He cares a lot about how he looks, and he thinks he looks good. But then you see these awkward moments of him alone — he rehearses, he calculates. And he has to need to do, or have nothing to do, that’s pathetic. That’s true for a lot of people who are fish out of water, they’re put in these scenarios.”
But the question still remains: what exactly did Cart-à-blanche-à want to prove? Does “The Idol” really want us to look at Tedros with pity, as they claim? And if so, why was Tedros allowed to give a brief lesson about the Latin origins of the word “family” in the same episode? Perhaps some things are better left unsaid.