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BOUDREAUX & THIBODEAUX Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill, Daphne, AL This Cajun charmer on the Eastern Shore in Daphne offers one of the best views of Mobile Bay, and it’s easy to see why the deck is the restaurant’s most loved spot. Brothers Aaron and Matt Brant and cousin Michael Geronemus offer an extensive menu that rivals that of Louisiana’s best Cajun restaurants. The star of the menu is smothered catfish topped with their signature crawfish étouffée , but you can’t go wrong with their chicken macque choux, blackened redfish (and gator) and fried boudin swamp cakes. Boudreaux’s is open daily for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. Enjoy live music and a spec- tacular sunset on the deck. This popular Cajun-themed bar in Downtown Baton Rouge serving Cajun food and bar bites has an open-air balcony overlooking Third Street. Enjoy live music including Baton Rouge’s own Chase Tyler Band. Boudreau & Thibodeau’s, Houma, LA This is the kind of restaurant that locals love and visitors get excited about. The decor is a nod to the city’s (and restaurant’s) Cajun heritage, and there are Boudreau and Thibodeau jokes written on all the walls and tables — but the food is no joke. A playful menu includes traditional Cajun dishes like spicy alligator sauce piquante, grilled boudin links and fried alligator bites. Dig in to a 10-ounce Boudreau burger, or a smaller 6-ounce version named T-Claude. (“T” is an abbreviation of the word petit, and translates to “small” in Cajun French.) Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s, Baton Rouge, LA

I’ve actually heard lots of jokes in the aisles at Rouses! People would come up and say, “Hey, you can use this one!” for a radio show I used to host on Saturday nights where I’d often tell stories. They would try to tell me stories while I was trying to buy beans!

in Europe back then, but they could at least make fun. They could poke fun at authority. It became a social pressure release strategy. A lot of Cajun humor has come to be called “Boudreaux and Thibodeaux” jokes, because the two names are used for main characters in different jokes over and over again. When did that begin? That’s actually very coincidental. That started maybe, I don’t know, maybe 20, 25 years ago at the most. People just needed to name a character and they named them some typical name. Some well-known storyteller used that several times, and other people said, “ Oh, that’s an easy way to name characters, ” so everybody started doing it. In historical oral tradition, you hear many more ways to refer to the characters. Does every community have someone who’s a designated storyteller? Where do you find them? When looking for storytellers over the years, many times I would find a grocery store, because they knew pretty much all the people in town. For instance, one time, I went in a store in Bayou Pigeon and I said, “My name’s Barry Ancelet. I’m from UL in Lafayette, and I was wondering if y’all knew anybody who’s known to tell stories.” There were six people in the store. They all pointed to the bar next door

He said, “Wow! I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.” She said, “Well, we’re going to be here all weekend. You’ll be able to come.” He said, “No, I got a wedding and two funerals and a baptism. I'm going to be too busy. I won’t be able to get away.” She said, “Well, there was nobody behind me in the line. Would you like me to give you a little demonstration here?” He said, “Well, you would do that for me?” She said, “Sure.” He opened the curtain and she walked out and sat on the floor of the church right in front of the confessional. She took her left leg and passed it behind her back and grabbed it with her left hand, and took her right leg, passed it in front of her, and reached behind her head and grabbed it with her right hand. Right then, Mrs. Boudreaux and Mrs. Thibodeaux were walking into church. Mrs. Boudreaux said, “ Ooh, I don’t think I’m going to go to confession today. Father’s in a bad mood. Look at that penance he gave! ” Why do you think that nothing is off limits in Cajun humor? It's profoundly a society that originated in peasant society — these same people that [French scholar] Rabelais was writing about. They were the ones who would not have succeeded in revolting against authority

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