Literal translation
on the way down, the pumpkins go there too
Meaning
anyone, even the dullest, can manage an easy task
Explanation
This expression says that anyone, even the least capable, can succeed at what is easy, by extending the image of a slope down which even pumpkins roll without effort. Descèndo (descent, a word that can also mean a hernia) sets the scene, a slope down which any object, whatever its shape, rolls easily ; cougourdo, a variant of coucourdo (pumpkin, gourd, but also fool in a figurative sense), plays on this double meaning of vegetable and foolishness, while li van (go there, from van, to go) completes the image with the effortless, collective downward movement of everyone. The word cougourdo alone thus carries the expression's double reading : literally, pumpkins rolling down the slope ; figuratively, fools succeeding without effort at something that requires no skill at all. The expression extends to mean following the herd, notably used to comment on the success of easy programmes or speeches that flatter an audience's basest instincts. The register is ironic and often used to target, at the speaker's discretion, either the creators or the viewers in question.