Literal translation
stuffed like a squid
Meaning
stuffed full of lies
Explanation
The image draws its force from a common culinary practice in Provence, where squid, once cleaned out, lends itself particularly well to being stuffed with a filling of breadcrumbs, herbs, and sometimes its own chopped tentacles, a traditional dish enjoyed on Mediterranean tables. Applying that generous stuffing to a speech or a story means saying that it is filled, crammed to the brim, no longer with breadcrumbs but with lies, exaggerations, or inventions that pad out its content without guaranteeing its truthfulness. The comparison plays on the contrast between the dense, seemingly substantial texture of the dish and the actual emptiness of what it contains once examined more closely, just as a story can appear rich while resting on nothing solid. The word tóuteno means precisely squid in the dictionary, confirming the very concrete culinary grounding of the image. The register is familiar and vivid, used to ironically describe a speech, a report, or a testimony judged unreliable.