faire des gorges chaudes

to mock someone maliciously

An old-fashioned way to say people are gossiping about someone or making them the butt of the joke, with real relish.

Les voisins ont fait des gorges chaudes de sa mésaventure pendant des semaines.

The neighbours gossiped and laughed about his misfortune for weeks.

Gorge chaude was originally a falconry term for the warm, freshly killed meat fed to a hunting bird. Making warm throats out of someone came to mean feasting on their misfortune the way a hawk feasts on fresh prey.