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This paper studies how the representations of the State impact the work of reformers during a singular episode of public management reform: the General Review of Public Policies (RGPP). Yet, the State is depicted through the abstract analyses drawn from the RGPP audits. But theses representations find a strange parallel in caricatures, made by the modernizers themselves. The State is pictured as a fat clumsy mammoth and is designated as a body to be reformed. In contrast, the image of an ideal body is proposed by reformers: the optimal State. Through this study, I aim to advocate for the renewal of study of representations of political bodies. I also draw out some of the issues at stake in thinking about the reform of the State.