Les Guignols De L'Info
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''Les Guignols'' (, ''The Puppets''), formerly ''Les Guignols de l'info'' (, ''The News Puppets''), is a popular
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...
puppet show on the French television channel Canal+. The show, which ran daily, was created in 1988 and drew inspiration from the French program '' Le Bébête Show'' (1982–1995) and the British puppet satire '' Spitting Image'' (1984–1996). Using a format similar to a news broadcast, the show satirized the political world, media, celebrities, French society, and international events. Throughout the years, it usually aired at 7:50 p.m. as a segment of other Canal+ shows, such as or '' Le Grand Journal.'' On Sunday afternoons, Canal+ aired a weekly recap called ''La Semaine des Guignols'', featuring a back-to-back replay of the week's episodes. The show began in 1988 as ''Les Arènes de l'info'' (News Arenas). Initially, it did not cover current events in real-time and was less popular due to being scripted weeks in advance. However, in the 1990–91 season, the show rebranded a
Les Guignols de l'Info
and shifted to daily news commentary. It then enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity with its different coverage of the first
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, and quickly eclipsed its rival, '' Le Bébête Show''. The structure of the series stayed constant throughout the years: a headline, a few quick stories, a pre-recorded video skit, an interview with a personality, then one last story. It rarely diverged from this layout, usually only doing so to drive points across further (e.g. replacing all news with a seven-minute interview of one of the Sylvestres during the 2003 Iraq War).


Impact on popular culture

The ''Guignols'' have had a tremendous impact on French popular culture, in many cases introducing or popularizing phrases. For example, ''à l'insu de mon plein gré'' ("without the knowledge of my own free will"), repeated by Richard Virenque's puppet, is now attributed in jest to people who hypocritically deny having willfully committed attributed acts.
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
,
Segolene Is Snow White, Nicolas a Dwarf as French Satire Blooms
'
The show also went far in how violently it challenged and portrayed public figures. Some sketches displayed for example Raymond Barre, a former Prime Minister in a homosexual gonzo pornographic scene, Philippe Séguin (then candidate for Paris Mayor) in sadomasochist performances, President
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
and his team in a '' Pulp Fiction''–like destruction race to eliminate their competitors or the then-Minister of Interior Department Nicolas Sarkozy and foreign affair minister Dominique de Villepin as head of rival criminal gangs in a
Sin City ''Sin City'' is a series of neo-noir Comic book, comics by American comic book writer-artist Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in ''Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special'' (April 1991), and continued in ''Dark Horse Prese ...
and in a Gangs of New York parody. The show also used horror movies to spoof politicians. President
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
was represented as Leatherface chasing environmentalist politicians Antoine Waechter and Brice Lalonde in a parody of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as Jack Torrance in a Shining parody where he was assaulting Jacques Toubon in a bathroom with a giant fountain pen after he had read the single sentence in the book he was writing, and as
Ash Williams Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams is a fictional character and the protagonist of the '' Evil Dead'' franchise. Created by Sam Raimi, he is portrayed by Bruce Campbell and is the only character to appear in each entry of the series, including a po ...
in a parody of Evil Dead where a Kandarian Demon spoke with the voice of the late president François Mitterrand. President
François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...
appeared as a Catholic priest in a parody of
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...
where (then presidential candidate) Lionel Jospin was possessed by a demon. The dead were raising from their grave on Election Day to cast votes for Jean Tiberi (then Paris mayor) in a parody of Night of the Living Dead. Environment Minister Ségolène Royal was shown as victimized by an electric car named Corinne in a parody of John Carpenter's Christine. The rival program of TF1 '' Le Bébête Show'' was spoofed in a parody of '' Freaks'' in which Étienne Mougeotte (head of programming at TF1) was captured by Kermitterrand and his friends and turned into another (duck-like) puppet for trying to cancel the show due to its low ratings. Besides horror movies, works by
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
were also parodied. One controversial parody ('' Inglorious Cathos)'' showed the
Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...
hiring (in a scene more reminiscent of The Dirty Dozen) a commando of 3 bishops (a paedophile, a Holocaust denier, a radical traditional catholic) to fight the infidels. One
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
parody, used instead of puppets cartoon characters drawn in the style of Eric Cartman (with the voice of Philippe Séguin),
Kyle Broflovski Kyle Broflovski () is a fictional character in the adult animation, adult animated sitcom ''South Park''. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Matt Stone. Kyle is one of the series' four central characters, along with his frie ...
(with the voice of Nicolas Sarkozy), Stan Marsh (with the voice of
François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...
) and Kenny McCormick (with the voice of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing). At the end of the skit, Kenny was getting killed and the other congratulated each other for doing a good thing together. The ''Guignols'' have generally displayed a left-leaning political outlook (although being tough on whoever is in power). While they generally focused on French politics, they also often riffed off of international events, a key focal point being United States foreign policy in general, including
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
, the
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
conflict and
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
. These spoofs on international events were usually presented in an anti- Bush manner, portraying the fictional "World Company" (see below) as being the true leaders, not the president himself. They also regularly called out and mocked their own TV channel, Canal+, and its executive staff, especially during its 2002 crisis.


Political influence

The impact of political caricature in the ''Guignols'' is unclear, but some polls have shown that they have influenced voters. According to Ipsos (2002), the show had a good reach within the younger 18-32 audience segment. The popularity of Chirac's puppet has undeniably played a role in his 1995 election as Les Guignols had become a major broadcaster of biased political opinions. The show had created an electoral slogan for Chirac ("Mangez des pommes") that the candidate reused publicly during his campaign. The French journalist Hugo Cassavetti criticized how the show evolved from a political goof for everyone to a partisan show with a political agenda, turning Canal+ into a leftist political hub. Bruno Gaccio reminded that Les Guignols "aren’t real, it’s fake news-it’s just comedy", and also said "if American audiences could get a brief dose of ''Guignol'' humor, their perceptions would never be the same again." ''Les Guignols'' created mixed reactions regarding their provocative coverage of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, for example when they portrayed
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
triumphantly singing "''It’s Raining Planes''", or by depicting
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
as mentally challenged. By 2002, 3.5 million viewers watched the show everyday, including 25% of the 15-25 segment.


Catchphrases

Some catchphrases are recurrently used during the show. * ''Le Monsieur te demande...'' (The gentleman is asking you...) loudly pronounced by the Chirac puppet when repeating the question of the interviewer to the Giscard puppet, to suggest that he is deaf or senile. * ''Putain, deux ans !'' (Damn, two years!) In 1993, Balladur is prime minister, while Chirac must wait two years to run for president. His puppet keeps repeating that sentence, suggesting his impatience to become president. * ''à l'insu de mon plein gré'' See above. Repeated by Virenque's puppet to deny that he knew he was taking performance-enhancing drugs. * ''Oh oui, quelle humiliation !'' (Yes, what a great humiliation! ) Repeated by Philippe Séguin's puppet during the run-up to the mayor election in Paris, anticipating on his defeat. * ''Tout à fait Thierry !'' Used by the puppet of Jean-Michel Larqué when commenting soccer matches with Thierry Roland. * ''Salut, Bonhomme.'' (Hello boy/lad) is used by Bernard Tapie to salute PPD. * ''Pt'it fromage qui pue.'' (Little stinking cheese) used by M. Sylvestre (
Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...
's puppet) when talking of French people or when saluting PPD. * ''Excusez la tenue, je sors de la douche.'' (Sorry for the bathrobe, I was in the shower) Repeated by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn puppet who is always in bathrobe when doing interviews.


Famous characters

The characters appearing in Les ''Guignols'' are based on real personalities of the political, economic and artistic worlds; generally, anybody deemed newsworthy. The show also had a few dozen anonymous puppets at its disposal. * PPD is a caricature of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (who is himself nicknamed ''PPDA''), a news anchor who was on the
TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...
network until 2008. He served as the main anchor of the show since its first season. He was depicted as a rather cowardly journalist who tries to get on with the mighty and the powerful, but used irony and sarcasm to get his point across. He also sported a variety of hairstyles, in an attempt to mask his receding hairline. Despite the end of the news anchor career of the real Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, "PPD" wasn't retired until the 2015 season. *Sylvestre, Commandant Sylvestre, Cardinal Sylvestre, and many others, both named and unnamed, all with the same face and voice, were fictional characters based on the likeness of the American actor
Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...
, although when it was the actor himself who was represented, or Rambo, he had a distinct appearance and a different voice. The Sylvestres were parodies of "an ugly American", of greedy multinational corporations, and the military–industrial complex. They always introduced themselves with "''beuuarhh''" (), a slurred version of " bonsoir" (, ''good evening''). During the first
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, the ''Guignols'' introduced a character called ''Commandant Sylvestre''. He would explain the war in broad oversimplified terms ("''Here's the good guys, that's us, and here are the ragheads, so we'll kill everybody there...''"). After the gulf war, he was reintroduced as Mr. Sylvestre, an ubiquitous executive from the military-industrial complex, the
corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...
world, and the CIA, all mixed into the fictional mega-corporation ''World Company''. Sylvestre was dressed in a suit and tie, with a security badge. Other Sylvestres, dressed as Cardinals, Reverends, Imams, Rabbis, and other religious leaders, were also portrayed as the Church Company, the twin sister of the World Company, specializing in "the business of religion". During the 2017 season, he was the show's main anchor. In the very last episode, he was the CEO who fired PPD and Jacques Chirac. *
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
, the president of France from 1995 to 2007, was depicted as a beer-guzzling, impulsive, incompetent liar, while coming off, at the same time, as relatable and well-loved. The show introduced ''Super Menteur'' (Super-Liar) during the 2002 presidential campaign, a Superman-like super hero
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, ; ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...
changes into at times of need. ''Super Menteur'' is capable of uttering unbelievable lies without getting caught.
Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...
publicly approved the accuracy of the puppet's alter ego, thus instrumentalizing the ''Guignols'' to feed his base. Only one person is a better liar, ''Ultra menteur'' (Ultra-Liar), portrayed by French retired politician Charles Pasqua, who was convicted in some corruption cases. Chirac served as the show's main anchor in its last season, in 2018. *
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
was depicted as a cretin along with his father. He shows a tendency to war and fights terrorism in his bedroom, defending himself with hand grenades (beer cans). His laptop password is "connard" (one of the French words for "dumbass"). He often appears along with one of the Sylvestres, who gets portrayed as the guy who's really in charge. Remarkably, Bush's character spoke in French with an American (or English, foreign) accent, whereas M. Sylvestre spoke French without any foreign accent, after the French dubbed voice of Sylvester Stallone in his films. * Joey Starr and Doc Gynéco: The
rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...
Joey Starr, convicted of violence, is portrayed as a brutal individual. He is often coupled with rapper Doc Gynéco to discuss the consumption of
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
. * Bernard Tapie, a French businessman, is represented as a braggart, speaking in a frank, blunt and vulgar way. * Patrick Le Lay, head of the
TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...
TV channel paired with Etienne Mougeotte, head of programming at TF1. Mougeotte is regularly portrayed as a hypocrite who schedules documentaries on prostitution or sex-oriented reality TV programs and pretends doing that to inform the public, while Le Lay always reveals that the actual purpose is only to improve ratings. Le Lay has been also portrayed as the emperor in a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back and as the blind superior in a spoof of The Name of the Rose. * Jean Marie Le Pen, former head of the Front National far-right political party. He was sometimes represented with a pitbull's head. After the handover to one of his daughters, Marine Le Pen, his puppet appeared rarely, sometimes as the éminence grise of Marine Le Pen, his daughter and successor, other times as a bluntly-speaking bigot she had to reel in and control in order to appear acceptable to public discourse. * Philippe Lucas, a former trainer of the French Olympic world and European champion swimmer
Laure Manaudou Laure Manaudou (; born 9 October 1986) is a retired French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She has held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meter. She is the older sister of Florent Manaudou who is also an Olym ...
, was portrayed as a heavily muscled, homophobic guy who criticized most French athletes, suspecting them of physical and mental weakness. He always concluded his criticism by the catchphrase ''"Et pis c'est tout !"'', an incorrect contraction of ''Et puis c'est tout'' (And that's it). * Bernard Laporte, a former authoritarian rugby scrum half, coach (both club teams and national team), former secretary of state, often appeared to praise the violence in rugby, which his puppet described as the ''valeurs de l'ovalie'' (the values of rugby), with many hyperboles (open fractures, neck cracking, enucleations, coma, crowbar fighting ambush). In recent
political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, soci ...
, the ''Guignols'' have also regularly portrayed: * Lionel Jospin, former prime minister, as competent and honest, but boring. Other puppets nicknamed him "bean up the butt". He was later depicted as disappointed by France (he passes, from time to time, to scream "''pays de merde !''", roughly "''this country sucks''"), since the first round of the 2002 presidential election, in which he failed to get to the second round. *
Édouard Balladur Édouard Balladur (; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 17 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, co ...
former prime minister who ran for president against Chirac. In the show, Chirac's puppet nicknames him ''Couille molle'' (soft testicle). Balladur's puppet appeared in a spoof of Trainspotting where he is suffering from an addiction to political power. As Balladur tried to get rid of his upper class manners during his presidential campaign, his puppet was shown unshaved, with vulgar manners, calling Sarkozy ''Nico'' and drinking cheap beer. * Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, a former minister of health, youth affairs and sports, then former minister of culture, was depicted as an incompetent airhead, clueless about all questions related to her ministry, welcoming questions from PPD with "''Ah bon !?''" ("''Oh, really!?''"). * Nicolas Sarkozy, former president, was depicted as overly ambitious, populist, and short-tempered. He collected Rolex watches, and kept diverting attention to his wife, Carla Bruni. Like the real politician, he was insecure about his short height, and always wore shoes with heels to compensate. After Sarkozy came back to the French politics scene in 2014, he was portrayed as someone who claimed he had "really changed" regarding his short temper, but the facade often fell off to reveal someone worse than before. * Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former president, was seen as dogmatic and repetitive, usually seen wearing his green '' habit vert'' (ceremonial dress), as he is a member of the
Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
. One running gag is that Giscard d'Estaing was dead, but too stubborn to admit it, or even acknowledge it. * Ségolène Royal, the socialist party candidate for the 2007 presidential election, as constantly following opinion polls, pretending to be a woman of the people. *
François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...
, the centrist 2012 candidate for the presidency who has delusions of grandeur. His huge-eared puppet was constantly portrayed as childish and whiny. * Dominique Strauss-Kahn after his arrest in 2011 was portrayed as a pervert wearing only a bathrobe with Leopard spots and calling his penis ''Francis''. Interviewed by PPD as a consultant on economics, he was giving answers in economics jargon (such as ''animal spirits, tension, invisible hand, spheres full of liquidities'' etc...) that made no sense except as sexual double-entendre that PPD either does not understand or feigns not to understand. *
François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...
, elected president in 2012, was depicted as an overweight and silly politician who lacked charisma. * Nadine Morano was seen as a very scurrilous and rough politician, who unconditionally supported Nicolas Sarkozy, often alongside David Douillet, a former world champion in judo and minister of sports, who was himself depicted a very simple-minded man. * Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who was portrayed, since the end of 2011, of controlling the entire European Union.


Visual identity

File:Logo des Arènes de l'Info.png, Opening title of the ''Arènes de l'info'' from August 29, 1988, to August 26, 1990 File:Guignols logo1992.jpg, Opening title of the ''Guignols de l'Info'' from September 14, 1992, to June 27, 2015 File:Logo de "La Semaine des Guignols".jpg, Opening title of ''La Semaine des Guignols'' from 1995 to 2018 File:Logo Guignols2015.jpg, Opening title of the ''Guignols'' from December 7, 2015, to June 14, 2017 File:Logo Guignols 2017.png, Opening title of the ''Guignols'' from October 13, 2017, to June 22, 2018


Criticism

The ''Guignols'' have been criticised for being leftist and populist, and for presenting a cynical and over-simplified version of reality and politics. The show's authors have admitted leftist leanings. Erik Svane has accused the show of being anti-American. After the departure of two of the original authors in the late 1990s, the show has been criticized as lacking wit and freshness and having become too overtly populist and partisan. Some critics claim that the show is in decline. The show's treatment of Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticized as biased. Bruno Gaccio, prior to the French presidential election of 2007, was said to have admitted that he meant the Guignols to openly campaign against Sarkozy, but later stated that he had been misquoted. In 1997,
Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...
sued the show for the distorted use of its brand name, but also because of how the show characterized its CEO Jacques Calvet.
François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...
, who was depicted as a weak childish man who could sometimes throw a tantrum, said "The image, very demeaning, hurts. My puppet has nothing to do with who I really am."


Cancellation

Following the dismissal of the main four writers in July 2015, the channel's new executives decided to move the show to the encrypted, non-free time slots. This decision was brought into effect the following December (the show returning months late after the executive shakeup), although the show was made available to the general public as a Dailymotion stream after being broadcast on air ("La Semaine des Guignols", the weekly roundup of the show, continued to be broadcast free-to-air on Sundays). This change, as well as many other creative changes, brought about a decline of the programme, until the final episode was broadcast on June 22, 2018.


Elsewhere

*'' The XYZ Show'' is the Kenyan equivalent of the French original. *'' Puppets'' is the Russian political satire equivalent of Les Guignols. *'' Les Guignols d'Afrique'' is the Cameroonian equivalent of the French original. *'' Las noticias del guiñol'' is a show in Spanish Canal+ inspired by ''Les Guignols''. It focuses on Spanish politics and football. *'' Contra Informação'' is a long-running Portuguese equivalent broadcast on
RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...
. It was cancelled in 2010. *'' ContraPoder'' is an updated version of Contra Informação. It was premiered in March 2013 in the cable channels SIC Notícias and SIC Radical. * '' Ellougik Essiyasi'', the Tunisian counterpart. * ''Los Toppins'', the Chilean equivalent, which featured prominently
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...
after his dictatorship. *'' ZANews'' is the South African equivalent of the French original. *''دمى قراطية (Douma Kratiyah)'' Programs of the Guignols family exchange latex moulds, and puppets representing foreign celebrities can be used as "normal people" in countries where those personalities are not well-known. In September 2020, U.S. broadcaster Fox greenlit an adaptation of the series, '' Let's Be Real'', with plans to air a one-off special on 1 October themed around the
2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...
. Robert Smigel (the creator and voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) served as executive producer.


See also

* Guignol * '' Le Bébête Show'', an earlier show on the
TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...
network * Groland * Et Dieu créa... Laflaque, in Quebec * Spitting Image * D.C. Follies * The Wrong Coast *
The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...
* This Hour Has 22 Minutes * Puppets * Juice Rap News, in Australia * 26 minutes, in Switzerland


References


External links

*
Canal+ website
includes videos of ''Les Guignols'' (in French)
Dailymotion Channel
includes videos of ''The Guignols'' (subtitled and dubbed in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Guignols French satirical television shows French television shows featuring puppetry 1988 French television series debuts 2018 French television series endings French comedy television series 1980s French television series 1990s French television series 2000s French television series French political satire Political satirical television series