Les Guignols de l'info

Les Guignols de l'info (English: News Puppets) is a satirical latex puppet show broadcast on Canal+, a French subscription-based television channel. Hosted by a puppet facsimile of TF1 news anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Les Guignols is similar to the 1984–1996 British show Spitting Image. A segment appeared every weeknight on the Canal+ program Nulle part ailleurs, with a weekly recapitulation on Sundays ("La Semaine des Guignols", best of the week). While Nulle part ailleurs no longer runs, the Guignols are still running inside the Canal+ TV Show Le Grand Journal.

The show started in 1988 as Les Arènes de l'info (News Arena). It originally did not follow the news of the day and was not very popular. It was not until 1990–1991 and the first Gulf War that the show began to follow the news. It enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity and quickly eclipsed its rival, Le Bébête Show.

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Impact on popular culture

The Guignols have had a tremendous impact on French popular culture, in many case introducing or popularizing phrases. For instance, à l'insu de mon plein gré ("without the knowledge of my own free will"), repeated by the puppet representing Richard Virenque is now attributed in jest to people who hypocritically deny having willfully committed attributed acts. The impact of political caricature in the Guignols is unclear, but some polls have shown that they influence voters.[1]

The show is known to be able to go further in challenging current popular figures and thought than many other forms of media. Some sketches displayed for example Raymond Barre, a former Prime Minister in a gonzo pornographic scene, President Jacques Chirac and his team in a Pulp Fiction–like destruction race to eliminate their competitors or the then Minister of Interior Department Nicolas Sarkozy as a flip-flopping politician.

The Guignols generally displays a left political outlook (although being tough on whoever is in power). While they generally focus on French politics, they occasionally parody international events, often concerning terrorism, including Osama Bin Laden, the Iraq conflict and Saddam Hussein, and United States foreign policy in general. These spoofs on international events are usually presented in an anti-Bush manner, mocking the fact that grey eminences lead the politic, not the president himself. They also sometimes mock Canal+ and its staff as for their former football club.

Famous characters

The characters in the Guignols are either inspired by real personalities of the political, economic and artistic worlds (generally, by anybody who appears in the news) or else are fictional.

In recent political history, the Guignols have portrayed:

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. One critic, Erik Svane, has accused the show of being anti-American.[2]

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.[3] The show's treatment of Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticized as biased.[4] 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.

Elsewhere

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.

Programs of the Guignols family exchange latex moulds, and puppets representing foreign celebrities can be used as "normal people" in countries where the celebrity is not known.

See also

References

External links