puppetry at its best

Of the few French programmes that I enjoy watching, one of them has to be the puppet show called Les Guignols de l'Info. It's not a kiddy puppet show you might have in mind but an adult-infused satirical news puppet that generally parody the French politics. They occasionally parody the international events as well, often concerning terrorism, and the US foreign policy in general. These spoofs on international events are usually presented in an anti-Bush manner, heavily criticizing his foreign policy as brutal and destructive.

Jacques Chirac with his team of government officials

Les Guignols is broadcasted every weeknight at 8 pm and the show always begin with the line "Vous croyez encore ce qu'on vous dit à la télévision, bonsoir." ("You still believe what you are told on television, good evening.") As in any news on tv, the show has its own resident anchor named PPD, a caricature of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, also known affectionately as 'PPDA', a well-known news anchor on TF1 who coincidentially presents the news on the 8 pm slot.

The characters in Les Guignols are either inspired by real personalities of the political, economical and artistic worlds or else are fictional.

Jacques Chirac is one of the main characters and he is often portrayed as a beer-guzzling, impulsive, incompetent liar who is pilfering public money, and yet comes off as charming, charismatic and cool.

George W. Bush's character is an idiot who is only able to say a couple of words like "yeah!", "America" and "papa", sometimes more when he plays parrot. He is a child, playing with cowboys' dolls, small rockets or even nuclear weapons. Every character of the show treats him as a mentally retarded man, and everybody agrees that he is "bloody stupid", and that it's the reason why he is a good American president (easy to manipulate).

Mr Sylvestre is a fictional character based on the actor Sylvester Stalone and he plays the ugly American and also the archetype of greedy multinationals and superpowers. Mr Sylvestre uses "beuuhharr" as a greeting, a reference to Rambo, the character he was created for. Mr Sylvestre and his clones (blonde, dark, with glasses, beard, etc.) is portrayed as very smart.

These are just a few of the many characters portrayed on Les Guignols.

I personally find the show rather entertaining with the puppets mocking different well-known personalities and putting fun to an otherwise serious or boring situation but sometimes they can overdo it to the point that it borders on rude. Although it's not a totally serious show, most of the observers agree that it has a significant impact on the French opinion. And behind the funny jokes on the US government lies the basic image that most Europeans and at first French, have of the president and his administration.

Click on the play button to view the "We Are The World" parody entitled "We Fuck The World":