This article needs additional citations for
verification. (April 2020) |
Les Guignols | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Also known as | Les Arènes de l'info (1988-90) Les Guignols de l'info (1990-2015) Les Guignols (2015-18) La Semaine des Guignols (1992-2018) |
Genre |
Adult puppeteering Political satire Animation Comedy |
Voices of |
Yves Lecoq Daniel Herzog Sandrine Alexi Thierry Garcia Marc-Antoine Le Bret Mathieu Schalk |
Country of origin | France |
Original language | French |
Production | |
Running time | 8 minutes |
Production company | Canal+ |
Original release | |
Network | Canal+ Nulle part ailleurs |
Release | August 29, 1988 June 22, 2018 | –
Les Guignols (French pronunciation: [le ɡiɲɔl], The Puppets), formerly Les Guignols de l'info (French pronunciation: [le ɡiɲɔl də lɛ̃fo], The News Puppets), was a daily satirical latex puppet show broadcast on the French television channel Canal+. It was created in 1988, inspired by Le Bébête Show (1982–1995) and for the puppets form by the British Spitting Image (1984–1996). Using the same structure as a news programme, 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 Nulle part ailleurs or Le Grand Journal. A weekly back-to-back replay of the week's five broadcasts was aired on Sunday afternoons, as La Semaine des Guignols.
The series started in 1988 as Les Arènes de l'info (News Arenas). It originally did not follow the news of the day, being written weeks in advance, and was not very popular. With the 1990–91 season, the series took on the name Les Guignols de l'Info and began to follow the daily news. It then enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity with its different coverage of the first Gulf War, 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).
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. The impact of political caricature in the Guignols is unclear, but some polls have shown that they have influenced voters. [1]
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 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 and in a Gangs of New York parody. The show also used horror movies to spoof politicians. President Jacques Chirac 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 in a parody of Evil Dead where a Kandarian Demon spoke with the voice of the late president François Mitterrand. President François Hollande appeared as a Catholic priest in a parody of The Exorcist 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 were also parodied. One controversial parody ( Inglorious Cathos) showed the Pope Benedict XVI 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 parody, used instead of puppets cartoon characters drawn in the style of Eric Cartman (with the voice of Philippe Séguin), Kyle Broflovski (with the voice of Nicolas Sarkozy), Stan Marsh (with the voice of François Bayrou) 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, the Iraq conflict and Saddam Hussein. 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.
Some catchphrases are recurrently used during the show.
This article needs additional citations for
verification. (April 2020) |
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.
In recent political history, the Guignols have also regularly portrayed:
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. [2] The show's treatment of Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticized[ who?] as biased. [3] 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.
Following the dismissal of the main four writers in July 2015, [4] 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 [5]). 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. [6]
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. Robert Smigel (the creator and voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) served as executive producer. [7]
This article needs additional citations for
verification. (April 2020) |
Les Guignols | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Also known as | Les Arènes de l'info (1988-90) Les Guignols de l'info (1990-2015) Les Guignols (2015-18) La Semaine des Guignols (1992-2018) |
Genre |
Adult puppeteering Political satire Animation Comedy |
Voices of |
Yves Lecoq Daniel Herzog Sandrine Alexi Thierry Garcia Marc-Antoine Le Bret Mathieu Schalk |
Country of origin | France |
Original language | French |
Production | |
Running time | 8 minutes |
Production company | Canal+ |
Original release | |
Network | Canal+ Nulle part ailleurs |
Release | August 29, 1988 June 22, 2018 | –
Les Guignols (French pronunciation: [le ɡiɲɔl], The Puppets), formerly Les Guignols de l'info (French pronunciation: [le ɡiɲɔl də lɛ̃fo], The News Puppets), was a daily satirical latex puppet show broadcast on the French television channel Canal+. It was created in 1988, inspired by Le Bébête Show (1982–1995) and for the puppets form by the British Spitting Image (1984–1996). Using the same structure as a news programme, 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 Nulle part ailleurs or Le Grand Journal. A weekly back-to-back replay of the week's five broadcasts was aired on Sunday afternoons, as La Semaine des Guignols.
The series started in 1988 as Les Arènes de l'info (News Arenas). It originally did not follow the news of the day, being written weeks in advance, and was not very popular. With the 1990–91 season, the series took on the name Les Guignols de l'Info and began to follow the daily news. It then enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity with its different coverage of the first Gulf War, 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).
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. The impact of political caricature in the Guignols is unclear, but some polls have shown that they have influenced voters. [1]
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 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 and in a Gangs of New York parody. The show also used horror movies to spoof politicians. President Jacques Chirac 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 in a parody of Evil Dead where a Kandarian Demon spoke with the voice of the late president François Mitterrand. President François Hollande appeared as a Catholic priest in a parody of The Exorcist 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 were also parodied. One controversial parody ( Inglorious Cathos) showed the Pope Benedict XVI 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 parody, used instead of puppets cartoon characters drawn in the style of Eric Cartman (with the voice of Philippe Séguin), Kyle Broflovski (with the voice of Nicolas Sarkozy), Stan Marsh (with the voice of François Bayrou) 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, the Iraq conflict and Saddam Hussein. 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.
Some catchphrases are recurrently used during the show.
This article needs additional citations for
verification. (April 2020) |
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.
In recent political history, the Guignols have also regularly portrayed:
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. [2] The show's treatment of Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticized[ who?] as biased. [3] 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.
Following the dismissal of the main four writers in July 2015, [4] 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 [5]). 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. [6]
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. Robert Smigel (the creator and voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) served as executive producer. [7]