Editing Les Guignols (section)

==Famous characters==
{{More citations needed|date=April 2020}} 
[[File:Guignols de l'info 0003.jpg|right|thumb|Puppets of [[Patrick Poivre d'Arvor]] and [[Jacques Chirac]]|alt=refer to caption]]

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]] 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]], although when it was the actor himself who was represented, or [[John Rambo|Rambo]], he had a distinct appearance and a different voice. The Sylvestres were parodies of "an [[Ugly American (epithet)|ugly American]]", of greedy multinational corporations, and the [[military–industrial complex]]. They always introduced themselves with "''beuuarhh''" ({{IPA|fr|bœwaʁ|IPA}}), a slurred version of "[[wikt:bonsoir|bonsoir]]" ({{IPA|fr|bɔ̃.swaʁ|IPA}}, ''good evening''). During the first [[Gulf War]], 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 [[corporation|corporate]] 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]]''', 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]] changes into at times of need. ''Super Menteur'' is capable of uttering unbelievable lies without getting caught.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Seront |first=Frédéric |date=2024-08-30 |title=Les Guignols en campagne |url=https://www.dhnet.be/medias/television/2002/04/03/les-guignols-en-campagne-CDOLCOJ3MBARBESEBOFDHBUK5A/ |access-date=2024-08-30 |website=DHnet |language=fr}}</ref> [[Jean-Marie Le Pen]] publicly approved the accuracy of the puppet's alter ego, thus instrumentalizing the ''Guignols'' to feed his base.<ref name=":2" /> 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]]''' was depicted as a cretin along with his father.<ref name=":1" /> 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]] [[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 (drug)|cannabis]].
* '''[[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]] 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 (film)|The Name of the Rose]]. 
* '''[[Jean Marie Le Pen]]''', former head of the [[Front national|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]], 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 (rugby union)|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 [[Politics of France|political history]], 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".<ref name=":1" /> 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]] 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 (film)|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 [[Competence (human resources)|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]]. 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 (France)|socialist party]] candidate for the 2007 presidential election, as constantly following [[opinion polls]], pretending to be a woman of the people.
*[[François Bayrou]], 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]], 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.