Les Guignols de l'info: Difference between revisions

For instance, the show's portrayal of Jacques Chirac during the 1995 Presidential election as a likeable everyman getting backstabbed and betrayed by former friend and rival Édouard Balladur (then Prime Minister) was claimed to have helped him get elected. Though the writers deny any intentions of influencing voters, they make no secret of their left-leaning political tendencies (but never spare left politicians).

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=== ''Les Guignols de l'info'' provides examples of the following tropes: ===

* [[The Alcoholic]]

** Boris Eltsine

** Jean-Louis Borloo, the former Ecology Minister.

** [[Serge Gainsbourg]]

** François Hollande

** Laurent Fabius, former prime minister (before the show was created) and current minister of Foreign and European Affairs.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: François Léotard

{{quote|'''Léotard:''' You mean a giant alien like in... ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]''?}}

** World Company executives, who all look like [[Sylvester Stallone]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcqCeHiX4M Bernadette Chirac was once portayed like this] in a spoof of the SPECTRE conference from ''[[Thunderball]]''. In this sketch, she plots to annihilate the free will of the French people with the help of the government, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]], stupid TV hosts and medias moguls. {{spoiler|It turns out she is second to [[Bigger Bad|Ernest-Antoine Seillière]].}}

* [[Dirty Communists]] / [[Eat the Rich]]: Mélenchon is presented as a wild-eyed madman whose plans involve sending every rich person [[Reign of Terror|to the guillotine]] and carries the heads of political opponents in a sack. Whenever asked a question he doesn't like, he produces the head of a person who'd asked him the same question earlier.

* [[Dirty Old Man]]

** [[George W. Bush]], probably the ditziest character the show has ever known. In one particularly memorable sketch, he was shown as being ''[[Too Dumb to Live|too stupid to think and eat at the same time]]''. On the day following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, [[Smarter Than You Look|he said he was illegally elected due to the 2000 recount in Florida and requested a new election.]]. His [[General Ripper|military advisor]] promptly ordered him to leave the TV stage. In another one, released when he left the White House seven years later, it was revealed that his brain was stuck all the time in the helmet he wore during his military service. When he put his helmet on his head, he suddenly became an impressively competent president, much to the shock of his counsellors...

** Amongst French politicians: François Bayrou; Philippe Douste-Blazy; Roselyne Bachelot; François Léotard; Nadine Morano...

** François Hollande used to be a [[Fat Idiot]], but the creators toned down his ditziness when he entered the presidential election, giving him some [[Cowardly Lion]] traits instead. The real one once commented that, when portrayed as a Guignol, you were either a Ditz or a [[Jerkass]] -- implying he wasn't too unhappy with which side he ended up.

** Johnny Hallyday

* [[Fat Idiot]]

** Raymond Barre

** Gérard Depardieu

* [[Faux Affably Evil]]

** Bruno Mégret, once Jean-Marie Le Pen's rival on the far-right.

* [[Flanderization]]: Most characters, invoking [[Rule of Funny]].

* [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]]: When someone dies, his puppet usually ends up there and meets some deceased celebrities. Steve Jobs' arrival? A presentation of Apple-made angel wings.

** Jean-Marie Le Pen. For him, everything was better when Algeria was still French for example.

* [[Hates Everyone Equally]]: François Mitterrand was nasty to every puppet and thought they were all idiots and ugly.

* [[Hollywood Tourettes]]: Thierry Roland, a sport journalist

* [[Hot Guy, Ugly Wife]]: While the puppet of Jacques Chirac is not that physically attractive, he has proved to be a seducer on occasion. The puppet of Bernadette is really ugly by comparison.

* [[Large Ham]]: It would be easier to list those who are ''not''.

* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Jacques Chirac's own daughter always calls him "Chirac".

** Luis Fernandez, long-time soccer coach for the PSG, takes about every expression or metaphor from PPD literaly.

** Johnny Hallyday, sometimes.

** However, it has happened for some personalities to meet their puppets in the talk shows framing ''Les Guignols de l'info'' itself. Johnny Hallyday got the opportunity to shorten the nose of his. [[Serge Gainsbourg]] had his Guignol offering him its own head. The most well-known is probably [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqcXPyyyoos Stallone meeting Sly] at the Cannes Festival.

* [[Rugby Is Slaughter]]: The French rugby team is depicted as a bunch of musclebound brutes who can bash down brick walls with their foreheads, eat raw meat and [[Blood Lust|whose favorite drink is fresh blood]]. They still get their ass kicked by the All Blacks, though. Turned [[Up to Eleven]] when former coach Bernard Laporte is interviewed. He always goes on speeches about the values of rugby, poetically describing the brutality of the scrums. Sébastien Chabal was portayed as a human beast who must be confined with a straitjacket and a mask like [[Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]].

** Arlette Laguiller. She is ready to make the Revolution anytime! But not too late, she works tomorrow.

** Olivier Besancenot too. He'd like to make the Revolution as soon as possible... if only he could find the time, his job as a postman keeps him busy.

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]

** Brice Lalonde and Antoine Waechter.

* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]

** John McCain

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Around 30 actors voice over 300 characters, so this is bound to happen. Most notable with the Sylvestres.

* [[Teen Genius]]: Played with; PPD ''thinks'' that Jean Sarkozy is one. And [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in PPD's speech when Sarkozy is here: [[Blatant Lies|"Everybody knows that you are a young political genius..."]]

** Alain Delon

** Laurent "Lolo" Fabius

** Johnny Hallyday usually begins his phrases with "Ah que..." (leading to the [[Memetic Mutation|memetic]] "Ah que coucou !")

** Édouard Balladur has the habit of quietly repeating the end of his phrases... the end of his phrases. Also known as palilalia... palilalia.

* [[The Voiceless]]

** Ronald McDonald