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The Guignols have 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 humoristically attributed to people who deny hypocritically having willfully committed some acts.
In many cases, people who watch the show begin to perceive public personae through their puppet character. Many young people, normally uninterested by politics, probably follow political actuality mainly through the Guignols.
The Guignols have an anti-American tinge, especially directed at George W. Bush and the United States armed forces.
The characters in the Guignols are either inspired by real personalities of the political, economical or artistic world (generally, by anybody who appears in the news), either fictional. Some of their characters based on real-world people actually have behaviors that are far caricatures from the original.
Let us note:
During the first Gulf War, the Guignols had a character called "Commander Sylvester" with Sylvester StalloneMichael Sylvester Enzio Stallone (born July 6, 1946), usually known as simply Sylvester Stallone is an American film actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He achieved his greatest successes in a number of action films, notably the Rambo and Rocky se's face. Cdr Sylvester would explain the war in broad terms, like "here we're the Good people, and here are the ragheadRaghead is an ethnic slur generally designating a male who wears a turban or another piece of cloth on the head. Palestinians such as Yasser Arafat are referred to as "ragheads" but Muslim women are not generally included in the designation. Sikhs (who wes, so we'll kill everybody there...". After the war was over, Cdr Sylvester changed into Mr Sylvester, the ubiquitous executive from the military-industrial complex, the corporate world (all mixed into the World CompanyWorld Company is a fictional multinational corporation headquartered in the United States of America, appearing in the satiric French show Les Guignols de l'Info''. World Company is a symbol of international commerce and anonymous holdings controlling pro fictional holding), and the CIA. Mr Sylvester is dressed with a suit and tie and wears a security badge. Mr Sylvester has twin copies of himself in all such positions (some with greyish hair).
Jacques Chirac is depicted as a kind of beer-guzzling, lying, impulsive incompetent pilfering public money. The Guignols went as far as to introduce the character of Super Menteur (Super-Liar), into whom Jacques ChiracJacques Rene Chirac Became President 17 May 1995 Predecessor Francois Mitterrand Date of Birth 29 November 1932 Place of Birth Paris Political party Union for a Popular Movement Jacques Rene Chirac (born 29 November 1932) is a French politician. He was el changes in times of need (see Clark KentClark Kent is the secret "civilian" identity of the fictional character Superman. Clark graduated from the University of Metropolis (B. in Journalism, cum laude) sometime in the early to mid 1990s (in the current continuity), and promptly went to work for/ Superman).