(French pronunciation: ​[le ɡiɲɔl], The Puppets), formerly Les Guignols de l'info (French pronunciation: ​[le ɡiɲɔl də lɛ̃fo], The News Puppets), was a satirical latex puppet show broadcast on Canal+, a French subscription-based television channel, the show being available without subscription. Hosted by a puppet facsimile of TF1 news anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Les Guignols was similar to the 1984–1996 British Spitting Image. A segment appeared every weeknight on the Canal+ program Nulle part ailleurs, with a weekly roundup on Sundays ("La Semaine des Guignols", replay of the week's episodes).The show 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. It was not until 1990–1991 and the first Gulf War that the show began to follow the news. It then enjoyed a tremendous growth in popularity and quickly eclipsed its rival, Le Bébête Show. The last episode was aired on 22 June 2018.The Guignols has had a tremendous impact on French popular culture, in many cases introducing or popularizing phrases. For instance, 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 influence 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 gonzo pornographic scene, 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 as a flip-flopping politician. The Guignols generally displays a left-leaning political outlook (although being tough on whoever is in power). While they generall