AILSA CHANG, HOST:
What is the role of satire in a country's political life? Well, that's a question that many Americans have been asking lately, especially after comedian Jimmy Kimmel had his late-night TV show suspended briefly by ABC - a move that was celebrated by President Trump and some on the right. The American debate over free speech and comedy resonates quite loudly in France and Russia, two countries where satirical puppet shows became popular by making fun of the powerful only to end up off the air. From Paris and Moscow, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley and Charles Maynes report. We begin with Eleanor.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: In France, in the late '80s, a TV show called "Les Guignols De L'info," or "The Puppets Of The News," helped shape the national conversation with marionettes.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LES GUIGNOLS DE L'INFO")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Any French politician or celebrity could be transformed into a larger-than-life latex version of themselves and held up for ridicule. "Les Guignols" came on just before the nightly news, and their jokes became a measure of the national mood.
YVES LE ROLLAND: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Yves Le Rolland was creative director for "Les Guignols" for 21 years. He says the big breakthrough came with the first Gulf War in 1990, which France took part in. "Les Guignols" lampooned generals while poking fun at the video game-like coverage of the conflict.
LE ROLLAND: (Through interpreter) The fact that we did satire with marionettes made a kind of delay with reality that let us get away with a lot more than if it was a stand-up comedian who says things directly.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LES GUIGNOLS DE L'INFO")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: A favorite guignol was the hapless president, Jacques Chirac. The show portrayed him as an everyman who just wanted a beer and a sausage. Turns out that portrayal may have helped him, says Le Rolland.
LE ROLLAND: (Through interpreter) It was even said that by mocking Chirac so mercilessly, we made him look sympathetic, and in the end, it actually helped get him elected president.
(SOUNDBITE OF NETWORK MUSIC ENSEMBLE'S "JUNGLE MIX")
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: "Kukly," or "Puppets," was Russia's answer to "Les Guignols De L'info." The show launched in the mid-1990s and similarly skewed Russia's political elite, including then-president Boris Yeltsin.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KUKLY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Viktor Shenderovich, the show's key writer, says he quickly realized the power of satire.
VIKTOR SHENDEROVICH: (Through interpreter) Laughter as a weapon is powerful because laughter is irrefutable. You can win a case in court, but your court can't force people to stop laughing at you.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KUKLY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character, speaking Russian).
MAYNES: The show was a test of new freedoms in a country where mocking Soviet rulers was done in private. And in fact, "Kukly" faced pressure from Russian authorities with one powerful exception.
SHENDEROVICH: (Through interpreter) To whoever complained about "Kukly," Yeltsin would say, if I could put up with it, you can too.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BORIS YELTSIN: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: In 1999, an aging Yeltsin resigned, handing power to his then-relatively unknown prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: By now, he too had a puppet.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KUKLY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character, speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Shenderovich satirized Putin's sudden rise to power, borrowing from an old German fairy-tale. He cast Putin in the role of a dwarf mistaken through magic as a handsome prince...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KUKLY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character, singing in Russian).
MAYNES: ...Until the spell wore off.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KUKLY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character, speaking Russian).
MAYNES: The fallout was almost immediate.
SHENDEROVICH: (Through interpreter) Putin took it as a personal insult on his physical stature that he was a dwarf. But for me, it was just a metaphor, not least because I'm not tall. I'm even shorter than Putin.
MAYNES: The state soon launched criminal investigations and demanded changes at "Kukly's" network, an independent commercial channel called NTV. Among them, Putin's puppet and NTV's critical news coverage should disappear for good.
BEARDSLEY: In France, the shutdown was slower and more subtle. Enter Vincent Bollore, right-wing billionaire, industrialist and friend of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was a favorite in "Guignols" skits.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LES GUIGNOLS DE L'INFO")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character, chanting) Sarkozy, president. Sarkozy, president.
BEARDSLEY: Here, Sarkozy trades his Rolex for a Swatch to shed his bling-bling image, but when it comes to removing his expensive elevator shoes...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LES GUIGNOLS DE L'INFO")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: (As character, speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: ...The famously short president changes his mind. Bruno Gaccio was another longtime producer for "Les Guignols." He says Bollore hated the parodies of Sarkozy.
BRUNO GACCIO: Bollore tried to stop "The Guignols" from President Sarkozy in 2007. He failed. It's impossible for him.
BEARDSLEY: It became possible when he bought the channel hosting "Les Guignols," Canal+. When Bollore moved the show from primetime to just before midnight, ratings collapsed, says Gaccio.
GACCIO: It's easy to cancel a show. It's very easy. The only thing needs a billionaire is time and money.
BEARDSLEY: The show eventually folded. Bollore denied any censorship. He continues to buy newspapers, radio and TV networks across France.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Watching old clips of NTV on YouTube feels like a window on another country, a more pluralistic Russia that no longer exists.
SHENDEROVICH: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: A quarter century later, Shenderovich says the status of satire and satirists is a direct commentary on the political makeup of a country. The show dragged on for another year or so, but with neutered political content, no Putin puppet and no Shenderovich, ratings sagged. By then, NTV had been taken over by Gazprom, Russia's state energy giant. It was the beginning of the end of an era of free speech in Russia.
SHENDEROVICH: (Through interpreter) It was never just about the fate of "Kukly." After the show was end, the genre of satire disappeared. Under Putin, it became impossible to make fun of the head of state.
MAYNES: Or, it turns out, his policies.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")
STEPHEN COLBERT: Ivan Urgant is Russia's most popular and only late-night talk show host.
MAYNES: In the wake of the war in Ukraine, new censorship laws banned even the mildest criticism of the Russian invasion, including by Ivan Urgant, heard here with American late-night host Stephen Colbert in Moscow in 2017.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "EVENING URGANT")
IVAN URGANT: So we're more close to Fallon...
COLBERT: Yeah. Jimmy's great.
URGANT: ...Than to John Oliver.
COLBERT: Does Putin watch your show?
MAYNES: The answer, apparently, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
URGANT: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Five years later, Urgant's show was canceled after the host made an appeal for peace. Shenderovich, who now lives in exile, says that's no surprise.
SHENDEROVICH: (Through interpreter) The years of relative freedom weren't long enough to become the norm.
MAYNES: Unlike Russia, the West has a tradition of mocking its rulers, adds Shenderovich.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MAYNES: Even now, he still believes that's true.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CHANG: That was NPR's Charles Maynes reporting from Moscow, with NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reporting from Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOLLY LEWIS' "WIND'S LAMENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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