TV Europa: Lara Marlowe reports on the enduring appeal of political satire in Les Guignols.

It says a lot about the French sense of humour - or lack thereof - that the funniest, most popular and longest surviving programme on French television is political satire. Les Guignols de l'information has been broadcast just before the main evening news at 8 p.m. for nearly a decade, and is watched by millions of people.

Although its writers are merciless, politicians crave the status of having their own puppet. The extreme right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen complains that the "Guignols" deliberately ignore him.

A French version of Spitting Image, Les Guignols was criticised for helping Jacques Chirac win the presidency in 1995 because Chirac's puppet came across as sympathique when he told people: "Eat apples". (The apple was the symbol of the 1995 Chirac campaign.) This year Chirac the crooked politician was transformed into Super-menteur (Superliar). Yet even in his ridiculous Superman-style tights and cape, the Chirac puppet was far more appealing than the sleep-inducing Lionel Jospin character.

The Guignols' bloodthirsty Osama bin Laden puppet has been criticised because his shrewd outsmarting of the Americans makes him popular among young French Muslims. A Sylvester Stallone puppet with a Brooklyn accent dresses up in many guises - as a US army officer commenting on "collateral damage" in Afghanistan, or a heartless Wall Street businessman exploiting the world's misery for the "World Company".

The French may excel at political satire, but comedy tends to be crude sexual farce - cuckolded husbands coming home to find their wives' lovers hiding under the bed or in the cupboard. Two films considered among the funniest in French cinema addressed the difficulty that heterosexuals find in dealing with homosexuals: La Cage aux Folles and Le Placard. It has become a truism in France that the British have a superior sense of humour.