Several years ago, Puppet Nation ZA was deemed too risqué for TV. Now the political satire is cleaning up at the Saftas, writes Debashine Thangevelo
WHEN French film and TV producer, Thierry Cassuto, arrived in South Africa in 1997, the country was still in the throes of change after the first democratic election.
And, in keeping with the transformation in progress, he had a bold ambition to change the TV platform, too, with ZA News (now Puppet Nation ZA), a satirical news puppet show co-created with cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro.
However, the concept was viewed with wary eyes by various channels.
Cassuto explains: “I came to South Africa after many years in production and broadcast in Europe and the US. I remember thinking that this new democracy had everything playing for it; the one thing missing was satire. I could find it here, mostly in cartoons, which is how I discovered Shapiro. I asked him if he remembered Spitting Image. I was a fan of the show, so was he. And I asked him if he would like to do the same thing. This was in 1998. We put all our effort into building our first puppet – Nelson Mandela. Then, in 2009, we made a pilot for SABC. They decided not to commission it because they (in particular the then SABC boss, Dali Mpofu) felt South Africa wasn’t ready for it.”
Cassuto wasn’t giving up that easily. And, with the help of sponsors, he turned to the internet to launch the show and secured millions of fans.
Fate smiled on him when TopTV (now StarSat) entered the market.
He offers: “They wanted shows that were original, very South African (content-wise) and stood out. And they decided to license the show – it was very gutsy of them. This is our third year on the channel.”
The show has been going for six years and is now in season nine. And Cassuto is in talks for an American version as well.
He adds: “The format has evolved over the years. We are now known as Puppet Nation ZA. We have over 120 puppets. That’s a big cast. And it includes your favourite South African politicians, celebrities, sports stars to socialites. We are also working on an inter-national format. We are creating new puppets and now have Louw Venter (Corné and Twakkie fame) doing the voiceover for Steve Hofmeyr, Nataniël and Wouter Basson; and Nik Rabinowitz (Fikile Mbaula, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong Un, Desmond Dube, Khanyi Mbau, Pope Francis, Vladimir Putin, Victor Mansfield and Gareth Cliff).”
And Aggrey Lonake (Jacob Zuma, Julius Malema, Mac Maharaj, Gwede Mantashe, Nhanhla Nene and Winnie Mandela), Nicola Jackman (Debora Patta, Helen Zille, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton), Mumz Mokoena (Justice Malala, Trevor Noah) and Sne Dladla (Mmusi Maimane, DJ Fresh) are the other voiceover artists. On the Hollywood front, there is Jessica McCarthy voicing Kim Kardashian and Ben Campbell lending his vocals to the puppets of Barack Obama, Kanye West and Chris Christie.
Cassuto adds: “The show has become a lot more spectacular, we are also doing computer-generated sets, special effects and animation, on top of the traditional puppetry. We have done a spoof of Game of Thrones, called Game of Cronies. It’s hilarious.”
That also explains why the show made a big noise with seven wins at this year’s South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas).
• Puppet Nation ZA, StarOne on StarSat, Saturdays, 9pm. Also on YouTube, other social platforms.