Spitting Image’s perplexing Emmanuel Macron puppet branded ‘astonishingly rubbish’

Series depicts French president as having an incredibly large tongue

An “astonishingly rubbish” Spitting Image puppet of the French president Emmanuel Macron has been lambasted across social media.

On Monday (21 December), the official Twitter account for the sketch show wished Macron a happy birthday. But the accompanying picture, revealing a puppet of the politician, found few fans.

The puppet depicts Macron with an incredibly long tongue, which left Twitter users perplexed.

“I mean aside from Spitting Image being astonishingly rubbish satire and social critique, I’m just baffled by the point of this,” wrote one person. “Why does Macron have a large tongue?”

“They really roasted ‘Big Tongue’ Macron here!!!” joked another.

Many also took to tweeting funnier bits of satire than the show itself.

“Hahaha it’s Macron and his famously large tongue that he famously can’t keep in his mouth as we always see all the time when he is speaking because his tongue is famously so large,” joked one viewer. “This is very funny and satirical.”

Another added: “Is this show some kind of tax scam or what mate?”

Others have suggested that the explanation for the puppet’s large tongue is that it is a reference to the term “frog”, which has historically been used disparagingly to describe the French.

“Why has he got a long tongue?” asked one person, to whom another replied: “Cos - wait for it, you’ll wet yourself - he’s a frog. Geddit?”

The new Spitting Image is a reboot of the classic Eighties satirical sketch show, but has received mixed reviews since it arrived in October. The Independent called it “toothless”, but praised its “great puppets”.

BritBox, which broadcasts the series, has renewed the show for a second season.