Puppet Nation pulls world strings

28 September 2016 - 08:48 By LEONIE WAGNER

A Jacob Zuma puppet, David Hasselhoff and the impeached Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff walk into the International Emmy Awards ceremony - who takes home the award? This will be revealed in New York on November 21 when South African satirical series Puppet Nation ZA competes against comedy shows from the UK, Brazil and France. It is the show's second nomination.Executive producer and co-creator Thierry Cassuto said: "The nomination means we are in the top four in TV comedy in the world. It means we're up there with the best and that makes us really proud."Puppet Nation ZA features latex models of characters such as Zuma, Nelson Mandela, Trevor Noah, Donald Trump, Kanye West and Barack Obama.Now in its eighth year, the show, which is only available online and on StarSat - a subsidiary of the Chinese satellite television provider, StarTimes - has won 17 SA Film and Television awards.Cassuto said: "It's a paradox that we've won all these awards and have been nominated for the International Emmy twice and the show isn't on any of the bigger broadcasting networks."Comedian and cast member Nik Rabinowitz, who does voice-overs for the various puppets said: "We're recognised internationally as a talented poor cousin of comedy. they're saying it's not American but it's cool."Puppet Nation ZA will compete against Dix Pour Cent (Call my Agent) from France, Hoff the Record, from the UK starring David Hasselhoff, and Zorra ( The Mess ), from Brazil, which makes reference to former president Dilma Rousseff...

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