Daft Punk stuns entertainment world by launching new talk show

Show set to air on MTV this spring, actual robot to co-host

By Aidan Mouellic, Staff Writer

In response to their new large-scale celebrity status and the public’s desire to learn more about the group following their recent five-Grammy wins, MTV has partnered with French electronic duo Daft Punk to launch a new talk show. The move has stunned fans and the public alike, since the musical duo is well known for their reclusiveness and lack of speaking engagements, and best known for hiding behind robot masks during all public appearances—supposedly to protect their personal identities.

“Having Thomas and Guy-Manuel of Daft Punk host their own celebrity talk show will be a huge opportunity for our network—and for people who want to hear these French robots speak publicly,” said Jeff Wallace, marketing director for MTV.

Considering the duo’s anti-social public persona, it’s a huge achievement for MTV to secure the pair for a talk show, though Daft Punk tells us that they have different plans for the show.

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, one half of the band, told the Other Press via fax that the pair “hopes to speak to our guests on the show in the same way how we speak through our music to our fans—and that’s electronically.”

When we asked for clarification, the other half of Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter, said that “We will be in our costumes for the show and exchange our questions with our guests via text messages or Morse code messages; our voices will not be heard on television—but we might break our pledge of silence that we’ve lived by for so long.”

The French electronic geniuses have been wearing their famous masks for a long time now; most media outlets have quoted the pair as saying that the reason for the masks is to maintain their privacy in public, but Bangalter noted that this is categorically false. “If we didn’t wear the masks, then we would have to actually make appearances, and all we like doing is making music, not making appearances—the masks allow us to send anyone, really, and it will be the same for our MTV show… we might be under the masks, or not, depends who the guest is.”

The most recent public appearance by Daft Punk was a couple weeks back at the 2014 Grammys where they received five awards, including the top prize of Album of the Year. The duo did not make any acceptance speeches; instead members of their entourage did all the talking.

Still, the pair promises that things will be different on their show. “People were disappointed that we did not speak at the Grammy’s,” said Bangalter, “but the public must understand that our masks are soundproof, and if we speak no one would hear us, plus our visors would fog up too quickly—it’s bad enough breathing in there.”

Another revelation about the yet-to-be-named show is that the show’s third co-host will be an actual robot. The Late Late show with Craig Ferguson already has a robot co-host, but Wallace believes that the Daft Punk robot will outdo Ferguson’s: “Someone at Apple has given us the newest version of Siri to debut in an animatronic hottie,” said Wallace. “She will be a sexy and sassy interactive robot that will be the perfect addition to the show.”