Grand Guignol

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The Word of the Day for May 20 is: 

Grand Guignol \grahng-gheen-YAWL (the "ng" is not pronounced, but the vowel is 
nasalized)\    noun 
     : dramatic entertainment featuring the gruesome or horrible 

Example sentence: 
     Part fairy tale and part Grand Guignol, the film had a bizarre overall 
effect that many viewers found very disturbing. 

Did you know?  
     The name "Guignol" springs from a popular French puppet whose name became 
synonymous with puppet theater in 19th century France. The Guignol character 
(who is still popular among children) has a mercurial temperament -- quick to 
anger, but equally quick to forgive. In the late 19th century, the Theatre du 
Grand Guignol, located in the Montmartre section of Paris, opened. The 
theater's name means literally "large puppet theater" although it didn't 
feature puppets but real people in gory one-act performances of murder and 
mayhem -- the "adult" version of Guignol. Today we use "Grand Guignol" 
generally to mean entertainment of the horror-show variety. We also use it as a 
modifier meaning "gruesome" or "horrifying."