Grand Guignol

Posted by ESC on December 19, 2003

In Reply to: Grand Guignol attack ads posted by The Gee Wiz Kid on December 17, 2003

: : In today's New York Times there is a discussion of recent TV ads that suggest that the
: : leading Democratic candidate Howard Dean is giving aid and comfort to
: : Osama bin Laden. The author says the ads are GG attack ads. So, GG attack ads are
: : those that induce fear and terror (as plays at the GG theater in Paris induced
: : fear and terror)?
: :

:
: It may refer to the deceased musician GG Alin.

Guignol - "The principal character in a popular French puppet show, similar to 'Punch and Judy.' As the performances came to involve macabre and gruesome incidents, the name was attached to short plays of this nature. Hence Grand Guignol, a series of such plays or the theatre in which they were performed. The character first appeared in a puppet theater at Lyon in 1808, in which it was originally named Chignol, after Chignolo, the theatre owner's native village in northern Italy. The name seems to have been altered under the influence of French 'guignon,' evil eye." From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable revised by Adrian Room (HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1999, Sixteenth Edition).