The Horrors of the Grand Guignol: Crash Course Theater #35

[@smoqueed44]

Where is Alice?

[@BunjiBee]

Content warning: Blood, gore, and French

[@sandearcubus9299]

Not just french, badly pronunced french!

[@UnisRapper]

Im going to alice

[@FullMetalZergling]

Alice?

[@thebeatisdead]

I'm conflicted because a part of me is like, "ew"; but the creative side of me is like, "This is the how far one should go when you are creating an experience for your audience."

[@stevenbosch429]

There was an episode in the hour long version of "The Twilight Zone" where Martin Balsam played the guide at a Chamber of Horrors. The story turns on the news that the Chamber is closing due to falling attendance. The owner explains to Balsam's character that the chamber can't compete with the horrors that the modern audience had to deal with in reality. "Even the Grand Guignol is closing." "The Guignol!" Balsam exclaims. He is determined to keep the five best exhibits from being lost. He winds up storing them in his basement which he air conditioned at heavy expense. The five exhibits include murderers such as Anton Leroux and a facsimile of who Jack the Ripper might have been. You can probably guess how this episode ends.

[@eduardoramirezjr4403]

The 1955 thriller film “ Diabolique” has many of same elements of the Grand Guignol. It freaks me out every time I see it. 🤯

[@SuperNova1333]

Wow early 20th century french theater could be quite metal... I like it.

[@Tfin]

What a horrible way to release a bird from a child's skull! She probably killed the poor thing, and that's why they didn't see it.

[@ms.rstake_1211]

😁❗

[@shorgoth]

In french the words finishing in s, t, d, g, c, you don't pronounce those letters most of the time, they are archaisms kept from latin or langue d'oc or oil or to indicate plural in the case of the s. "Au" is pronounced like a "o"

[@FalbertForester]

Perhaps I'm an exception to the rule, but I've never liked horror in any media form. Still, good work Crash Course, and thank you Thought Bubble for the pixel censoring.

[@michaelasid4178]

Dude how do you not like horror in any form!!! I’m flabbergasted

[@MKPiatkowski]

I don't enjoy watching people suffer so horror isn't something I'll watch. I got tricked into watching a horror movie once ("but it's funny!" she said) and it upset me so much I'll never do it again.

[@MKPiatkowski]

@@michaelasid4178 There's a lot of us.

[@americanzero]

@Dragon50275 European and Asian horror can be thought-provoking.

[@Jaydoggy531]

Content warning? Blood? That's okay. Guts? Sure. Mediocre French pronunciation? ...... (Monty Python) RUN AWAAAAYYYY!!!

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

The only thing that scares people more than blood and gore is mediocre French pronunciatios. Yes, only mediocre French pronunciations.

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

It makes me faint every time.

[@BaldingClamydia]

I'm French, why do you think I have this outrageous accent?!

[@jeffreybernath6627]

"What is foreshadowing anyway? Is that like, when you have four shadows?"

[@rooseveltbrentwood9654]

Jeffrey Bernath its right before you break the fourth shadow

[@MichaelSHartman]

Saw, Friday the 13th, Silence of the Lambs, Nightmare on Elm Street, Dracula, Alien, Predator, Terminator series,...

[@basedbattledroid3507]

I still think the special effects and makeup they used for gore are out of this world, incredibly realistic, most gore in modern media is either too clean or everyone is a blood fountain, this is just like proper medical school gore.

[@gennybaratta2460]

Every time Mike says lights up my mind immediately goes “Lights up in Washington Heights”

[@aswahrabbani8239]

I kinda want the theatre to be still open and the plays to be still performed now it would be so cool.

[@LeoElso]

The building itself is still a theatre, the international visual theatre. They don't perform Grand Guignol anymore though

[@cavv0667]

I believe that middleclass America is ripe for this kind of theatre... where the unfortunate suffer, the evil are punished and the world continues to turn. I know I'd love to experience it just for the technical aspects of makeup and fx.

[@willhuey4891]

it was the precusor for torture porn

[@dysonsquared]

I've been patiently waiting for this chapter! Also, "mediocre" pronunciation? Nah, brother Mike - I'd call it shy of atrocious - always a good laugh though. Carry on!💖

[@BrianHutzellMusic]

Fainting audiences have not gone away! Several recent productions of "Titus Andronicus" have been battling for Most Graphic Violence honors. (Check out pix from the Globe's 2006 production.) Great ending, BTW!

[@luvzfrance24]

No proper mention of Paula Maxa! She was so popular with the theater!

[@ThisOldSkater]

To wonder about a horror is more stressful than to know. Maybe through these plays people of the time, unfamiliar with the new horrors of WWI, seeing and knowing this kind of horror was a relief of that anxiety.

[@aburninglandfillofbadmovie2930]

The grand guignol had it's successor in the so called 'Video Nasties' of the 80s and late 70s.

[@nickw3943]

I continue to love these videos. Thank you all you do.

[@annalepper457]

Such a great series, I'm going to be sad when it is over.

[@caterpillarnana]

Wish you would go more in depth on this subject. I often wonder myself how current horror media is such big business. Now I think I'll go watch something really classy like Shakespeare's Othello.

[@ItstheArchNemesis]

Amazing video, incredible quality! Thank you

[@CapKITZ]

Mediocre French Pronunciation!?!? On a PG show!?!? That's an outrage!!!

[@woutervellekoop6908]

Can you do a crashcourse on music? I would most certainly watch that.

[@stevenbosch429]

There is some evidence that the catharsis derived from horror in that it, to a degree, helps the audience contend with real life horror they deal with daily. There is a documentary about the film producer Val Lewton. The films he made and released through RKO were taken up by an audience who had family members who fought and many died in the Second World War. Binet may have considered Lewton's stories too mainstream. Lewton's taste as a story teller as well as the Production Code forebade actual blood and gore. Lewton's cast many actors who were just starting out as well as survivors of the silent era who were available for the several days of work allowed by RKO's very demanding release schedule which Martin Scorcese (who would be expected to render an expert opinion) considered, "Inhuman." It was also the period where audio (radio) drama used the work of some writer producers like Willys Cooper and Arch Obler. Boris Karloff was in demand for horror broadcasts.

[@maryharvey6789]

Great video! And I can't pronounce any French at all so I don't judge! keep up the great work!

[@mortimerlapatate]

Hello, I don't know if you'll see this comment a year after the release of this video but the choice of naming the theatre "Grand-Guignol" is because Guignol was mainly known to be a more subversive show than sweet stories for kids, with satirical jokes about the governement, the laws (there's always a policeman that Guignol likes to hit with a stick). So Méténier take the idea of a subversive theater but for adults ;)

[@mortimerlapatate]

And I know this because I'm a student in France who tries to do research about this very forgotten theater and its incredible plays :)

[@Kyomaro09Takamine]

@@mortimerlapatate I love you.

[@daniellebreitstein6007]

When y’all gonna talk about Oscar Wilde

[@walkinmn]

It's a morbid fascination

[@wijfiegroeneandijvie]

Whaha, that Thought Bubble dialog! XD ooh it's good. Peace!

[@pspreng]

Wow, I never realized how much I miss Alfred Hitchcock!

[@xBlueSkittlesx]

Alfred Binet's portrait looks like a bearded 19th century Mark Zuckerberg.

[@camiloiribarren1450]

Mike is back! But a little late for Halloween but still good

[@ariannamonson4092]

You know, I was feeling good today, man

[@fh9061]

Wow that's super interesting. Do you guys have any recommendations of plays to read in this category?

[@nateweinand4209]

Well, that was a great Halloween episode... Excuse me while I go hide from society.

[@sivawright]

Can't wait for Wilde!!!

[@kylehenderson9489]

I just ate.

[@CapKITZ]

sorrryyyyyy...

[@dougdimmadoug4628]

Good fellow!

[@billytrespassers3123]

Interesting how the German phrase “Gott mit uns” shows up a few times. “God [be] with us!”

[@QuantumSeanyGlass]

Possibly because it's something Germans said before they went into battle?

[@varana]

Those are WW1 propaganda posters and similar cartoons from that time. "Gott mit uns" was used by the Prussians and then the German Empire as a motto on coins and uniforms. The hypocrisy of committing atrocities while invoking the help of God was a staple of French propaganda during the Great War.

[@friedteabags6570]

I love horror and gore. Now I'm just creeped out by myself...lol

[@Goldenheart_345]

Soo... It's like buzzfeed unsolved?

[@jeronimotamayolopera4834]

BRING IT BACK.

[@totallynotphoenixwright]

I reeaaally wanna see some Theatre of the Absurd :^(

[@robertpalumbo9089]

You tube ?

[@carrioncrow13]

I laughed, because I was so disturbed … happens all the time. -_-

[@lollo5011]

Sacrebleu!

[@Beryllahawk]

I made the mistake of starting this video while I had dinner in front of me....

[@worstdreams8590]

the dead skin of my childhood has been shed i am no longer the me i used to be i am dead ncieuhfuiahfuieahuifhau GOD help i cant stop thinking about that but still. creative I applaud you de lorde but still get some help man

[@geoffreywinn4031]

Scary!

[@robertpalumbo9089]

Pre cgi horror movies

[@mojosbigsticks]

Yikes!

[@Chloeiscool594]

Does anyone know what happened to the other channel crash course kids?

[@ianalvord3903]

Did they really faint? Do people just not faint as much these days?

[@MasqueTheRedDeathDJ]

Jesus Christ, the french went all out, didn't they?!

[@geo1966]

How do you make your cartoons

[@NawidN]

Why does this matter?

[@jamesbrinkley9819]

Punch me in the gut! Go ahead, it won't hurt me!

[@lollo5011]

Oh mon dieu! :O

[@therrydicule]

I'm particularly angry bad the horrible French pronunciation...

[@aleyahmalone5012]

What......

[@robertpalumbo9089]

Theater of the macabre

[@ashagerhard8906]

Maori ? Maurey should sound like Moray

[@plywater1053]

Zorgo diffues 2:14

[@culwin]

EdgeSeigneurs

[@unleashingpotential-psycho9433]

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh

[@ms.rstake_1211]

FINALLY! I'm so angry I didn't check. You could have let a b_tch know what's up... sorry that sounded crude but I am upset

[@ms.rstake_1211]

I didn't even bother to check and I'm so low in the comments.

[@ms.rstake_1211]

p.s the Grand Guignol crew are all psychos and sociopaths.

[@ms.rstake_1211]

I still *liked* ...duh... it's great .

[@ms.rstake_1211]

I still *liked* ...duh... it's great.

[@ms.rstake_1211]

I mean OK ...fine you decided to make the episode for Halloween but I do not accept the break as *"suspense"* ... you could have given us a CC theater Recess episode while we wait.

[@mcwifithethrd2714]

Audio is off syn

[@yolobolo3306]

Who wrom USA like me?

[@rooseveltbrentwood9654]

krzyś kaczmarek wrom wrom wrom!

[@ObjectionM]

I hate horror 😑

[@elicarlson1745]

Hi guys I’m les

[@rooseveltbrentwood9654]

Eli Carlson hi I’m mor

[@volk551]

As thought bubbles go that story made me feel nothing. Because the plot had well nothing. or as French Krusty the clown would say "Qu'est-ce que cétait?" to any French people reading I don't care.

[@JuliusUnique]

"before the war, everyone felt that what was happening onstage was impossible" - wrong af, life back then was so shitty, I doubt they just simulated the horror in the theatre, that would've been ResidentSleeper af for the audience

[@Kyomaro09Takamine]

War is "official" State/political's horror, that's the point, stupid

[@patrickkerrigan6323]

84th

[@graciegreer4898]

8th commentttt

[@nikolaytsankov9066]

Fifth

[@ThePortableTornado]

Jokes on you... you were FIRST! Ha, GOTTEM!

[@nikolaytsankov9066]

I'm not Russian lol