Oui!

One of Victor Hugo’s early plays written in 1830, which caused much controversy between the older Neoclassicism, and the young Romanticism movement.

Six hours before the first curtain went up, Hugo had assembled many of his friends in the theatre, where they became very drunk and prepared themselves for the fight they knew was coming. When the doors opened and the rest of the audience entered, insults were flung back and forth between the neoclassic savants, and the romantic enthusiasts. Neoclassicism had very strict guidelines, or unities, for performing art, but Romanticism disregarded all of these save the unity of action. The Neoclassics were appalled to find when the first line was spoken that Hernani did not follow Alexandrian verse, and it mixed colloquial dialogue in with it. It also violated decorum in the first act by having the king hide in a cabinet making him look like a fool. Each of the five acts began in a new location violating the unity of place. And though it is never mentioned how much time has passed, it would have taken more than twenty-four hours for the events to occur, which violated the unity of time. Comedic and tragic scenes mixed, violating the unity of genre. And on top of this there are three onstage suicides, including that of the heroine, which violated verisimilitude. For most of the play the main character, Hernani, stood with his back to the audience, a theatre no-no even by today’s standards.

Through its run, fights broke out at every performance. The actors knew the reactions that they would get for it, and tried to sway Hugo, but to no avail. The actors started to mumble the more offensive parts but it didn’t matter because it was impossible to hear over the brawling anyway.

Now that’s good theatre.

The most famous French "bad word". It means feces, or deep trouble. It's also used when something goes wrong: "Merde !". It can be applied to a person, usually with the adjective "petite". It's roughly equivalent to the English "shit".

There is also a verb: "merder", which means "to fuck up" (to make a mistake). A variant, "merdre", is the favorite curse of Ubu in Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Roi". For some reason, "merde" is also used to wish someone good luck, for example when he's going to an important interview.

As any other swear word in French, "merde" is more efficient when chained with other swear words:

Putain de bordel de merde ! (Whore of brothel of shit)

But there is much more in this word than what the dictionary says. In France, "Merde" is the standard answer to something that you don't like. The word includes pride and defiance to those who are above you. "Dire merde à quelqu'un" ("to say merde to someone") means to challenge someone's authority even if that person or institution is stronger than you are.

To grasp the full meaning of the word "merde" in French, you need to read Les Misérables. The fact that Victor Hugo dared to write "merde" in a novel implies that the word had strong symbolic connotations that justified its use. That happens when he narrates the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon was defeated by the English. Cambronne is an "obscure officer" and his legion is surrounded by the English, with no way to escape:

Through the shades of twilight they could hear the pieces being loaded; the matches all lighted, like the eyes of tigers at night, formed a circle round their heads; all the lintstocks of the English batteries approached the cannons, and then, with emotion, holding the supreme moment suspended above these men, an English general, Colville according to some, Maitland according to others, shouted to them, "Surrender, brave Frenchmen!" Cambronne replied, "Merde."

Then Hugo apologizes for using such a word and explains :

If any French reader object to having his susceptibilities offended, one would have to refrain from repeating in his presence what is perhaps the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from consigning something sublime to History. [...]

The winner of the battle of Waterloo was not Napoleon, who was put to flight; nor Wellington, giving way at four o'clock, in despair at five; nor Blucher, who took no part in the engagement.

The winner of Waterloo was Cambronne.

To thunder forth such a reply at the lightning-flash that kills you is to conquer!

Note that Cambronne did not actually die, but was made a prisoner by the English and later came back to France. Now he's a metro station in Paris, and the Parisians say Cambronne's word when they walk in une merde de chien.

poursuivi par smith et wesson
colt, berringer, winchester, et remington
il erre dans les plaines, fier, solitaire
son cheval est son partenaire

for robert altman, and robert aldrich, and woody allen, and pedro almodovàr,
for allison anders, jack arnold, tex avery, bernardo bertolucci, jean-jacques beineix, busby berkeley, luc besson, for kathryn bigelow, for robert bresson, for ingmar bergman, for john boorman and tim burton, for frank capra, marcel carné, joel and ethan coen, roger corman and jean cocteau; for francis ford coppola, roger corman, charles crichton, george cukor, chris cunningham, cecil b. de mille, vittorio de sica, tom dicillo, clint eastwood, sergei eisenstein, and milos forman, john frankenheimer, terry gilliam; for lasse hallström, robert hamer, howard hawks, alfred hitchcock and john huston, jim jarmusch, jean-pierre jeunet et marc caro; for spike jonze, neil jordan, mathieu kassowitz, wong kar-wai, elia kazan, elem klimov, stanley kubrick, akira kurosawa, and fritz lang; for ang lee, mike leigh, david lean, sergio leone, ken loach, george lucas, sidney lumet, david lynch, alexander mackendrick, and david mamet; for max ophuls and marcel pagnol, for alan parker, for michael powell and emeric pressburger; for carol reed, alain resnais, george romero, for john schlesinger, martin scorsese, ridley scott, kevin smith, steven spielberg, oliver stone and jan svankmajer; for quentin tarantino, jacques tourneur, gus van sant, king vidor, wayne wang, orson welles, wim wenders, joss whedon, billy wilder, william wyler, fred zinnemann, and probably some more that i have forgotten -
may we all be truly grateful,
a-men.