Eight years ago, when the French won the World Cup, a brief but vicious flurry of Anti-French jokes were made by late night comedians. This was a prelude to the golden era French Bashing some five years later.
Top Ten Signs France Is Celebrating Their Soccer Victory: Surrendering to Germany. – From “Late Night With David Letterman” on CBS, 1998.
The 2006 World Cup is now underway, and so is French bashing among sports commentators and talking heads. Please alert us to any derogatory comments made about the French nation or people during this competition. Sports must be free of prejudice.
1. The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulous
Case in point, on Thursday the 8th, George Stroumboulopoulous from CBC Newsworld ran an item about the South Koreans putting on a mock soccer match with jersey sporting Penguins: one for Togo, one for France … George then proceeded to make a quick comment about the French thusly: “putting penguins in French t-shirts, isn’t that cruelty to animals?”.
After filing our complaint, we were told we had misinterpreted the item as it was intended as an implicit reference to foie gras …
2. Bob Magee at CHFI – A decent apology
Just a few days later, Bob Magee a CHFI radio personality and host of the drive time show in Toronto decided to make a few comments on the Soccer match between France & Switzerland: “The Swiss are always neutral and the French are always surrendering”.
We filed a complaint and received a full and decent apology from Bob Magee.
THANK YOU
[…] fact the American media will not take notice, thus sparing us the usual litany of late night jokes. For the record: “Congratulations to the Italian people for winning the World Cup. … They won after […]
[…] In 2006, even in Canada, we had to contend with snide comments from George Stroumboulopoulous (who never apologized) and Bob Magee at CHFI (who apologized graciously). […]