Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

With Official French Bashing (2003-2007) now as irrelevant as Fox News, “surrender jokes” should have been on the way out. The opposite now seems to be the case with a renewed effort from some columnists and comedy writers, including of all people Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.

Having been the sole voice of dissent along with Bill Maher, The Daily Show was a welcome respite under the Bush Administration. But last night, in a segment about the Olympic torch and pro-Tibet protests in Paris, Jon Stewart spun the events as follows:

“Basically, faced with danger – the French – oh what’s the word I’m looking for? Gave up? No. Conceeded? Anyway…”

Jon Stewart has now entered the long list of overt French Bashing comedians and pundits, who believe the horrors suffered by France, and Europe, during World War II, are so trivial as to be nothing more than a joke.

But here’s the kicker: The Daily Show is aired nightly in France, on Canal Plus. Show your anger and request Canal Plus pull this show from their line-up immediately.

Contact Canal Plus

Bertrand Méheut, PDG
Groupe CANAL+
1, place du Spectacle
92863 Issy-Les-Moulineaux Cedex 9
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Contact Jon Stewart and The Daily Show

Jon Stewart
thedailyshow@comedycentral.com
c/o The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
733 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10019-5051

Post comments online at TheDailyShow.com

Note 1: Back in 2004, the Pew Research Center revealed that 21 % of young people aged 18 to 29 said they got their campaign news from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

Note 2: For historical accuracy, please read notes 18 and 104 of 112 Gripes about the French, ‘Information & Education Division’ of the US Occupation Forces, 1945
How disappointing.
[h/t to PK & SK]

By admin

20 thoughts on “More Surrender Jokes: Jon Stewart”
  1. You’re right it’s really disappointing that even supposedly reasonable people like Jon Stewart would resort to hurtful anti-French slurs like this.

    It really shows how widespread and ingrained anti-French bigotry has become in America’s psyche.

    ps: M. Stewart. It was the Chinese who put out the flame and stopped everything.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHKG307383
    ““The Chinese security guards — who in Paris nervously turned the flame off several times on Monday and retreated with the torch to a bus when protesters advanced”

    You missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.

  2. Thanks Barney for the fact checking. Please let your feelings be known at The Daily Show’s comment section as well.

    I feel so disappointed by Jon.
    – Marc

  3. Marc,

    I’d bump up the “French bashing level” indicator a notch or two. French bashing is here, more than ever. It’s just dormant.

    Iä phtagn…

    Ok, bad joke.

  4. Odd joke tonight by Jon Stewart.

    Commenting the visit of a Synagogue by Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), Stewart joked about not knowing if the “Jews surrendered” – A very odd joke…

  5. Thanx for the updates, miquelon.
    That’s funny how many times France or the French are being mentioned because according to French-bashers, they actually never hear anyone ever talk about the French ever.

    Once, I confronted the pathological anti-Frenh xenophobes at no pasaran and they told me that americans never talk about the French.
    The irony that they had been doing just that every single day on their hate site of theirs for the past few years was apparently lost on them.

  6. Come on, the guy’s a comedian… I’m French, my grandfather was in the Resistance during WWII and thus all this “surrender” and France bashing stuff really pisses me off, but I can take a joke.
    This won’t prevent me from watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart makes jokes about pretty much everything, that doesn’t mean he hates everything… That’s just his job as a comedian.

  7. I don’t think he did. There’s a difference between insults and jokes. Let’s show French people do have a sense of humour too. As I said, he makes jokes about everyone, but no one ever complains about it.
    Anyway, Jon Stewart is not anti-French. Actually, I think he doesn’t care about France at all. He made fun of Bill O’Reilly quite often when he was boycotting France for no reason.

  8. “Come on, the guy’s a comedian… I’m French, my grandfather was in the Resistance during WWII and thus all this “surrender” and France bashing stuff really pisses me off, but I can take a joke.”

    We all can take a joke once in a while. But this has become more than a simple joke. Cowardice has become a character trait which is now seriously associated , and accepted as fact by many, with the French.
    This is a serious issue.

  9. Thank goodness I haven’t got Canal+.

    What a bunch of ignoramuses… Why the crap do this people believe that <b>France</b> surrendered?

    Sure, Petain collaborated but de Gaulle didn’t.

    I mean, this is becoming frigging crazy. Americans believe that the louder they speak, the more right they are; in the same manner the more they propagate the lie, the more they believe it’s true!

    Talk of dumb and loud Americans.

  10. How about America’s Vietnam?

    Now, that’s not only surrendering but running with their tails between their legs leaving their allies to the mercy of their enemies. To top it all, they whine about their experience with no regard for those they fed to their enemies.

    That’s the ultimate in cowardice!

  11. John Stewart makes fun of EVERYONE. You don’t see everyone else bitching about it. Do you realize, by the way, that some of you are making just as many generalizations and rude comments about Americans right now? Talk about hypocrisy. Some Americans are “loud and dumb” but not all of us. Get over yourselves.

  12. Also, did you catch the both American and British bashing that came right after it? I’m not bitching about all that, because I understand Jon Stewart’s satire.

  13. There’s plenty of stuff you can use to make fun of the French.

    But do you understand that making those surrender jokes is an insult to the memory and the sacrifice of the 2 million Frenchmen who died fighting for France last century ?

    Those 2 million deaths have been swept under the rug in the American psyche. Those are REAL people’s lives and memories that are being completely ignored and a made a joke out of.

    According to American pop culture, it never happened.

    It’s not like making fun of Asians being bad drivers or even Americans being loud and obnoxious.
    I hope you can understand that if not shame on you for trying to justify what should be unjustifiable.

  14. If the American public was aware that about 2 million French soldiers died fighting for France last century, do you think people would be so quick (and strangely eager) to make those surrender jokes ?

    I don’t think so.

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