Miquelon.org has been quiet lately and that’s been a good thing. French Bashing is now limited to the hinterland of bad tweets and soccer forums, a level of background noise that we keep monitoring but which pales in comparison with the hate fest under the Bush-Cheney presidency. (On a side note, Karl Rove denied any involvement in that sad episode of American politics in a recent tweet, but we’ll discuss that in another post. )
As we near the end of 2009, French Bashing is no longer common on television. In fact, in a recent episode of Family Guy, French stereotypes were thrown onto the heap of politically incorrect materials in a skit entitled “Bigoted Songs Melody”. Even the eternally unfunny Simpsons are toning things down with a recent caricature of Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni that lacked imagination and punch – true to their style. Jay Leno for his part is probably too busy trying to counter his downward ratings spiral to care about bashing the French at this time.
So is there anyone left in the US media willing to publicly Hate the French?
Why it’s Glenn Lee Beck. Mister “I hate France” who still thinks the French are just another of his nightly punching bags. During his show, Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Beck took another spineless jab at the French:
“Ben Franklin was considered perhaps the most important man of his day. He was obviously revered in the Colonies, but he was also so respected around the world, that there was hardly a house in France that didn’t have his portrait in it. France had yet to become the “surrender monkeys” and non-deodorant America-haters we now know they are.” Source: FoxNews.com
Beck’s hate speech not only refers to the 1940 surrender, the most traumatic event in recent French history – as funny to the French as 9/11 or Vietnam to Americans – but he does not hesitate to use racialist language that is often used to describe other nationalities and minorities from the Irish to African-Americans.
Like Jonah Goldberg before him, Beck believes he can use the Simpson’s most offensive anti-French slur as he pleases, even if he portrays us collectively and perpetually as sub-humans. Pulling out all the stops, Beck also revisits common anti-French stereotypes about cleanliness and anti-Americanism.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Glenn Beck for uttering those words so he can remind us all where French-Bashing really comes from – the ultraconservative right wing of the political spectrum steeped in hate, paranoia and teabags.
A blast from the past indeed; this human anachronism’s speech would have been more at home in 2003 than nowadays!
BTW, Marc, perhaps it would be better not to refer to “the 1940 surrender”? Simply because, technically and in all other aspects, it was not a “surrender”; an armistice was signed, and one of the clauses of said armistice was the surrender of those armed forces which were surrounded in the three main pockets. But it was only one clause, and certainly not the most important aspect of it all (I consider the occupation, for instance, to be far more relevant).
A few things, miquelon :
First, please stop bashing the Simpsons. When I saw the episode in which Willie says that, there’s no doubt that the sentence is not offensive in the context. Groundskeeper Willie is a stupid scottish in all simpsons episodes. It would be like being offended, when in the english movie “In the loop” , the american general compares war to France (aka a thing you don’t want to do again once you done it once and saw how horrible it is) : the french spectators (including me) found that very fun. A bit of autoderision doesn’t hurt anyone.
Second, everyone knows Glenn Beck is a major lunatic (and a TV genius, clearly) . He knows (or shows indeed) nothing about history, wether it is contemporary or not. He would have taken any sentence depreciative to the french. Let the simpsons aloooooooone 😉
[[the “surrender monkeys” and non-deodorant America-haters we now know they are.” ]]
Waiting for the apologists to come and lecture us about our lack of humor and how ” Glenn Beck is wrong but…” in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
And what drug is Glenn Beck on anyway ?
[[there was hardly a house in France that didn’t have his portrait in it]]
Well it happened while I was typing my message.
How appropriate. lol
Where in my comment do I apologize for Glenn Beck, Barney ?
The Simpsons are pop-culture icons who have let their anti-French bias slip time and time again. The “cheese eating surrender monkey” phrase is the most offensive anti-French slur and despite claims it was about context, it’s use and re-use by everyone from Jonah Goldberg to Glenn Beck via thousands of tweets is proof enough this slur was intended as a swipe against the French. [See this entry]
More anti-French comments by the Simpsons:
Young Lenny: Not me. I’m shaking like a French soldier. [Season 13, Episode 5]
Homer: France
Hank Scorpio: Nobody ever says Italy [Season 2, episode 23 “You Only Move Twice” ]
Bart: Yeah, but it’s got anti-freeze in there. – The Crepes of Wrath
And let’s not forget the Electronics Arts game where Homer mocks the cowardly French for being ” a scared girl, (who doesn’t) like being bombed and attacked”
@Miquelon :
The re-use of quotations doesn’t seem to me as a proof of anything. It’s widely common in the media world to do that.
I found (i watched all simpsons episodes) 1, 4 and 5 truly offensive when put back in context. No doubt about that. 2 and 3 aren’t in my opinion, like the willie’s quotation. And I’ll give you credit abut the video game.
All want to say is : I’m not sure it’s “constructif” to fingerpoint the simpsons each time a dumbass is quoting them to prove a point. It diminishes the argument (here about Glenn Beck) IMHO.
Pardon me, Moktarama, but are you saying that being called a cowardly, cheese-eating primate is not offensive?
In my opinion, “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” is, by FAR, the most offensive and hateful anti-French slur.
I’m not so sure that this isn’t a good thing. Of course Beck’s base will eat this up – as they always do. My point is that Beck’s comments place France in very good company, ie. science, education, culture, humanity, justice, peace, equality. All in all, I would rather be on the side of that which Beck condems than be inside his lovefest. I believe that the majority of Americans would agree with me.
@André Wernesson :
Coming from a dumb scottish analphabet like groundskeeper Willie (which is really a bad stereotype for scottish people, one they could easily be offended with) , not very much.
First degree – groundskeeper Willie – ignorant and brash
Second degree – groundskeeper Willie – speaks his mind, says truths other do not dare say
Conclusion: groundskeeper Willie is a vehicle for non-PC language and stereotypes that are part of the writer’s construct, he’s their safe outlet for hate-speech.
Impossible d’envoyer un mail à Miquelon, marche pas.
Donc je poste ici :
Weird Al Yankovic : ” Genius In France ”
http://superfrenchie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=706&p=13503#p13503
Sorry about that, it’s fixed now.
Hallo du echt tollen Weblog betreibst du. Ich selber habe auch schon länger eine eigene homepage programmiert, eine Suchmaschiene. Momentan noch erreichbar unter beta.jerome.de . Währe toll wenn du mir berichtest wie du sie findest und was noch doof daran ist. Ein Redesign kommt erst im laufe der Woche noch dazu. Schönes Wochenende – 345zhf4
We can find a “Glenn Beck inventory style” but directed against USA made by a Finn here and “The World according to America” map here:
http://www.ilmatar.net/~np/hate/USAHate.html
Do you think it’s fun, Yankees?!?
Or is it fun only when you mock other countries with pathetic cliches and propaganda and NOT fun at all when you are mocked using the same method?!?