The French are Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys

1. Have you taken a look at the comment section ?

   People are adamant that stereotype is true. It’s pathological at this point.

2. I posted one comment, but didn’t bother reading the rest since I expect this. Have you seen how bad twitter has become ? French and Surrender are now so linked in pop culture it will take decades for this to be forgotten.

   I believe the Foreign ministry underestimated the consequences of inaction on this topic. Like you say, it’s pathological.

   PS: do you remember that troll from some months back – forgot her name – well I found some of her very old posts on Facebook, and they were virulently anti-French. Such a hypocrite.

3. I’m with Barney and Miquelon on this, though, what we may be seeing is an expression of frustration at what the sense of British military power has become. Maybe we need to be a bit forgiving as some Brits suddenly become aware of their decline. Not exactly what they were taught in school or saw in the propaganda – I mean movies.

4. [PS: do you remember that troll from some months back – forgot her name – well I found some of her very old posts on Facebook, and they were virulently anti-French. Such a hypocrite.]

   As I said before. Those people do not wind up here on miquelon.org by accident.

5. And I love that @mactenchi guy who complains about ‘the French’ (every man, woman and child in France I assume) being bigots while calling us cheese-eating surrender monkey.

   Even if you tried you’d have a hard time being that retarded.

6. “I believe the Foreign ministry underestimated the consequences of inaction on this topic.”

   You can also include our previous ambassador to the US.   All in all, many in the French government did a poor job defending les Francais d’outre mer. 
    
   Marc, forget about the twits on twitter, they are most likely 18-28 year olders forced back into their parent’s basement with little else to do.  We should concentrate instead the ongoing anti-France hatred which continues on anti-French bloggers like E.Svane and Right-wing publications such as National Review.  These are far more serious than keyboard commandos venting their hatred towards a country they couldn’t even find on a map.

7. Food for thought:

   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100211/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1129

   So apparently, when Captain America insults a handful of nutwings, Marvel apologizes, whereas when Captain America insults France, an entire nation, not a word.

8. More from Cracked.com : The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts

9. Marc, I think that the super-tanker issue, with all of its’ comments, would make a topic of its’ own.

10. Changing topics, I had no idea that Quebec had sinkholes! Has Florida migrated to the far North? News from today, 5/12/10.

11. Quite funny. A bit factually incorrect though. Is it right to talk about ‘France’ as far back as 387bc?! 
     
    As a student of French I regularly TRADE banter with my French counterparts. We Brits are perfectly happy to be called reserved, unexciting and a nation of alcoholics. We smile as our French friends pass jocular judgement on the lunacy and obsolescence of wall-to-wall carpets in every room. Our food is mercilessly derided. We dish out the standard ‘frog’ and ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’ jibes, and invoke the arrogant, work shy garlic-perfumed stereotype that all parties know full well to be ill-informed, and then we all laugh. 
    None of my french friends really belive that our food is inedible, or that we are emotional retards, any more than we believe that there is any substance in our jokes about them. Sensitivity to cultural stereotypes is no better than whatever backward, xenophobic sentiment that may or may not lie behind them, especially when you are talking about a phrase (cheese eating etc) that is rarely used without irony. Laugh it off and carry on, or risk becoming dangerously disconnected from reality.  Whatever happened to france being a mouse with the skin of an elephant?

12. “Quite funny. A bit factually incorrect though. Is it right to talk about ‘France’ as far back as 387bc?! ”

    Well, some americans obviously think so. RRemember that “complete military history of France” (very incomplete) list that was circulating on the net in 2003? It also included things dating from before the term France even existed (I’m pretty sure that France didn’t exist in the times of Julius Caesar).

    As for “laugh it off and carry on”, that was also the tactics my parents told me to use against bullies. It never worked. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: it gives you a reputation for being an easy target.

    And let’s face it, most people posting the “Cheese-eating surrender monkey” on the net really believe that it’s true.

    BTW, the italian americans faced a similar problem way back in the seventies, with all the Mafia references. They didn’t take it lying low. They organized and got results. Now, no comedian would dare do a joke linking an italian american with the mob. Maybe we should do the same.

13. “”We Brits are perfectly happy to be called reserved, unexciting and a nation of alcoholics. We smile as our French friends pass jocular judgement on the lunacy and obsolescence of wall-to-wall carpets in every room. Our food is mercilessly derided.””

    Oh my God, wall to wall carpet. Yeah that’s super offensive
    
    As equally offensive as calling people cowards and smelly among other things.

Comments are closed.