Andre, Marc: This situation is truely sad. I feel that Andre has every right to be angry. I just have no idea how to stop this absurd kind of activity.
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).
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 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 Moe: Are you guys really gonna dive off of here? Young Lenny: Not me. I’m shaking like a French soldier. [Season 13, Episode 5]
Hank Scorpio: Homer, what’s your least favorite country: Italy or France? Homer: France Hank Scorpio: Nobody ever says Italy [Season 2, episode 23 “You Only Move Twice” ]
Cesar: Do not worry. This is France. It is customary for children to take a little wine now and then. Bart: Yeah, but it’s got anti-freeze in there. – The Crepes of Wrath
Bart: So, basically, I met one nice French person. – The Crepes of Wrath
Lisa Simpson as Joan of Arc: Victory!?!? We’re FRENCH! We don’t even have a word for it. [ Season 13, Episode 14 ]
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”
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.
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.
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.
From Twitter Trackbacks for Miquelon.org – The Fighting French » Quotes, misquotes and more quotes [miquelon.org] on Topsy.com
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[…] Miquelon.org – The Fighting French » Quotes, misquotes and more quotes www.miquelon.org/bashers/quotes-misquotes-and-more-quotes – view page – cached No other national or ethnic group appears to get the same continually negative treatment in print media reserved for France and the French, with the possible exception of Arabs or Palestinians, and even there, the treatment is not so much cultural as political, linked to a specific context or event.If one were to substitute, for example, "Mexican" or "Japanese" or "Indian" for "French", what… Read moreNo other national or ethnic group appears to get the same continually negative treatment in print media reserved for France and the French, with the possible exception of Arabs or Palestinians, and even there, the treatment is not so much cultural as political, linked to a specific context or event.If one were to substitute, for example, "Mexican" or "Japanese" or "Indian" for "French", what would reader reaction be?". View page […]
Yes I am bashing them in my podcast as well. Not in any serious way though. Glen Beck is serious. I, as always, was fuckin’ around. Hope to have Miquelon on the show this week. Oh and sorry about the accent, no one should have to suffer through that. (@atheistNation)
I listened to your podcast, AtheistNation, and what you did was pretty lame. All you did was rehash crappy old stereotypes and jokes to pick on a guy who wasn’t even there to answer back. Miquelon certainly isn’t anti-American, and yet that’s what you were basically pushing for the first five minutes. Why don’t you grow a pair and invite him over to your show?
Miquelon is anti-American now ?
What a load of BS.
Americans routinely “joking” about the French being cowards, smelly etc is A- OK but French people taking offense at being called cowards (practically on a daily freaking basis) is for some reason anti-Americanism now ?
Once again the French-haters and their ilk show us what a bunch of hypocritical morons they really are with a God complex to boot.
Apparently, they feel entitled to shit on anybody with total impunity but cry bloody murder if we dare do the same thing in return.
I spent a lot of time watching (monitoring) the entire late night spectrum, and I have to say Conan is probably the most genuine compared to Jay. Hands down.
I remember this episode and the dude apologized shortly after. I remember they were talks in the Quebec forums about going there and do VERY unpleasant things to this guy if you know what I mean…
Conan O’Brien will be receiving a 33 million dollar settlement with NBC. That is definitely a heck of a ton of dough to offer an individual to merely disappear. I would confess that I very much favorJay Leno in that slot rather than the prime time slot, but I do believe that Conan demonstrated a whole lot of class in fighting to obtain that massive severence arrangement for his crew. I’m positive that he can land on his feet somewhere else in no time. If he does not, at least the 33 million will soften the landing.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
“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.
So apparently, when Captain America insults a handful of nutwings, Marvel apologizes, whereas when Captain America insults France, an entire nation, not a word.
[…] nice link Miquelon.org – The Fighting French » About That “French Surrender” Thing .. brought to me by miquelon on Twitter. March 4th, 2010 by Temple Posted in URLs | No Comments […]
Thanks Beren – There isn’t much we can do about Beck except document, document and document. He’s lost every single one of his advertisers for other statements, the French thing is just the icing on the cake with Beck.
I like to check out your blog a couple times a week for new thoughts. I was wondering if you have any other topics you write about? You’re a very interesting writer!
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.
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.
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.
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 ?
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
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