Cheese-eating surrender monkeys
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"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" is an insulting descriptive phrase, referring to the French, which gained brief notoriety among conservatives in the United States in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
The phrase was first used by the dour Scottish character Groundskeeper Willie in the television cartoon series The Simpsons to describe the French. The "surrender" element of the phrase seems most likely to refer to the rapid collapse of French military resistance in 1940 in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, and the subsequent collaboration by the Vichy government. The implicit characterization of the French as cowards, and the description of the Battle of France as a surrender is regarded by many as highly offensive.
The episode, "Round Springfield," first aired on April 30, 1995; in it the local school, Springfield Elementary, has succumbed to budget cuts. Lunch Lady Doris states, "they've even got Groundskeeper Willie teaching French." The next shot is of Willie as a teacher, saying "'bonjourrr,' you cheese-eating surrender monkeys!" The character of Groundskeeper Willie is a Scottish immigrant known for his grumpiness and animosity; he reserves particular venom for the French. His attempt to speak French with an extremely heavy accent provides much of the comedy in the scene. In context, the phrase reflects Scottish or British sentiment towards the French as much as it does American.
It was Willie's only line in the episode.
The line was first picked up and used predominantly by Republican American politicians and publications. They were led, according to UK daily The Guardian, by Jonah Goldberg, a columnist for the US bi-weekly National Review. France opposed many of the U.S.'s international positions and actions, in particular the invasion of Iraq. Some argue the phrase's success reflects deep antipathy in the U.S. against countries such as France who oppose the U.S. in international forums. The phrase, and similar opprobrious comparisons, have been used more frequently by some U.S. media outlets, such as the New York Post and the FOX News Channel (Both owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.), and Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
In the French airing of the Simpsons episode, Willy's line was dubbed as singes mangeurs de fromage (cheese-eating monkeys).
See also
References
- 'Round Springfield episode review and partial transcript (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/2F32.html) — The Simpsons Archive
- References to France on The Simpsons (http://www.snpp.com/guides/foreign.html#france) — The Simpsons Archive
- Wimps, weasels and monkeys - the U.S. media view of 'perfidious France' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,893202,00.html) — The Guardian
External link
- Food-Eating Battle Monkeys (http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/monkey) — a web game based on the phrase, that pairs random foods with random attack-types