Miquelon.org – The Fighting French

It’s now January 2011. What has happened to the most notorious of French Bashers since the heyday of 2003-2007?

Glenn Beck is known for having openly stated his hatred for the French. This was before his more notorious bat shit crazy stunts and his subsequent demise. Where is Beck today: fewer markets, almost no advertisers and the focus of endless petitions and protests.

Jay Leno is hardly even worth mentioning anymore. His name has become synonymous with backstabbing, low ratings and just bad comedy. Howard Stern, the granddaddy of French Bashing, has also turned on Leno: “He’s not fit to scrub David Letterman’s feet”

Dennis Miller still appears on Bill O’Reilly’s broadcast. The two notorious French Bashers rarely if ever mention France or the French anymore.

George W Bush is still considered politically radioactive by members of his own party and virtually irrelevant by most. Although his image has gradually improved since he left office, his presidency is still regarded as one of the worst in modern history. Bush is now reduced to taking swings at his former press secretary, Scott McClellan…

Condoleezza Rice still doesn’t regret the Iraq war but admits “the mistake…was to put a spotlight simply on the weapons of mass destruction”. Still no apology for her comments about “punishing France”.

Donald Rumsfeld wrote his memoirs and will be touring in early February. He probably won’t be touring outside of the United States…

• Still active in politics are:
  • Former representative Roy Blunt is now a Senator.
  • Jack Kingston is still a very active member of congress.
  • Peter T. King is currently serving in the House, reprensenting New York’s 3^rd district.
  • Walter Jones has since expressed regret for the “freedom fries” incident, and has become a vocal anti-war Republican.
• No longer in office:
  • Virginia “Ginny” Brown-Waite, retired from politics for health reasons.
  • Tom DeLay was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
  • Dennis Hastert left politics and resigned his seat in November 2007.
  • Bob Ney resigned after he pled guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.
  • Jim Saxton left politics in 2009.

Following yesterday’s meeting at the White House between American President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a wave of indignation has arisen in the United Kingdom over Obama’s latest remarks. By declaring France America’s greatest ally, not only are we lights years away from the days of French Bashing by the Bush / Cheney administration, the comments are likely to renew anti-French sentiment on the right of the American political spectrum.

More :

• President Obama Meets with President Sarkozy – WhiteHouse.gov
• British Reaction to Obama’s declaration
  • UK FURY AS PRESIDENT OBAMA COSIES UP TO FRANCE
  • France is our biggest ally, declares Obama: President’s blow to Special Relationship with Britain
  • America’s real special relationship

World soccer can whip up a nationalist frenzy like nothing else. This is also a time when French Bashing becomes popular in many circles; sports writers and commentators for instance. This year will be no exception if France qualifies for the next rounds. wins, loses or … does anything at all really.

A reminder of things past:

• In 2006, even in Canada, we had to contend with snide comments from George Stroumboulopoulous (who never apologized) and Bob Magee at CHFI (who apologized graciously).
• In 1998, France’s win against Brazil marked the beginning of a new wave of surrender jokes in America including Letterman’s Top Ten: “Top Ten Signs France Is Celebrating Their Soccer Victory: 8. Surrendering to Germany.”

We at Miquelon.org have dealt with both comedians and their forays into the world of French Bashing.

Conan O’Brien had been invited to Toronto in early 2004 and aired one of the most vile anti-Quebec and anti-French sketches ever. This comedian’s associate, Robert Smigel and his hand puppet Triumph, caused such a stir the issue was raised in Canada’s parliament.

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It’s Sunday, and some news comes over the wires about Sarkozy having a dizzy spell. Whatever. But you – Bridget Johnson – think you’re the funniest thing to ever hit About.com, so out comes the references to surrender jokes. Har dee har har.

I loathe thee.

Not so much for making fun of Sarkozy, he’s a public figure so he’s fair game, but for your utter disrespect for the most traumatic event in our history. Sure the headline is from the Onion (We know it’s satire – but why mention it? That’s the issue we have), but you think it is worthy of attention when discussing France’s Foreign Policy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Update (14 July 2011): Welcome to one of our most-tweeted articles. It seems everytime the French are mentioned anywhere in the media, legions of lemmings reach for their tweeting apparatus to make rather lame and pathetic “French Surrender” jokes. Be it Strauss-Kahn, Libya, Tennis, Bastille Day, Women’s Soccer.

Our original article from 2009: Pretty much everybody online fancies themselves a comedian; unfortunately most of us are and will remain wannabes. Now that “Eternal September” has hit twitter, legions of newbies clamoring for attention are using the micro-blogging platform to repeat, rehash and retweet their skewed and simplistic view of history and the world.

On average, about a dozen or so anti-French jabs are written on twitter per week, most of them being some form of “French Surrender” joke. While some are deliberately trying to be offensive, others are living proof there is a “long tail” to America’s recent spate of French Bashing.

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