History Analysis / FrenchJerk

Like any stereotype, bears some relationship to reality (namely, what Americans think the French think of Americans) while being mostly wrong (''actual'' French thoughts on Americans are more along the lines of "[[StepfordSmiler constantly-grinning workaholics]] who are chronically stiffed on vacation; how and why do they put up with that?"). One possible root in reality is because French ''etiquette'' is more formal and polite than American manners, which are more laidback, and as a result, French people might sometimes be perceived by Americans as arrogant and uptight. French humor does tend to be dark, but France itself (and fellow French) comes in for just as much ribbing as any other target.

It certainly doesn't help that due to UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}'s worldwide prominence and the fact that French cities are so incredibly small in comparison (French cities haven't been evenly developed historically, so much so that Paris is the only city with more than two million people not counting its extended perimeter), France is often seen as a LandOfOneCity whose inhabitants happen to be hurried and businesslike, in a similar way to New York, for the simple reason of being in one of the capital cities of the world. Actually, Parisians themselves are often disliked by the other French who think of them as the quintessential haughty French Jerks with a superiority complex (the word "province", dating back to the pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution Revolution]] Ancient Régime, is often pejoratively used by Parisians to summarize France as "Paris and the province"), just as certain Americans hate New Yorkers or other big city dwellers.

It certainly doesn't help that due to UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}'s worldwide prominence and the fact that French cities are so incredibly small in comparison -- so much that Paris is the only city with more than two million people not counting its extended perimeter -- France is often seen as a LandOfOneCity whose inhabitants happen to be hurried and businesslike, in a similar way to New York, for the simple reason of being in one of the capital cities of the world. Actually, Parisians themselves are often disliked by the other French who think of them as the quintessential haughty French Jerks with a superiority complex (the word "province", dating back to the pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution Revolution]] Ancient Régime, is often pejoratively used by Parisians to summarize France as "Paris and the province"), just as certain Americans hate New Yorkers or other big city dwellers.

It certainly doesn't help that due to [[GayParee Paris's]] worldwide prominence and the fact that French cities are so incredibly small in comparison -- so much that Paris is literally one of the ''two'' cities with more than two million people -- France is often seen as a LandOfOneCity whose inhabitants happen to be hurried and businesslike, in a similar way to New York, for the simple reason of being in one of the capital cities of the world. Actually, the Parisians are often disliked by the other French who think of them as the quintessential French Jerk, just as certain Americans hate New Yorkers or other big city dwellers.

It certainly doesn't help that due to [[GayParee Paris's]] worldwide prominence and the fact that French cities are so incredibly small in comparison -- so much that Paris is literally the ''only'' city with more than one million people -- France is often seen as a LandOfOneCity whose inhabitants happen to be hurried and businesslike, in a similar way to New York, for the simple reason of being in one of the capital cities of the world. Actually, the Parisians are often disliked by the other French who think of them as the quintessential French Jerk, just as certain Americans hate New Yorkers or other big city dwellers.

There's also a very negative view of French tourists in any service industry, who are viewed as overly stingy (especially to service personnel who expect or live on tips- in fact, in France and many other European countries, it isn't customary to tip, because services is almost always included in the price) and overly cold and uptight.

There's also a very negative view of French tourists in any service industry, who are viewed as overly stingy (especially to service personnel who expect or live on tips- in fact, in France and many other European countries, it isn't customary to tip, because services is almost always included in the price) and overly cold and uptight.

Additionally, prior to UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, the history of English-French relations (and to a ''slightly'' lesser degree, but lasting up to UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, French-German relations) can be summed up as a thousand years of trying to conquer each other, either through royal marriage or warfare, and this coloured a lot of English language fiction [[OlderThanSteam long before Hollywood]] (note that there's a fair number of British examples on this page as well). And the U.S.A. has a curious relationship with France as well -- after all, both countries have fought democratic revolutions in roughly the same time, but went different roads afterwards.