History Main / FrenchJerk

* Michel Gerard of GilmoreGirls is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

This is more of a {{Characterization Trope|s}}, unlike, say, EagleLand or CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys.

* [[{{Irony}} Ironically enough]], this is how ''Parisians'' are perceived by most other French. Seems everybody needs somebody else to [[HypocriticalHumor snub for being snobs]]...

** he lampshades this in ''Hover Car Racer'' when after having trouble with a famous french racer whos is despised by every person outside of France and another less famous french racer the main character asks "is every French person in this sport evil?"
* [[HarryPotter Fleur Delacour]] has a little of this trope when she's first introduced.

* Antoine the coyote from [[SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM]] who was quite rude to Sonic.

** Sam endured the taunts of a self-aggrandizing Frenchman until said Frenchman insulted America. Sam then challenged the Frenchman to see who could collect the most phone numbers from women in the bar. When, out of guilt, Sam opted not to get the phone numbers of the two nice women who would have put his total over the top and thereby lost the contest, the Frenchman cheered, "I win! I win! ''France wins!!''.

* Michel on ''GilmoreGirls'' embodied this trope, without the reconciliation part.

* [[HarryPotter Fleur Delacoeur]] has a little of this trope when she's first introduced.

* Detective Giraud in the AgathaChristie novel ''Murder on the Links''. He gets [[HumiliationConga throughoutly humiliated]] in the end by [[strike: fellow Frenchman]] Belgian HerculePoirot.

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[[superscript:1]] -- 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 [[CapitalCity Capital Cities]] of the world.

[[superscript:1]] Except that's not even slightly true to be a worthy "explanation"? At all? Check your stats: [[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_principales_villes_francophones#Liste_des_principales_villes_francophones_dans_le_monde Marseille (1,350,000), Lyon (1,800,000), Lille (1,200,000), Toulouse (1,100,000), Bordeaux (1,050,000)]].

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 [[CapitalCity Capital Cities]] of the world.

It certainly doesn't help that due to 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 [[CapitalCity Capital Cities]] of the world.

* In TerryGilliam's ''Movie/TheBrothersGrimm'' these are plentiful, the film taking place in French-occupied Germany. (Now there's a thought [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys to chew on]].)

Additionally, prior to WorldWarOne, the history of English-French 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]].

* The French Knight in ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.

* In Terry Gilliam's ''Brothers Grimm'' these are plentiful, the film taking place in French-occupied Germany. (Now there's a thought [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys to chew on]].)

** he lampshades this in Hover Car Racer when after having trouble with a famous french racer whos is despised by every person outside of France and another less famous french racer the main character asks "is every French person in this sport evil?"

* One episode of TheInbetweeners featured Simon's French exchange partner, Patrice. He was surly and uncommunicative to everyone except [[spoiler:Will's love interest Charlotte, whom he slept with instead]]

** Pretty much every (male) French character in Shakespeare, for that matter, though the trope is averted in ''All's Well that Ends Well'' and ''Love's Labour's Lost'' where nearly all the characters are at least nominally French, and possibly subverted in ''KingLear,'' in which the King of France is impressed by Cordelia's honesty and marries her despite her recent disinheritance.

* Jean-Paul "JP" Arsenault from the ''SSX'' video game series. Self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-serving, and arrogant, JP has a gigantic but fragile ego and is easily unnerved by any hint of disrespect towards himself; Basically, he puts on a JerkassFacade to hide his severe insecurity. But that doesn't mean he isn't still a jerk; His ''SSX Blur'' profile still lists his "trait" as "Arrogant.

-->'''The Spy:''' ''Thank you my hard hatted friend

* Remy, from the ''StreetFighterIII'' series. Though, his Jerk attitude might stem from him being a nihilist, not necessarily French.

* Averted in TheBoys, in which the Frenchman is probably the nicest, friendliest, most genial guy in the entire series. Of course, he'll crush your skull if you make him mad, but still, by the standards of an Ennis story, stand-up guy.

** In France, he's seen as a hero. Not only did he fight back the Nazis and led one half of La Resistance (the other half being communist), but after the war was won, he managed to make France seen as part of the Allies (despite the fact that she officially fought most of the war on the Axis side), was one seen as one of the powers, when the initial plan was to make it an occupied territory under US military direction, like Germany and Japan. This make him seen as someone who saved French independence two times in a row.

** Napolean said, "I have made two mistakes with Talleyrand - first, I did not take his good advice, and second, [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim I did not have him hanged when I did not follow his ideas]]." Quite true, but it was too late by then. Sorry Boney.

*** Of course, the plans of at least two of the Big Four (United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, Russia) boiled down to "divide the spoils[[hottip:* :read: Saxony and Poland]] in [[HeWhoFightsMonsters true Napoleonic fashion]]." Talleyrand simply had the gall to act like his nation hadn't been crushed by the Allied powers just half a year before, and to rub everyones' noses in it as long as it suited him to keep Saxony alive, France intact, and the alliance shattered. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jerk With A Heart of Gold-Plated Tin]], at least? From his beration above:

* Comedically subverted in ''Talladega Nights'' in the character of Jean Girard - Ricky Bobby ''reacts'' to him as if he were a stereotypical FrenchJerk, but Girard is actually a pretty nice guy in an apparently well-adjusted, loving relationship. It's subverted particularly hard at the film's climax, in which [[spoiler:Ricky Bobby consummates Girard's status as a WorthyOpponent with a [[FoeYay very, very, VERY long kiss]].]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Maurice_de_Talleyrand Tallyrand]]. Among his lesser flaws he was a verbal bully. He was of course powerful enough deter retaliatory insults, and [[DeadpanSnarker clever]] enough to make really good insults, to unfortunate courtiers. Add to that he was unbelieveably corrupt, and switched factions without a hint of regret.

* The Marquis de Singe from ''TalesOfMonkeyIsland''.

*** Of course, the plans of at least two of the Big Four (United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, Russia) boiled down to "divide the spoils[[hottip:* :read: Saxony and Poland]] in true Napoleonic fashion." Talleyrand simply had the gall to act like his nation hadn't been crushed by the Allied powers just half a year before, and to rub everyones' noses in it as long as it suited him. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jerk With A Heart of Gold-Plated Tin]], at least? From his beration above:

** Napolean said, "[[WhyDontYouJustShootHim I should have shot him."]] Quite true, but it was to late by then. Sorry Boney.

--> ''I am Giselle - the French Beetch!''