History Main / CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys

* ''Website/TheOnion's'' book ''Literature/OurDumb Century'' discusses the French in its UsefulNotes/WorldWarII articles: They surrender after a "Valiant Ten-Minute Struggle," then after Pearl Harbor, then again after Nagasaki.

* ''Website/TheOnion's'' book "Our Dumb Century" discusses the French in its UsefulNotes/WorldWarII articles: They surrender after a "Valiant Ten-Minute Struggle," then after Pearl Harbor, then again after Nagasaki.

Generally speaking, the ''concept'' that contributes to the perception of this trope was how swiftly France was overrun by German forces in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (an occurence that shocked the whole world at the time, including German high command, because even though France was not seen as a match for Germany, it was still considered a formidable military power that would at least hold out for longer than it did), and from the 1940s to the 1970s were subject to several disasters in their military campaigns, losing large colonial wars in Indochina (to a ''much'' weaker force than the Americans faced years later) and Algeria, as well as being strong-armed into withdrawing from Egypt. Of course, the truth is always more complicated. Historically, France has been the prominent battleground of just about every major European war, and they lost more men in combat during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI than any other nation except Russia and Germany, while being the strongest Allied army for most of it. And then, of course, there's the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period -- from the 1790s to 1815, France became a military powerhouse, culminating in the French Empire, under a certain UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, controlling a large swathe of Western Europe and turning Germany, Italy, and Spain into client states, requiring ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_and_Napoleonic_Wars everyone else in Europe]]'' to team up to have a chance of beating them. As for the losses of France's colonial possessions in the post-war period, the British suffered the near-total disintegration of its own empire in the same period (notably losing India in 1947 and control over the Suez Canal in 1956) in what was in reality a global trend toward decolonization. The idea of France always surrendering might be NewerThanTheyThink, perhaps only beginning with [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten how quick they surrendered to Nazi Germany]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

Generally speaking, the ''concept'' that contributes to the perception of this trope was how swiftly France was overrun by German forces in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and from the 1940s to the 1970s were subject to several disasters in their military campaigns, losing large colonial wars in Indochina (to a ''much'' weaker force than the Americans faced years later) and Algeria, as well as being strong-armed into withdrawing from Egypt. Of course, the truth is always more complicated. Historically, France has been the prominent battleground of just about every major European war, and they lost more men in combat during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI than any other nation except Russia and Germany, while being the strongest Allied army for most of it. And then, of course, there's the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period -- from the 1790s to 1815, France became a military powerhouse, culminating in the French Empire, under a certain UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, controlling a large swathe of Western Europe and turning Germany, Italy, and Spain into client states, requiring ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_and_Napoleonic_Wars everyone else in Europe]]'' to team up to have a chance of beating them. The idea of France always surrendering might even be NewerThanTheyThink, perhaps only beginning with [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten how quick they surrendered to Nazi Germany]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* In ''Anime/VoltesV'', [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien The]] [[AristocratsAreEvil Boazanian]] [[TheEmpire Empire]][[note]]Nicknamed "[[JustForFun/InSpace Space]] UsefulNotes/{{France}}" by fans[[/note]] is a FantasyCounterpartCulture to UsefulNotes/{{France}} and the most advanced planet in the entire universe, being aeons ahead of humans in terms of sciences, warfare, technology and education. They are also ruthless in war, colonizing many planets so that they can turn their local populations into slaves, and their [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Crown]] [[EvilPrince Prince]] is a BloodKnight in [[PeltsOfTheBarbarian mink]] who subjugates humans to extreme cruelty. In spite of their frilly dresses and {{Guyliner}}, the Boazanians are NOT a joke.

--->''[[spoiler: Samara]] had been told this particular breed of human — a Frenchman — tended to cave in under threat of violence,so she attempted to threaten him into letting her through. What [[spoiler:Samara]] didn't know was that Robert St-Germain, before getting involved in the restaurant business, was a member of the Foreign Legion, having served in the Algerian Wastes and Huffman island, and was neither impressed with her threats nor her tasteless cleavage (facts that he was more than happy to inform her about).''

It is unknown when exactly this stereotype first arose. France was UsefulNotes/{{England}}'s, and later the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom's, oldest and most frequent enemy, which certainly contributed to a negative view of the French in general in the Anglosphere from the Middle Ages onwards. The term itself was coined by writer Ken Keeler on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in 1995. This trope is also so widespread because it jibes with that ''other'' major negative stereotype Anglophones have about the French -- that they're [[UnfortunateImplications effeminate]].

* Pointed out in Creator/WarrenEllis' ''ComicBook/{{Crecy}}'' that the French at the time were the BadassArmy and the English were this trope (speculated to be parsnip eating surrender monkeys). This comic is about The Heavily Outnumbered English Army giving France one of the most one-sided {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s in History (guess who lost). With AnnoyingArrows (annoying as they kill the fuck out of so many [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail silly French kniggits]] that they eliminate the ''concept'' of knighthood).

* In ''{{Comicbook/Fables}}'', the Big Bad Wolf talks smack about the French:

* ''Film/ThePatriot'': Technically inverted with Major Jean Villeneuve (a composite character representing, among others, the UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette) fighting alongside the Americans (interestingly he shares a last name with the French admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, who lost the Battle of Trafalgar, although this may not have been intentional). That being said, the revolutionaries bemoan the lack of French assistance throughout the film, though French forces show up with the very end of the film and help them win the Battle of Yorktown.

* ''Fanfic/OriginStory'': After a diplomatic incident involving the illegal arrest of a French ambassador (namely, a Ben Grimm that absolutely refused to be part of the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and moved to France, and upon his return to the U.S. had his diplomatic immunity disregarded by SHIELD and thus was put in jail for being an unregistered super), President UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush specifically points out that while they might joke about how the French are weak sisters, everyone knows that the ''truth'' is that a war between France and the United States would most likely end up in a PyrrhicVictory for the US. It's also noted that, for all the snideness, French martial prowess is so widely respected that most of the words in the English language relating to warfare and military matters are in fact borrowed from French.