Cheese-eating surrender monkeys
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys is a phrase used by Groundskeeper Willie.
Contents
History
Groundskeper Willie, due to budget cuts, was teaching French dressed in a striped shirt and a beret. He greeted the class with "Bonjourrr, yah cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys!".
Behind the Laughter
In other media
The French opposed the Iraq War. The New York Post and the Fox News Channel used this phrase commonly. On the car show Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson described a French car as 'surrender monkey'. On the quiz show QI, a contestant described the French as 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys', after being told that they find the British 'lazy'.
Creation
The term was coined by writers of The Simpsons in 1995. According to the DVD commentary the phrase was probably written by Ken Keeler.
The "surrender" part of the phrase refers to the Battle of France with the French virtually surrendering to Nazi Germany.
Changes
In the French version of the show, the line was changed to "singes mangeurs de fromage", which translates to "cheese-eating monkeys", without any reference to the word surrender.
