cheese-eating surrender monkey

Coined by Ken Keeler in 1995, for the television series The Simpsons.

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cheese-eating surrender monkey (plural cheese-eating surrender monkeys)

1. (slang, derogatory, humorous, rare) A French person.
   • 1995 April 30, “'Round Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 22, spoken by Groundskeeper Willie (voice) (Dan Castellaneta):

     Bonjour, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys!

   • 2003 April 12, Alexander Chancellor, “Europe still matters”, in The Guardian‎:

     In turn, we British may feel disillusioned with what's left of the special relationship, increasingly out of sympathy with American attitudes, and rather more in sympathy with the cheese-eating surrender monkeys and their friends across the Channel.

   • 2005, Stephen Chan, Out of Evil: New International Politics and Old Doctrines of War‎, →ISBN, page 134:

     IN PRAISE OF CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS OR WASHINGTON FUNDAMENTALISTS VS PARISIAN MONKEYS

   • 2005, Julie Powell, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen‎, →ISBN, page 178:

     It's all about the “French Paradox,” that much-publicized puzzle of how French people eat all that fatty food and drink tons of wine, yet still manage to be svelte and sophisticated, not to mention cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

   • 2008, Sara Paretsky, Bleeding Kansas‎, →ISBN, page 170:

     Maybe it's their French blood. If it is, we sure don't need cheese-eating surrender monkeys in the Kaw River Valley!

   • 2006 July 5, Timothy Garton Ash, “Between cheese-eating surrender monkeys and fire-eating war junkies”, in The Guardian‎, retrieved 2021-05-31:

     We've lived with terrorism for years, and we know you can lick it, especially if we don't overreact and make unnecessary sacrifices of liberty in the name of security - for freedom is its own best defence. Between cheese-eating surrender monkeys and fire-eating war junkies, we look for a middle way.

   • [2009, Douglas Coupland, Generation A, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 16:

     Groundskeeper Willie called us cheese-eating surrender monkeys: he almost had it right. But it isn't just the French—as a species we are all cheese-eating surrender monkeys.]

• cheese monkey
• surrender monkey