ratetankmark
Samurai Cop
Equalist Lex Luthor
RIP Rik Mayall, you blimmen genius - Ria Vandervis on Rik Mayall
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Post by ratetankmark on Dec 26, 2013 5:45:31 GMT -5
People like Rene Dupree, La Resistance got subjected to jokes and insults about the French by people like The Rock in 2004, they were bombared with 'French are coward' jokes and even Jerry Lawler said that 'They'll probably surrender before the match starts' hell it even happened to Dupree on ECW when Styles was like 'Renee Dupree has already proven himself tougher than his fellow Frenchmen just by showing up to fight rather than surrendering before the first shot was fired.'
I hope to god that Sylvester LeFort and Marc Louis (the guy who had the amazing innuendo promo) don't get the same comments.
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Post by Super Nintenjoe KBD on Dec 26, 2013 5:51:09 GMT -5
Pretty much because WWE loves lowest common denominator stereotypes I'd say and to appeal to anti-French sentiment after the invasions. It does seem very harsh to me but I'm also European
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ratetankmark
Samurai Cop
Equalist Lex Luthor
RIP Rik Mayall, you blimmen genius - Ria Vandervis on Rik Mayall
Posts: 2,426
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Post by ratetankmark on Dec 26, 2013 5:53:32 GMT -5
Pretty much because WWE loves lowest common denominator stereotypes I'd say and to appeal to anti-French sentiment after the invasions. It does seem very harsh to me but I'm also European I'm a Brit and when an Englishman starts to defend the French you know something's up.
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Post by Cvslfc123 on Dec 26, 2013 6:08:51 GMT -5
maybe because a certain superstar who's name must not be mentioned had a French surname
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2013 6:12:32 GMT -5
It's just a running joke for Americans to make fun of the french.
Most don't even dislike them. It's like those "polish are dumb" jokes. Or people making jokes about gingers having no soul.
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Post by celticjobber on Dec 26, 2013 6:27:56 GMT -5
During the early days of the Iraq War, many Americans were upset at France's opposition to it.
It was to the point that some people suggested re-naming "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" (seriously...).
It's not really an issue now, so I doubt it would apply to any new French wrestlers. Though you never know with Vince McMahon involved...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2013 6:54:54 GMT -5
Yeah, anti french sentiment was at an all time high in the early days of the Iraq war. The French weren't down with it. WWE did a lot of...let's say they were more political than I like my wrestling shows. Like The Nowinski/Steiner debate.
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ratetankmark
Samurai Cop
Equalist Lex Luthor
RIP Rik Mayall, you blimmen genius - Ria Vandervis on Rik Mayall
Posts: 2,426
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Post by ratetankmark on Dec 26, 2013 7:10:44 GMT -5
Yeah, anti french sentiment was at an all time high in the early days of the Iraq war. The French weren't down with it. WWE did a lot of...let's say they were more political than I like my wrestling shows. Like The Nowinski/Steiner debate. I wanted to see Scott and Christopher team up as a stable of the most profound intellectuals in history, I mean you've got probably the most intelligent person not just in the WWE but in all of sports...and Christopher Nowinski.
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Post by Starshine on Dec 26, 2013 7:35:47 GMT -5
maybe because a certain superstar who's name must not be mentioned had a French surname What does Triple H have to do with this?
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Post by Some Guy on Dec 26, 2013 8:15:54 GMT -5
Like The Nowinski/Steiner debate. That was incredibly embarrassing and absolutely hilarious at the same time.
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Post by 2 Cold Scorkum on Dec 26, 2013 8:21:17 GMT -5
cheese eating surrender monkeys
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Post by EP 54 is banned from Collision on Dec 26, 2013 8:30:02 GMT -5
Because America has never won a war without the French helping them?
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Post by Can you afford to pay me, Gah on Dec 26, 2013 8:31:06 GMT -5
The WWE is pro support for the US troops. When the last war happened. The French was against the war. So the WWE start taking shoots at them because of that. The WWE supported the WWE move to go to war. The other question would be the hate on Canada. All baby faces knownly from Canada gets moved to a US area. The Heel from Canada are still from the Canada area. Even though they go there all the time I don't see the point or reason for it.
The same reason why they keep remaining them of the screw job for all those years until Bret came back.
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CMWaters
Ozymandius
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Post by CMWaters on Dec 26, 2013 8:33:45 GMT -5
"They dislike WHO now!?"
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2013 8:34:52 GMT -5
Pretty much because WWE loves lowest common denominator stereotypes I'd say and to appeal to anti-French sentiment after the invasions. It does seem very harsh to me but I'm also European I'm a Brit and when an Englishman starts to defend the French you know something's up. I'm no Englishman but in my life I've never had much trouble from anyone who is French, some nice friends stem from there. But then you get into the politics of poverty and art against the system in France and it gets a bit non-FANny. Plus they were right about British beef, the produce in the UK sucks and is frustratingly low quality sometimes. Reason why the WWE hate the French: {Spoiler}{Spoiler}Nobody ever says Italy.
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Post by The Beast Disincarnate on Dec 26, 2013 8:48:54 GMT -5
I've always seen Vince as a person who buys into all imaginable stereotypes that exist and finds all of them very funny.
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Post by EvenBaldobombHasAJob on Dec 26, 2013 10:14:31 GMT -5
at the time Xenophobia was very high and people had a bunch of mis-placed hatred for the French. and there's historical Xenophobia, too (the "Cheese-eating Surrender-monkeys" stereotype). quite honestly it's one of those things I wish people would just let go, especially since it isn't true in the slightest.
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Post by Sephiroth on Dec 26, 2013 10:41:41 GMT -5
During the early days of the Iraq War, many Americans were upset at France's opposition to it. It was to the point that some people suggested re-naming "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" (seriously...). It's not really an issue now, so I doubt it would apply to any new French wrestlers. Though you never know with Vince McMahon involved... This-plus the typical stereotypes mentioned in other posts. Delete this post if it becomes too political but here goes: in the psyche of American pop culture the French will never live down having been the only major European power to surrender to Nazi Germany during the second world war. When the former president of the United States was pitching his case for war in Iraq in 2003 the French were among the most outspoken in their opposition; this astonished many Americans because of how supportive the French had been following the 911 terror attacks, and it upset many Americas even more that France was siding with countries that many Americans typically see as enemies like Russia, China, and Syria in defense of Iraq, which was still under the thumb of Saddam Hussein at the time. I remember some people in New York even staged "anti-France" protests where they poured bottles of French wine down the sewers and the White House kitchen officially renamed french fries as "freedom fries" out of sheer spite. For my own part, I've actually long thought a French heel would be great, but not as a stereotypical, cowardly, effeminate snob-rather, as a disgruntled revolutionary who hates on everyone and everything. I think that would be a lot closer to the real image of a villainous France than the cartoon characters we typically imagine.
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ratetankmark
Samurai Cop
Equalist Lex Luthor
RIP Rik Mayall, you blimmen genius - Ria Vandervis on Rik Mayall
Posts: 2,426
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Post by ratetankmark on Dec 26, 2013 11:03:08 GMT -5
During the early days of the Iraq War, many Americans were upset at France's opposition to it. It was to the point that some people suggested re-naming "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" (seriously...). It's not really an issue now, so I doubt it would apply to any new French wrestlers. Though you never know with Vince McMahon involved... This-plus the typical stereotypes mentioned in other posts. Delete this post if it becomes too political but here goes: in the psyche of American pop culture the French will never live down having been the only major European power to surrender to Nazi Germany during the second world war. When the former president of the United States was pitching his case for war in Iraq in 2003 the French were among the most outspoken in their opposition; this astonished many Americans because of how supportive the French had been following the 911 terror attacks, and it upset many Americas even more that France was siding with countries that many Americans typically see as enemies like Russia, China, and Syria in defense of Iraq, which was still under the thumb of Saddam Hussein at the time. I remember some people in New York even staged "anti-France" protests where they poured bottles of French wine down the sewers and the White House kitchen officially renamed french fries as "freedom fries" out of sheer spite. For my own part, I've actually long thought a French heel would be great, but not as a stereotypical, cowardly, effeminate snob-rather, as a disgruntled revolutionary who hates on everyone and everything. I think that would be a lot closer to the real image of a villainous France than the cartoon characters we typically imagine. I like the idea of a pissed off French revolutionary, maybe he could wrestle in common workers clothes line with dirty jeans and a plain white shirt to show that he's just a working class punk who wants people to be hurt. I thought Dupree could've done something like that when said "It seems like you and the rest of these American rejects, have the mistaken perception that the French are nothing but cowards and sissies" maybe the on going anti-French sentiment could've sent Dupree over the edge or something like that.
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Post by Amazing Kitsune on Dec 26, 2013 11:06:11 GMT -5
Essentially there is a time-honored tradition of Americans simultaneously loving France and despising France. In many respects, we inherited a cultural dislike of the French from the British(Anglo-French problems go back centuries, needless to say)--even when we've been allies, we've always been quick to distrust them. As soon as the Revolutionary War ended, at the peace negotiations, we essentially buddy-buddied up with the Brits as soon as we could and kicked the French to the curb.
At the same time, we've always admired their perceived higher culture and artistic genius. The difference between how our Revolutions played out also fostered an intense amount of distrust early on in our relationship. The Terror horrified many people who were originally staunch Francophiles.
But America has always felt a bond with France because we do realize the role they played in us winning our Independence. One of the great rallying cries of the Great War was "Lafayette, we are here!" We were proud to help a country remain independent that first helped us achieve our independence.
Their quick defeat in World War II shattered the previously glowing image of the French as capable soldiers, quite unfairly. It became kind of a running joke after then that the French were more interested in effeminate things, like art, wine, philosophy, and cheese rather than actually "useful" things like military preparedness.
Then they got us into Vietnam, more or less.
And they got in our way during the Second Iraq War. That was not received very well. The Freedom Fries thing was a throwback to when we were at war with Germany and we changed the names of German things to more American sounding things (Sourkraut to Liberty Cabbage). It was also mostly done humorously and ironically, even by the people who were quite serious about it.
France is our sister nation. America loves France. We also like making fun of them via stereotypes. They return the favor with relish.
In professional wresting, it's always been easy to have evil foreigners. There is nothing particularly wrong with this--but it's not always done correctly.
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