Dictionary

cheese-eating surrender monkey en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Coined by American television writer and producer Ken Keeler in 1995, for the television series The Simpsons. Derived from the stereotype of the French being quick to surrender and the fact that cheese is a delicacy in France.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, humorous, slang) A French person.
   • IN PRAISE OF CHEESE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS OR WASHINGTON FUNDAMENTALISTS VS PARISIAN MONKEYS 2005, Stephen Chan, Out of Evil: New International Politics and Old Doctrines of War, →ISBN, page 134:
   • Maybe it's their French blood. If it is, we sure don't need cheese-eating surrender monkeys in the Kaw River Valley! 2008, Sara Paretsky, Bleeding Kansas, →ISBN, page 170:
   • 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. 2006 July 5, Timothy Garton Ash, “Between cheese-eating surrender monkeys and fire-eating war junkies”, in The Guardian, retrieved 31 May 2021:
   • But despite their seemingly rampant Anglophilia, there are still some things the French miss—a good steak tartare, for instance, or the chance to cheer on their rugby team without being shouted down as ‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’. 2008 March 23, Elizabeth Day, “The great French love affair with la vie anglaise”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
   • Bonjour, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys! 1995 April 30, “'Round Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 22, spoken by Groundskeeper Willie (Dan Castellaneta):
   • 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. [2009, Douglas Coupland, Generation A, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 16:
   • 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. 2005, Julie Powell, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, →ISBN, page 178:
   • 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. 2003 April 12, Alexander Chancellor, “Europe still matters”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Deriveds

cheese monkey · surrender monkey

Relateds

cheese eater

Synonyms

surrender monkey · cheese monkey

wikipedia: The Simpsons