At least to British people. I see this on Monty Python, (and Benny Hill) and it seems to be shorthand to say someone is French because they are wearing the thin, horizontally striped shirt.
What gives?
That is the shirt. But usually, you see someone dressed in black pants, with one of those shirts, (black and white) and they are smoking, that means they are French.
WAG would be that it’s a “continental” look and the Pythons added the mustache, beret and accent to make it specifically “French.”
You need a load of garlic hanging around the neck, a beret, moustache and a bicycle with a wicker basket on the front for the authentic look.
Do mimes perhaps play a part in the stereotype?
I thought garlic was the trademark foodstuff of Italians (IAAI-A, btw). For the French look, there should be a overly long baguette protruding form the basket. Paging Dr. Freud…
Uh, Eve? Could you explain where the term “Apache dancer” came from? I clicked on the link and saw the couple dressed as Apache dancers, but they just looked like they were French. I always thought that Apache dancers were Native Americans performing a traditional dance. Obviously, I’m wrong and am now eager to shed my ignorance.
Not just any mime, the King of Mimes, Marcel Marceau originated that familiar costume in 1947 for his alter-ego “Bip”.
“Apache” was used to refer to French street gangs in the 1900s (link.)
A typical Apache dance might act out a fight between two lovers, blow by blow.
I remember Shields and Yarnell* doing a bit like that. I knew, somehow, that the dancers were supposed to be French.
(most embarrsing admission on the dope yet)
Not garlic, onions. What you’re describing is the classic archetypal french onion seller. Here’s one.
The simple answer to the OP is that striped shirt, beret, etc was at one time a common outfit for a Frenchman, in particular the Bretons who came over here selling onions, and were therefore the Frenchmen that most people were most familiar with in person.
WotNot is correct. The striped shirt and beret was traditional attire in Britony. It was quite common, at least in south eastern England when I was young, for Breton onion sellers to travel around on bikes covered in strings of onions, plying their trade door-to-door. I think I last saw one in the early 70’s.
Don’t forget that white face paint and the hat…always brings to mind mimes, which brings to mind…French.
Oops…spoke too soon. 
Ni, too late.
That’s No :smack:
Would you like a shrubbery?
Well, googling for French painting of guys in their undershirts yeilds a paucity of stripes:
Manet: http://www.villagehatshop.com/media/art-manet-boating.jpg
Seurat: http://members.aol.com/zacarious1/Seurat.jpg
Renoir: http://www.sunyniagara.cc.ny.us/homepags/Knechtel/renoir.jpg
Wait - paydirt:
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/d/images/differ_picasso.JPG
http://www.peterfetterman.com/images/artists/doisneau/picasso_sm.jpg
So maybe the French sterotype is due to a single Spaniard.
Don’t forget the Breton flag. Obviously black & white horizontal stripes = Breton. (Curious to know which was first, the shirts or the flag…)
Several months ago in a thread which dealt with the mutual intelligibility of certain European languages, there was at least one link to an article in a British paper profiling some Bretons who continue to sell onions via bicycle in England & Wales to this day.
I’m astounded by the economics of this. Surely onions grow in Britain… right? Are these special onions? Do they cost so much more than domestic onions that the trip across the Channel is at least self-financing? Is there such a glut in the French onion market that export becomes necessary? All a big mystery to me…