# Self-deprecation, humor, and culture in Europe **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 28, 2013, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445 "2013-10-28T12:28:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/41 "2013-10-30T12:59:00Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > Just out of curiosity… Is the term ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’, a very well known phrase in France, or for that matter, anywhere else in Europe? 😕 Europeans don’t need Americans to show them how to insult the French. They’ve been doing that quite well on their own for centuries. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/42 "2013-10-30T13:22:15Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > Just out of curiosity… Is the term ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’, a very well known phrase in France, or for that matter, anywhere else in Europe? 😕 We know it in the UK, because we like to collect insults for the French. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/43 "2013-10-30T13:26:56Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Europeans don’t need Americans to show them how to insult the French. They’ve been doing that quite well on their own for centuries. Yeah, when you have a whole range of home-grown insults, some of which have been getting carefully and lovingly transmited from parents to children for centuries, there is no need to translate one which would sound like ass anyway (plus from out POV it makes very little sense - why would you insult someone whose cheeses are perfectly fine over their perfectly fine cheeses? What’s next, insulting the Germans over sausages, the Italians over pasta and the Colombians for their coffee?). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/44 "2013-10-30T13:36:11Z")
> [@Sorgine](#): > > Yeah, when you have a whole range of home-grown insults, some of which have been getting carefully and lovingly transmited from parents to children for centuries, there is no need to translate one which would sound like ass anyway (plus from out POV it makes very little sense - why would you insult someone whose cheeses are perfectly fine over their perfectly fine cheeses? What’s next, insulting the Germans over sausages, the Italians over pasta and the Colombians for their coffee?). The cheese eating part is merely for clarification of which surrender monkeys are being insulted. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/45 "2013-10-30T13:39:12Z")
Doesn’t make sense down here. I don’t even like cheese by local standards and my fridge currently contains two kinds of cheese spread, manchego, grated parmigiano and ronkari. The French eat cheese at the wrong time, but they don’t eat more cheese than we do. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/46 "2013-10-30T13:43:13Z")
> [@Sorgine](#): > > Doesn’t make sense down here. I don’t even like cheese by local standards and my fridge currently contains two kinds of cheese spread, manchego, grated parmigiano and ronkari. The French eat cheese at the wrong time, but they don’t eat more cheese than we do. I think it comes back to the French make a big deal about their cheese. What was the comment De Gaule said about trying to manage a country that as 200 different types of cheese? (I’m paraphrasing). That’s probably where it comes from. The ‘cheese eating’ bit also resonates with a British audience, and we are hardly lacking in cheese either. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/47 "2013-10-30T13:44:58Z")
> [@Sorgine](#): > > Doesn’t make sense down here. I don’t even like cheese by local standards and my fridge currently contains two kinds of cheese spread, manchego, grated parmigiano and ronkari. The French eat cheese at the wrong time, but they don’t eat more cheese than we do. I don’t where you are. Are you surrender monkeys? Anyway, this stuff isn’t about self-deprecation, it’s about French deprecation. In regards to self deprecation, Americans do it a lot about themselves, and our country, but not in comparison to other countries, because we are exceptional and clearly superior to all other countries. But internally we all consider the place to be a horrid mess and hate each other with a passion because anyone who disagrees with us is clearly wrong, and un-American. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/48 "2013-10-30T13:48:04Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I think my situation was a bit different… buying shorts is not the same as paying for cancer treatment. > > Do you have any examples with Nazis in them? 🙂 Don’t mention the war, as Basil would say. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/49 "2013-10-30T13:49:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t where you are. Are you surrender monkeys? Spain and it depends on how you look at it: most of the wars of the last 200 years have been among ourselves, so half the country would be surrender monkeys and the other half would be surrender-accepting monkeys, with which half is each varying with time. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445/50 "2013-10-30T14:18:18Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > Just out of curiosity… Is the term ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’, a very well known phrase in France, or for that matter, anywhere else in Europe? 😕 As far as I know, the French are blissfully unaware of this phrase 😃 . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-deprecation-humor-and-culture-in-europe/672445.md?page=2)