I am a big fan of trivia. In the US, my favorite television show is Jeopardy. Too cheap to pay for cable (aka Foxtel), here in Australia I must settle for a quiz show on public television called the Einstein Factor, a show in which the contestants get to choose their own personal, and often esoteric 'special subject'. In Round One, they have 90 seconds to answer 15 questions pertaining to Austin 7 Cars, The Films of Martin Scorcese, The reign of Peter the Great between 1683-1684, or Nick Drake. (If I go on, I'll pick Raiders of the Lost Ark...or Molecular Biology.)
The three contestants work in cooperation or competition with "The Brains Trust", three ostensibly educated and respected scholars. Now mind you, I have absolutely no problem with racial epithets in general, and certainly none when they are directed towards The French (or Canadians, or especially French Canadians), but I was mildly shocked to hear one of the scholars on last night's show employ the phrase currently serving as the title of this entry.
I mean, it's one thing if you are a politician, a cartoon character, or The New York Post, but it seemed completely out of place on an intelligent quiz show. And, the addition of the word 'creepy' to an otherwise popular phrase added a touch of malice that caused me provocation. However, I guess I was most startled because the word 'monkey' has been volleyed around the press recently, as a result of the heated and controversial month long (if not longer) cricket match between Australia and India, in which one of the visiting players called Andrew Symonds 'a monkey.' (sniggers withheld) This incident made me think of one of Howard Cosell's famous blunders.
How delicate and precise has our language become when a word may be freely applied to one race but not another? Certainly, monkey is not the only word that fits this context, but...oh, what is the point I want to make here...?? I guess I don't want to be startled by the use of such an innocuous word on television, and I certainly don't want to listen to it debated from hell and back on the sports segment of the morning news. Besides, you don't see The French pitching a fit about it.
But maybe that is because they are a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys...
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7 comments:
Did you know that there's a Wikipedia entry on this subject? You can blame the popularity of "The Simpsons" for its widespread adoption in English-speaking countries:
The phrase was first popularized in the Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield" (first aired on April 30, 1995). Groundskeeper Willie, the school janitor, an unkempt immigrant from Scotland, is teaching French due to budget cuts, dressed in a striped jumper and a beret. He greets the class with "Bonjourrrrr, yah cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys!"
If you read the post carefully, you might note a reference to a cartoon character and a link to a picture posted at Wikipedia. While it is not a secret that I am a fan of Wikipedia, this is one of those subjects which must be treated with caution as to the veracity and completeness of hte 'facts'.
'read'? 'carefully'
Feh. This is the wikipedia generation, after all.
55555, i dont understand.....
OK, Xin - you and I will have a little talk about World War II history. I suspect China has a whole different perspective on it than we do...of course, if it hadn't been for the US, you might be a Sushi Eating Surrender Monkey yourself!
Oo. This is the only way I refer to the French.
Is that a bad thing?
Oh, no...it's not bad. Perhaps I am still scarred from the abundance of political correctness in the states. I was just surprised to hear it on a supposedly intellectual game show.
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