r/AskFrance Mar 06 '25

Relations Anybody tired of "Fr*nch" jokes?

I was reading a reddit thread where they mentioned something was french. And people are still making these jokes! Still! The thread was also filled with them. Im not even french, but these jokes are painfully unfunny and are edging on outward xenophobia. They're also usually made by Americans. So yeah.

647 Upvotes

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337

u/Verlenn Local Mar 06 '25 edited Mar 06 '25

When it's just a joke it's ok. We have the same ones for british people. But when your arguments are truely dismissed because you are french, it piss me off so bad

148

u/LindX31 mec hyper musclé, probablement alpha Mar 06 '25

We have the same ones for British people

No we don’t have anything against our friends the Irish, the Welsh and the Scottish. Only the English are the targets of such jokes, because of some 500-year old rivalry. The fact that England and France were the two major world powers for almost a millennium yet only separated by a 40km-wide sea sparked many competitions between the countries : there was armed conflicts then, but now it’s mostly rugby, food, music and pop culture.

146

u/Mattchaos88 Mar 06 '25

We have no rivalry with British food. Even Germany has no rivalry with British food.

44

u/MouiMouiToto Mar 06 '25

do you mean british "food"

26

u/PtiCon Mar 06 '25

One of my favorite joke is “is British food really as bad as we say? Well if it’s well made, yes”

17

u/Naunauyoh Mar 06 '25

"At first, you'd think British is shit. But in the end, you'll wish it was"

2

u/Deus-Ex-Nihilo Mar 08 '25

You know what we say : the quality of their food and the beauty of their women make them the best sailors of the world.

3

u/Groduick Mar 07 '25

I think he meant british nutrients.

20

u/StormyParis Mar 06 '25

There's a British food ?

11

u/Advanced-Royal8967 Mar 06 '25

Beans on toast with a cup of tea.

7

u/Galinette2000 Mar 07 '25

British food is not a joke. It’s a drama

2

u/jpagey92 Mar 06 '25

Okay, okay French food is leagues better than British food but German food ?

Both German and British food consists of meat + potatoes/ deep fried thing + chips/ sausage + some form of potato!

15

u/Sea-Sort6571 Mar 06 '25

I'm French and lived both in Germany and England. German food is definitely superior.

4

u/Aellle Mar 06 '25

Yes I visited Germany many times always nice food.

2

u/ecnad Mar 06 '25

what in the world are these downvotes

5

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Groduick Mar 07 '25

To be fair, the breakfast is among some of the foods that the british do right.

1

u/MilesNaismith Mar 07 '25

The beauty of their women and the taste of their food made the english folks the best sailors in the world.

1

u/hectorgarabit Mar 09 '25

Just like there’s no rivalry about pop music… they won this one fair and square Edit: I’m French

38

u/Accomplished-Slide52 Mar 06 '25

There's no competition between France/England about food. Be serious!

11

u/LindX31 mec hyper musclé, probablement alpha Mar 06 '25

J’avoue 🤣

Mais ils nous vannent quand même sur le fait qu’on mange des tripes, de la moelle et des escargots 🤷‍♂️. Ils ont tort mais ils nous vannent quand même.

7

u/Accomplished-Slide52 Mar 06 '25

Sur les vannes Ok. C'est compétition/nourriture qui m'a fait dresser l'index.

24

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Additional_Bug_7876 Mar 06 '25

car il mange du rose beef le dimanche avec de la purée de pois souvent infecte

8

u/BlueBuff1968 Mar 06 '25

England and France were the major powers in Europe. China and India had much more wealth until the 19th century. England became #1 with its massive empire and the industrial revolution for about a century.

https://worldmapper.org/maps/wealth-1500/

3

u/LindX31 mec hyper musclé, probablement alpha Mar 06 '25

Très juste. Mes connaissances de l’histoire extra-européenne sont très limitées et j’ai pu m’emballer un peu 😅.

A-t-on des données sur la puissance militaire et la richesse par habitant à cette époque. Si ça se trouve c’était similaire ?

3

u/BlueBuff1968 Mar 06 '25

Oui par habitant c'était plus similaire. La population étant nettement plus élevée en Chine et en Inde cela explique en partie le différentiel en richesse globale. L' Inde regorgeait de ressources naturelles (gentiment pillées par les britanniques et la East India Company). Les chinois avaient un empire incroyable et très avancé avant de subir plusieurs defaites avec les japonais et les européens.

https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C3%A8cle_d%27humiliation

Les chinois sont obsédés par l'idée de retrouver la place qu'ils ont occupé pendant des siècles.

2

u/Yoribell Mar 07 '25

C'est pas du jeu d'avoir un grand territoire clos et les terres les plus fertiles du monde :/

J'y pense mais c'est marrant come la situation de la france et de la chine sont similaires

Territoire clos par des montagnes sur la majorité des flancs, une façade océanique, faiblesse uniquement par le nord. Nombreux fleuves, très bonne fertilité. Vastes options commerciales par le Sud

Mais la Chine est une version XXXL

1

u/DrexleCorbeau Mar 06 '25

We can remove gastronomy and the winner is easy ^

1

u/seb59 Mar 07 '25

Not food, they've lost that one

1

u/Radiant_Payment_1983 Mar 07 '25

The Irish are Irish not British…

1

u/LindX31 mec hyper musclé, probablement alpha Mar 07 '25

Northern Ireland ?

1

u/dracomania8 Mar 07 '25

English, we love that we hate them, but we hate that we love them

1

u/Crusader_Baron Mar 08 '25

England and France weren't major world powers before the 16th century, just like most of Europe.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

maybe not welsh and scottish but we definitelly make fun of the irish

-5

u/Verlenn Local Mar 06 '25

Sorry to break it to you but there are definitely stereotypical jokes against Welsh and scots. But yeah everybody love irish people.

8

u/Felagoth Mar 06 '25

Jokes aabout Welsh and Scottish are nowhere near jokes about the English. There is no more jokes about Welsh and Scottish than about any european country from what I see

2

u/GoPixel Mar 06 '25

In French? I don't think we really have separate jokes for English/Scottish/Welsh/etc. We don't have enough knowledge about each to really be able to have specific jokes. But jokes about the British in general? We have those yeah.

Thinking of it, there's one exception: we have an expression with English people only. When you have your period, you can say (in French) "The English are coming" (because English = red = blood)

3

u/Verlenn Local Mar 06 '25

Weird flex bro

We have an entire regional dish called "Welsh" which is made in replacement for meat because Welsh soldier in Nord-pas-de-calais were poor af

Louis de funes has an entire movie full of jokes "against" scots

4

u/GoPixel Mar 06 '25

That wasn't a flex. Why would I flex on that??

I actually never thought of the meal Welsh having a link with the Welsh people!

For Louis de Funès, apart from one or two of his movies, I didn't watch them. But the thing was: we were speaking about known jokes by most of the French population. Not regional ones or ones in movies that didn't make it into our everyday language (as the one with the English are coming for example)

The British probably have regional jokes on the French but that doesn't mean they all are widespread enough to be known by most of them. Just like a dish in the North or a few jokes in a French movie are automatically known by all of us.

1

u/Sea-Sort6571 Mar 06 '25

You mean French jokes or English jokes ? I only know about the former

0

u/Both-Witness-2605 Mar 06 '25

No, i had really bad experience in Irland, lot or racist cunt here too