Why do we use frogs to make fun of the French?
 

I don't know if this is the appropriate forum to ask this question. But it seems most fitting to me.

I've seen a couple of The Simpsons episodes where the animators make the French looks like frogs when they laugh (one of the Halloween special and when Lisa went to the identical school of hers but it was called "West (or East) Springfield Elementary, she walks into the French class and realized it was the wrong school, then the class laughs at her, the teacher interupts then and said "a las francois" or something like that, and all the students change their laughing tone to french like). Or associate them with frogs. We have a class discussion a couple days ago and one thing leads to another we talked about this subject and the teacher don't even know. Can any one tell me?

Thank You :icare:

Froggy is a dorogotory name for the french. Not sure where it came from
Maybe because they eat frog legs?

I think it's because frog legs are a french delicacy. No biggie there.

Well, I guess a majority of America still abhors the French, so by illustrating them as frogs, we percieve them as ugly, slimy creatures who consume insects and other grotesque things in grotesque manners. They speak nonsense in ugly voice, and are smelly. I guess it's a more subtle version of "freedom fries" and pouring french wine down the drains. Maybe not. ::shrugs::

Americans are quick to forget who helped them out in their War of Independence...

It's a very old name for the French, used by the British for ages...


I assume that this refers to the frog leg thing...

I found this on google with the search term "Why call French frogs?":
http://experts.about.com/q/3155/2022765.htm

This answer doesn't seem to be the right one to me though so I looked further. ;) *shrugs*

Another site, but with a bunch of different possibilities.
http://allaboutfrogs.org/weird/general/frenchfrogs.html

Here's one:
Whatever the origin, it's another of the derogatory terms we seem to take great pleasure in using. :(

Limey comes from the fact that when your ancestors crossed over from the U.K They had to eat limes to prevent jaundice, hence limeys.

The word POSH comes from these times also. Portside Out and Starboard side In, for travel on a boat,


I do not feel they are offensive terms ' forg' etc as there is much worse you can call them.

Oh yes the frogs helped liberate your country from who ? the native Americans.


;)

No, Americans have not forgot. The general feeling though is we paid you back in WWI, and you still owe us for WWII.

How accurate WWI is can be disputed as far as army size goes, but the flood of the sudden free supplies could not be disputed.

Scurvy, actually.

Interesting theories about the frog legs and the Parisian swamps. I always assumed that it was the similarity of the words themselves that gave rise to the epithet. The initial "fr", the general length of the word, etc.

BS, who saved their asses in WW2? In more recent history, who fucking keeps putting their thumb in our eyes when we need something from them? Denying airspace and fighting against upholding 1331 was a load, fuck them.

Ultimately the Soviets ? After all 88% of Nazi casualties were caused by them.

Oh goody, yet another thread jacked into a French bash...yippee:rolleyes:

This is what I found:
FROG – “a Frenchman, was common in England by 1870 but became well known in the U.S. only during World War I. It is probably from the French relishing frogs as a delicacy, reinforced by the toads on the coat of arms of the city of Paris.”

I never quite understood it, but no one should eat frog legs...how sad is that!!!

Thanks for your inputs guys. Now I have something to say in class :D

They are delicious! I've been FOOLed into eating it...and I was glad that they did it. Looks alot like chicken, almost same texture and taste. Yummy!

Yeah, they are like chicken wings, the meat is softer and the skin is a little tougher, but they are definately good.

Now are they worth how much they cost? for a plate of 8 you can get 30 regular chicken wings... I think you all know which I'd choose.

All animal food is filthy. I'm not a vegetarian, I just accept that and it doesn't make what I eat any less tasty. Frogs are no more disgusting than eggs or milk are. An egg is something a chicken craps out, and milk comes out of a cow's nipple. Why would eating frogs, snails, worms, spiders etc. be more repulsive than eating chickens?

And none of that matters, really, when you think of all the bacteria that are crawling over everything you eat. Now THOSE small guys are repulsive.

most people that make fun of the french just do it cuz others are doing it.. they usually dont know why the fuck they are making fun of the french in the first place.. that shit pisses me off