Arnold Zwicky's Blog

In today’s Wayno / Piraro Bizarro: croissants as a characteristically French pastry; then pulling out the ANTS part of the spelling CROISSANTS (never mind how this word is actually pronounced, in either French or English) for a far-fetched pun, with two ants — the insects — exemplifying characteristics of the stereotypical Frenchman (Wayno’s title is “The French Bugs”):

(#1) Breton striped shirts, or marinières; berets; a pungent cigarette in a cigarette holder for Ant 1; a mustache (curled at the tips), French scarf, glass of wine, and baguette for Ant 2 (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 2 in this strip — see this Page)

Previously on this blog. Two postings about stereotypical Frenchmen.

— from my 10/5/22 posting “Zhock jocks at play”:

(#2) Frenchified jocks

The stereotypical Frenchman. Bears little similarity to actual Frenchmen. On the list of stereotypical characteristics (which, of course, don’t hang together at all):

rude, heavy smoker, lazy and unshaven, with poor hygiene, accomplished lover, philanderer / horndog, heavy wine drinker, lover of good food, with a refined sense of style and artistry

From this list, visible in the cartoon guys: facial stubble in Guy2, Gauloises-style cigarette in Guy3, and for wine and food, red wine in Guy1, champagne in Guy2, and the baguette in Guy3 (missing on the food front: French cheeses, especially stinky ones, and frog’s legs and escargots).

Then the stereotypical French mustache, on all three men (curled at the tips in Guy1 and Guy3).

Stereotypical French apparel: Breton striped shirts, or marinières, in Guy1 and Guy3 (plus striped socks in Guy2); the French scarves for men in Guy1 and Guy3; the beret, the tricolor soccer shorts, and the Eiffel Tower-logo jacket in Guy2. That French beret in Guy2 stands against jockwear — the baseball cap — in Guy3 and, in Guy2, headgear whose import isn’t clear to me: a newsboy cap worn back-to-front.

— in my 10/18/22 posting “The stereotypical French hen”, a Xmas card using three French hens to embody Frenchman stereotypes:

(3)

Pungent cigarettes all around, a beret, a Breton striped shirt. And — surprise! — a garland of garlic, standing presumably for both body odor and fine gastronomy.

This entry was posted on August 21, 2023 at 9:18 am and is filed under French, Language and animals, Language and ethnicity, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Puns, Stereotyping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.