Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys - Other Uses

Other Uses

An article in The Guardian noted that Goldberg's use of the phrase during the time before the Iraq War made it "acceptable in official diplomatic channels around the globe", and Slate's Chris Suellentrop commented in January 2003 that Goldberg made "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" the "rallying cry of Francophobes everywhere" in the time that led to the war in Iraq. Laurie Morrow of the National Review wrote on May 7, 2003 that "there’s not a third-grader left who hasn’t heard and repeated this phrase these past months. Thanks to the war with Iraq, Americans have finally found an appropriate means of regarding the French — as the butt of a joke."

The term has been used in books by commentator Laura Ingraham, and academics Stuart Croft, Stephen Chan, and Paul L. Moorcraft and Philip M. Taylor. Ned Sherrin included the quote in the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations; it was introduced in the third edition in 2005. It is also included in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Douglas Coupland's 2009 novel Generation A refers to Groundskeeper Willie's use of the phrase. The phrase was also quoted on a regular basis over many years by Australian satirists John Doyle and Greig Pickhaver in their comedy personae as sporting commentators Roy Slaven and HG Nelson

On BBC 2's Top Gear, British television presenter Jeremy Clarkson described the French Renault Clio V6 as a "surrender monkey" in terms of handling at its limits. In December 2005, the phrase was used by British United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nigel Farage who said the French President Jacques Chirac was "...no cheese-eating surrender monkey, he", in an unflattering comparison to Tony Blair during a session of the European Parliament following Blair's brokering of the EU budget deal.