• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The revolution will be supervised.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

In my day, never was longer.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This really is a full service blog.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

A consequence of cucumbers

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / F*** France

F*** France

by John Cole|  June 5, 20038:24 pm| 9 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs

FacebookTweetEmail

In the words of my apolitical mother, “The French are really making it hard to like them, aren’t they.” That was her mild response to the outrageous behavior displayed by our frog friends during Serena William’s loss to Justine Henin-Hardenne:

However, I thought the crowd at times showed poor taste toward Serena. There were a couple of occasions when the linesperson didn’t call the ball out and Serena stopped in the middle of a point to circle the mark and the chair umpire confirmed that the ball was out. Serena was completely in the right, but the crowd reacted negatively toward her. After that, they proceeded to cheer when Serena would miss the first serve, which is completely inappropriate.

Completely inappropriate is also putting it mildly. Serena’s mother got it right:

Her mother, Oracene Price, was more blunt: “The crowd showed a lack of class and total ignorance – or they just don’t know tennis and the etiquette of tennis.”

Even Henin-Hardenne acknowledged that the crowd’s behavior “sometimes could be a little bit too much.”

The French suck. We simply have to face facts and move on.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Signs of Intelligent Life
Next Post: Paul Krugman, Hack »

Reader Interactions

9Comments

  1. 1.

    Courtney

    June 5, 2003 at 11:35 pm

    That’s so rude. I saw it on the news, and I couldn’t believe it! The French aren’t as high-brow as they to claim.

    At least one Frenchman has become an unsuccessful terrorist in Morocco:
    French Terrorist Suspect In Custody

  2. 2.

    M. Scott Eiland

    June 6, 2003 at 12:57 am

    I’m not a big fan of the Williams sisters (though I admit most of my distaste is due to the constant presence of their deeply obnoxious and bigoted father), and it’s a sign of how deeply obnoxious the French have become that I feel genuine anger on Serena’s behalf, although losing after winning four Grand Slam tournaments in a row is hardly tragic. Oh well–the French can enjoy their Belgian women’s champion, then look forward to spending a summer with very few American tourists to look down their noses at.

  3. 3.

    M. Scott Eiland

    June 6, 2003 at 1:01 am

    “At least one Frenchman has become an unsuccessful terrorist in Morocco:
    French Terrorist Suspect In Custody”

    One of the reasons that the recent “Godzilla” movie (with Matthew Broderick) was so entertaining was the inherent absurdity of one of its major premises–that the French Secret Service was the most competent spy agency in the world. You know, the guys who couldn’t even bomb a Greenpeace boat without getting caught? Those guys?

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    *wanders off, wiping tears out of eyes*

  4. 4.

    Eric Lindholm

    June 6, 2003 at 10:10 am

    Check out some of the things that Serena’s dad said to a French magazine before the match. You might be demonizing the wrong person(s).
    http://vikingpundit.blogspot.com/2003_06_01_vikingpundit_archive.html#95353153

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    June 6, 2003 at 10:17 am

    He has been an asshole for years- that does not excuse the way the French treated his dughter.

  6. 6.

    Terry

    June 6, 2003 at 10:44 am

    There’s a great line about the French (from P.J.O’Rourke, I think)that’s something along the lines of: “Did you ever wonder why the big, wide boulevards in Paris are always lined with tall trees? It’s because the French know that the Germans prefer to march in the shade.”

  7. 7.

    M. Scott Eiland

    June 6, 2003 at 2:34 pm

    Hey, if the French were to tie up Mr. Williams and toss him into a vat of cheese products, I’d certainly consider it a goodwill gesture. ]:-)

  8. 8.

    Eric Lindholm

    June 6, 2003 at 3:15 pm

    John, let’s reverse the situation. Say some Frenchy came to America for the U.S. Open and said “My daugh-tor will defeat all ze Americans!” Would you jeer at the girl if she lost?

    You bet your ass you would.

  9. 9.

    Courtney

    June 6, 2003 at 8:13 pm

    Eric, you’re right. Out of 270 million Americans, I’m sure there are a whole bunch of assholes who would jeer in that situation. Obviously, that makes what the spectators did okay.

    It’s cool, France, never mind! My bad.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Miss Bee on People Are Highly Overrated (May 28, 2023 @ 7:02pm)
  • zhena gogolia on Medium Cool – Vacations! (May 28, 2023 @ 7:02pm)
  • JoyceH on Open Thread: More Debt Ceiling Discussion (May 28, 2023 @ 6:57pm)
  • Jay on War for Ukraine Day 459: (Some of) You Have Questions, I (May) Have Answers (May 28, 2023 @ 6:56pm)
  • strange visitor (from another planet) on Open Thread: More Debt Ceiling Discussion (May 28, 2023 @ 6:55pm)

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Seattle Meetup on Sat 5/13 at 5pm!

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!