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Robert Whiting,
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
In his carry on.

"You
Have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting
Admitted that he had been to France
Previously.

"Then
You should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible.
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"

The American senior
Gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
Quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
To show a passport to."

Uh, where are you going with this?

The French are pricks? The Americans are boastful?


Neither of these things are news.

Why do French tanks have a forward gear?

In case the enemy sneaks up from behind.

Relapse wrote:Robert Whiting,
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
In his carry on.

"You
Have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
Sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting
Admitted that he had been to France
Previously.

"Then
You should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said,
"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible.
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"

The American senior
Gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
Quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
To show a passport to."

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn. Nice bit of jingoism always sends me off to a peaceful sleep.

Only the Brits get to bash the French. That's our birth right (see what I did there)

Albatross wrote:

The French are pricks? The Americans are boastful?


Neither of these things are news.

And yet I never get tired of it.

I lol'd.

I lol'd. Good joke.

I already know how this thread is going to go.

Us yanks are going to do what yanks do, the Tommy's are going to make snide comments about yanks being yanks, a yank will make a joke along the lines of saying the US bailed the UK out in the 40's and kicked their asses in the revolutionary war, and are still bitter about it. We'll fight about it for a page or so, also bringing in who has better beer, or better teeth, or healthcare... At this point the thread will probably be locked, or we will realize that both our nations largely enjoy terrible television programming, and become once again united.

Endova wrote:the US bailed the UK out in the 40's

France.

Endova wrote:and kicked their asses in the revolutionary war

France again.

There were 130,000 Free French forces involved in the liberation of France, many of them black soldiers from the French colonies in Africa. At de Gaulle's request, it was French troops that led the advance into Paris (although Eisenhower allowed this only on condition that no black soldiers be seen in this advance - the 2nd armoured was chosen as it was the only French unit that could maintain operational effectiveness while hiding it's black troops... history is messed up).

With the liberation of France their fighting strength grew, there were more than a million French troops in Germany at the end of the war.

US troops, along with British, French, Polish and other troops, did a great thing in liberating France, and full credit to every soldier that served and risked his life to save France from Nazi rule. It's a shame that subsequent generations try to use those achievements in jingoistic crap.

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Why? Its just spreading hate isnt it?

Hey maybe we wanted to argue with those guys from across the pond for a page or two! Now we cant because you ruined it you..........you..........you...ruiner!

Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

LunaHound wrote:One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

It's not. It's stupid, it's ignorant, and it's factually wrong, which *gets out the checklist* hey, meets all the requirements to identify Relapse as a racist douchebag.

Shuma wrote:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

Yeah, I noticed that - I thought it would be mean to point it out though. I can see you have no fething qualms, though!


@Everyone else - It's not racism, calm down. It's Jingoism - you could say it was Nationalism, I guess. At a push. But racism? Nah.

It wasn't very nice, anyway.

You can be both stupid, and ignorant without being a racist.

In other news, the OP was a joke. I found it funny for what I imagine are reason other than those intended, but I did find it funny. Picture an old American man wearing a hat yelling at a French maitre d' dressed up in a customs uniform, and you have what I thought of first.

ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

Dammit so did I. I hate being let down on a thread that might have been worth reading

ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?

Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?

LunaHound wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?

Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?

You asked a question then rather accurately answered it for yourself.

The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.

dogma wrote:The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.

While i do understand that , some how i feel if this was a french board and not american , or the situation was reversed , the joke would not be as funny -_-

dogma wrote:The answer being: different forms of intolerance are treated differently. I could rant about the obvious inferiority of oranges, and how we should exterminate them so that apples won't be dragged down by their dead weight. I very much doubt that I would be banned, unless someone thought I was being allegorical. Certain subjects simply don't carry the same implicit stigma.

But.. but I like oranges .


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ShumaGorath wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:Clicked expecting to see a news story about airline harassment. Left annoyed that relapse has started copy pasting his spam mail again.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One thing i dont understand , how are things like what OP post any different than racism?

Sure its not hate towards a race , but towards a country , for something that happens decades ago?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

Hm? my point was . If it was a racial intolerance he would be perma banned off dakka already im sure.
But the same intolerance moved onto a different subject is ok?

Thats what i meant by "why is it any different"
Im sure you knew thats what i meant shuma , right?

You asked a question then rather accurately answered it for yourself.

Aggh, you edited before i submit and I didn't notice. Dogma answered in my stead.

Jingoistic, idiot racist, no nothing cono, who is to tell? Maybe he's english? or from suffolk?

It's just a dang joke, no hate at all in this thread except the hate people breath into it. It's like this joke:

An american couple was visiting the site of the D-Day invasion and were trying to find where their father had landed on D-Day. Without any clues they found an elderly british gentleman and asked him where Utah beach was. The elderly man responded by saying "60 years and you yanks still can't find the right beach."

Yeah, you seem to have a problem with the whole critical thinking thing, or else you would have an inkling that the two 'jokes' are nothing alike.

The first one is entirely dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys,' sterotype, and the whole point is, 'oh ho ho, watch me put those snooty bitches in their place.'

Your joke? has no stereotypes in it at all, denigrates no one, with the punch line entirely based on being a historical reference that part of the invasion ended up in the wrong place. If you can't tell the difference between the two... well, then I don't know what to say, except that ignorance is a choice.

how many people does it take to bring down two towers?
(it's just a dang joke...)

I got that in a forwarded email titled "you could've heard a pin drop'.

Here's another part of the email;

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

I'm part French and thought this was hilarious.

Of course you are.

So I guess the official putting the old douchebag in his place by mentioning that the reason no one was there to greet him was because the resistance was off committing thousands of acts of sabotage just got cut off?

Or were you just being willfully ignorant because it's perfectly fine to say 'all X suck!' when X is a country and not a race?

Jesus people need to calm down a little. It's just a joke. Can't we all just laugh about it or at least let it slide instead of freaking out about "HURR ARROGANCE/IGNORANCE STFU!!!!" That's the point. It's a joke. I bet anything if this was a joke about how Americans are stupid/fat/etc everyone would be laughing their asses off. So let's all just relax and take this for what it is: a joke (even if it's not terribly funny)

Bookwrack wrote:Yeah, you seem to have a problem with the whole critical thinking thing, or else you would have an inkling that the two 'jokes' are nothing alike.

The first one is entirely dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys,' sterotype, and the whole point is, 'oh ho ho, watch me put those snooty bitches in their place.'

Your joke? has no stereotypes in it at all, denigrates no one, with the punch line entirely based on being a historical reference that part of the invasion ended up in the wrong place. If you can't tell the difference between the two... well, then I don't know what to say, except that ignorance is a choice.

Or you could say that it was because the french weren't defending the beach heads during the invasion(IIRC it was mainly the germans who had invaded France and built the defences), or because you simply want to agree with the somewhat bigger majority who say it is a bit hateful.

There were no stereotypes in the first joke, no mention of the french surrendering. It's not, as you say, "dependent on the 'French are cowardly surrender monkeys'" stereotype, it's also dependent on history as is the joke I posted afterwards. Both jokes are about old men having fun with the younger generation.

So let's recap. The elderly man reported that there weren't any french people to show his passport to, this is partly due to the fact that the only people he would've seen would be British, American, Canadian, Norwegian, or German. The French Resistance was actively involved, but not at the beach head itself so he may have seen them later on. Now, at the moment he set his foot onto the beach he had entered German occupied France, this was his first time entering France.
Now, the customs officer, who we can guess is younger than the elderly man, was in shock when he heard that this man had entered the country without a passport before(the whole new airport security thing making it so). The elderly man thought it would be clever to mention that his first time visiting was during the D-Day invasion.

Again bookwrack, you lose at the internets. GTFO and take your fail with you.


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I also doubt that the French Resistance would've bothered to check their passports anyways. Just get over yourself man.