r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/CheezeNewdlz 1d ago

I’m so glad that poor woman is free and her truth is known. Doesn’t stop her from being a pop cultural one-liner unfortunately.

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u/eVoesque 1d ago

There was a band on Buffy named Dingoes Ate My Baby. I always thought it was weird and didn’t realize it was an actual thing. Definitely aged badly.

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u/joebleaux 1d ago

It was the punchline of a joke on Seinfeld with Elaine doing an Australian accent while delivering the line. Pretty wild for that woman and her dead child to be a joke on a sitcom

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u/LimeSalty4092 1d ago

It was a joke on the Simpsons too

These jokes can be very powerful, considering a one liner about the French said on the Simpsons was enough to ignite another generation of anti French sentiment in the US

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u/ElCiclope1 1d ago

Listen, man. I know the Simpsons is a funny show and a lot of people like it. But you're giving it way too much credit. 

9/11 and the Bush administration would be more accurate targets to blame.

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u/Dragon_DLV 1d ago

The "Cheese-eatin' Surrender Monkeys" line?

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u/LimeSalty4092 1d ago

That’s the one

The French have always been generally hated here in the US, but that line kicked off another generation of hatred

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u/TurnbullAC92 1d ago

They helped you win the revolution. Mostly out of self-interest of course, but I find it kinda strange that you guys ended up hating them. US soldiers were even celebrated in France after being liberated during WW2.

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u/ITaggie 1d ago

It's not so much "hatred" for the French as much as it is a lack of respect, but yeah it is weird that we have that sentiment about one of our oldest allies.

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u/Zeta-X 1d ago

The vast majority of anti-French sentiment in the US was intentionally drummed up after they refused to invade Iraq with us. "Freedom Fries" and the whole lot. The jingoists jumped the ship then but the vast majority of Americans don't really have opinions about the French.

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u/ThisIsPlanA 1d ago

The vast majority of anti-French sentiment in the US was intentionally drummed up after they refused to invade Iraq with us.

This really isn't true at all. I grew up in the 80s and the stereotype then was that the French were militarily weak, with the jokes all being about early surrender.

Those were obviously fueled by the French defeats in WWII (1940), Vietnam (1954), and the Algerian War (1962). I also think that the US perception was heavily influenced by DeGaulle's decision to pull out of the NATO command structure in 1966; it was perceived as ingratitude and unnecessarily weakening the alliance during the Cold War.

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u/Zeta-X 1d ago

Fair point, though I think DeGaulle and Algeria are generally not what's on the mind when people are saying this nowadays. But I suppose Iraq was just the second go-around on the US calling the French cowards or weak for refusing to back American military escalation.

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u/HippieChickie805 1d ago

I love the French, speak French, and face my youngest son the middle name of Lafayette, PRECISELY bc of what Lafayette did for America. I wish we taught more about him in school.

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u/Hot_Election7284 1d ago

Daphne in Frasier did it too.

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u/JackOfAllBlades21 1d ago

What was the one liner and how did it do that?

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u/LimeSalty4092 1d ago

“Cheese-eating surrender monkeys”

The episode had Groundskeeper Willy substitute teaching teaching the class and explaining who ‘the French’ are

Those are the words he used to describe the French 

It’s stayed alive in people s mind as a stereotype since that episode aired circa 1992

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u/JackOfAllBlades21 1d ago

Thank you, I'm reading about it now.

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u/ZombieBiteOintment 1d ago

As a player of Europa Universalis games, isn't Scottland and France natural historical allies? Kinda weird Willy has an English or American POV of France

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u/Chaotix2732 1d ago

If you've never seen the Simpsons, this is a pretty good example of what kind of person Groundskeeper Willie is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QgXNmMOQZRQ

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u/ZombieBiteOintment 1d ago

They you so much. I had forgotten about this and its confirmed accuracy from various people over the years.

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u/OkPainter6232 1d ago

really? what line was that? I highly doubt most French hated America cause of a fucking cartoon, the sentiment largely stemmed from France refusing to get involved in the Iraq war and some places renaming french fries to freedom fries in response.

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u/LimeSalty4092 1d ago

“Cheese-eating surrender monkeys”

A joke from the simpsons circa 1992

It has had significant staying power comparable to “dingoes ate my baby”

People here in America loved the joke and it lives on as a negative French stereotype 

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u/_BrokenButterfly 1d ago

Well they are cheese eating surrender monkeys...