Discussion Main / PatrioticFervor

I think Doonesbury might fall into the "Patriotism is Bad" category, at least as far as characters like Uncle Duke and B.D. might be concerned.

The difference in US and UK perceptions of apparent Patriotic * Fervor is the reason why Captain Britain is pretty much unheard of in his 'home' country, considered equal parts sad and hilarious when people know he exists. This is why Patriotic Fervour wasn't a trope in Britain until recently.

• Well, when the traditional symbol of your country (John Bull) is a grumpy, pompous old fat man, I can understand why he wouldn't be depicted often.

Okay, I personally found that to be funny. However, I got the feeling that not everyone shares my sense of humor, (or has an even better sense of humor), so if anyone feels the least bit offended, let me know.

Cut the entire Real Life section, less for offending against the Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment than for being one giant tangent on renaming foods and other things:

• Two Words: Freedom fries. The world will never let America live this down.
  • Some people will tell you that "New York style" (AKA "Philadelphia" AKA "American") ice cream falls under this, but they'd be wrong—it's actually a different type of ice cream as opposed to the French custard-style.
  • Don't forget about people buying Chinese-made window flags and sticking them on their SUVs during the start of The War On Terror to show their "patriotism."
  • Along with Freedom fries was "Freedom toast," which is hilarious because it was originally known in America as German toast - they changed the name to French toast during World War I because they didn't like the Germans and wanted to support our French allies.
• Left out of the history books: World War One was a big example of this trope from many countries.
  • From the United States: Sauerkraut became Liberty cabbage, and frankfurters became hot dogs. They tried switching "hamburger" to "Liberty steak" as well, but it just didn't take.
    • German measles got renamed into Liberty measles.
    • Dachshunds were renamed Liberty Dogs. Some people still went out of their way to kick them on sight. The German Spitz also became the American Eskimo Dog. (Other German dog breeds, as well as others hailing from German-allied countries, didn't get this treatment.)
  • At least Canadians would never go so far as to rename an entire city out of Patriotic Fervor, right? ... Oh, wait.
  • Don't forget the Russians! Saint Petersburg had been the capital city of Russia since 1732 when they decided it was too German sounding and renamed it Petrograd in 1914. Then in more Patriotic Fervor, they renamed it again to Leningrad in 1924. Then they finally had a vote in 1991 and it got back to the name Peter the Great had given it.
    • Technically, the renaming to Leningrad was an act of revolutionary fervor rather than patriotic, but the line between the two was already beginning to blur by that time.
  • The French renamed many foods that shared a name with Austria-Hungary or its territories and cities; for example, Café Viennois (Coffee from Vienna, the Austrian capital) became Café Liégeois (Coffee from Liege). They tried changing Eau de Cologne to Eau de Provence, but it didn't catch on.
  • The British trump every other country at the Name Change of Patriotic Fervor game of World War One; not only did they pull their own version of the "Liberty hound" and renamed the German Shepherd into the Alsatian, but they also renamed German biscuits into Empire biscuits. Out of all the name changes, the biggest one of all one came by decree of King George V, when the royal family changed their own surname and house name to remove any relation to Germany.
  • There was a story about a German officer entering a sweet shop in Berlin and telling the shopkeeper to stop calling his confectionary "bon-bons" because it was a French word. The shopkeeper's answer was supposedly, "Don't call yourself 'General', sir. It's a French word."
• During World War Two, some French chefs tried to rename Vichyssoise to Creme Gauloise because of their hatred for the Vichy government.
• The Spanish had their run of this after the Spanish Civil War; foods with names referencing Russia were whitewashed with national or imperial names. For example, filete ruso (Russian Beef) got turned into filete imperial, and ensaladilla rusa (Russian Salad) got turned into ensaladilla nacional.
  • In an inversion, that salad that much of the world refers to as the "Russian Salad" is known as Salade Olivier in Russia, after the French chef who invented it while working in Russia.
• Given their bitter rivalry, Greece and Turkey are known to do this to foods referencing one another. For example: after the 1974 Cyprus crisis, the Greeks renamed Turkish coffee (Turkikos kafes) to Greek coffee (Ellinikos kafes).