 In the episode , budget cuts at Springfield Elementary School force the janitor Groundskeeper Willie to be used as a French teacher . Expressing his disdain for the French , he exclaims to his class : " Bonjour , you cheese @-@ eatin ' surrender monkeys . " The quote , particularly the phrase " cheese @-@ eating surrender monkeys " , has since entered wider use . It was used particularly in the run @-@ up to the war in Iraq , having been popularized by the conservative National Review journalist Jonah Goldberg , to describe European and especially French opposition to military action . A piece in The Guardian noted that the phrase was " made acceptable in official diplomatic channels around the globe " . Ben Macintyre has written that the phrase is " perhaps the most famous " of the show 's coinages and since Goldberg 's usage it " has gone on to become a journalistic cliché . " 
