It's a really old pre-20th century class warfare thing that kind bled over into the 20th century. Potatoes were viewed as the foodstuff of the poor and common folk, not fit for consumption by the upper class.
It's a really old pre-20th century class warfare thing that kind bled over into the 20th century. Potatoes were viewed as the foodstuff of the poor and common folk, not fit for consumption by the upper class.
That, and Germans were (and still are to some extent) stereotyped for eating potatoes all the time.
That, and Germans were (and still are to some extent) stereotyped for eating potatoes all the time.
Much the same as 'Kraut', 'Limey', and for French-speakers, 'Rosbif'. There's a long history of insulting nicknames based on food going through the ages.
Uhm well, I think you are all reading too much into it. As I remember it, Japaneses use "imo" and the likes to call plain people (mostly girls) and to some extent, ugly people (also mostly girls). I don't know if the artist means as far as you guys are saying but yeah, just leaving an opinion, which, Paracite might confirm or deny later for he should know it better than I do.
Much the same as 'Kraut', 'Limey', and for French-speakers, 'Rosbif'. There's a long history of insulting nicknames based on food going through the ages.
French used:
"Boche", "Schleu", "Fritz", "Frisé" (Frizzhead, and I suspect it's actually derivated from Fritz) for Germans. "Rosbif" for English "Gominé" (slicked-back hair), "Macaroni" for Italians "Chorizo" for Spaniards
and the list go on. and I believe they have even more. That's just what I remember.
Boche meant something like Tête de Bois (a piece in a game similar to bowling), aka Woodhead in litteral translation.
The german tool manufacturer Bosch actually used this piece of french slang to its advantage to advertise its product, with great success. A friend of mine, back in highschool, wrote a wordplay on the Bosch's french advertisement tagline in an essay about the Shoah, "Boche un travail de pro" (Boche, work of a professional) that is taken from mentioned tagline, just substituting Bosch for Boche. Needless to say that the history teacher scolded him. The Shoah, and France's unfortunate role in it, being still a very sensitive subject.
Paracite said: Much the same as 'Kraut', 'Limey', and for French-speakers, 'Rosbif'. There's a long history of insulting nicknames based on food going through the ages.
Except that Italians had never used "potato" as an insult. There is "mangiapatate" (potato-eater), but this is still kind of lame, more a journalistic-literary invention than an insult really used historically. The insulting Italian nickname for the Germans is "Crucco"-"Crucchi" (or "crucca", since Bismarck is a female), from the Slovenian and Croatian "kruh" (bread), that's what the IWW prisoners of the Austrian Army asked for.
Don't waste your breath!It's not a fake illness!ONI!MEDICINEDEMON!May Blues is a disease!5 MINUTES LEFT!I see - for a foreign ship, this is quite the punishment indeed...As punishment - SEIZA, 20 MINUTES!My, that's unexpectedly nice of her.PATATA!PotatoARGHHHH!
MY LEEEEEGS!ARGHHRGHGHH!No such disease exists!!Gyaaaaa!キューちゃん (Kyuu-chan; "Raven" in English)Seems that you lot are in dire need of chastisement!
おキュー = お灸 (o-kyuu; moxa cautery); also part of the idomatic expression お灸を据える 'to rake over the coals/chastise'
