Hi,
For the life of me, never could I guess what the witty one meant saying what he said. Could you…?
“I don’t have to ‘freedom-kiss’ my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her.” Woody Allen
This is a reference to 2003, when two knuckleheads in Washington (in the House of Representatives) decided we might need a new law that banned the use of the word ‘French’ from names of foods such as ‘French fries’ and ‘French toast’. They proposed replacing the word 'French" with the word ‘freedom’. (Apparently the idea actually began with a few restaurant owners, though.) At that time, France had refused to back the US decision to invade Iraq, so this banning of the word ‘French’ was supposed to express disapproval of that, I suppose… The use of ‘freedom fries’ rather than ‘French fries’ was seen as being ridiculous by most people, and most people just ignored the idea, but it did make headlines here.
Anyway, that’s the reference in the sentence you posted. The term ‘French kiss’ has been used in English for as long as I can remember, and ‘freedom kiss’ is just another example of the ridiculous 2003 idea of replacing the word ‘French’ with the word ‘freedom’ in English expressions. So, your sentence basically pokes fun at that.
Thanks a lot for the exhaustive reply (I stumbled across ‘freedom fries’ in the press, but ‘freedom kiss’ is something breaking new ground).
I wonder if you find the following remark suitable here but hopefully, you won’t deny it’s hit bullseye.
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named ‘Bush’, ‘Dick’, and ‘Colon.’ Need I say more?”