"Arfa Daily" ...

"Wickeddoll" ...
*snip*
However, if you think about it, American TV, and the American people, do
much the same to Brits, in reverse. I bet if you try to imagine a
British person, not having been here, and having only TV as a reference,
you come up with the very conservative stiff upper lip,
plum-in-the-mouth-newsreader-accent Basil Fawlty stereotype. And I'm
sure that many of us probably come across that way when we are in your
country. But if you asked those people about that, like you, they would
probably be horrified that you perceived them in such a way. I guess
that also, you are basing your view of our view of Americans, on TV
programmes that are often made to be, if not full-on comedies, then at
least amusing, and that is where another huge difference between us
comes in. These TV programmes often employ a 'lampooning' style of
humour, which appeals to Brits, so the 'archetypal' American that might
appear is deliberately 'blown up' into the brash, loud clown, for just
that purpose. Think Fawlty Towers - the Waldorf Salad episode.

Right, but even the dramas that have "American" characters seem to go
nuts with the stereotype at times. Such as "Dead Again" (terrible movie,
but Kenneth Branagh did an *excellent* American dialect - Emma Thompson
absolutely sucks at it - both there and in "Primary Colors") When
Branagh was the American character, he was much more aggressive, loutish;
absolutely no class. It was depressing. LOL

By the same token, British characters may also be overblown to the same
purpose. Again, think The Major or Basil himself, in Fawlty Towers.
Whilst such people do genuinely exist, they are actually a rarity, but
many Americans that I know, expect all British people to be like that,
because they have seen things like Fawlty Towers, and the similarly
archetypal 'Brit' that the American TV people put into their comedy
shows.

Does any of that make any sense at all ?

Arfa


Absolutely. As a black woman, I know all too well that the media in
general tends to overdo any archetype, but I haven't yet seen a subtle
American in a British production. Maybe I've missed some?

Natalie
Captain Jack in the latest Doctor Who's, and the spinoff Torchwood,
perhaps ? Know what you mean though. It seems that neither of us can get
it right. I too cringe when I see an American actor trying to do a British
accent, or worse a British dialect like east end London. When you consider
what a 'global' thing entertainment is, and how closely linked the
American and British film and TV industries are, you would think that they
could get it a bit more right, wouldn't you?

Well, the entertainment industry doesn't like to give its audience much
credit for brains, so they figure we're easily fooled. As for Americans
trying to be Brits, the only one who didn't make me gag was James Marsten on
"Buffy" - there was another faux Brit on that show, but I realized he was a
fake right away. (Alexis Denisof). Brits have said Marsten does a good job,
but mixes regional dialects. A Yank like me would never catch that :-) I
liked Renee Zellwiger's work with the accent too, but again, she probably
didn't get it just right. On the other hand, Drew Barrymore was downright
nauseatingly bad with the Brit accent in "Ever After" though it's still one
of my favorite flicks. I love Drew in just about everything else.

Perhaps, of course, we are looking at this from the wrong angle. Maybe, it
is more about expectations than reality. By that I mean that although
America is now the number one long haul holiday destination in the UK, I
still don't know many people besides myself, who go regularly, or even have
*ever* been there, so have no idea of the reality. I'm willing to bet that
the situation is similar there. So a pre-conceived idea of what an American
is like, has grown up here, and likewise, the same has happened over there
about Brits. The TV and film industries then just go ahead and feed those
notions.

Arfa


See what I wrote above :-)

Natalie