OT: Let me ask our British posters a strange question

[Caradhras]

[QUOTE=WallShadow;22854]Caradhras:
The villain speaks the Queen's English because he is so cool and sophisticated compared to the slobbish 'Merican half-arsed do-gooders. But then the underdog Colonials turn the tables on the uppity ne'er-do-well by some quaint home-spun backwoods (or urban streetwise) trick!
("Why, that's just not cricket! It simply isn't _done_!")

QUOTE]


Hmm - I should really have thought about that theory - kind of a revisit to the War of Independence in Die Hard etc etc

[Targan]

I can mimic accents pretty well and I have less trouble than many of my friends and co-workers when trying to understand people with heavy accents or who are not native English speakers.

I consider myself to be quite well spoken (I have much better diction, pronunciation and a better vocabulary than most Australians) but I deliberately alter the way I talk depending on who I'm talking to. For instance I would naturally usually say to someone on the phone "to whom am I speaking please" but at work I usually dumb it down to "who am I talking to please" because it causes less confusion. Also, Australians (and especially working class Australians) tend to have "tall poppy syndrome" and don't react well to people if they think they are trying to put on airs and graces.

In any case I always try to be polite. Good manners are one of the tools we have to assist us in not having people wanting to kill each other all the time IMHO.

[WallShadow]

Hmm - I should really have thought about that theory - kind of a revisit to the War of Independence in Die Hard etc etc

You were reading my mind: I had John McLain firmly planted in my thoughts at that moment! Or the Dukes of Hazzard, or Sheriff Andy Taylor (Mayberry, North Carolina, police department, Andy Griffith Show). Just another way of reassuring the American viewing public that the average American Joe can outsmart or outfight any overeducated pretentious megavillain anyday!
Or, perhaps, from a BBC point of view, one gets a similar feeling from some of the later Blackadder series (Blackadder the Third, Blackadder goes Forth), where he, a lower-class character, constantly undermines the fatally flawed plans of his superiors, the Upperclass Twits-in-Command and their coat-tails-riding sycophantic toadies.

[headquarters]

BBC show Survivors 1975

You were reading my mind: I had John McLain firmly planted in my thoughts at that moment! Or the Dukes of Hazzard, or Sheriff Andy Taylor (Mayberry, North Carolina, police department, Andy Griffith Show). Just another way of reassuring the American viewing public that the average American Joe can outsmart or outfight any overeducated pretentious megavillain anyday!
Or, perhaps, from a BBC point of view, one gets a similar feeling from some of the later Blackadder series (Blackadder the Third, Blackadder goes Forth), where he, a lower-class character, constantly undermines the fatally flawed plans of his superiors, the Upperclass Twits-in-Command and their coat-tails-riding sycophantic toadies.

Dont know if anyone has seen it , the follow up from 2008 and 2009 is pretty good post apoc imho .
Anyways - the original has a lot of subtle class distinctions where the main characters are all :

"Good Lord!look at all these supplies ! I wonder from whence they came.."

and the "NPCs" are more "OI! Bluidy`ell!! those are our supplies those are ,innit!"

( A show where the proper pronounciation guys are constantly threatend by those who speak a local dialect or a more working class tone )

Just saying ,diction and proper English CAN mean that whomever you are speaking to might actually be a good guy.

[Raellus]

I tried watching Daybreakers last night and the first thing I noticed was that all of the supporting actors were trying to speak with an American accent. I believe that most of them were Australian. I wonder why they didn't just set the movie in Australia. It was really obvious to me and really distracting. Most of the actors gave a really stilted delivery. I wonder if they were trying so hard to mimic an American accent that they forgot about the meaning of and emotion behind their lines.

Anyway, I couldn't finish it. It had nothing to do with the accent thing. It was just a really poorly written, acted, and directed movie, IMO. The premise is interesting, but the execution was very poor.

I can fool most Americans into thinking I'm from somewhere in the Commonwealth. I wonder if my accent could fool a native, though. Probably not.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Works for me. Both shows were great. The 80's had the best shows ever.

True, also a tribute to NBC's success then was Brandon Tartikoff with hits like A-Team, Cosby Show and so on.

Chuck

P.S. - All three networks had good shows though, I think NBC's star was the brightest then.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

I'm with the "Hunter" > "Magnum PI" crowd, but I mostly watched "Hunter" because it was on Friday nights, right before "Miami Vice." My gang and I spent a lot of Friday nights gaming with those on the TV.

Until we got cable in the game room, and could watch MTV....

I also remember back then where NBC had "Friday Night Videos" (if your affiliate did not sign off for the night, remember that) and USA Network had "Night Flight" that showed videos and cartoon shorts from aspiring animators. I remember watching "Jack Mac and Radboy" on "Night Flight," they were sort of like a 1980's version of "Beavis and Butt-Head."

Chuck

[pmulcahy11b]

I also remember back then where NBC had "Friday Night Videos" (if your affiliate did not sign off for the night, remember that) and USA Network had "Night Flight" that showed videos and cartoon shorts from aspiring animators. I remember watching "Jack Mac and Radboy" on "Night Flight," they were sort of like a 1980's version of "Beavis and Butt-Head."

Chuck

I remember a show from way back when which, at the time, was better than Saturday Night Live -- it was called something like "Laff Tracks," or something like that.

[jester]

I remember all those shows.... what can I say, I was a late night junkie then. And of course SBC TV where I got my first glimpse of John Candy and a few other up and comming comics before they hit the mainstream, alas, they were still the red headed step child compared to it won't end ever Saturday Night Live....and how long has the audience said "Let them die already" About 20 years now!

[Abbott Shaull]

One of the strange things about living in University town and I will not use the word City (it would be over statement for Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan). Yeah, depending where you go in the US, each region may have it own dialect and their own accent. Yet, I have seen it while in the Army based at Fort Bragg and here in the UP of Michigan. Many people who move can and do adapt the local accent/dialect fairly easy, to the point where others who have transplanted too wouldn't be able to tell you were from else where originally.

Then again there is something in the New England accent, various New York ones, Mississippi, and Texans twang that are dead give aways, or certain open hospitality phrases that reminds one of the South. I know one person who I go to school who lived in New Mexico, you can barely tell he moved up here only 5 years ago, again his wife still has that Texan twang you pick up on.

One has to remember in the US lot of the local accent/dialect reflect the people who moved into the various regions once they came to the US and they added their accent to the local flavor as they and their following generations mingled with those already living in the area.

Just some thoughts.

[pmulcahy11b]

Also, depending upon your profession, you will build up jargon that will often stay with you the rest of your life. And depending upon what era you grew up in, you'll have slang from your childhood and teenage years that may stay with you as well. I actually like to confuse today's kids with some of my jargon from when I was their age; the look on their faces is precious!

[Nowhere Man 1966]

I remember a show from way back when which, at the time, was better than Saturday Night Live -- it was called something like "Laff Tracks," or something like that.

I think I remember that too, vaguely.

Chuck

[Nowhere Man 1966]

I remember all those shows.... what can I say, I was a late night junkie then. And of course SBC TV where I got my first glimpse of John Candy and a few other up and comming comics before they hit the mainstream, alas, they were still the red headed step child compared to it won't end ever Saturday Night Live....and how long has the audience said "Let them die already" About 20 years now!

I also remember when the networks would run late night movies, CBS comes to mind. During the summer, I sometimes watched them, they would run movies that were several years old like "Citizen's Band" (1977) and "Damnation Alley" (1977) and so on.

"Saturday Night Live," I miss the classic times, especially "The Coneheads" and "Mr. Bill."

Chuck

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Also, depending upon your profession, you will build up jargon that will often stay with you the rest of your life. And depending upon what era you grew up in, you'll have slang from your childhood and teenage years that may stay with you as well. I actually like to confuse today's kids with some of my jargon from when I was their age; the look on their faces is precious!

Yeah, I get funny looks when I would say "holy moly" a lot, I think I picked that up from the old kid's show "Shazam" that ran from 1974/77.

Chuck

[pmulcahy11b]

Does anyone remember "Creature Feature" from the early 1970s, or was that just a San Francisco thing They showed a double feature of monster movies, with weird intermissions that had short films like "The Happy Barbecue" -- a psychopathic barbecue roaming through the streets killing everyone by inflicting severe burns.