Worst Anglo-American accents ?

that Gavin out of Bush - horrible fake americanised vocals. That Swallow, Swallow - track was horrid.

Important parallel question: Americans "doing" Brit (esp. non-stiff- upper-lip Brit).

Warning: the IPQ very quickly turns into another Buffy sub-thread, if you;re not careful. (But the girl from "Manchester" in Frazier — and hey, she really *is* English — makes me want to throw things at my TV. And I wuv my TV...)

my rubbish theory: Americans less allergic to this crime, as accent- variation in US has (a) non-speedread relationship to class, and (b) US attitude to class is strategic and evasive and mutable, whereas UK ditto is [insert cliche here]

Important parallel question: Americans "doing" Brit (esp. non- stiff- upper-lip Brit).

Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins" is one of the classics of 'dodgy US cockney'.

But I can trump it: there's a (mid-40s?) Bugs Bunny cartoon in which William Shakespeare features, and *his* bogus Cockney is a SCREAM...

yeah has anyone seen the american Beatles cartoons, how the fuck could there've been anyone alive at that time who thought, Yeah that sounds sort of like how the Beatles talked?

I don't notice the Brits putting on an American accent too much; seems like most of them do a pretty good job. Even if they do it lousy, they could just be playing a character from Maine or some place. There are so many regional variations its hard to tell it someone gets it right (maybe that's true in the UK, too).

I was thinking of putting this in a separate thread, but maybe I'll just toss it in here:

Has anyone else noticed that many American ILM contributors write like Brits? I'm talking about things like ending sentences with ", then?" I've even caught myself doing it. Are British posters also swiping Americanisms(, then) ?

Nobody's mentioned rap. I reckon that you can hear FRENCH people putting on a dodgy American accent when they rap, and I don't even speak French.

yeah mark - it's real noticable how everyone here uses those english idioms. when yr here it's like this this little island of englishness in the the big mostly-american www. - i think someone was trying to get at this a while back who said something about "quaint" this & "englishness" that & lotsa british people were offended by such characterisations. which are pretty crass. all the americans who post here seem like real major anglophiles tho'. it's 'cause of the pop-as-opposed-to-rock bias, i suppose.

> I'm talking about things like ending sentences with ", then?"

I wasn't aware that that was an Anglicism. Seriously. I hear people tacking "then?" at the end of sentences all the time -- maybe that's a New York thing?

A serious question for the British posters -- when you hear an entertainer putting on a Cockney accent, to "ham it up" because they think dumb Americans will eat up that sort of thing, do you find it annoying or embarrassing? I know that I'd probably be pretty embarrassed if I was in London and saw someone from, say, Iowa putting on fake/hammy Brooklyn or Boston or Southern accent to sound more "American."

Enough with the New Yawkisms, already!

Wild Wild West, one of the most spectacularly horrible film crimes ever perpetuated on the cable-watching masses (no one saw it in theaters, did they? it's been looping cruelly on Skinemax for months now) includes an embarrassing rendition of some hee-hawin Southern redneck yahoo extremist from that most embarrassing Brit Kenneth Frickin Bran Muffin. If he ever winds up stuck on the side of the road in West Texas I hope he gets what's comin to him.

I'm pretty much truly trans-Atlantic - have spent probably equal amounts of time on both sides of the puddle. I don't know if that puts me in a unique position, but *both* assumed accents bother me equally. (This may be because I'm stuck with the worst nasal mid- Atlantic twang this side of Placebo - Americans think I'm British, the British think I'm American.)

Probably this has more to do with the lack of regional knowledge in the person doing the imitating- the British invariably end up sliding between the Deep South and Brooklyn mid-sentance (yes, even the trained ones, Ewan McGreggor, I'm looking at you) while the only "British" accents Americans seem to know are either the comedic Dick Van Dyke cock-er-ny (only yanks could learn an English accent from another yank) or some sub-Beatles Liverpuddlian.

Adopting any accent that isn't your own is a fairly risky operation.

Worst offenders:

Brit - American: the Jesus and Mary Chain. Especially during gigs, when the songs are sung in a sort of Detroit drawl that degenerates to inpenetrable a-heet a-hoort Glaswegian.

American - Brit: Dr. Anton A. Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Absolutely pricelessly hysterical.

"Kenneth Frickin Bran Muffin" is hated in the UK also. No ear, no rhythm, no discernible.... — yet monumental self-confidence.

But what's the verdict on Gary Oldman? (In Hannibal? Or — same character, more or less — in The Candidate?)

On the whole, I enjoy it when Americans do, er, "regional" UK accents. Tommy Lee Jones as an IRA-man (I forget the movie) was standout wonky idiocy, and Scottie in Star Trek is of course the Heart of Celtic Soul itself. Drusilla in Buffy was lazy and tiresome — but Spike in Buffy (tho not always very EXACT) is often very witty, and works hard at finding obscure and amusing little oddities.

What I hate hate hate is ex-pat Brits playing up long-dead David Nivenisms: Roger Rees in Cheers was throughout the 80s the evil warlord of this crap tendency. And Jane Leaves (?) in Frazier, as noted.

Gary Oldman?

State of Grace.

Say no more...

Brad Pitt in Snatch: obviously I'm not going to ever *watch* this movie, but several art-traitors of my acquaintance who have, and who claimed — in order to piss me off — that they quite liked it, said his East-End (or was it Irish?) Gangster was inspired (not least because totally incomprehensible).

Wot mateym ya mean Spike isn't a limey? He does some good research then, although maybe his lament that Man U. are a good thing in life really gave it away, didn't it? ;)

Mine's pretty bad. It doesn't sound Anglo-American *at all*.

Good things in Spike's, er, "life" (whatever): hurting people, killing people, drinking blood, Man.U.

There, you've made me make a f**tb*ll joke. Jeeez.

Whoah, Mark knows every Buffy episode by heart! Respect. Yes, in that order it makes sense. Very clever (of course why did I doubt the mighty whatshisnamewhowritesBuffy)

Maryann - I don't know if that's what you meant, but I'm picturing some French guy rapping with the accent of an American trying to speak french, and that's pretty freaking funny.

easy. me imitating my girlfriend.

my 'eart 'urts.....and my 'ead is a killa', let's go back to 'otel...

Is she from Bolton?

Hm...my girlfriend's Scottish, and attempts to reproduce her accent have failed miserably. I therefore only try sparingly. ;-) As others have noted -- Robin once had some things to say! -- I pepper my conversation with various terms more well known in the UK rather than here, but if I'm going to grow up reading and watching everything from Paddington books to episodes of _Blackadder_, what would you expect?

viva!

Lord knows where "Viva!" comes from but I'm delighted to say it's not Britain.

Las Vegas, I think...

Is it one of those words that hobbits and faeries use? Viva! Huzzah! etc...

Speaking of accents, I do not sound like Britney from Big Brother. Damn it.

Dear lord, you people. If you *must* know, I picked that up from my good friend and coworker Lisa Payne -- very American, not inclined to SCA activities -- who uses it here and there in e-mail as a random note of happiness (though the intent can often be sarcastic). I liked it so I used it -- A GENERAL APPROACH YOU ARE ALL GUILTY OF, though you admit it not.

oh, i wasn't asserting that ned got that word from britain. it just seemed so right at that point, like "you go, girl!" but in nedspeak.

and nicole you don't sound animated enough to be brittany. but you do sound very midwestern; unlike dan who is also from the region.

Actually, I'd almost be more inclined to use "You go, girl!" in general. Or at least I would have back in 1991 or so.

and nicole you don't sound animated enough to be brittany. but you do sound very midwestern; unlike dan who is also from the region.

That is so bastard-like. That is even worse than what you said before. I really think there is a bias at work here, but I probably shouldn't go down that road.

Ned, how can you suggest I swipe phrases from people? Blimey, don't be such a cockfarmer.

cheerio!

I'm assuming you mean your brain could fit inside the hole of a cheerio.

No, more like that's what his head will look like after you've punched a hole straight through it.

No. I do not think so. If people really do want to be prejuidiced and rude, it's not worth my time.

Children, why are we fighting?

Sorry, got a bit Robin and the english countryside all of a sudden.

Can someone start a new thread please? Every single one seems to have turned into one-liner hell (or heaven if you like that kind of thing....)

I know what you mean, Tom. I think I used up all my paragraph writing powers explaining myself on that stupid 'conversational monologues' thread.

But I'm 'wallyed' (did Bob Monkhouse invent that?) from starting a new thread, having had my one for the day. Maybe I'll revive an old one.

Has "midwestern" become an insult, or am I just stepping in the middle of someone's inside joke ?

How is midwestern *not* an insult, rich quebecois boy?

So did you revive one, Nick?

I don't think the ILM Yanks sound like us at all. Where I'm coming from, I think their stuff looks like Yank stuff.

For a moment I was going to say 'And all their points of cultural reference are different from ours'. Then I realized that that was true of the UK contributors too.

I have read on these pages how American actors attempt at British accents tend to grate on the nerves. This is true but, as they only ever attempt to mimic what we term as either 'Cockney' or 'Estuary' (generally south England, London....ish) English, we may never have the pleasure of an American murdering a Northern British accent like Birmingham or Newcastle. Their Scotish accents are pretty awful too (Groundskeeper Willy (yes..I know its meant to be bad)) James Doohan (Scottie). British accents are notoriously difficult to do (for non- Brits) but I must say that Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 'Spike' (James Marsters) has developed an excellent understated Londoner's accent. By the way, I am British too (Duh!)

Tracy Ullman does the most believable accents of any Brit I've ever heard--and not just a couple, many. Mick Jagger, on the other hand...

American here. Midwestern, hence accent-less! (Ask any news broadcaster.)

I always thought groundskeeper willie's accent was alright. I think it's bad only to the extent that Americans have to be able to actually understand it.

LISA: "That's right Dad. We were all in on it." WILLIE: "Willie wasnae!"
WIGGUM: "I don't care if you was or wasnae. You're still going to jail."