American things

1. biscuits & gravy
2. rodeo
3. smores or smore’s or smore(s)
4. “a super bowl”
5. stoops
6. speakeasy
7. “high school prom”
8. cheese in a can
9. dr pepper

smore

wtf?

Steely Dan
The Beat Generation

10. "democracy"
11. mac 'n cheese
12. sherrifs

It's s'mores and it's short for some more.

13. those varsity jackets with a big letter on the front
14. propeller beanie hats

15. grits

16. Shriners

https://s.hswstatic.com/gif/shriners-little-cars-1200x800.jpg

monster trucks

bison
bass fishing tournaments
Yellowstone Park

Looney Tunes cartoons

22. tipping

Mate,

https://i.imgur.com/kjgsMLQ.jpg

I mean, don't forget 23. Indigenous Genocide, but, you know.

if we're going down that route let's not forget 24. slavery

and of course 25. egg creams

slavery has existed everywhere for all recorded history. hardly confined to America, although we certainly embraced one of the most brutal forms of it for a couple centuries.

26 white ppl
27 mayonnaise
28 conway twitty
29 all the bad things
30 no good things

31 guns guns guns love guns need guns
32 sabermetrics
33 god

(Holland surely king of mayonnaise though, for better or for worse)

34. (With drawl) PICKUP TRUCK. GIDDY UP COWBOY.

35. 99.9% of all "cultural appropriation"

36. $$$

37. Road Trips
38. Self Help
39. Seminars on how to flip properties with no money down

40. Hawaii

41. Grand slams

42. Brian Wilson

43. drive-in cinemas

44. john cena

(19)45. the atomic bomb

(19)46. Donald John Trump

Just sayin some of these things aren't exclusively American. They're everybody's!

47. Superhero movies for "grownups"

48. jack kirby

49. jack ruby

27 mayonnaise

27 "ranch"

ranch-style houses

Ranch might be the most american word there is. The sound of it, the meaning, the house style, the dressing. It's 100% American.

https://i.imgur.com/IOlj6Lw.jpg

51. Saturday Night Live and dozens of comedy series and comedians no-one's ever heard of.

... no-one else, that is.

Every nation seems to have its b-list comedy that doesn't escape its borders though

I mean there are all these british comedians called "Jimmy Pram" or "Tolliver Whelk" or whatever that the britishers on the board seem to reference a lot.

52. happy endings
53. late night shows
54. hyper-capitalism
55. "football"
56. "soccer"

Italians
Irish

57. Barack Hussein Obama
58. Velveeta

Misuse of the collective clause when referring to sports teams

Every nation seems to have its b-list comedy that doesn't escape its borders though

Saturday Night Live is b-list?

'Math'

American comedy is painfully unfunny. There's no real bite, no real cynicism, it always has to be nicey nicey in the end. A or B list, SNL fits that bill surely.

today, sure. I think SNL at its best (maybe 80s-early 90s) was good exactly because it captured and spoofed that wide-eyed lack of cynicism. Kevin Nealon comes to mind, and all of the fake commercials. Since at least Will Ferrell and maybe going back to Chris Farley and Adam Sandler though the style of comedy has been very "I AM BEING FUNNY RIGHT NOW! DO YOU SEE ME BEING FUNNY!"

That in turn reminded me I’m almost due to get my dog poop serviced

almost as if regional and societal norms differ even across the same country -- or between stores -- when it comes to service expectations

What the devil are dog poop services? A dude that walks alongside you when you take the dog for a walk and scoops up their poop?

People who come and clean up the dog poop from your yard.

(Only just learned about this, and there are some great business names out there... "Turd Burglars - Pet Waste Removal in Carmel Indiana")

"Poo's the Boss is the #1 Chicago area dog waste removal company."

Well, it's a living I suppose.

lol kinder — reminds me that Little mermaid and lLittle Shop of Horrors have doppelgänger songs

I had no idea such things existed — will search up!!

Spelling mould as mold or, if you prefer, TS: Mouldy Old Dough vs. Moldy Peaches.

https://bobmould.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/bob-mould-2024-photo-credit-Ryan-Bakerink.jpg

Spinal Tap

lol so true. I watched the first one again recently and I had never realised how shaky the accents were :/

Christopher Guest is good, the other two not so much. I've heard worse though!

It's one of these films I hear talked up a lot as an unassailable classic, and yes it gave us "up to eleven" etc. But I can't recall anyone I've met IRl fawning over the film in the same way Americans do. It's been a while since I saw it myself, but from what I recall I found it just fine

Christopher Guest is apparently a British baron, hence his ability to do the accent

yeah his dad is British and he spent time in the UK while growing up

But my guess is that a lot of the humour stems from some variant on "LOL Britishers with their accents" (see also stuff like Austin Powers etc), which I get, but the joke dissipates somewhat if you are a Britisher I suppose

You know what is good? Walk Hard

I actually think you're completely wrong about Spinal Tap being an "American Thing"! You're probably not hanging around with the right (or wrong) people.

tbh I (re)watched Spinal Tap a couple of weeks ago and thought it held up pretty well

But my guess is that a lot of the humour stems from some variant on "LOL Britishers with their accents"

Again, I think this is wrong too. Christopher Guest is the only one with a slightly comic (and very accurate) English rocker voice, the others are pretty bland. Plus a lot of the cast are actually British!

as an american, never thought them being british was really meant to be funny. more that it mirrors some of the actual bands being parodied and sets up the entire "british band touring the us" bit and primes you for minor cultural misunderstandings

that and the whole stonehenge bit

I always thought that as an example of Americans playing English people, it was one of the best examples out there. but it's a very specific kind of English people of course.

You get English rockers who've lived in the US for years who sound a lot less convincingly English - have you ever heard Dave Mason speaking?

mh otm

spinal tap is as to americans as withnail & i is to the british

neither are good or funny

Weird Al Yankovic
Mr Rogers

Nothing against either of these two gents but boy do they loom large in American culture.

American things, men's edition: Not wearing a scarf

I never wear a scarf either tbf.

I'm Canadian but I've always hated wearing a scarf. I do wear a neck warmer when it gets really cold.

Americans don't ride on broomsticks either, at least the non-GOP ones.

the burgeoning neck gaiter industry doesn't want you to know about scarves

big snood

I wear those foam collars you get for a neck injury, that I way I get warmth _and_ sympathy.

Fuck washing a scarf

i don’t think i’ve ever washed a scarf, or gloves or winter hat for that matter

scarves are good. i don’t wear them as much as i used to, but not sure i see them as being particularly non-american. also a great word and fun to say. scarf scarf scarf

the only scarves worn here are at soccer matches, and the weather is 80-90 degrees most of the year so people are reluctant to even wear them there

yeah it seems in general scarves would have a limited appeal in florida

yeah it seems in general scarves would have a limited appeal in florida

Well, there's ScarfAce

Say hello to my knitted friend

underrated post

second

iirc dom p display named “incarcerated scarf aces” in response to a wdyll beef

Do Americans have to talk so loudly?

― Please play Lou Reed's irritating guitar sounds (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 December 2024 16:38 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hate to return to this subject but I'm sitting in the company canteen just and there's one American woman having a conversation with someone else and she is drowning out people who are sitting much nearer to me. I can't make out a word the person she is with is saying, she's like ten times as loud as him

Monty Python

Monny PY-THON

The Beadles

Llamas
the Atacama Desert
Building a new capital city in the wilderness