I’m going to need a cite for your ridiculous contention that Geri Haliwell wears panties.
Upon further reflection…
More than a century ago, Gilbert and Sullivan were mocking “the idiot who praises with enthusiastic tone all centuries but this and every country but his own.” So, the phenomenon isn’t unique to either the U.S. or to modern times, apparently.
Next, Canadians generally love their country (and why wouldn’t they? It’s a beautiful place, they’ve got prosperity and freedom… there’s a hell of a lot to love), but they’re not generally flag wavers, in my experience. In fact, when I see someone overseas wearing a bunch of maple leaves, I’m inclined to think it’s an American who’s trying to avoid political arguments or confrontations (LOTS of foreigners hate the USA, but who hates Canada???).
Finally, there are undoubtedly millions of Americans who re content with standard American pop culture, but they generally don’t voice opinions on boards like these, do they? You NEVER see a thread here saying, “Who Else Loves The Chili’s” or “Who Else Thinks CSI Is the Greatest TV Show Ever” despite the fact that tens of millions of people DO love Chili’s and the ratings suggest millions DO think “CSI” is the greatest show ever.
No, here on the SDMB, you’re far more likely to find people mocking/cursing those with more mundane, mainstream tastes. And THOSE people often have a wrongheaded idea that it’s different elsewhere. Surely, they think, things are better in sophisticated Europe. People in Paris appreciate fine cuisine, while Americans only eat processed crud. Surely, people in England appreciate avant-garde theatre, while Americans just like dreck like “Love Letters.” Surely, Italians are sitting up arguing about the relative merits of Fellini and Bertolucci, while Americans just watch the fifth sequel to “Rush Hour.”
And I’m saying… sorry, folks. Yes, there’s a lot to love in European culture, but the fact is, mainstream crud is pretty wretched EVERYWHERE. There ISN’T anyplace where challenging intellectual fare makes up most (or even a significant chunk) of the entertainment options, except in places where programming decisions are made by people (like the BBC) who are pretty well shielded from public opinion.
Don’t “newspapers” handle that in the UK? Meanwhile, in the US, we occasionally handle news in newspapers. Partisan reporting of news, but news nonetheless.
I agree completely. Most Americans I have met seem to be just as intelligent as Brits and Australians, and usually much more articulate.
As you are based in Sydney, I assume that much of your experience is of Americans who work or live in Australia. If so, you have met an atypical, above-average group. This is inevitable. I am British, living in America. I have heard from Americans about how intelligent and articulate they find British people to be. Well, they have mostly met people who have gone through a visa process and/or company transfer. By an large they are comparing the average American with professional Brits. If they were to compare the average American with the average Brit on home territory, it would be a diferent story.
If you’re in NW Indiana (and I suspect you’re not), you can find Shiner Bock in Chicago. Curiously, the Shiner Bock website’s own FAQ claims they are not distributed in Illinois, and have no plans to enter the Chicago market, yet they launched it here in April, along with it’s own website, Shinerchicago.com.
Me too, although I wonder if there isn’t a selection bias going on, because there is a correlation between level of education and tendency to travel, so the Americans we encounter tend to be the better educated ones. But I do always recall some documentary I saw which compared US and Canadian troops to their British and Commonwealth etc. allies in WW2, and suggested that the North Americans were better educated and healthier. This was before the deprivations of rationing would have had any effect. They were simply better off than us.
If anything, American news has a far better news:fluff ratio than Japanese news ever will, especially on political issues. The day the parliament here gets put under as much media scrutiny as the latest J-pop idol is the day bloods runs in the streets of Nagata-cho.
What? Virtually every Indian take-a-way in the UK is a restaurant. You don’t get wasted then get an Indian take-a-way, you go to a real restaurant and have a sit-down meal.
Besides, Indian restaurants more often than not are serving an actual Asian community. The curry mile in Manchester is innundated with Asians from all over Greater Manchester after every major Muslim religious festival. The same thing undoubtedly happens in Birmingham, Glasgow, London etc.
Not that I necessarily agree with the thesis that everything in America is dumbed down - but the idea that Indian cuisine is dumbed down in the UK is absurd, especially considering the sizes of some of the Asian populations around major cities.
Ah, no. We Brits (and associated colonials) know exactly what Ron was telling Harry to keep up 
But keeping your pecker up is a well used british phrase for keep your spirits/hopes up. An american may well read pecker as an inappropriate penis reference for kids, in England kids giggle and move on - I mean, we have Spotted Dick for dessert - it’s meant to be a joke.
As for cultural translation (particularly of TV shows), I grew up in NZ. We got to see both the British originals and the US translations, so were in a position to compare. And the American versions were almost always anodyne and bland. I got the feeling that Americans don’t like TV to discomfort them - the Brits allow this to happen. A good example is Cracker. The uk Cracker (Robbie Coltrane) was an alcoholic, gambling adulterer who spent his time pushing peoples buttons and revelling in the conflict he caused in the live of those around him as he self-destructed. Glorious, uncomfortable, compelling television. The us version was whiney and pitiable - a pale shadow of what Cracker was supposed to be. All the discomfort had drained out of the show. Similar things happened to One Foot In The Grave (Cosby), The Office, and Fawlty Towers. Actually, the closest american show I have seen recently that produces a serious level of discomfort is Californication.
I guess it’s cultural difference - we UKers (and cultural decendants) are more emotionally repressed in real life, so like to engage viscerally with our TV, whereas Americans with a more open emotional display IRL prefer their TV with less gut reaction.
Si
Does it make a difference that you were comparing British originals with American adaptations, rather than the other way around?
There haven’t been all that many other way round adaptations, (one that sticks in the mind is the adaptation made of The Golden Girls - called Brighton Belles - which pretty much bombed due to suckage despite having a talented cast) as we tend to get the US original shows anyway.
Sometimes, the “Paris, France” thing is more a case of unnecessary emphasis than unnecessary explanation. You have to remember that to many Americans, “Paris, France” represents the very concept of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to an exotic destination that is so different from what we’re accustomed to here that it’s hard to even describe. Similarly with other capitals (like London, England). Sadly, with the exchange rates the way they are most of us never get the chance. So tacking on the word “France” is just a way of emphasizing the distance and very foreign quality to the city of Paris.
Regarding the dropping of umlauts, I’ve never seen that in professionally typeset copy. But when working online in a casual context, many if not most of us can’t remember how to type umlauts, because we don’t do it often enough.
As do Australians, but we have roughly 5% of our population overseas at any one time.
OK, highly relevant observation: I just watched a Gwen Stefani concert on TV. She introduced her dancers, the Harajuku Girls.
One of them was from “Los Angeles, California”. (Clearly, Gwen felt the need to disambiguate which Los Angeles she was talking about, for there are so many. I’ll give her a pass.)
The rest were from “Osaka, Japan”, “Tokyo, Japan”, and “Okinawa, Japan”.
I know it’s allegedly stylistic, but really, honestly, to this particular foreigner, it sounds utterly dumb. Which other Tokyo, Okinawa, and Osaka are these three Japanese girls likely to be from? Come on.
ETA: Thudlow Boink, to back up Askance’s point with a bit of humour-in-truth, I once heard a Californian in Asia explain to some girls from Vancouver, when they asked why they didn’t meet many Americans travelling in Asia, that “Asia is a long way away from America”. 
How you could mention these things and not mention the Goodies’ waistcoasts I cannot imagine.
And for those who HAVE forgotten how to type ümlauts with a computer, or at least some of them, while holding the Alt key down, use the numeric keypad to type 0228 for ä, 0235 for ë, 0239 for ï, 0246 for ö, 0252 for ü, and 0255 for ÿ. Other digits apply for UPPER CASE - 0196, 0203, 0207, 0214, and 0220, respectively (except for Y). Now maybe you’ve learned something useful from this thread.
Now can we just undumb the BBC newcasters to drop the “er” pronunciation at the end of words ending in “a”, such as Americer, Canader, Cuber, Algerier, etceterer?
I haven’t heard so much of that since JFK.
Well, in the U.S. it’s standard to refer to “City, State.” Sure, it’s not always necessary to include the name of the state, but sometimes it is, because it’s common to have towns with the same name in multiple states. I don’t know how you write down an address (e.g. if you’re mailing a letter) in other countries, but in the U.S. the city and state are both necessary parts of any official address. So we’re in the habit of referring to cities that way, whether or not they’re U.S. cities.
For an exceptionally narrow definition of computer.
So far, I have seen nothing which is a solid example of “dumbing down”.
Many of these are either cultural, or an example of just the best being exported. For example, us Americans likely would consider German Chocolate to be better than American.
And, yes, most of that exported to America is better than a Hersey bar. But OTOH, in Germany itself, that sort of Choco is premium, and they have (my friends bring it back ) at the bottom end of the choco scale some shit which is truly awful, tasting quite a bit like the stuff I remember from those real cheap hollow easter treats. Then again, in America we have SharfenBerger, Sees and other great choco, all of which makes Hersheys look sad.
So us Americans usally get only the best German choco imported, and sure enough, compared to it, a Hershey bar pales in comparison. That doesn’t mean German choco is better than American choco at all.
And, my German Friends say that cheap German beer is pretty damn bad (although they do say German cheapo beer is better than American cheapo beer). Of course, we don’t import much of it. Why should we, we have our own cheap beer?