Cheap jokes about Americans

I learned quite a bit from the Molson rant .

Go rent The Triplets of Belleville.

I supposed you Canadians/Canadiens can explain this joke? :confused:

WTF? I am a "Merican, and I can tell you. “Joking” rhymes with “smoking” It’s poking fun at anti-smoking decrees.

…and if it didn’t, that’s still a joke non-Americans are making about Americans, right?

I was just thinking about this as I watched love, Actually, the other day. It was written by Richard Curtis, who also wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones’ Diary among others. His movies always seem to take a poke or three at Americans. The standard cliches:

  1. Americans are culturally and historically ignorant. (In Four Weddings, an American character asks a British character if he knows Oscar Wilde.)

  2. Americans are all religious nuts. (The three fantasy American girls in Love, Actually are all religious, and get especially excited when they think the British character is, too. Four Weddings features a brief shot of a faith healer from Minnesota.)

  3. Americans are generally boorish, with some exceptions.

If you want to see a horrible mish-mash of ignorant stereotypes about Americans in general and American Southerners in particular, just rent Stars and Bars featuring Daniel Day Lewis.

Not exactly jokes, but I once had an Italian acquaintance visiting here. She called us megalomaniacal when she saw the large number of American flags flying around the Washington Monument. She thought maybe we overdid the patriotic bit just a tad. (This was 1991, very much pre-9/11.)

An English family visiting us was astonished to see the food being served at the Cheesecake Factory. They said one person’s dinner is enough to serve a family of four. My English friend also was amazed that you are allowed to pass someone on a multi-lane freeway by passing in the slow lane. Strictly illegal in England.

For an Italian’s view of the US I recommend Ciao, America! : An Italian Discovers the U.S. by BEPPE SEVERGNINI.

Tell her never to visit Denmark. Those guys **love **their flag.

This goes back at least to WWII occupied France. Replace Canadian with Frenchman, American with German, fat chick with old lady.

Ha! Back in '84 I dialed in to a big old BBS (In Texas, if I remember right?) that I’d heard had some super features, like allowing several people to connect at once and a “chat” feature that allowed currently-connected people to talk in real time. (Cool!)

“Chatted” with one fella, and the conversation went something like this:[spoiler]
]I’m calling from Vancouver, Canada.

—How are you powering your computer?

]I have a 4Mhz Z80 with 144k of RAM.

—No, I mean, how are you powering your computer?

]What do you mean?

—You have a generator?[/spoiler]:smack:

One summer when I was still a teenager, my family drove down to Kansas to see a cousin, and in a Kansas City McDonald’s we were asked if Canada was up in Idaho. :slight_smile:

Also, the guy that gets slapped thinks, “Gee, that other guy kissed the cute girl in the dark, and I get slapped for it.”

I find it interesting to learn what stereotypes are held of Americans. Maybe their stereotypes aren’t as engrained as ours. I do know that in every country that I’ve travelled in, I’ve been treated with courtesy and kindness. This was especially true in Denmark, and, more recently, in France. I was delighted to see last year that people in France were as glad to see friendly American faces as I was to see their welcoming smiles. (Of course, it may have had to do with the sixteen year old mlle. with me.)

Um, that’s illegal here too (though I have never seen it enforced).

Depends on the state.

I take it there is also a difference in state laws regarding the use of the left lane.

When I was learning to drive in Ohio, the instructor told me that when driving on a highway I should “pick my lane and speed” and stick with it. This included the fast lanes. The rule was that excessive lane-shifting is a hazard on the freeway.

Once I was a passenger in a car driven by someone who had learned to drive in New York. I notice that she constantly changed lanes. When I asked, she said, “Well, the left lane is the passing lane; when you’re not overtaking another car, you’re supposed to stay in the right lane.”

One small humorous story will tell you one critical difference between Brits and Americans- “Americans think that something that is 100yo is old, and the British think that 100 miles is far.”

The British get all upset when we confuse “British” with “English” and the Australians same with them & NZ. OTOH, they both call us "Yanks’, a term that really only applies to those from far N.E. USA.

Here in America- you can still find a few “real” cowboys, and of course some few Indians still use traditional clothing, but the “Wild West” has been gone for a hundred years (“a long time” :smiley: ).

Oh, and guys- no hijacking this thread into “passing on the left” debate- I have seen those go on for pages, and spill over into the PIT. Let’s just say that the laws vary from area to area, and if anyone wants to explain further, start another thread. Please?

I had the same experience in Japan. They all treated with me with courtesy and kindness - it was a great place to visit.

Yeah, but there’s a slight difference - Yankland is the only one that doesn’t actually exist :stuck_out_tongue:

In American English. In Australian English, you are all Yanks.

Sorry, but you don’t get to decide your own nickname, others do that for you. :wink: