[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by pennylane *
**
Hmmm - under pressure on TV and asked about three sports which have next to no coverage or interest in the country? And they got it work? The horror!
Note: Brits don’t expect the French or the US to know that it is the Warwickshire Bears in country cricket, do we?
My God!! We never realised!! Its been that simple all along!! Its all just religion, and nothing to do with the ownership of the 6 counties, much less the ecnonomic-political divides.
You sir, are a genius. I recommend you immediately give a lecture tour with your solution to the problem in the very select locations of The Falls road and The Shankill. Maybe a mass rally in Ardoyne to end it all. yup, they’d love you.
In reality, you are a malinformed xenophobe with the cranial capacity of your rectum. I’d advise a brain tap to releive the stress that the shit has impacted upon your brain, but the world has no need for that much fertilizer.
Snootches.
Could we fill an entire page just dissin ol J?
I dare you all. Just pick a scentence and attack.
You know I didnt see it like that at all.
It’s actually kind of cute when you point it out.
I take back all the meanness …c’mere J248974…lemme pat you on the head and rub behind your ears you cute little merkin you.
C’mon folks dont be mean …
look at those big dopey eyes,
see the complete and utter lack of comprehension in them ?
Isn’t it kind of sweet in a naive way ?
I think a J248974 might be a great house pet actually , just so long as you dont let it out , i’m not sure it could survive in the wild.
(let alone in a room full of EuroDopers)
Twisty
Now I have the image of this moron preaching his way down the Shankhill. 
Last bit of work I’ll do this week
Should we mention the fact that the majority of his ancestors were european?
I wont even mention black 47 then. 
It was supposed to be funny…
Cast=Caste
therefore:
Brahmin/Untouchable = Jimmy Stewart/Dudley Manlove
…geddit? It’s hysterical now, right?
<sigh>
Well, it seemed funny at the time.
Fenris “They can’t all be winners”
Well, I would think most people would have heard of the Chicago Bulls. There was a time not so long ago when little boys all around the world knew about the Bulls. It might be unfair to expect people to know about American culture when Americans may not know about their culture, but American culture is so prevalent, how can you miss it? American writers are so prolific, not to mention American films and T.V. shows which are widely watched and loved in England. And of course I wouldn’t expect a non-American to necessarily be able to distinguish between cities and states, but the answer did startle me a little bit. Sorry if it offends you, but being British myself, it seemed rather ignorant to me. Not horrifically ignorant, but as ignorant as some of the comments which Americans make about Europe.
Okay, I’ve had quite enough with this ego protecting group masturbation fest. I don’t care if it’s coming from the Americans, the French, the Germans, the Italians, the British, the Danes or those damn penguins down in Antarctica who think they are just so fucking cool and better than everyone else.
The OP made an attempt not to generalize ALL Europeans in his rant. He probably should have known better because any time an asshole’s national identity is mentioned, a nationalistic ejaculation contest quickly erupts. “Well, there’s assholes here too!” “Well, there’s assholes there!” “Look, here’s some assholes!”
Everybody has assholes! Okay! There isn’t a nation on the planet that doesn’t boast of some chromosomally short-changed, drooling individual who thinks that his nation and culture sports the biggest dick and everyone else is just a hole for him to put it in.
So then, when the obvious point that one cannot group an entire population under a single label become too obvious to ignore, it degenerates to generalized bitching. “Well, MOST people in country x are ignorant.” “Oh yeah, well people in country Y are ignorant!” And seeping past these arguements, like brain fluid escaping a skull that’s so thick it’s squeezing the brain like a sponge, is the truth that Country Y and Country X are seperated by culture and distance. There is no reason why what’s important to country Y should matter at all to country X and if the tourists from either nation can’t get the fuck over it, that’s just too fucking bad.
There isn’t a nation on the planet that doesn’t have some great point of pride and there isn’t a nation on the planet that doesn’t have moments that it would rather forget. Claims of “the people of this nation are ignorant” or “the people of this nation are arrogant” are a waste of time because there’s no way you personally can obtain a large enough sample size to make such a statement meaningful. In many cases it is simply the result of a cultural misunderstanding on both sides. Their head didn’t tilt properly with their greeting so I’ll mumble incoherently about what little I know of their politics just to piss them off.
It all comes down to, some people are assholes. This news should hardly be a surprise to us here at the Straight Dope where we really should have a museum dedicated to the assholes that have graced this forum.
For those of you who wish to continue this jerk-off contest I suggest you apply some lotion before you develop a nasty rash.
Are you kidding? They don’t even speak English over there, for God’s sake.
I think what Princhester is getting at is that the question specified a city and the answer given was a State. Even so, I think you have a point. More to the point, I’ve heard far stupider answers given on British quiz shows about places in Britain, so I don’t think it proves anything either way.
Yes, so maybe all the little boys might know who they are, but I can imagine that there are a hell of a lot of people who DON’T know - or - have heard of them but just cannot remember because the sport has next to no (apart from a poor attempt by Channel 4 to get people watching the NBA) following in the UK.
Seeing as I am also British (hence the mention of cricket in an earlier post) I still do not see how it can be classed as ignorant. After living either in Kenilworth (Warwickshire), Birmingham and Ealing over a period of 25 years (I left for Sweden in 1999 at the age of 25) I think I have managed to get a reasonable feeling of things. IMHO thinkign that there are not a good few people in the UK who could not immediately say that the Bulls come from Chicago seems highly ignorant. Hell, on “Teh Weakest Link” earlier this week (seen on BBC Prime) one guy claimed to not know who Harry’s nemesis was - that book is everywhere and there is a film comin gout in a month. Don’t you see? There are people out there who avoid mass-popular culture because it is just not their thing.
Think of your family. Imagine yourself asking each member “Which US city do the Bulls come from?”. I don’t know abotu you but I can imagine a fair few (my Mother, my Sister, my Grandparents) who wouldn’t have a clue.
The point I was trying to make was just that some people have the impression that Americans don’t know anything about Europe whereas Europeans know all about America, and while this may be true for many or even most Europeans, there are some for whom it isn’t true. So if Europeans can make fun of ignorant Americans, then Americans should also be allowed to make fun of ignorant Europeans. If you think that no-one should be making fun of anyone else at all, that’s fine. Good for you!
I chose my quiz show example not because it was the most ignorant thing I had ever heard a European say, but just because I thought it was rather funny.
You’re right, some of mine wouldn’t either, but I think their guesses would still be cities, not states.
I wonder if many people from the US know that Glamorgan is a county and not a city - because all those counties end in “Shire” don’t they? How about Dorset, Cornwall, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Norfolk or Somerset? Do you think someone from the US woudl guess those all correctly as counties? I don’t think so and would not expect them to. Likewise I wouldn’t expect a Brit to know which US “places” are actually states. IMHO you can hope someone to knows where a country is, its capital and maybe a few major cities. Anything more than that and you really are expecting too much.
That’s nice of you; you seem like a very tolerant and understanding person. Unfortunately some people aren’t quite as understanding. American tourists get made fun of all the time in London for pronouncing “Leicester Square” the way it is spelled. How would they know otherwise?
Yes, you’re right, I probably am expecting too much.
Because people are curious - and are amused - by how an ex-colony can take a place name from where the colonists came from and somehow end up with a different pronunciation. It is a very obvious and interesting example of how language and accents develop. Another one is the US pronunciation of all places ending in “Ham” (Birmingham, Nottingham, Rotherham …).
blackclaw The masturbation fest only began in earnest only when derrogatory racist comments were made
(and not by the op’er).
They bore no relation whatsoever to the measured assertations of the OP’er that he was attempting not to generalise (a fact which was aknowledged by just about
all engaged), and as such are ,frankly, valid targets for deconstruction.
That big 'ol X top right corner ?
Any time you’re ready.
I acknowledged that as well and my rant wasn’t targeted at the OP but those derrogatory comments you mention. Princhester and J248974 in particular got on my nerves.
But bad feelings generated in pit threads can easily spill over into a general animosity between posters throughout the board. Many of the posters in this thread, such as Pennylane who is “must read” for me in Great Debates, are posters that I hold in high regard and I would rather not see them bogged down in petty regional differences when they could employ their intellect elsewhere or at least be making good fart jokes. It is, of course, their choice. I simply choose, wrongly perhaps, to air my irritation.
In other words I completely misunderstood you.
Regarding the quiz show: I saw someone on the Weakest Link (I don’t remember which version) who, in response to a question along the lines of “Which country is the world’s largest producer of X?”, replied “Uh…New York?”.
Regarding most of Europe being 75 years behind the US: um…since when? I went to Spain for a holiday a while ago and saw nothing out of the ordinary - cyber-cafes everywhere, music shops, radios, satellite TV…
Tipping: over here*, from what I can tell, tipping is more of a special thing - ie: you only tip someone if they do their job especially well. If you don’t do your job any better than the next guy/gal, no tip. As such, on American TV I’ve always found it a little amusing to see people actually waiting and expecting a tip - like it’s the customer’s civil duty (casdave - being a fellow Yorkshireman**, I agree with you on this point).
Place pronunciation: Are you telling me that someone wouldn’t be made fun of for calling “Louisville” “Lew-is-vill”, rather than “Louey-vill” (if the second pronunciation is right, spank me with a kipper - I’m just going by something I saw on WWF Raw*** a while back).
Jonny T.