I recently watched House of Cards. All the characters are British except for the American media-mogul, Benjamin Landless – a character entirely coarse, loud, pushy, rude, and constantly angry, insulting and hostile even to his friends. And he eats like a pig (a clear contrast is drawn when he has dinner with Francis Urquhart, and mounds his plate with slabs of roast beef).
Now, FU is not above being judgmental. He is pleasant to most people’s faces, but appears to secretly scorn everybody of a humbler social background than himself, which means, practically everybody. (Later in To Play the King we see how he can even despise his social superiors.) And he often tells the audience so, through the fourth wall. He has something disparaging to say about practically every other person in the Conservative Party. But about Landless, he has nothing to say; one infers that Landless’ behavior is simply what FU expects of an American, therefore unworthy of remark. Is this view of Yanks widespread among Brits?
I can’t speak about the show you’re talking about having never seen it, but take a look at this great scene from Monty Python portraying Americans in what is undoubtedly a very stereotypical way. Notice too how bad the American accents are to us…
FYI, House of Cards was just redone in an American version with Kevin Spacey playing the American version of Urquhart, and will be available on Netflix streaming in just a few more days.
Yes, but the Pythons are doing deliberately bad accents here. British actors who are seriously playing American characters tend to be much better than the reverse.
Well, it’s a stereotype, and stereotypes are rarely flattering, but yes, Brits would recognise an American stereotype that is loud, opinionated, lacking in social graces. Maybe it’s that fork-switching thing you do.
Look, remember that as far as ‘national characteristics’ go, Britons are in many ways culturally opposite to Americans – we are shy, socially awkward creatures who pain ourselves about being too loud or showy or breaking the Rules. My Brazilian friend finds our inhibitions hilarious. So forgive us if our stereotype of Americans highlights the things we find socially excruciating, but others wouldn’t care about.
Of course none of this means the stereotype is true, or that we even believe it of you. Well, apart from Texans perhaps.
I definitely saw that in the Python clip, but I assumed it was because he was a stereotypical power-hungry movie producer, not because he was an American. It might have been funnier or made the point better if he had been the owner of a florist or rainbow factory.
Of course the opposite end of the spectrum is where nothing gets done because business parties are worried about hurting each other’s feelings. And taken to an insane extreme, you have some countries where you can actually sue people for hurting your feelings (criminal defamation laws).
I’m told by several of my Thai friends that there are no such things as restaurant critics here because they would never be able to print a negative review of a restaurant (even if 100% true) out of fear of being sued for defamation.
Yes, to a degree they (the Brits) do, and unfortunately a fair number of us (Yanks) live up to that coarse and unappealing stereotype :(.
With that out of the way: most of us don’t, and the Brits, deep down, know this.
Brits, for their part, are fond of national stereotypes, as are many Europeans, and for the most part, these days, it’s all in good fun and isn’t intended to hurt feelings. A hundred years ago, well, then it was a different matter, what with competing empires, kingdoms and such.
The Brits are known for their dry, often understated humor. Sometimes they exaggerate, to make a point, but overall I find them agreeable and good humored. Indeed, they often use humor to bond.
Humo(u)r is what we use to overcome our social inhibitions. Embarrassed? Don’t know what to say? Crack a joke! If it’s about yourself, all the better, modesty being a prized characteristic.
The point is that the British Press barons of the time were not British - Maxwell was born in the Czech republic, Black was Canadian, and Packer an Australian. They were not English and didn’t conform. Landless (obviously) represents that sense of alienation (a feeling that still persists around the British media today).
Brit here and certainly many people describe Americans as rude (perhaps that is because for many people the only part of the US they’ve visited is NY…)
But I don’t think we take stereotypes that seriously.
And indeed, of all people Americans are some of the least likely to get stereotyped because of the significant influence of american culture and so everyone knows and sees how diverse a country it is.
