# Fargo: Accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809 "2010-07-15T18:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/1 "2010-07-15T18:30:16Z")
How accurate are the Canadian accents in _Fargo_? Just curious. It’s one of my favorite movies btw. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/2 "2010-07-15T18:32:24Z")
?Canadian? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/3 "2010-07-15T18:41:18Z")
Those are Upper-Midwestern Scandahoovian accents. You can hear slightly less exaggerated versions, still recognizably the same, on Garrison Keillor’s _A Prairie Home Companion._ ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/4 "2010-07-15T18:45:18Z")
I feel like a complete retard. Thanks for the response. I thought it was set in Canada. Lived in Arizona all my life and never heard accents like it. Excuse me while I go crawl under a rock and die. \>.\< ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/5 "2010-07-15T18:45:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Those are Upper-Midwestern Scandahoovian accents. You can hear slightly less exaggerated versions, still recognizably the same, on Garrison Keillor’s _A Prairie Home Companion._ Yer dern tootin’. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/6 "2010-07-15T18:54:55Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > I thought it was set in Canada. Lived in Arizona all my life and never heard accents like it. Does it make you feel better to know that one of the distinctive features of this accent is called “Canadian Raising?” (This is the peculiarity that leads people to assert that Canadians pronounce “about” as “aboot.”) The accent does have some similarities with certain Canadian dialects. As an Atlantic Canadian that grew up in Vancouver, it took several viewings for me to get that the scenes with her Chinese friend from school were meant to be funny because of a dissonance between his accent and his ethnicity. Totally invisible to me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/7 "2010-07-15T18:55:52Z")
Another fun fact … _Fargo_ does not, in fact, take place in Fargo! They hardly even get up to Brainerd, for gosh sakes! Best. North Dakota. Tourism. Promotion. EVER. Or, maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/8 "2010-07-15T18:58:05Z")
Well, uh, for thread completeness, how accurate are the accents that _do_ appear in _Fargo_? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/9 "2010-07-15T18:59:38Z")
Around Minneapolis 99.9% of the people DO NOT have that accent. But occasionally you run across someone who is a life long Minnesotan from Up Nort Der. While not as drastic as in the movie they do drop the “oh yah?” and “nooo” quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/10 "2010-07-15T19:04:57Z")
They also had the accent in “North Country,” which is kind of interesting because Francis McDormand was in that too. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/11 "2010-07-15T19:06:06Z")
I also recall a couple of young hookers Marge interviews who speak with the Slavic accents more common around Chicago. “Go Bairsss!” Think the old “Superfans” skits from _Saturday Night Live._ ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/12 "2010-07-15T19:09:12Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Another fun fact … _Fargo_ does not, in fact, take place in Fargo! They hardly even get up to Brainerd, for gosh sakes! The kidnappers are hired up in Fargo. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/13 "2010-07-15T19:09:41Z")
Thanks again, guys. Now I’m off to find something else to base my expectations of Canada on. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/14 "2010-07-15T19:12:17Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Thanks again, guys. > > Now I’m off to find something else to base my expectations of Canada on. You could maybe ask some of the Canadians here, eh? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/15 "2010-07-15T19:12:26Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Thanks again, guys. > > Now I’m off to find something else to base my expectations of Canada on. [Here you go](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086373/), you hoser. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/16 "2010-07-15T19:15:43Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > The kidnappers are hired up in Fargo. And – like everybody else in the movie – they appear to have been required to check their brains at the Minnesota state line. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/17 "2010-07-15T19:19:28Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And – like everybody else in the movie – they appear to have been required to check their brains at the Minnesota state line. Marge is smart! She’s a little trusting at times, but she comes around. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/18 "2010-07-15T19:23:36Z")
Wade’s an overbearing egomaniac who gets himself killed, but he’s not an idiot. And what evidence do we have that Scotty is an idiot? Because his grades were slipping? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/19 "2010-07-15T19:41:42Z")
Frankly I thought Marge was a genius. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809/20 "2010-07-15T19:43:04Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You could maybe ask some of the Canadians here, eh? Last time I actually observed Canadians it was while watching Degrassi. Never again. Not falling for your ruse! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fargo-accents/546809.md?page=2)