# How Do Furriners Make Fun of Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 8, 2002, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925 "2002-05-08T16:53:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/41 "2002-05-09T04:33:59Z")
Well, regarding the OP I have to give you the way they do it in Central America: The common one, even in the rest of Latin America, has not been mentioned yet!: Gringos, it has the same meaning as Yankee. For a pun, you have the word “chele” it means Caucasian, but it is directed mostly to Americans. The nasty thing is that it also means “eye booger”. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/42 "2002-05-09T04:48:23Z")
Valley Girl accents, or at least the, like, stereotype, can be found in films like Clueless. The California (and West coast in general) accent is generally characterized by a loss of vowels. Marry, merry, and Mary are generally pronounced the same way by Californians, but with three different vowels by Northeasterners. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/43 "2002-05-09T07:36:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\ ***Crusoe** - I _said_ that’s a nasty stutter you’ve got there ;). \*\* Er, apologies all. My PC had a fit last night. What’s worse is that I didn’t even see **jimm** had got there first. Sorry. Wasn’t even that funny. ---
**Author:** ![Waldo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Waldo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waldo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/44 "2002-05-09T09:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > UK rhyming slang: > Americans = Septics (= septic tanks = Yanks) I have to say, I don’t get it. Someone was going to say it. Nothing seems to rhyme, and I have no idea how “Yanks” connects to “septic tanks”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/45 "2002-05-09T10:05:43Z")
Um… **Waldo** , “Tank” rhymes with “Yank”. Generally, rhyming slang works thus: Take a word. (E.g. “Kids”) Find a word pair of which the last word rhymes. (E.g. “Saucepan lids”) Sometimes omit the rhyming word. (e.g. “Saucepans”). Thus, “The trouble & strife gives me a call on the dog, so I has to run down the apples, which hurt me bleedin plates. She tells me the saucepans got caught having a pint of pig’s down the rubba and now they’ve been taken away by the filth in a jam jar.” ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/46 "2002-05-09T10:32:48Z")
Don’t get “plates” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/47 "2002-05-09T10:34:45Z")
Plates of meat \> feet. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/48 "2002-05-09T10:48:50Z")
Cheers. That was really annoying me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/49 "2002-05-09T10:51:14Z")
I always used to get confused by “bristols” and “kingdom”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/50 "2002-05-09T10:54:36Z")
“My good ladywife called me on the telephone. I had therefore to run downstairs, which exacerbated my bad feet. She informed me that our children have been aprehended supping ale in a public house, and have now been driven to the police station in a squad car.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/51 "2002-05-09T11:01:10Z")
Canadians (at least here in Alberta) generally use an exaggerated southern accent and lots of white-trash references (think Cletus the slack-jawed yokel of Simpsons fame). I’m not sure if this counts, but lots of white guys I know will use “deadpan ebonics”: street slang words, but normal white guy tone of voice (“What up, G?” instead of “Hi there, Greg. How are you?”). This is usually as a joke to emphasize one’s own uncoolnes, but sometimes to make fun of white guys who “talk street” sincerely (and sometimes to make fun of ebonics in general). …And jjimm? That “rhyming slang” makes no sense whatsoever to me (Okay, I get the principal of it, but that doesn’t really help). Are all expressions widely known, or are new ones continually invented? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/52 "2002-05-09T11:11:36Z")
**Max** , to further elucidate: “The trouble & strife (wife) gives me a call on the dog (& bone = phone), so I has to run down the apples (& pears = stairs), which hurt me bleedin plates (of meat = feet). She tells me the saucepans (lids = kids) got caught having a pint of pig’s (ear = beer) down the rubba (dub dub = pub) and now they’ve been taken away by the filth (police - not rhyming slang) in a jam jar (car).” These terms have all been used in earnest, though I’d imagine some of them are falling out of fashion - the slang is constantly evolving. When I lived in England I certainly used “rubba” for Pub, “Pat Cash” (the tennis player) for “slash” (in itself slang for urination), “frog & toad” for “road”, “butchers” (hook) for “look”. There’s also “berk” - in context used to indicate “idiot”, which is a contraction of “berkely hunt”, which rhymes with… don’t go there. Apologies for having perpetuated a hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/53 "2002-05-09T11:53:55Z")
Cockney rhyming slang is (or rather, was) particularly London-based. Cockney is the term given to people born in the east end of London, within the sound of the Bow bells (an east end church). Rhyming slang has largely fallen out of fashion in the last thirty years, retained perhaps (WAG) by a few cabbies and market traders. Purely anecdotally, I visit London regularly (on business and family) and NEVER hear it. It retains its status more through a kind of ‘historical’ or touristy purpose, or is used ironically. Like all dialects, it was/is used to maintain a particular cultural identity. On the main point, I would go along with the view that most imitations of US accents are along the lines of the valley-girl or the texan, stetson-wearing, gun-crazy oil magnate (JR, I guess!). Oh. My. God. is something I picked up when I spent three months at College in the US a few years ago! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/54 "2002-05-09T15:42:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Recursion \* > \*\*Hey, I hear that British people imitate American accents by exaggerating syllable-final r’s: > > I took the elevatorrr down to the parrrking lot wherrrre I keep my carrr. \*\* You used to see (or rather hear) this a lot in old **Monty Python** sketches. Usually it was an American news announcer, or often a general, being imitated. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/55 "2002-05-09T17:53:12Z")
With all this talk of Valley Girl-speak, I can’t believe no one has posted [ValleyURL](http://www.80s.com/Entertainment/ValleyURL/). Translate any web page into Valley Girl! Hours of fun! ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/56 "2002-05-09T20:02:03Z")
Nitpick: _Valley Girl_ was released by Moon Unit Zappa, Frank’s daughter. Frank Zappa did not perform on the song. ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/57 "2002-05-09T20:16:52Z")
One of my favorite things in life is when El Hubbo makes fun of me in an affectionate way. The way the Japanese make fun of us Yanks cracks me up! Oh, my God! I totally love it. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/58 "2002-05-09T20:36:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kilt-wearin’ man \* > \*\*Nitpick: _Valley Girl_ was released by Moon Unit Zappa, Frank’s daughter. Frank Zappa did not perform on the song. \*\* Who does the male voice on the song, just out of interest? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/59 "2002-05-09T20:39:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kilt-wearin’ man \* > \*\*Nitpick: _Valley Girl_ was released by Moon Unit Zappa, Frank’s daughter. Frank Zappa did not perform on the song. \*\* Counter nitpick: _Valley Girl_ is by Frank Zappa. I just checked the album (“Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch”) and confirmed that he wrote and sang it. He samples his daughter’s voice in between verses, but he sings the song itself. [Here’s](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=X2677879) a review from my favourite music site that lists the stats for the song as: > [@](#): > > Valley Girl > Composed By Frank Zappa > Performed By Zappa, Frank/Zappa, Moon > Length 4:50 > Appears On Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch [1982] ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925/60 "2002-05-09T21:03:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\ ***Max** , to further elucidate: > > “The trouble & strife (wife) gives me a call on the dog (& bone = phone), so I has to run down the apples (& pears = stairs), which hurt me bleedin plates (of meat = feet). She tells me the saucepans (lids = kids) got caught having a pint of pig’s (ear = beer) down the rubba (dub dub = pub) and now they’ve been taken away by the filth (police - not rhyming slang) in a jam jar (car).” And you people make fun of _Americans_? At least american slang occasionally makes sense. Geeze. My Canadian friends make fun of my spelling, which has to be the weakest argument I’ve ever heard. When will the rest of you people realize that the United States America is the final arbiter of everything.\* \*[sup]The Canucks also seem to think that this is a typical attitude.[/sup] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-furriners-make-fun-of-americans/107925.md?page=4)