# How Do You Fake Being British? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 30, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791 "2009-10-30T23:45:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/1 "2009-10-30T23:45:35Z")
I’m trying to impersonate (as a joke not serious Identity theft or anything) as a British person on an another internet forum. I’m pretending to be English, a Conservative, a middle-aged barrister from Bath, England. So what should I do to make it convincing? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/2 "2009-10-30T23:50:33Z")
You cannot withstand close examination by a British person. In the same way, an average Brit could not pull off being an American to an American. I propose you do not even try. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/3 "2009-10-31T00:02:28Z")
[QUOTE=Curtis LeMay] I’m trying to impersonate (as a joke not serious Identity theft or anything) as a British person on an another internet forum. I’m pretending to be English, a Conservative, a middle-aged barrister from Bath, England. **So what should I do to make it convincing?[**/QUOTE] Bolding mine. You can’t . Using “from Bath, England” gives you away in your subterfuge-advice thread here. You’ll be hopelessly found out in any thread on a UK forum populated by anyone older than about thirteen. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/4 "2009-10-31T00:12:09Z")
It’s not a British forum (about half American, 25% British, 15% Commonwealth Countries, 10% Continental Europe, and 5% Elsewhere). Also in the actual one I set the location as Bath, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/5 "2009-10-31T00:13:49Z")
There’s a lot of “u” and not a lot of “z”. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/6 "2009-10-31T00:15:04Z")
We don’t really have that conservative vs. liberal divide. We have Conservatives, and Liberal Democrats, and other political parties. But a barrister in an upmarket town like Bath could easily be a Labour supporter, it’s not that simple. If you want stereotypes: Conservative voter: dull person with dull job, lives somewhere like Basingstoke, reads Daily Mail Liberal Democrat: Bearded middle-aged teacher from Devon, likes folk music Labour: Uneducated prole from somewhere up north, the sort of person who watches ITV ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/7 "2009-10-31T00:16:50Z")
This raises the question whether you’re what you claim to be here. **Curtis LeMay** , are you sure you’re not **Der Trihs**? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/8 "2009-10-31T00:18:51Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > It’s not a British forum (about half American, 25% British, 15% Commonwealth Countries, 10% Continental Europe, and 5% Elsewhere). Also in the actual one I set the location as Bath, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Why are you even trying this? Seriously, you will fool no-one, gor blimey. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/9 "2009-10-31T00:19:30Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Also in the actual one I set the location as Bath, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Do real Britons ever write the name of the country in full like that? I’d imagine that ‘UK’ would suffice, if it’s needed at all. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/10 "2009-10-31T00:20:20Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Labour: Uneducated prole from somewhere up north, the sort of person who watches ITV _shudders_ Good God man! ---
**Author:** ![Lungfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@Lungfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lungfish)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/11 "2009-10-31T00:26:17Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Do real Britons ever write the name of the country in full like that? I’d imagine that ‘UK’ would suffice, if it’s needed at all. Nope. It is either UK in general or a specific part of it ie: England. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/12 "2009-10-31T00:28:44Z")
top o’ teh morning govna! ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/13 "2009-10-31T00:29:26Z")
You’re going to have problems impersonating a middle-aged person, British or not. Unless you’re a middle-aged person who’s impersonating a 13 year old here… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/14 "2009-10-31T00:35:31Z")
It can be done but you need a functioning knowledge of classic (and current) British TV shows and films, you need to know which political figures are popular discussion points, and it helps if you read the English papers everyday to keep up to date with what’s happening in the UK. You also need to have “local knowledge” of where you supposedly live, and you’d need to be familiar with a whole heap of “day to day” things regarding the UK. In short, it’s not something you can pull out of your arse for the lulz on a messageboard. And frankly, it’d be a pretty dickish thing to do anyway unless it was part of a “Pretend to be another Nationality”-type thread, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/15 "2009-10-31T00:42:18Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > top o’ teh morning govna! This is a prime example, **Curtis** , of how you could go so utterly wrong. **msmith537** is clearly using the _patois_ of an Irish cab driver, indeed an Irish cab driver who has spent most of his life stranded on a desert island with only some tapes of the Late Late Show and a random Guy Ritchie film to keep him warm. no offence msmith ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/16 "2009-10-31T02:55:08Z")
Just complain a lot about everything. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/17 "2009-10-31T03:21:09Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > In short, it’s not something you can pull out of your arse for the lulz on a messageboard. And frankly, it’d be a pretty dickish thing to do anyway unless it was part of a “Pretend to be another Nationality”-type thread, IMHO. I’d suspect it’s a Halloween thing, like the sock hop at **Giraffe** ’s board, which lets you pretend to be someone else for tonight. (In other words, you’re temporarily allowed to have a sock puppet account.) As for the OP: it seems you are really, really overdoing it. Just drop in a small number British spellings and colloquialisms. And try to stay out of the limelight, so your country of origin will not be tested. You’ve got to be subtle. Oh, and definitely change your location to use the UK abbreviation. Or, better yet, don’t use the American “\, \” designation at all. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/18 "2009-10-31T04:13:52Z")
Everyone will know you’re taking a piss, and the whole thing will go pear shaped on you. Best to pack it in, toss your kit in the boot, and be off with you ! Cheers ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/19 "2009-10-31T04:14:10Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > There’s a lot of “u” and not a lot of “z”. That’s the right idea. You want to be subtle and sly. You can actually switch Microsoft Word to Brit spelling and grammar check and run your posts through there. Also, casually make references to things that are common in the UK but not America. For instance, I’d find ways to bring up the castle I live in. “argh! The colour of my moat water is getting a murky grey again!” ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-fake-being-british/515791/20 "2009-10-31T04:18:56Z")
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