# Is "the Boorish American" a stock character in British/European film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028 "2010-05-02T15:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [May 5, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/81 "2010-05-05T05:09:59Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > That’s silly, though. If I am being an asshole and because of that you decide to stop dealing with me, I can’t blame my being an asshole on your refusal to deal with me. This is probably a discussion for a GD thread rather than this one, I think. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/82 "2010-05-05T05:12:49Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > I’d say **Texans** are stereotyped as loud, provincial, overbearing, and boorish, by most anyone in the other 49 states. > > I stress that that’s a _stereotype_ — though it’s not entirely without supporting evidence. Funny, that’s my exact stereotype of people from New Jersey. Texans I picture more as tight-lipped, conservatives - and maybe provincial, but not particularly loud or overbearing. [off topic] > [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Another thing that happens often is that Americans _do_ impersonate Canadians while overseas, because in a lot of cases this usually gets them better treatment from the citizenry. I have, in the past, supplied several American friends and relatives with Canadian pins, buttons, badges and patches for their overseas trips. No disrespect, but I have to say I kind of hate this. If you’re a nice person, why wouldn’t you want to improve your country’s image, or just show the diversity of people from your country? I can’t imagine pretending to be Canadian, or recommending it to someone else. Aside from all that, it’s just embarrassing to pretend to be a nationality you’re not - as much, ISTM, as trying to pass for another religion or ethnicity. [/off topic] ---
**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:** [May 5, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/83 "2010-05-05T05:15:30Z")
[There you go.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562076) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/84 "2010-05-05T10:07:04Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Since I didn’t sport any maple leaf regalia, I flatter myself that my seeming Canadianity was because I’m so un-boorish that I didn’t seem like a stereotypical American. I get that a lot too. It is apparently because 1) I’m soft-spoken rather than having the more distinctive loud nasal speaking voice Americans abroad are know for, and 2) after over a decade living in the UK my accent has apparently migrated to Toronto. Seriously, I met a Canadian woman who swore that I must be from her neighbourhood since we had exactly the same accent. Weird. Since I’m in London I do see a lot of tourists from all over, and by and large the Americans are no worse than those from any other country and better than some. Groups of young people are always the worst, especially from Europe or Japan, but that’s more a side-effect of being a group of young people. And based on my experience travelling on the Continent the worst tourists I’ve seen there have been the British, who can take drunk, obnoxious and offensive to astonishing levels. Think Spring Break in Ft Lauderdale - they do that. I’ve also seen some rude-to-the-point-of-being-indavertently-funny behavior from older Brits who glide through foreign lands with a sense of blithe cultural superiority (which was particularly funny in Paris). (I almost forgot: here’s [one American’s view of “abroad”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8ekCWVYeWw) for your entertainment.) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/85 "2010-05-05T12:40:51Z")
I guess we’ve drifted off topic, but with regards to US tourists… Like Gyrate, I’m in London (although British myself) and see all manner of tourists. American tourists are by no means the most boorish - far from it, I’d say. They’re generally polite, friendly and queue like the British (I’m starting to think we’re the last two nations who do that properly). BUT, they **do** often talk loudly and I guess this is what attracts attention. I couldn’t tell you the nationality of most tourists, because all tourists look the same, pretty much (casual non-work clothing, map, big camera), but if you can imagine, for a moment, a packed but silent Tube carriage where the only voices you can hear are the American tourists… Maybe coming from a big country, you have to speak loudly for the next person to hear you 😉 On another note, they sometimes seem a little less knowledgeable about the places in Europe they’re visiting, which isn’t really surprising when you consider that Europeans can hop across to each other’s countries on any old weekend. But they also seem less ashamed of revealing any ignorance they might have, prime example being the loud American bloke in St Peter’s Square in Rome last October, who said at the top of his voice ‘IS THAT A CHURCH?’. ‘Face’ seems to matter less than it does to Europeans. I’m excluding drunken fat Brits from that, by the way, who should really have their passports confiscated. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/86 "2010-05-05T12:47:19Z")
> [@Bytegeist](#): > > I’d say **Texans** are stereotyped as loud, provincial, overbearing, and boorish, by most anyone in the other 49 states. > > I stress that that’s a _stereotype_ — though it’s not entirely without supporting evidence. I’m a Limey and I thought Texans were great when I was there. ---
**Author:** ![Marmite\_Lover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Marmite\_Lover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marmite_Lover)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/87 "2010-05-05T13:22:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I can’t answer the OP directly, but BAs to exist. I think it was in Munich where I saw a family of three at an American Express office that was seriously bent out of shape because in their hotel _there was a towel on the floor!_ :eek: After they’d gone, my friend told the clerk ‘We’re not all like that.’ In Florence or Venice a middle-aged woman called to her husband, ‘Hey Murray! Go stand by that stature. I want to take a picture of it!’ In Vienna: Apparently animals are not permitted in 1st Class on the trains. Their country, their rules. An American man with a toy poodle was angrily complaining, ‘My dog is a show dog! I _always_ travel 1st Class, and my dog always travels with me!’ In Venice we encountered a hostile hostel manager. When he found out we were Americans he began ranting: ‘I don’ wanna no more Americans inna my hostel! They demand too much! They have children, all the time screaming! EEEEEE! EEEEEE! They make love and howl all night! Awoooo! Awoooo! I tell you: If an atom bomb drops on the United States it would be a good thing.’ I _almost_ said, ‘So… Can we stay here tonight?’ But we’d been wandering the city all day with our packs, it was about midnight, and we were dead-tired. > > To be fair, we heard from locals in Denmark and Sweden that they thought Germans had reputations as bad as Americans. Russians are the worst closely followed by Americans in Egypt. I sat speechless not long ago in a Chilli’s restaurant. I sat as one chain smoking load mouthed American woman. picked up a bunch of menu’s the waiter had placed on the table beside her and her friends. Various nationalities of ex pats with one American. She picked the pile up and handed them out and was left with one herself. She looked at it and the waiter had by accident mixed one Arabic menu in with the English ones and unfortunately that was the one the American was left with. After calling the waiter a’homar’ ( very big insult in Arab country as it means donkey) she threw the menu like a frizbee across the floor of the restaurant, ranting for 5 mins on ‘how was she expected to read Arabic’, how stupid he was, why did they have Arabic menu’s in an ‘American’ restauraunt ( even though she was in Egypt!) most of the clintele were Egyptian. Her friends looked on horrified. I actually got up and picked it up from under the table and handed it to him and apologised for her. He and the rest of us were mortified. From what I have seen they treat the Egyptians dreadfully here. A horrible superiority thing going on:( Russians are just rude to everyone and first at the buffet and sunbeds.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/88 "2010-05-05T13:41:50Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “Shut up! Shut up, you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and say ‘let me tell you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this’. Well, you’re dead now, so shut up!” Clearly, Death needs a holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/89 "2010-05-05T17:06:35Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > BUT, they **do** often talk loudly and I guess this is what attracts attention. I couldn’t tell you the nationality of most tourists, because all tourists look the same, pretty much (casual non-work clothing, map, big camera), but if you can imagine, for a moment, a packed but silent Tube carriage where the only voices you can hear are the American tourists… Maybe coming from a big country, you have to speak loudly for the next person to hear you 😉 This is, I think, more of a cultural thing. We tend to be a bit more extroverted than you guys. Also, think of the context - Brits on the Tube, you’re just going to work or running to the store for a gallon of milk. Same old, same old. Yanks on the Tube, on the other hand, are probably on vacation. They’re excited and interested and everything is new to them. For my own sake, what I love most about international travel is walking down a street and noticing the quotidian things - ads in shop windows, mail boxes, traffic signals. Forget about the Tower of London - when I see a zebra crossing, I know I’m in another land. So Yanks, tending as I said to a bit more extroversion, discuss these things. Whenever I ride MARTA here in my city, I don’t notice a lot of talking amongst the passengers. Thank you for your good opinion of us, though. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/90 "2010-05-05T17:12:04Z")
Extroverted doesn’t mean you have to yell all the time, though. No-one else does. FTR, I have a very high opinion of Americans, having several family members, friends and exes of that persuasion. But you \*are \*annoying as tourists! ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/91 "2010-05-05T17:53:57Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > As to the Shat, I apologize. > > As to Right, Said Fred, they’re Limeys. > > As to Paula Abdul, she’s only really half Canadian: Abdul was born in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, the daughter of Lorraine (née Rykiss), a concert pianist who once worked as film director Billy Wilder’s assistant, and Harry Abdul, a former livestock trader and owner of a sand and gravel business. Her father, a Syrian Jew, was born in Aleppo, Syria, raised in Brazil, and subsequently emigrated to the United States; Abdul’s mother, also Jewish, is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Abdul derives Canadian citizenship through her, but we’re not going to claim her – you can keep her. I doubt she knows much about Canada anyway. Okay, I’ll concede Right Said Fred and Paula Abdul, but that still leaves Anne Murray and Celine Dion… **Teacake** , I won’t deny that there aren’t loud, noisy American tourists, but I have to wonder - how many of the quiet ones are you missing, just because they’re not loud and obnoxious? My uncle, who has traveled extensively in Europe, is very proud of the times that he has been mistaken for an Englishman. It all comes down to social mores - to your “Do you always have to yell?” I could respond “Do you always have to keep your homes so cold and your beer so warm?” Ain’t no wrong or right - it’s just what you’re used to. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/92 "2010-05-05T22:49:23Z")
You’re absolutely right, of course. I’m sure I don’t notice quiet Americans. As I said, I have a high opinion of Americans in general and know many pleasant ones; it just happens that there is a reason for the stereotype, and it’s because they’re the ones who draw attention to themselves with loud, ignorant, self-absorbed behaviour. Talking unnecessarily loudly in public, especially in places where people are usually pretty quiet, isn’t really the same as your examples. I don’t disturb you or cause you irritation if I have a beverage at a certain temperature, unless I pour it into your mouth against your will. By yelling, you are pouring your voice into my ears against my will. And as for our beer - we’ve had long conversations about this in the past. I won’t get into it, except to say that cellar temperature isn’t warm. On the other hand, I do keep my house nice and cosy, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/93 "2010-05-05T23:05:20Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I’m afraid I’m apparently so American that I don’t understand what’s so terrible about this comment… I think Teacake is objecting to the woman commenting on the curtains framing the statue, instead looking at yet another statue of some guy on a horse. ---
**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:** [May 5, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/94 "2010-05-05T23:53:25Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > sli > > /slight hijack/ > > Do you live in the Borders? I’ve seen photos - that’s beautiful country. > > /hijack over/ No, bit further north than that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/95 "2010-05-06T04:58:25Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > How about Sherrif J. W Pepper from the James Bond films _Live and Let Die_, and _Man with the Golden Gun_. > > He is shown as a tourist in MWTGG in Thailand (?), and is written as the classic sterotype of the Boorish Yank Abroad. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohgGZnEXTQk&NR=1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohgGZnEXTQk&NR=1) I can confirm that is Thailand. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/96 "2010-05-06T10:01:32Z")
My understanding is that real life rating of American tourists by hospitality workers is fairly positive based off surveys Expedia used to do. This is helped by the charming American custom of tipping if the service is anything better than awful. Yanks do get rated as loud, likely to complain, and badly dressed, though. The French rank near the bottom, the Japanese near the top. Surprisingly, given their reputation as prize jackasses while abroad, the British do pretty well. I get that “my-first-guess-is-that-you-are-Canadian” thing sometimes, but I read it as at least sometimes due to the interrogator reckoning that an American mistaken for a Canadian won’t care while the other way around might cause offence. Kiwis mistaken for Aussies can get like that. I am from mid-Michigan, though, so my accent is closer to a Canadian’s, than, say, somebody from Florida. I am soft-spoken, well-dressed, stoic, and cheap, so there’s all that. I have heard in-USA prejudices against people from other states, such as jerkass New Yorkers invading Quahog in the autumn on Family Guy. Often it’s regional or urban vs rural like people from the rest of the Midwest yawning when the Chicagoan has to show off like a five year old, again. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/97 "2010-05-06T11:09:53Z")
Speaking as a Brit I think that some of the most obnoxious tourists on Earth are Brits. You get the “Union Jack Shorts brigade”, young adults, the men pretending that they’re all jack the lad ie. are hard men, can drink everyone under the table and aren’t really shy around women(honest guvnor) . So you usually hear them first because they’re so loud and then you’re treated to the sight of them puking up in the street. They are usually in large groups, because of safety, or fear of foreign places I suppose. The young women, who seem to contain an inordinate number of people called Shazza or Trace, are also loud and obnoxious though they like to describe it as being “Bubbly” . Their main mission on holiday is to drink themselves stupid, get shagged and go home with a good suntan; in that order. No matter how bad the name is of Americans in some quarters they’ll never shame their country as much as some Brits do. ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/98 "2010-05-06T11:37:38Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Speaking as a Brit I think that some of the most obnoxious tourists on Earth are Brits. > > You get the “Union Jack Shorts brigade”, young adults, the men pretending that they’re all jack the lad ie. are hard men, can drink everyone under the table and aren’t really shy around women(honest guvnor) . > > So you usually hear them first because they’re so loud and then you’re treated to the sight of them puking up in the street. > They are usually in large groups, because of safety, or fear of foreign places I suppose. > > The young women, who seem to contain an inordinate number of people called Shazza or Trace, are also loud and obnoxious though they like to describe it as being “Bubbly” . > > Their main mission on holiday is to drink themselves stupid, get shagged and go home with a good suntan; in that order. > > No matter how bad the name is of Americans in some quarters they’ll never shame their country as much as some Brits do. You should really stop booking your holidays in Faliraki, mate. Try Tuscany instead. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/99 "2010-05-06T12:10:12Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Speaking as a Brit I think that some of the most obnoxious tourists on Earth are Brits. > > You get the “Union Jack Shorts brigade”, young adults, the men pretending that they’re all jack the lad ie. are hard men, can drink everyone under the table and aren’t really shy around women(honest guvnor) . > > So you usually hear them first because they’re so loud and then you’re treated to the sight of them puking up in the street. > They are usually in large groups, because of safety, or fear of foreign places I suppose. > > The young women, who seem to contain an inordinate number of people called Shazza or Trace, are also loud and obnoxious though they like to describe it as being “Bubbly” . > > Their main mission on holiday is to drink themselves stupid, get shagged and go home with a good suntan; in that order. > > No matter how bad the name is of Americans in some quarters they’ll never shame their country as much as some Brits do. To be fair - they would be just the same at home in the UK. Try Reading on a Saturday night :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/100 "2010-05-06T12:22:47Z")
Don’t be ridiculous - you can’t get a suntan in Reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028.md?page=6)