# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**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, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/101 "2010-05-06T12:38:15Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Don’t be ridiculous - you can’t get a suntan in Reading. You utter bounder ! I just nearly choked. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/102 "2010-05-06T16:10:36Z")
> [@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. Sadly, altogether too true. You missed out the fact that we also seem to have actually taken over large parts of Spain, filling them with British pubs and caffs selling a full English, not to mention the retired whiners fashioned from hide who spend their days complaining about the Spanish even though they chose to live there. Again, though, you only notice the bad ones, not the good ones. On the plus side, it means that any attempt at speaking the language beyond the most begrudging “grassy-arse” in a Spanish bar is greeted with astonishment and renewed respect, since they (and by they I mean everyone everywhere, not just the Spanish) expect all English people to be mono-lingual and pissed. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/103 "2010-05-06T19:34:55Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Well, at least one counterexample: in [Run Fatboy, Run](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425413/), Hank Azaria plays a type of perfect American - smart, professional, fit, good looking. Of course, he’s supposed to be _annoyingly_ perfect (think Owen Wilson’s character in _Meet the Parents_), and IIRC at the end, he gets a bit snappish with some kid…but still, he’s not boorish! Thanks for reminding me to watch Run, Fatboy, Run. Watched it last night. Yeah, the American turned out to be an ass, but he could have been a rich jerk from anywhere. I watch MI5/Spooks. The only Americans I can think of on that show are usually CIA operatives, and they’re usually arrogant and often corrupt, but they’re also competent spies generally and not people you’d be embarrassed to take out in public or anything. I get a giggle out of the fake American accents sometimes, though. The only Aussie show I can think of is The Games, which at least once had a fat, entitled demanding American businessman on it. But they make fun of anyone from any country and Americans got off pretty easy. Technically not Brit/Euro I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/104 "2010-05-06T20:34:12Z")
> [@ivan732](#): > > I think the Americanness of the character in _In Bruges_ was purely incidental. They needed someone who was a good actor and a dwarf, and the guy they found happened to be American. I didn’t read any more into it than that. Yet, IRL he’s Canadian. ---
**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 6, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/105 "2010-05-06T21:40:10Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > 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! **Teacake** , that is certainly true. Yelling is a violation of the principle that “your rights extend to the end of my nose.” I, myself, can get incandescent at the sound of some self-centered jerk holding a conversation on his cellphone, in public and loudly. (What makes you think I want to participate in your conversation?) But I think it does come down to cultural norms - perhaps we just speak a little more loudly than others do. Have you ever visited the U.S.? If you have, I am curious if you noticed the same phenomenon. In any case, I’m going to Germany in a few months, and I’ll try to remember to keep my voice down. (I’m also listening to German language CDs, to pick up the basic phatic phrases, because _nothing_ is as obnoxious as going to another country and insisting that they speak _your_ language - a point I believe you alluded to in a post upthread). But this is another argument for the desirability of international travel - to pick up on the crucial fact that not everyone in the world does it the same way as you do back home in East Jesus, Arkansas. And my nation is bad about this sort of thing, I will admit; we produced the legislator who once proclaimed in all seriousness that “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for me” as an argument against bilingual education. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/106 "2010-05-07T15:41:56Z")
Honestly, I don’t think I do notice loud voices so much when I’m in the U.S. as I do when I’m elsewhere. I can’t imagine why that would be, but I certainly don’t think of, for instance, walking around malls or whatever cringing at the intolerable noise level. Interestingly, though, I was quite aware of the volume of my (stupid, about biscuit mix) conversation with my slightly deaf father when I was in the supermarket last time I was there, which suggests I’m not just resetting my decibel meter as I walk through immigration! With the languages: my partner and I are not very good at languages, and we were travelling all over Europe, so we just made sure we knew very basic stuff, like please, thank you, excuse me and sorry, in as many languages as we could, and then tried to catch a few more phrases when we got to each place. People appreciated it so much, especially “small” languages like Basque. All we said was thank you, and the guy we’d just bought some food from from gave us a bottle of wine for nothing! ---
**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 7, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/107 "2010-05-07T21:34:40Z")
Maybe it’s not so much decibel levels _per se_, as the contrast between one set of voices and the general register? If Americans tend to be slightly more loud than Brits, then, amongst a crowd of us, you wouldn’t notice a contrast like you would with two or three Americans in a crowd of Brits. As to your language comments, phrases like “thank you”, “good morning”, “pardon me” are exactly what I meant by _phatic phrases_. I don’t expect to be able to read Schiller in the original when I finish my CDs - just to be able to find a bathroom or order a drink. It’s more about courtesy, and signalling to your hosts that you are aware that _you_ are the foreigner here. It’s a nice thing to do - as you seem to have discovered on your travels, **Teacake**. Happy journeys! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028/108 "2010-05-07T22:32:42Z")
As with most stereotypes, I imagine the “boorish American” stereotype is in large measure informed by [confirmation bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias). People only notice (and remember) behavior that conforms to the stereotype, and tend not to notice or not to remember counterexamples (quiet, polite Americans). 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-boorish-american-a-stock-character-in-british-european-film/538028.md?page=5)