“That’s the trouble with you Americans,” says Death, clenching his skeletal hand, “you’ve got no balls.”
I thought the really great part about that episode was that it showed both that the American customer was a demanding boor and that Basil had little business being in hospitality, as he expected everything to run on his timetable and preferences. I know that dealing with the general public is a pain, but Basil wasn’t an example of attempting to roll with things.
I’d think this has largely passed into historical cliche IMHO. Americans don’t travel overseas much compared to alot of other nationalities, for a variety of reasons, (which I think is a shame, really) & the ones that do are generally either super rich or culturally sensitive backpacker types. As mentioned earlier, I think Germans and Aussies have largely taken on the mantle of boorish foreigner if only by virtue of there being comparatively so many of them out kicking around the globe. Not that there aren’t still plenty of ugly Americans, but we’re mostly confined to cruise ships & package tours, trying to make the most of our measley two weeks vacation! Don’t the Brits call Aussies “JAFA” for just another effen’ Australian? I’m sure meant affectionately! 
PS Obligatory Simpsons reference: When they’re on the beach in Rio, the lifeguard tells them “Hey, Americans, you can’t go there!” Homer turns around & says, “How did you know we’re American?” His T shirt has Uncle Sam holding a globe with the motto “Try and Stop Us!” :smack:
And when the Simpsons visited London, he said to a hotel clerk something like, “We saved your asses from the Japanese in World War I, so we’re going to expect the kid-glove treatment while we stay here! And cold beer!”
Well there is this article which cites a survey which ranks the French as the overall worst tourists in Europe
Americans don’t exactly rank well overall, but do get first place as the most generous and best tippers. So i guess Americans expect special treatment, but are happy to pay extra for it.
When I was in Italy, a Roman I befriended said that Venetians have a horrible reputation for being rude to tourists and pretty much anybody who isn’t Venetian. His accent and speech style made the way he said it pretty funny.
“Da Venitians, deya so stupid. Deya mean to tourists, but widouta da tourists da whole fuckina city woulda sink.”
Unrelated but amusing, he identified the Castel Sant’Angelo as “Disa whereda popa goda hide.”
I’ve heard rumours (From PJ O’Roarke, I think) that the Isrealis are the rudest tourists on the planet.
I was amused that in the French/Spanish film Auberge Espagnole, the role of culturally-insensitive boor was given to the Brit, among a group of continental Europeans. From that I concluded that it’s actually the English language that does it to us. 
The movie Barcelona (1994) takes some pokes at the lay-all-the-world’s-ills-at-the-feet-of-Uncle-Sam variety of anti-Americanism you occasionally see in Europe. But in doing so, it features a character who actually lives down to some of the “boorish American” stereotypes.
Damn… beat me to it.
If it wasn’t for us, you’d all be speaking German right now!
Just a nit, but actually, Peter Dinklage played the role of the “American Dwarf” in both versions of the movie. Peter Dinklage also played the dwarf in In Bruges.
J.
You are mistaken. 
That was Jordan Prentice.
No, Death said that about the English.
Yes, I’ve never seen In Bruges but I looked up the cast before I posted. I would have assumed it was the same actor just because you wouldn’t think there would be many different American dwarf actors appearing in British films within a 1-2 year time period, but it turns out there were at least two of them.
Ah, my mistake. Thanks.
If you’re thinking of the “Grim Reaper” sketch, one of those American characters was played by Terry Gilliam, whose accent is genuine.
On the other hand, there was the “Crimson Permanent Insurance” sketch, featuring a bunch of “American” businessmen sitting around a conference table —and yes, their accents were atrocious.
For what it’s worth, a couple of years ago I went backpacking in Argentina and stayed at a lot of youth hostels. I was surprised by how few American tourists I met (and those I did invariably apologized for being American, which was weird). The Americans there were all very nice and polite. The Australians were on average the rudest/noisiest bunch, but even so not enough that I’d characterize any of them as boorish, and many were incredibly nice people. The Israelis were probably the second largest group I met there and they were all fun and open, though much too noisy for my tastes.
My high school had exchange programs with German schools so I met lots of German teens and they were not too polite here in Brazil, but I don’t meet many other tourists here, so I wouldn’t know how to compare them with others.
I spent a few months in France twice and I did get the impression that the American tourists there were a bit boorish on average. (I’ve been myself a tourist in the US several times and would say that Americans make for more gracious hosts by far than the French, though I love France and have no problem at all with its people. IMO French snootiness is much exaggerated.)
BTW is there any kind of ‘boorish out-of-stater’ cliché within the US?
I’ve seen this in practice.
I was in Israel, a Brazilian man was chatting up a German girl, they were both speaking in English.
The conversation got around to France and the German girl made some unflattering comments about it.
Immediately a Frenchman who was in the party said “Ah you must be English, they have a problem about the French”.
I then chipped in and said “No we don’t, I had a French girlfriend one time”.
Actually that wasn’t entirely true because a lot of Brits really do have a strong antipathy against the French, though I’m not one of them.
The Frenchman turned out to be a brilliant bloke with a great sense of humour but it proves that when people can’t recognise other accents they can make false assumptions about the nationality of the speaker.
Not the accent he was using in the film, no. He’s quite soft-spoken in reality.
Another fine example of American boors: Flushed Away. Pretty much every Ugly American cliche rolled into one (well, two).