# Non-US Dopers: Please Share Any US Culture References You Didn't \*Get\* from Exported American TV/Mov **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017 "2012-09-07T18:05:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/21 "2013-09-19T12:50:07Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > “Bangs” doesn’t make much sense in American English either, I always figured we borrowed some other word from French or another language. According to Etymology Online, it’s from an old phrase. > [@](#): > > “hair cut straight across the forehead,” 1878 (singular), American English, attested from 1870 of horses (bang-tail), perhaps from notion of abruptness (cf. bang off “immediately, without delay,” though this expression is attested only from 1886). I wonder what they were called before that. Maybe fringe like everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/22 "2013-09-19T12:56:36Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I wonder what they were called before that. Maybe fringe like everyone else. There’s a section in one of the _Little House on the Prairie_ books that talks about how Laura wants bangs, and her parents refer to them as a “lunatic fringe.” I found that section excerpted online, and the author uses both terms in the passage pretty much interchangeably. (I remember reading it as a kid and not really having any idea WTF they were talking about with “fringe.”) The books were written in the 1930s, IIRC, but the setting was the 1870s-1880s. [Excerpt here](http://www.customwigcompany.com/great-hair-references-in-literature-little-town-on-the-prairie/) if anyone is interested. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/23 "2013-09-19T12:56:42Z")
If you find the answers in this thread interesting, you’ll probably also get a kick out of this tangentially related link: [What facts about the US do foreigners not believe until they come to America?](http://www.quora.com/How-Americans-Are-Different/What-facts-about-the-United-States-do-foreigners-not-believe-until-they-come-to-America) If you scroll down to “Related Questions” they ask the same question, but for various other countries. Interesting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/24 "2013-09-19T13:13:43Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Why couldn’t it have been Billy Mays? He was certainly famous on television for his advertisements, particularly for Oxy-Clean, and might not have been as well-known outside the U.S. Ah-ha! Is he the commercial dude who shocked everyone by dying unexpectedly a couple of years ago at a fairly young age? :dubious: I haven’t lived in the US for more than 20 years now, and the last time I visited was for the so-called “Millennium” in 1999 (it wasn’t). I spend a lot of time in Canada now, though (instead of Europe), so I guess I know who you mean, even though I didn’t know his name. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/25 "2013-09-19T13:20:03Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > According to Etymology Online, it’s from an old phrase. I wonder what they were called before that. Maybe fringe like everyone else. Or maybe they just weren’t in vogue. Are they ever seen in portraits previous to the mentioned time period? ---
**Author:** ![Virgil\_Tibbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Virgil\_Tibbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Virgil_Tibbs)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/26 "2013-09-19T14:27:09Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > sunny side up is fried, but only cooked on one side (yolk is runny). Over easy is the same thing, but you flip the egg over and cook the other side. I could never ask for either. Social inhibitions wouldn’t allow it, especially for the first one. Those words will never escape my mouth. For a long time I had no idea what Q-Tips were (“You’ve got to stop the Q-Tip when it meets resistance”), but then I looked it up. Now I know. ---
**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:** [September 19, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/27 "2013-09-19T14:45:16Z")
It took me until I visited to realise that the US uses entree to refer to the main course, and not the starter. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/28 "2013-09-19T15:09:02Z")
Not TV or movies but music. I had no idea that the song by De La Soul, The Magic Number was basically sampled from Schoolhouse Rock. Apparently every American would have heard of that, but I never did. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/29 "2013-09-19T15:42:32Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > There’s a section in one of the _Little House on the Prairie_ books that talks about how Laura wants bangs, and her parents refer to them as a “lunatic fringe.” I found that section excerpted online, and the author uses both terms in the passage pretty much interchangeably. (I remember reading it as a kid and not really having any idea WTF they were talking about with “fringe.”) > > The books were written in the 1930s, IIRC, but the setting was the 1870s-1880s. > > [Excerpt here](http://www.customwigcompany.com/great-hair-references-in-literature-little-town-on-the-prairie/) if anyone is interested. > [@](#): > > bangs > > brian kieffer wrote: > > ``` > I was bored one day and was listening to my sisters talk about their hair and one said that she looked bad without bangs. I got to thinking then why they were called bangs? They don't make noise and they are really not hitting anything. Do you know why? > > ``` > > The origin of bangs (the word is occasionally found in the singular bang), referring to a fringe of hair falling over the forehead (especially if cut square), is uncertain. > > A common explanation, and the most likely one, is that bang(s) is short for bangtail. A bangtail is a horse’s tail trimmed horizontally, so that the tail has a flat, even end, and hence a horse having such a tail. (By the early twentieth century, bangtail was used generically for ‘a racehorse’.) > > This leaves the question of the origin of bangtail. The word bang ‘to strike violently’ or ‘a sudden striking blow or sound’ has an adverbial sense ‘suddenly; abruptly; completely; directly’, as in “he walked bang up to me,” “a slam-bang effort,” or, closer for our purposes, “to cut (something) bang off.” Our bangs is probably from this adverbial use, one way or another: either it comes directly from this adverb, or bangtail itself is from this adverb and bang(s) is short for bangtail. > > The adverbial bang is recorded in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, depending on how you interpret the evidence. Bangtailed ‘(of a horse) having a bangtail’ is found in the early 1860s, and bang ‘fringe of hair’ is first found in the late 1870s in America. > **[Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com?date=19990112)** > > Committed to publishing great books, connecting readers and authors globally, and spreading the love of reading. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/30 "2013-09-19T15:45:17Z")
Of course, this works in reverse. We Americans who’ve watched British comedies are often baffled by references to assorted British celebs, TV shows, politicians or locales. As a nerdy teen watching Monty Python, I never understood why people laughed at references to “Reginald Maudling.”\* I sometimes figured out that the Pythons were trying to impersonate particular British newscasters or talk show hosts, but never knew who they were or whether the impersonations were accurate. And there were all kinds of jokes about various London suburbs that I didn’t get. In the “Nudge Nude” sketch, the stiff businessman played by Terry Jones seemed to crack up the audience when he said his wife “sometimes goes. She’s from Purley.” No idea what life is like in Purley, or why that was funny. Not that it would help much if I DID know! Never understood what was supposed to be funny about Notlob (er, I mean Bolton) or Luton, either. - I know today who Maudling was, but that still doesn’t make any of the jokes funnier ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/31 "2013-09-19T15:53:47Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > If you find the answers in this thread interesting, you’ll probably also get a kick out of this tangentially related link: [What facts about the US do foreigners not believe until they come to America?](http://www.quora.com/How-Americans-Are-Different/What-facts-about-the-United-States-do-foreigners-not-believe-until-they-come-to-America) > > If you scroll down to “Related Questions” they ask the same question, but for various other countries. Interesting stuff. I tried to read that link but it required access to my gmail or facebook account, and that isn’t kosher. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/32 "2013-09-19T16:08:09Z")
> [@Virgil\_Tibbs](#): > > I could never ask for either. Social inhibitions wouldn’t allow it, especially for the first one. Those words will never escape my mouth. I don’t quite get what you mean by this. Do those phrases have some other meaning where you’re from? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/33 "2013-09-19T16:09:59Z")
Behold Billy Mays. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JpqiyFPdHZ4/hqdefault.jpg "Billy Mays - Quick Chop") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpqiyFPdHZ4) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/34 "2013-09-19T16:10:06Z")
The whole homecoming queen thing and the over-elaborated significance of high school football is really difficult for me to comprehend. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/35 "2013-09-19T16:14:36Z")
Define “understand”. A lot of references to sports or media are understood as “reference to sports” or “must be some sort of media celebrity”, but their full meaning, the implications of mentioning, say, Rush Limbaugh versus Dan Savage, are things that I get thanks to the Dope and to several years living in the US. One of the problems found in translation is that of when it is more “true to the original” to be more literal or to adapt the text. Part of the reason Fresh Prince of Bel-Air did as well as it did in many dubbing locations is that they dared go for the adapted version: people who would never have recognized the name Oprah knew perfectly well who _la Campos_ was (she pretty much created the morning talk show genre in Spain, about the time Fresh Prince first aired). I understand, and maybe other Dopers from dubbing locations can confirm or deny it, that similar adaptations were the general policy for that show; in general, the dubbings choose literalness over adaptation. You get mentions of Dr Phil with no indication about whether he’s a guy with a show on healthcare, a character from a hospital-set show or the host of a talk show. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/36 "2013-09-19T16:24:05Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The whole homecoming queen thing and the over-elaborated significance of high school football is really difficult for me to comprehend. It’s like hockey without sticks. It’s really a regional thing. Around here few who have kids in high school have more than a passing interest in high school football. The stands are rarely full even when it’s one of the best schools in the state. It seems like there is a direct corollation between living in a middle of fucking nowhere place with nothing to do but tip cows and the importance of high school football. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/37 "2013-09-19T17:01:11Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Ah-ha! Is he the commercial dude who shocked everyone by dying unexpectedly a couple of years ago at a fairly young age? :dubious: Yup, that’s him. He died 4 years ago, at age 50. Initial reports suggested his death might’ve been related to a blow to the head he’d suffered the previous day when the flight he was on had a rough landing, but it turned out to be heart disease. ---
**Author:** ![hildea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ebca7d/32.png) [@hildea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hildea)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/38 "2013-09-19T17:05:30Z")
I was puzzled the first time I came across the phrase “college fund” (in the comic Foxtrot, I think). I figured out what it meant from the context, but the concept was really weird. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/39 "2013-09-19T17:08:48Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > And there were all kinds of jokes about various London suburbs that I didn’t get. In the “Nudge Nude” sketch, the stiff businessman played by Terry Jones seemed to crack up the audience when he said his wife “sometimes goes. She’s from Purley.” > > No idea what life is like in Purley, or why that was funny. Not that it would help much if I DID know! > > Never understood what was supposed to be funny about Notlob (er, I mean Bolton) or Luton, either. Having lived in England for a time, I think suburbs generally have a reputation as sleepy, stuffy places populated by upper-middle class twits who aspire to become full upper-class twits. (Not unlike in the US, though I did catch a PBS documentary on the decline of the suburbs not so long ago.) “Notlob” is funny simply because Palin tried to pass it off as a palindrome when it plainly isn’t, and Cleese caught him out on it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017/40 "2013-09-19T17:18:43Z")
One Python reference I still do not get to this day is the one used by Eric Idle in the faux documentary where gangsters were trying to shake down the Manchester City Council (I think it was) and for the first time found themselves outclassed. Have I got it right? Is Manchester a particularly rough city, or is there something about the MCC that’s especially corrupt? Or have I missed the point entirely? 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-us-dopers-please-share-any-us-culture-references-you-didnt-get-from-exported-american-tv-mov/634017.md?page=3)