# Pseudo-foreign accents & languages in movies & TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126 "2007-03-23T03:28:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/1 "2007-03-23T03:28:49Z")
Watching a Pepe Le Pew short on Youtube just now, with the faux French being spoken, reminded me of the first **Die Hard** movie, where the German guys apparently were speaking a nonsensical version of German. In the Looney Tunes shorts of course it was done for comedic effect, but I don’t know what McTiernan’s excuse was. What other films & shows had fake foreign languages being spoken, likely irritating a native speaker? ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/2 "2007-03-23T03:30:50Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Watching a Pepe Le Pew short on Youtube just now, with the faux French being spoken, reminded me of the first **Die Hard** movie, where the German guys apparently were speaking a nonsensical version of German. In the Looney Tunes shorts of course it was done for comedic effect, but I don’t know what McTiernan’s excuse was. What other films & shows had fake foreign languages being spoken, likely irritating a native speaker? [/QUOTE] Nobody will ever speak with a worse “fake” accent then Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice” ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/3 "2007-03-23T03:33:10Z")
Nope. Meryl Streep was supposed to be an Italian woman in _The Bridges of Madison County_. I have no idea what that accent was, but it sure was nothing like Italian. I still do not understand why people think she’s so great. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/4 "2007-03-23T03:34:45Z")
[QUOTE=brownie55] Nobody will ever speak with a worse “fake” accent then Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice” [/QUOTE] Dick van Dyke. _Mary Poppins_. I win. ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/5 "2007-03-23T03:51:09Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Dick van Dyke. _Mary Poppins_. I win. [/QUOTE] I bet Dick did not think he was God when he spoke those lines. I will not give Meryl the same benefit. Quiddity, sorry, that’s a movie I can’t watch. I worked for the National Geographic Society when it was released. It was amazing how it was ignored. OK, ignored would be nice, derided would be accurate. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/6 "2007-03-23T03:56:59Z")
Argh. You can consider “accents” to fall within my rubric I guess, but I meant to refer to fake versions of real languages (long day at work syndrome). The German in **Die Hard** is apparently gibberish from what I understand (accents probably bad too but I dunno). ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/7 "2007-03-23T04:49:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I bet Dick did not think he was God when he spoke those lines. I will not give Meryl the same benefit. From the omni-prescent Wikipedia entry: Although he is fondly remembered for this film, Van Dyke’s attempt at a cockney accent was nonetheless widely ridiculed and is still frequently parodied. It is still often cited as one of the worst attempts at a British accent by an American actor, a fact acknowledged with good humour by Van Dyke himself on the 2004 DVD release of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/8 "2007-03-23T06:23:45Z")
The “Worst German Accent Ever” trophy has to belong to Bob Crane (Hogan’s Heroes). ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/9 "2007-03-23T06:39:58Z")
I remember when some fans complained about the Ukranian, or maybe it was Russian, accent of an actress on Babylon 5. J.M. Straczynski. I imagine he had a lot of fun when he told them that she was a native speaker. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/10 "2007-03-23T06:47:51Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] The “Worst German Accent Ever” trophy has to belong to Bob Crane (Hogan’s Heroes). [/QUOTE] Did Hogan ever actually speak German, or ape a German accent? ISTR him always just speaking English in his normal American accent when he was pretending to be German. Now Richard Dawson (Newkirk)…he had a bad German accent on that show. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/11 "2007-03-23T07:00:12Z")
No Kevin Costner from _Robin Hood: Prince of Hoosiers_ yet? Surprising. Peter Falk’s Eastern European schtick in several movies (_Sunshine Boys_, the one about the 105 year old grandpa, etc.) is just absolutely grating. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/12 "2007-03-23T07:02:20Z")
Sid Caesar always spoke fake languages when doing ethnic characters. In reality he only speaks Yiddish and English. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/13 "2007-03-23T07:02:52Z")
Latka and Simka on _Taxi_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/14 "2007-03-23T07:05:24Z")
Max Bialystok’s “Yiddish” in _The Producers_. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/15 "2007-03-23T07:12:22Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Argh. You can consider “accents” to fall within my rubric I guess, but I meant to refer to fake versions of real languages (long day at work syndrome). [/QUOTE] You can petition a mod for a title change. I can’t think of any movie or tv examples of gibberish, but I can think of a musical one: Bradley Nowell (of Sublime) sang a few songs partially or wholly in Spanish. My Spanish is pretty weak but I know several people (including my dad) who are fluent and they’ve all told me that he’s mostly speaking gibberish with a few words and phrases tossed in for good measure. For just bad accents - Sayid on _Lost_ is starting to drive me crazy. It’s like he lets each individual word roll slowly and roundly off his tongue, completely disconnected from the word before it and the one after it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/16 "2007-03-23T07:34:17Z")
Inspector Jacques Clouseau comes to mind. Of course, his accent was _supposed_ to be bad. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/17 "2007-03-23T07:35:37Z")
I didn’t think much of Borat’s Kazak. Aslo, the writing on the DVD is some sort of fake pseudo-Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/18 "2007-03-23T07:52:38Z")
not to trash a true classic and one of my all time favorite perfomances of a truely show stealing type but the mexican accent from “ugly” in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was truely atrocious what was his name…Eli Walach I believe. fantastic in the role, the accent about made me cry though ---
**Author:** ![The\_Dumbest\_Guy\_in\_the\_Room](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@The\_Dumbest\_Guy\_in\_the\_Room](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Dumbest_Guy_in_the_Room)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/19 "2007-03-23T08:50:54Z")
Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! … Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput. (if you translate those words that make sense you get: “When is the nowpiece ‘git’ and ‘Slotermeyer’? Yes!.. 'Beier’dog the or the 'Flipper’forest ‘gersput’.” Ha Ha Ha…Urgh ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126/20 "2007-03-23T09:03:40Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] I remember when some fans complained about the Ukranian, or maybe it was Russian, accent of an actress on Babylon 5. J.M. Straczynski. I imagine he had a lot of fun when he told them that she was a native speaker. Marc [/QUOTE] Mira Furlen is Yugoslavian, actually. Her character, thugh, was an alien - and every other alien of her race spoke perfect unaccented English. Plus, the shows _actual_ Russian character (Commander Ivanova) spoke unaccented American English as well. Furlen currently plays Russeau the Crazy Frenchwoman on **Lost**. Her “French” accent sounds exactly like it did on B5. **Sampiro** - while I freely admit that Costner’s accent (and performance) didn’t fit the rest of the film, why should we assume that a 20th-century English accent is closer to a 12th-century English accent than a 20th-century American accent? After all, both share the same common ancestor; both have mutated with time. It’s not as if the Plantagenets spoke modern English. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pseudo-foreign-accents-languages-in-movies-tv/397126.md?page=2)