Groundskeeper Willie has been my favorite ancillatory character since the begining of the show. Being that he’s such an over-the-top stereotype and he’s almost always protrayed as being disagreeable, unseemly, poor, ignorant and generally unpleasant is he an offensive character? Or is he so over the top that this doesn’t matter?
And how does Dan Castellaneta’s accent sound? Is it, also, ridiculously exaggerated and fake sounding? Or could it pass as real (if Willie wasn’t always saying such insane things)?
I’m not Scottish, but I would theorize that he wouldn’t be. First of all, there’s the over the top thing you mentioned. Secondly, Wilie doesn’t seem to hit on any stereotypes I know of about Scots. If a character fails to hit common stereotypes, it seems less likely that the character will be seen as offensive, I believe.
But I could be wrong, of course, totally wrong. I’m interested in what folks have to say, especially Europeans (who are assumably more up to date on this kind of thing than the emigres)…
I would hope nobody would be offended by Willy… he’s clearly not intended to be a depiction of Scots any more than Krusty is supposed to be a depiction of Jews.
The only Scottish person I know would quote Willy quite regularly. Usually the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” line whenever I’d knock on his door.
Mike Meyers’ depiction of Scottish families as being angry alcoholics that only start fistfights when there are no weapons readily available, otoh, was spot-on, in his opinion. Granted, I don’t know how typical a sampling he is; how common is it in Scotland to have been, in the course of growing up: shot twice, stabbed four times, and have at least two dozen bones broken, all by members of your immediate family?
Half scot here. No it’s not offensive. All my scottish family think he’s funny. You can buy bonnetts with ginger wigs in gift shops in Scotland (not inspired by Willie (who BTW would be “Wullie” or more likely “Billy” in Scotland). The accent is bloody awful though.
You have to remeber that Mike Myers comes from a very genteel Scottish family - and as such had an easy life.
:eek: Not common at all. Unlucky bloke, your friend!
As for the Simpsons thing, I really have not seen the SImpsons for a very long time, and can only recall seeing Groundskeeper once or twice. IIRC, I didn’t think much of the “accent”, but I can’t really remember anything about the character depicted.
Yeah, I’m not Scottish but now that you mention it he almost sounds more like Pirate than like a Scot. But that may be intentional, considering his temperament and character.
My family on my father’s side is from the Orkneys. Those islands are nasty, cold, craggy rocks in the sea north of Scotland. Just like my nasty, cold, and craggy Scottish relatives. Willie seems about right.
We immigrated to the US so we could smile at strangers and say ‘Howdy!’
I almost said the same thing, but Willie is the only Scot on the series and Homer is one of many Americans. Of course, almost all of them are warped or jerks or something, this being a TV show…
There was an episode where Homer formed a bowling team with Moe, Apu, Otto, and later Mr. Burns. One of their opponents was “The Stereotypes” which had Willie, Luigi (Italian restaurant owner), Captain McAllister, and Cletus on it.
Apu, remarked, “They begged me to join them. Begged me!”
Speaking of pirates, when I went to school at Oxford, I found the Scots to be near incomprehensible. They understood me just fine and we got along great (the ones I hung out with, albeit a very small sample size), I didn’t think of them as ones who couldn’t hold their liquor. The Irish people I hung out with, on the other hand, got drunk as loons. And, when talking to them, I understood them way better than the Scots, but that accent, OMG, it was so no Irish Spring or Lucky Charms. Pirates they be! The English I’ve hung out with tell me that the accent is a result of coming from a poorer economic background, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to that, rather than just perceived regional nationalism.
Anyway, back to the OP, one day we were watching the Simpsons, and it was the ep where Willie is chasing after Santa’s Little Helper. After he says, “Then grease me up woman, I’m a going in” and rips off his shirt, everyone was cracking up. My friend was like, “Do I really sound like that?” He didn’t, much different, and much more incomprehensible at times. Think Bigby from Trainspotting.
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