# So I just saw Fargo... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508 "2004-07-16T23:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/1 "2004-07-16T23:39:39Z")
and I just want to know one thing. Could they have possibly used a more annoying accent? By the end of the movie, I was hoping everyone would die, including the unborn baby who would eventually talk like that. Please tell me that was the film maker’s intent. Steve Buscemi was the only saving grace of the film. Sure he talks a little weird, too, but no way was it as annoying as the rest of those folks. Sorry if I offended anyone who actually talks like that, but c’mon. You’ve gotta be kidding me! ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/2 "2004-07-16T23:44:43Z")
:times thread to see how fast it goes to the Pit: ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/3 "2004-07-16T23:59:23Z")
My gg-grandfather first settled near Whalen. The closest town of note to Whalen is Brainerd, where most of the story takes place. (Hardly any of the movie takes place in Fargo.) In short: It’s _not_ an accent. That’s the way normal people (a lot of my relatives) speak. The rest of you have accents, you betcha! ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/4 "2004-07-17T00:05:06Z")
And what was with all that _snow_? BORING! Couldn’t they have moved it to some place more interesting? Like Los Angeles, or Miami? ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/5 "2004-07-17T00:16:24Z")
It actually wasn’t the accent, so much as the "well"s, "yeah"s, and "hey"s they constantly repeated. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/6 "2004-07-17T00:19:50Z")
Isn’t this the most superficial reason possible to not like the movie ? ---
**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:** [July 17, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/7 "2004-07-17T00:21:30Z")
One of the things I love most about the Coen Brothers is the accents they use in their movies. Every one is distinct and wonderful. Hi’s So’Western twang in _Raising Arizona_, the folksy Swedish cadence of Marge Gunderson, the burned out West Coast hippie stammer of The Dude. It’s all good, man, it’s all good. Tom Hanks cracked-out Col. Sanders accent in _The Ladykillers_ alone was worth the price of admission. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/8 "2004-07-17T00:22:01Z")
> [@xvxdarkknightxvx](#): > > It actually wasn’t the accent, so much as the "well"s, "yeah"s, and "hey"s they constantly repeated. Excellent diction and pronunciation are hallmarks of New Jersey speakers. Oh, and they have NO idiosyncratic elements to their speech either. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/9 "2004-07-17T00:22:59Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Isn’t this the most superficial reason possible to not like the movie ? I’m kind of being sarcastic about “the only saving grace of the movie.” It wasn’t bad, just extremely annoying. Is it any more superficial than someone not liking a movie because of tons of cursing? ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/10 "2004-07-17T00:28:01Z")
I grew up in Fargo and left when I was 21. While I didn’t leave with the accent that they used in the movie, I CAN tell you that that a lot of the people in that part of the country(especially the countrysides of northern Minnesota and North Dakota do talk an **awful** lot like that. In fact, every time I go home to visit my family I come back with the accent that I grew up with. It’s not quite as strong and it withers over time but it gives my friends quite a bit of joy to give me crap about. It’s a scandinavian accent…and it truly does exist. Oh, and most of that movie was set in Minnesota. The word **soda** is a pretty good test of someone who grew up in that area. The ‘o’ will sound like the ‘o’ in boat. It’s quite drawn out. I get more crap saying the word ‘soda’ than any word in the dictionary. 🙂 -K ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/11 "2004-07-17T00:34:14Z")
> [@Kaotic Newtral](#): > > I grew up in Fargo and left when I was 21. While I didn’t leave with the accent that they used in the movie, I CAN tell you that that a lot of the people in that part of the country(especially the countrysides of northern Minnesota and North Dakota do talk an **awful** lot like that. In fact, every time I go home to visit my family I come back with the accent that I grew up with. It’s not quite as strong and it withers over time but it gives my friends quite a bit of joy to give me crap about. It’s a scandinavian accent…and it truly does exist. > > Oh, and most of that movie was set in Minnesota. The word **soda** is a pretty good test of someone who grew up in that area. The ‘o’ will sound like the ‘o’ in boat. It’s quite drawn out. I get more crap saying the word ‘soda’ than any word in the dictionary. 🙂 > -K Well, it’s probably the same amount of crap some of my friends get here over saying “water” and “dog”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/12 "2004-07-17T00:51:23Z")
My grandfather talked like that. We city folk don’t. But it is pretty funny because its really only slightly exaggerated. ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/13 "2004-07-17T00:54:40Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > My grandfather talked like that. We city folk don’t. But it is pretty funny because its really only slightly exaggerated. Yep, that’s true! Also…you have to throw a few “eh’s” in just like the movie “The Great White North” with Bob and Doug McKenzie. (sp) We use a LOT of _eh’s_ and _uffda’s_. -K ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/14 "2004-07-17T01:18:23Z")
Eh, I knew a guy who was absolutely furious when the movie ended because we never found out _why_ Jerry Lundegaard needed the money. Absolutely furious. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/15 "2004-07-17T02:26:11Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > Eh, I knew a guy who was absolutely furious when the movie ended because we never found out _why_ Jerry Lundegaard needed the money. Absolutely furious. You mean he wasn’t paying attention? Jerry had been pulling scams at the dealership so he’d have the money to keep his family to a standard of living he hoped his hateful father in law would approve of. The car company was catching him on one of his scams and he was trying to get money to cover it. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/16 "2004-07-17T03:36:28Z")
A friend from Minnesota swears he called his mom back home and said “Mom, you gotta see ‘Fargo’”–she called back to say she liked the film, but “Why did they all talk like they’re from Wisconsin?” ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/17 "2004-07-17T03:54:57Z")
> [@Mockingbird](#): > > You mean he wasn’t paying attention? > > Jerry had been pulling scams at the dealership so he’d have the money to keep his family to a standard of living he hoped his hateful father in law would approve of. > > The car company was catching him on one of his scams and he was trying to get money to cover it. Along with with, I thought he was also trying to get the money for that lot deal he had discovered. Remeber the one he had introduced to his father in-law? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/18 "2004-07-17T04:18:18Z")
> [@xvxdarkknightxvx](#): > > I’m kind of being sarcastic about “the only saving grace of the movie.” It wasn’t bad, just extremely annoying. Is it any more superficial than someone not liking a movie because of tons of cursing? Okay. I wasn’t sure. My feelings… It’s an alright movie, but never really got what was so great about it. It had some good scenes, and I’m a steve Busciemi fan(and to this day, I think of him as being “funny looking”) but it’s nowhere near the top of my list of Coen Bros films. I actually felt \*Barton Fink \* was a more interesting movie, even if it was extremely slow. I know I’m going get it for that. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/19 "2004-07-17T04:24:56Z")
Here in the Upper Mississippi River Valley you can tell where people are from by the way they pronounce the name of their home state, don’t c’ha know. Minneesooootah I-wah Ill-noy Whis-can-sin When you run into a guy who grew up in a family where the grandparents spoke German, or Norwegian or Swedish or Czech things get really exciting, then. What part of Joisey is our friend, the guy with an intolerance for regional accents, from, then? ---
**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508/20 "2004-07-17T04:38:43Z")
> [@Spavined Gelding](#): > > Here in the Upper Mississippi River Valley you can tell where people are from by the way they pronounce the name of their home state, don’t c’ha know. > > Minneesooootah > > I-wah > > Ill-noy > > Whis-can-sin > > When you run into a guy who grew up in a family where the grandparents spoke German, or Norwegian or Swedish or Czech things get really exciting, then. > > What part of Joisey is our friend, the guy with an intolerance for regional accents, from, then? I actually don’t say Joiysey. 🙂 My northern Jersey friends say that. And it’s my southern Jersey friends who say “wudder” instead of “water”. Us central Jerseyans are about as normal as can be. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-just-saw-fargo/255508.md?page=2)