# That character would NEVER say that! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080 "2020-04-18T20:22:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [April 21, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/81 "2020-04-21T20:04:54Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Asahi Homecast? American History Channel, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/82 "2020-04-21T22:28:08Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I just heard the narrator of an AHC documentary on terrorism say “[The FBI informant] had a brainwave.” > > That line had to have been written by a Brit. Otherwise he would have said “brainstorm.” Hang on. This Brit is curious. What do you mean by the word “brainstorm”? Because I know both those words and they they don’t mean the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/83 "2020-04-21T22:29:11Z")
Duplicate post. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/84 "2020-04-21T23:18:40Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > Hang on. This Brit is curious. What do you mean by the word “brainstorm”? Because I know both those words and they they don’t mean the same thing. An inspired idea that came to him in a flash. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/85 "2020-04-21T23:24:14Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > Hang on. This Brit is curious. What do you mean by the word “brainstorm”? Because I know both those words and they they don’t mean the same thing. An inspired idea that came to him in a flash. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/86 "2020-04-21T23:31:37Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > An inspired idea that came to him in a flash. Interesting. Yeah, OK, that’s a brainwave. A brainstorm has enjoyed various connotations - including the rather over-sensitive “Don’t say that because epileptics will be really offended!” - but while it historically meant a sort of temporary inability to think clearly (now more likely described as a brain-fart), it now mostly means a “throw-in-any-idea-you-like” spontaneous, rapid-fire group discussion. 'Let’s just brainstorm, anything goes, whatever you think of, all ideas welcome, we’re just gonna blue-sky this, see what happens…" ---
**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:** [April 21, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/87 "2020-04-21T23:44:31Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > Interesting. Yeah, OK, that’s a brainwave. > > A brainstorm has enjoyed various connotations - including the rather over-sensitive “Don’t say that because epileptics will be really offended!” - but while it historically meant a sort of temporary inability to think clearly (now more likely described as a brain-fart), it now mostly means a “throw-in-any-idea-you-like” spontaneous, rapid-fire group discussion. > > 'Let’s just brainstorm, anything goes, whatever you think of, all ideas welcome, we’re just gonna blue-sky this, see what happens…" Yes, in EFL training we were all encouraged to participate in brainstorming sessions. Came up with some good ideas that way. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/88 "2020-04-21T23:49:23Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Not true. It stops being the Santa Monica Freeway in downtown LA and becomes the San Bernadino Freeway. Most people I know simply call it the 10. Have you seen the sign where it starts in Santa Monica? It’s the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway 😉 ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/89 "2020-04-21T23:54:52Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Have you seen the sign where it starts in Santa Monica? It’s the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway 😉 I did not know that and Im shocked the Christopher Columbus part has survived. Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/90 "2020-04-21T23:56:02Z")
This probably belongs in this thread though it’s not strictly a ‘mistake’ - watching an American comic clip on Facebook just the other day referring to the ‘Australian wildfires’ reminded me how weird it was when media all over the world was talking about that. Australians don’t say ‘wildfire’ - they are ‘bushfires’. I find the phrase ‘Australian wildfire’ quite disconcerting in a way that, say ‘Californian wildfires’ completely is not ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/91 "2020-04-22T15:04:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My understanding is that cursing at the time was much more dependent on blasphemy than obscenity. The writers used words like motherfucker and cocksucker because they were much more shocking to modern sensibilities. This matches what I heard, too: if their swearing were historically accurate, they worried that their characters would sound, to modern ears, like Yosemite Sam. What was shocking and taboo in the nineteenth century, I can read aloud to fourth graders in the 21st century. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/92 "2020-04-22T16:48:02Z")
Rassin’ frassin’ rabbit… ---
**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:** [April 22, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/93 "2020-04-22T17:10:45Z")
“You yellow-bellied, lily-livered, cattle-rustlin’ varmint!” Just doesn’t have the same _oomph!_ as “cocksucker.” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wanderer2575](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@wanderer2575](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wanderer2575)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/94 "2020-04-22T17:17:37Z")
Some early _Star Trek_ comic strips had Spock saying things like “My stars, that was close” and “Something’s making my flesh crawl.” I’m pretty sure those aren’t canon. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/95 "2020-04-22T17:24:44Z")
This is a pet peeve of mine. Not a pronunciation thing but a usage thing. In one of my favorite TV shows, [Father Brown](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2215842/), his pal Felicia (Countess of Montague) often introduces herself as “Lady Felicia Montague.” A woman in her position would NEVER introduce herself using her title. She would simply be “Felicia Montague.” A couple of times she does it correctly, but usually not. They also refer to her as “Lady Felicia,” which strictly speaking, is also incorrect as I believe she acquired the title by marriage. So she ought to be Lady Montague. She would be “Lady Felicia” if she were the daughter of the Earl of Montague, not the wife. But it’s okay with me if they call her Lady Felicia for shits and giggles, as long as she stops referring to herself with the title. (Not likely to happen.) This is my primary comfort-food show to watch in these troubled times. I would like a pile of Mrs. McCarthy’s award-winning strawberry scones in front of me right now. Sigh. Have to settle for toast. ---
**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:** [April 22, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/96 "2020-04-22T17:28:40Z")
> [@wanderer2575](#): > > Some early _Star Trek_ comic strips had Spock saying things like “My stars, that was close” and “Something’s making my flesh crawl.” I’m pretty sure those aren’t canon. “My stars!” would be canon if it were _ **Bewitched** _. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/97 "2020-04-22T18:06:10Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The TV show _One Day at a Time_ was supposed to be set in Indianapolis, with characters who were native Hoosiers, but there were things popping up all the time that showed it was written by Californians. One was a reference to a politician’s recall election-- we don’t have those. This is really, really common on TV shows - writers will take laws from CA or NY and act like they apply to the whole country. So you get a lot of things like ‘we’ll check the gun registry’ in states that don’t have one, or the assumption that age of consent is 18 everywhere like in CA. > [@markn\_1](#): > > Yes that’s certainly true, and it’s obvious that the writer of the 1918 quote did not coin the use of the word as an epithet. But there are limits to what is reasonable. Deadwood is set in 1876 (I believe; I haven’t seen the show). Can you imagine a word being used in speech since 1976 or earlier, and then not appearing in print until 2018, 42 years later? The number of books published in 1876-1918 was staggeringly less than the number published in 1976-2018. Some figures I found showed around 8500 titles produced in the US in 1920, but approximately 600,000 titles in 2020. The tolerance for bad language in books was also much less, as was the interest in studying common language. Further, in 2020 we only have a subset of the books that were published in 1918 available for reference, while we have virtually everything from 2018. I don’t think you’re making a reasonable comparison there at all. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/98 "2020-04-22T18:35:50Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Yeah, close that can of worms right back up, before we start talking about how Perry Mason pronounces “Los Angle-less” or “Nevahda”, or how Jon Stewart pronounces “gif”. Yes, any time Nevada or Oregon comes up. If the character is supposed to be an East Coaster, fine. But like in Zombieland: Double Tap, the characters are supposed to be named after where they’re from, no? So Rosario Dawson mangling her own name is grating. In Sons of Anarchy, many of the “Californians” wreck it too. Interestingly, Geordie Charlie Hunnam does it right, though IIRC he somehow forgets in the last season. Another character does it right, I forget who. > [@Colibri](#): > > The American pronunciation is closer to the pronunciation in Spanish (with some differences in the vowels), with “gua” being a single syllable. > > Similarly the British pronunciation of jaguar is JAG-yu-ar, rather than the American JA-gwaar, which is similar to the Spanish (except for the pronunciation of “j” as “h.”) Britons and Australians have rather unique pronunciations of some Japanese words like Nissan and Mazda. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/99 "2020-04-22T18:44:23Z")
Re: Deadwood Cursing in the 1870’s would have been mild compared to what we normally hear today. So Milch decided to amp up the level cursing in the script for it to appear jarring to the average HBO viewer. As anyone from New York visiting Deadwood in the 1870’s would have reacted similarly to the language being spoken in Deadwood at that time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080/100 "2020-04-22T19:18:18Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > In the TV show “Hawthorne”, they refer to the highway as “The 64”. The show takes place in Richmond, Virginia. Prefacing the highway number with the definite article is unique to southern California. That is not true, Norcal people do it too and in other states. In any case, many Americans affect Britishisms , and American slang hit the UK like a ton of bricks. So the fact some Yank uses a britishism or some Brit uses some Slang doesnt mean the writers were wrong. I remember there was a argument that Brits said “Happy Christmas” and Yanks “Merry Christmas”. Except the little seasonal speech by the Queen saying “Merry”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-character-would-never-say-that/852080.md?page=6)