What? You mean that Americans are all Germans over there?
Ooh! Ooh! But they come in many varieties!
There’s the basic Suburbanite WASP:
“Well, you just know how these things go, I mean, just TRY to get a good <<food item>> over here.”
There’s the basic Yenta from Suburban Hell, who sounds JUST like Harvey Feirstein, except a little less feminine. (Substitute cigarette for chewing gum)
“Listen, darling, if my daughter paid one TENTH as much attention to getting a hustband as she does to that so-called ‘career’ of hers–well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be wasting my time over here.”
And then there’s the Hill Folk Faded Flower:
“Well, if they ain’t got just the CUTEST li’l people over here!”
I don’t know who the SOB is but we need to find him because he is giving us a bad name. 
When travelling overseas, the older american couple will wear matching, pastel coloured, two piece jogging suits with their respective names written above the left breast pocket.
Their names are most likely to be Randy/John/Billy-Bob and Martha/Mary/Mary-Jo.
I’ve noticed something of a backlash to the stereotype. The Americans I meet are still fatter and somewhat more provincial than other anglophones but the brashness and obnoxiousness has seemed to drop a few levels. Tour guides and guide books often warn Americans in particular to not be so boorish. As a result, Australians, Brits, Canadians and New Zealanders have overtaken the Americans as far as repulsiveness of attitude (if not appearance). I’ve met Americans who’ve taken to sporting a maple leaf on their rucksacks as a kind of pre-emptive measure to counter hostility. Unfortunately, these culturally aware souls are rarely the types that need to take such measures when there are Australians (or Brits, Canucks, Kiwis…) on the same tour bus boasting of the number of bongs they pulled in the hostel on the previous night. Meanwhile, poor Randy is sitting reading his bible, keeping his head down and moderating his, quite charming, Texan drawl. As ever, YMMV.
Well, most 19-22 year-olds are idiots when they’re on holiday. I think the american accent is easily identifiable and so they stand out a little.
I grew up in the South in a town of 2,000 people surrounded by farm country. We dressed like everybody else in those middle class suburban high schools. The girls poured over issues of Seventeen and Glamour before updating our wardrobes. The year I went to college, one of Glamour magazine’s ten best dressed college girls was from a neighboring small town. That was in the early1960’s. We’ve been “normal” for a long time now.
I feel reasonably certain the same is true for the other areas you mentioned.
I always thought the American Stereotype as being some old white guy with a blond pointy chin beard, tall hat, and a Red, White and Blue suit
When I was in Seville about ten years ago there was a travel agent with a big cartoon globe with little cartoon representations of various peoples from around the world as described in Photog’s post. For America there was a serious-looking professional woman complete with power suit, briefcase, and sneakers (clearly she was on her way to work).
Acsenray wins! I have to agree that the trait that stands out most amongst we Australians, is the ‘lacking humility’ observation (in general, of course - as all stereotypes are). That usually extends to a perception of ‘self-promotion’ and
superiority complexes. Get them alone, though, and they’re just the same as most of us - ‘nice’ people. 
Tom Arnold does a brilliant “stereotypical American”. He’s big and loud… I guess to some degree, Americans are seen as larger than life.
It was a few years back now, but I was in Munich the summer after the wall came down. The East Germans were just allowed to spend their money as if it was equal in value to the West German money (the W. Germans took a hit to help the East).
At the beer house, I was sitting at the table with a couple of Aussie girls and about 6 E. Germans. When they heard I was from California, one E. German man said, “California? Ahhh. Whiskey!”. He then got his friends to sing in English, “Home on the range.” It was pretty impressive because they only spoke a little English.
It was clear their vision of an American and especially a Californian was straight out an old west movie. Of course they had lived all their lives under Soviet East German government.
This is more a matter of opinion than fact, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Yep, HOMER SIMPSON has become the symbol of Stereo type American.
American Women are always Blondes with wierd and high hairdos and big breasts.
They smile. Always. So much that you can see all their teeth. Like the haunting images from Wal-Mart ads. To a German a person who smiles that way without a good reason is either on drugs or has something to hide