# Wow, the British can't even understand themselves1 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 21, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934 "2013-02-21T02:43:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/1 "2013-02-21T02:43:49Z")
[Stephen is defeated by a Newcastle Accent](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqRkkVQ6OSE) What the hell is Rich Hall doing here? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/2 "2013-02-21T02:58:54Z")
What is this word that appears in the thread title: themselves1 ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/3 "2013-02-21T03:08:09Z")
> [@astro](#): > > What the hell is Rich Hall doing here? He’s a frequent panelist on Qi - in fact, I don’t know him from anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/4 "2013-02-21T03:13:08Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > What is this word that appears in the thread title: themselves1 Oh sorry, that was going to be “\*\*U.S.A. Number 1 !!” \*\*but I just didn’t have the space. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/5 "2013-02-21T03:56:42Z")
Just go to school!!! ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/6 "2013-02-21T05:08:46Z")
Please, we’re just as bad - they have to do subtitles for “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo.” ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/7 "2013-02-21T05:20:23Z")
To be fair, he was defeated by someone’s version of a Newcastle accent, and it’s hardly surprising, there are many wonderful and varied English accents. ---
**Author:** ![Anomie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Anomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anomie)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/8 "2013-02-21T05:47:41Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > He’s a frequent panelist on Qi - in fact, I don’t know him from anywhere else. As his character Otis Lee Crenshaw he does a [wonderful, romantic ballad about prison rape](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHDJXMIv9KU). ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/9 "2013-02-21T06:06:04Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > To be fair, he was defeated by someone’s version of a Newcastle accent, and it’s hardly surprising, there are many wonderful and varied English accents. Yes. Despite what you’ve probably heard, Rich Hall is not actually from Newcastle at all…he’s from Virginia. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/10 "2013-02-21T06:09:20Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > He’s a frequent panelist on Qi - in fact, I don’t know him from anywhere else. If this is the same dude who had the show Onion World on the early days of CC, I know him from there. He also apparently coined the word (and produced books of) Sniglets. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/11 "2013-02-21T07:28:36Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Yes. Despite what you’ve probably heard, Rich Hall is not actually from Newcastle at all…he’s from Virginia. So that was a Virginian accent? It wouldn’t be the first time I couldn’t understand a Virginian. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/12 "2013-02-21T07:50:02Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > To be fair, he was defeated by someone’s version of a Newcastle accent, and it’s hardly surprising, there are many wonderful and varied English accents. Aye, it’s not actually a very good impression that Phil Jupitus is doing there – the only way you can tell that it’s meant to be Geordie is that he includes the word “canny” and ends the sentence with “like”. Which is, y’knaa, canny typical, like. I think Stephen just didn’t pick up on those clues, and then used that as cue to don his stuffy, pedantic old buffer persona for comedic purposes. He certainly seems to understand actual Geordies perfectly well: both [Ross Noble](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdGGZJTmqEU) (from Cramlington) and [Sarah Millican](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3PMWbexsJ0) (from South Shields) have been on the programme several times without any obvious communication problems. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/13 "2013-02-21T10:39:52Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > If this is the same dude who had the show Onion World on the early days of CC, I know him from there. He also apparently coined the word (and produced books of) Sniglets. I remember him from _Not Necessarily the News._ guess he’s still around. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/14 "2013-02-21T12:12:47Z")
Rich Hall moved to the UK a good many years ago and has had a fairly successful comedy career there. I think he married a British woman, but I may be thinking of someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Virgil\_Tibbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Virgil\_Tibbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Virgil_Tibbs)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/15 "2013-02-21T12:30:59Z")
According to Wikipedia, he was the inspiration for Moe Szyslak. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/16 "2013-02-21T13:06:56Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Please, we’re just as bad - they have to do subtitles for “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo.” But we have the same range of accents with a much larger area and population. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/17 "2013-02-21T14:07:46Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > But we have the same range of accents with a much larger area and population. I suspect you don’t quite have the same range. A small, immobile population over a period of centuries ensures wild diversity. Not sure that the USA has it to the same degree. My wife grew up 5 miles away from me, my dad from 60 miles away. They both have different accents (with my dad’s family being almost unintelligible at times). I knew where my wife was from just by the way she spoke. My own neck of the woods (originally NE England) is certainly rich in accents and tens of miles can see big differences. Even different _valleys_ can see big differences. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/18 "2013-02-21T14:16:44Z")
Still, it’s not as though the Brits are the only ones that can produce accents that are accessible only with difficulty even to other Brits. I’d say that close to 100 per cent of the people that start watching _The Wire_ end up saying something about they can’t always follow exactly what’s going on. And one could hardly blame them. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/19 "2013-02-21T16:00:51Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > If this is the same dude who had the show Onion World on the early days of CC, I know him from there. He also apparently coined the word (and produced books of) Sniglets. _Ignosecond._ ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934/20 "2013-04-24T06:36:51Z")
Rich Hall has done some excellent documentarys over here on American subjects such as [Westerns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKuw8MgvmAE) and [Indians](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMDy-1mXw4o) and the Deep South. I love his presenting style. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-the-british-cant-even-understand-themselves1/650934.md?page=2)