Why Are Fantasy World Accents British? 516
kodiaktau writes "An interesting article from the BBC News Magazine explores the reasons why most fantasy worlds use British as their primary accent. Citing specific examples from recent and upcoming shows and movies like Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and Game of Thrones, the article concludes British accents are 'sufficiently exotic,' 'comprehensible' and have a 'splash of otherness.' It would be odd to think of a fantasy world having a New Jersey accent, or even a Mid-West accent, which tends to be the default for TV and movies in the U.S., but how do UK viewers feel about having British as a default? More specifically, what about the range of UK accents, like Scottish, Welsh, Cockney? The International Dialects of English Archive shows at least nine regional sounds, with dozens of sub-regional pronunciations in England alone. In the U.S., there have always been many regional accents that might be used in interesting ways. Filmmakers should consider looking at speech accents from other areas of the world to create more interesting dialects."
Abstraction (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand as an Irishman I often find it hard to find escapism in Irish TV and to a lesser extent, film. The familiarity of it all doesn't work as well while on the other hand so much of our media is American that even when I visit the USA there is an element of otherworldliness about the whole experience.
Now think in American. (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine The Lord of the Rings where all the Hobbits had Brooklyn accents.
Other enough to be unusual but still understandable but evoking an entirely different genre (mafia crime drama).
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember Rome [imdb.com]. They used accents from all over the place (mostly UK variants it has to be said) to give a feeling of being different, but still understandable. It worked really well.
British accents tend to used for villains too... which could be seen as insulting... but actually is quite flattering when you think about it. Really scary villains are intelligent... really intelligent... and Americans associate British accents with being smart (wrongly, but there it is).
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Informative)
As a Russian, I can tell you that I vastly prefer American movies about Russians where they all speak English (and I guess at that point they have to use accents to make it sound "foreign") over those where they actually try to put Russian in there - because I haven't seen a single movie where it wasn't hilariously wrong in both accent and sentence structure.
Remember that scene in "Red Dawn" where a Soviet soldier tries to read the sign (in English) at the national park, has to make most of it up because of his poor command of the language, which results in a hilarious "translation"? Well, that scene is doubly hilarious if you're a Russian, because his actual speech is about as close to the English subtitles, as the subtitles themselves are to what's on the sign...
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Remember Rome [imdb.com]. They used accents from all over the place (mostly UK variants it has to be said) to give a feeling of being different, but still understandable. It worked really well.
In the Eagle [2011], I found that the Romans with American accents was an instant immersion killer. I cannot explain why considering giving them English accents should be just as wrong. I guess its something we have grown used to and now expect. Perhaps Romans should have regional Italian accents. Would Italian accents make for better or worse Romans? On a side note it was nice to hear Gaelic in a film even if it was largely Irish Gaelic used.
Certain accents go well with certain types of films. Unleas
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine Romeo & Juliet set in NYC with singing & dancing street gangs....oh, wait
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Funny)
Someone out West may Side with you on that Story.
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Informative)
Imagine The Lord of the Rings where all the Hobbits had Brooklyn accents.
Fah gedda boudit [youtube.com]
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Informative)
More like this, probably [youtube.com]
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Interesting)
As I said in an earlier comment, Tolkien was a linguist and as such was extraordinarily sensitive to linguistic nuances like accent and the effect of social class on speech. If you render the common tongue as English, and keep in mind the history and social status of the various characters, choosing an accent becomes pretty obvious.
Actually if you wanted to Americanize LOTR, the Hobbits would have Southern accents (country bumpkins), the Rohirrim Texan accents (close to the Hobbits, still country but a little more refined), and the Gondorians a neutral General American/ Received Pronunciation accent (educated middle/upper-class).
I'd give the Elves a French accent (refined and a little snooty) when speaking the Common Tongue. Quenya played the role of Latin in Middle Earth (dead language used for formal purposes), and Sindarin was an everyday language evolved from it, so a Romance language would be the closest social analog to it. To an American listener a French accent would best convey the extreme refinement and cultured history (not to mention snobbishness) of the Elves. If you wanted to get even more specific I'd give Elrond and the Rivendell elves a French Canadian accent and the Galadhrim a Parisian accent. Linguistically, a Welsh accent would be most appropriate, as Sindarin was patterned after Welsh, but it just doesn't have the same social/class implications that French does.
If anyone had a Brooklyn accent, it would be a Dwarf. Tolkien explicitly equated the Dwarves with the Jews, and based Khuzdul on Hebrew... so a Brooklyn accent would be extremely appropriate for working-class Dwarves like Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur. Dwarvish nobility like Gimli and Thorin would have a milder, upper-class Jewish accent.
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Funny)
If anyone had a Brooklyn accent, it would be a Dwarf. Tolkien explicitly equated the Dwarves with the Jews, and based Khuzdul on Hebrew... so a Brooklyn accent would be extremely appropriate for working-class Dwarves like Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur. Dwarvish nobility like Gimli and Thorin would have a milder, upper-class Jewish accent.
So, for real authenticity, Dwarvish should be Yiddish? The only problem with that is that Yiddish has been a comic language in Western pop language for so long (thanks to decades of awesome Jewish-American comedians) that it would reduce the Dwarves to comic relief.
Oh, wait, we're talking about the LOTR movies, where the dwarves WERE reduced to comic relief. Right. Carry on.
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Informative)
Good point, but he spoke early modern It had a heavy brogue and sounded semi-Scottish. Also it was pre-vowel shift, so it sounded little like modern British.
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Informative)
The niyhtingale in hire thoyhte
athold al this, & longe thoyhte
wat ho tharafter miyhte segge:
vor ho ne miyhte noyht alegge
that the hule hadde hire ised,
vor he spac bothe riyht an red.
An hire ofthuyhte that ho hadde
the speche so for uorth iladde,
an was oferd that hire answare
ne wurthe noyht ariyht ifare.
The bottom line is, if you can understand it, it's not Middle English. (Diachronous linguistics geeks excepted, of course.)
Re:Now think in American. (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you can't understand it even if you *are* a diachronous linguistics geek, it's Old English. That's simply a different language.
Re:Now think in American. (Score:5, Insightful)
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I thought King Arthur was Celtic (speaking Latin with a Celtic accent) and fought against the Anglo Saxon invaders. And that Robin Hood spoke French, so English would be fake for him no matter what accent is used (not that the movie goers would ever accept this).
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As Robin Hood was a member of the yeomanry, rather than the nobility, he would have spoken something like Old English but with Middle English grammar, and would probably have sounded Dutch to our ears. If he spoke French, it was because he was speaking the foreign language of the nobility, not because he spoke it natively. I expect that he would be as likely to speak French as would the average Russian during the Napoleonic invasions (like Platon, vs. Pierre B., using War And Peace characters).
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Believe it or not Scorsese actually took that into consideration. Link [stevefranklinmsw.com]
Harvey Keitel as Judas has been the subject of debate because of his NYC accent. Scorsese chose to depict Colloquial language, Generally choosing a “formal” British accent for Romans, and various other accents (American, Canadian, Southern, New York,etc for the common people, such as those Jesus associated with. Scorsese’s research showed that Galilean accent was strong, ridiculed in Jerusalem.
Or:
I mean, basically, they say, okay, this is a defense, in a way. We don't have to get too emotionally involved because this happened a long time ago and people spoke funny. We said no, this man talks like you, talks like me, some guy has a Brooklyn accent, another guy has a Canadian accent... where does it say that everybody in ancient Judea spoke by listening to the BBC?
I was going to link to a clip of Tony Curtis saying "Yonder lies the castle of my fodda" in The Black Shield of Falworth but turns out that's apocryphal...but dig how thick the Brooklynese is in this bit from Son of Ali Baba. [youtube.com] Point being that Scorsese at least put some thought into these matters, unlike the wholly cavalier attitude that obtained before. Not that people don't put LTOC on lists of 10 Worst Film Accents anyway.
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Here's another thought: Think about Vikings specifically. Most often, they are portrayed with either English or Scottish accents (usually the more brutish characters get Scottish) and occasionally Californian (particularly children or teens). Why?
Please take a moment, and imagine Mighty Thor making his presence known in a bouncing, Swedish lilt. Not one that necessarily does the Swedes justice (many speak English in a very near British accent), but something more like the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Sh
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I dare you to watch Hrafninn flýgur (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087432/) then come back and say that Vikings in movies can't speak anything but English or Scottish.
Re:Abstraction (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Abstraction (Score:5, Insightful)
But British accents have undergone enormous amounts of mutation as well. In some ways, they have made more changes than American English since Victorian times.
So, while Americans associate a British accent with what should be appropriate for medieval times, because they're living where the language was spoken during medieval times, the accent being used is still anachronistic, and just as inappropriate as a Jersey accent.
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Most cheddar cheese is orange? Most cheddar I have seen is a shade of yellow.
Eh... getting the colors accurate is difficult. Cheddar cheese is naturally "white cheddar". The yellow/orange cheddar that you get is adulterated.
Not any sort of simplified accent from the New World or any other distant colony like Australia, South Africa, or New Zealand.
I think you'll find that you're backwards. The American accent is less simplified than any British accent.
The fact is that British English is the only authentic English still spoken. The various UK accents (Irish and Scottish can be included) are certainly more directly descended from Old English than any form of colonial English.
Actually, you're incorrect. They're all equally as descended from medieval English. Just because the UK accents have remained in the same place the whole time does not mean that they failed to change, and in fact, it's common that dialects and accents from a
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Yes, but why does it have to be a native English-speaker's accent at all?
The most logical choice would actually be a French accent, as that was a very commonly understood language even in Britain, where the Norman French-speakers took over. Modern French is different than medieval French, of course, but so is English, and if we're making it English anyways, just adding a French accent will do.
Re:Abstraction (Score:5, Interesting)
I have to agree with this article, I've always assumed it was just the American preconception of "old worlde". Different enough to be remote but still in the same language.
This is exactly why Tolkien chose to render Rohirric as Old English -- Rohirric had roughly the same old-but-understandable relationship to Westron (common speech) as Old English has to Modern English. (Incidentally, this creates one of the biggest challenges in translating LotR to other languages)
Tolkien was a linguist above all else, and as such was incredibly sensitive to linguistic nuances, something that's lost on most casual readers. Nevertheless, his work has had a huge influence on modern fantasy and sci-fi. Writers (consciously or unconsciously) mimic elements of Tolkien's style without necessarily understanding why he did it that way.
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Old English? Yeah, I liked it when Theoden-king stood up and said "Hwæt, we gardena in geardagum, eodcyninga rym gefrunon, hu ða æelingas ellen fremedon!"
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Rohirric had roughly the same old-but-understandable relationship to Westron (common speech) as Old English has to Modern English.
Huh? Old English is not even vaguely understandable - I don't even recognise most of the letters. I thought to myself that reading Beowulf in it's original format would be interesting. It would be, but I'd need to put serious time into learning a new language.
Re:Abstraction (Score:4, Informative)
Have you ever tried to read Chaucer? That's Middle English. As for Old English - trust me you (nor I) stand a chance! Modern English dialects are much closer together than what might have be termed dialects back then but there is still a huge difference in accents and many terms and words even today across regions. Then throw in Cumbric, Kentish and many other old languages into the mix. Cumbric was still in sporadic use in the 20th C. That's just in England. Then you have Welsh, Irish and Scots with all the same complexities that exist and existed in England with dialects and probably outright different languages in different regions and ages.
The UK and Eire are a small area landwise but a fair diversity in culture still remains - and long may it continue (IMNSHO).
Have a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaucer [wikipedia.org] there's some samples from his writings with translations. I'm a native en_GB speaker and I find it tough going.
Re:Abstraction (Score:4, Informative)
Knowing modern German would be more useful than English for trying to make anythuing out in Old English.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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I think it started to a large extent with Star Wars. George Lucas wanted the "Rebels" to sound American and the "Empire" to sound British, to evoke the "Revolutionary" feel of the American Revolution.
Many other movies have used this (Pirates of the Caribbean, for instance).
Also, don't forget that George was completely vilified for making some characters sound Asian [wikia.com] and Jamaican [blogspot.com] in the Prequels.
Re:Abstraction (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Abstraction (Score:4, Interesting)
It does. Syndicated US TV shows are enormous in Ireland, to the point where most programming on Irish television, certainly drama programming, is probably made in the US.
It is effectively expected that in high budget shows, particularly crime dramas and films, the actors will have Americans accents. UK accents will be accepted, to a point, but a film like Die Hard either set in the UK, or having leads with UK accents will certainly not work.
One of the most unusual film experiences I had in recent years was watching "The Wind That Shakes the Barley", a war film set during the Irish war of independence and the civil war. It was frankly a bit surreal to see all the drama, conflict, tragedy, war, bloodshed, and death being played out by people with Irish accents. It was a mentally relieving whenever black and tans would show up to provide a more traditional accent to the manic proceedings.
Occasionally, the Irish broadcaster RTE produces dramas set in Dublin, etc and played by Irish actors. They invariably flop. People can't suspend their disbelief when a drama is set, literally, in their home town, in the very streets and buildings they've been in themselves.
No. But I will note that when the UK director Gerry Anderson produced Thunderbirds, for a UK audience, he gave the puppets US accents.
(I also feel obliged to mention that, for myself personally, meeting someone with a US accent in the flesh is often a surreal experience. It feels a bit like some kind of a line---probably a glass screen of some kind---has been crossed. The effect has significantly diminished over time, now only a lingering one. And it only occurs for US accents.)
Re:Abstraction (Score:4, Informative)
Does Bugs Bunny sound sexy to you?
No. But I will note that when the UK director Gerry Anderson produced Thunderbirds, for a UK audience, he gave the puppets US accents.
Jessica Rabbit does :)
The thunderbirds puppets were modelled on the US astronauts, so its not unreasonable that (at the time) futuristic people were American. I guess its the same as today where all the terrorists are middle eastern.
There are a lot of British accents in Hollywood... but they're usually the badguy, with the hero as an apple-pie-eating-all-american guy, like Tom Cruise.
I think its alll about keeping things simple for the US audiences, the bad guy speaks with a British accent, the good guy has an American one, the terrorist is dark and swarthy, the charming rogue is Irish... stereotypes make it easy for the audience to know what to expect from that character.
why do you have a northern accent? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:why do you have a northern accent? (Score:4, Informative)
*Arguably, this one could go either way.
(Doctor Who and grammar. We all need our little obsessions.)
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True, but no so far a cry from northern Gallifrey. Oh wait....
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Well, that's because the TARDIS telepathically translates everything for you. No doubt because of the way it works it also translates the accents to fit the roles.
Obvious... (Score:5, Funny)
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I've heard some of those British shows. I find it easier to understand Spanish. And I don't even SPEAK Spanish.
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I know you're making a joke, but my preschooler's teacher (English but in New Mexico) was going to visit her family and was asked whether or not they spoke English in England... When she told me that my response was that they may know a version of English, but they certainly don't speak American. I think I'll go smoke a fag and hit the loo. Bloody hell. Bullocks.
Re:Obvious... (Score:4, Insightful)
Bollocks!
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Do we even need to be asking such an obvious question? British is the foreign language that Americans are most likely to understand...
Perhaps the more obvious question is why do you consider "British" a foreign language? Or one that Americans need to "understand"?
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Do we even need to be asking such an obvious question? British is the foreign language that Americans are most likely to understand...
Perhaps the more obvious question is why do you consider "British" a foreign language? Or one that Americans need to "understand"?
As a Brit living in New York I find that alot of people find it very difficult to understand me (especially people with South American or Chinese descent), and even my girlfriend (native New Yorker) often has difficulty. She said that for the first 2 months after we met she understood about 20% of what I said. My accent is pretty standard for southern England and should therefore be pretty easy to understand. I often get the feeling that British English really is a foreign language.
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It helps if you unclench your jaw when you speak.
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It helps if you unclench your jaw when you speak.
So I should mimic 'Cletus the slack-jawed yokel' [wikia.com]? :P
Old World (Score:5, Insightful)
For Americans, I would assume it's because we associate fantasy with the Old World because that's where most of our myths and legends originate. And they have castles. And among the Old World, England is our closest tie (as well as speaking the same language). The majority of fantasy settings are basically just medieval-Europe-plus-wizards-and-dragons even if a location isn't given (or it takes place on another world)
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Re:Old World (Score:4, Informative)
Actually modern American English sounds more... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, but we associate wrong because modern American English actually sounds more like old English than does modern British English.
Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are ABOUT England (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit use British accents -- they're written by an English author and are fundamentally ABOUT England (a.k.a. the Shire).
Re:Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are ABOUT Engl (Score:5, Funny)
One does not merely walk into Parliament.
However, one can try to merely tunnel under Parliament with a good bit of gunpowder...
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That was my immediate response to this. Lord of the Rings is a book written by a British author, inspired by old English (i.e. Celtic/Norse/Germanic) mythology, set in a world that is based on England. Why would you not have English accents? It's not quite as bad as asking, "Why do do the characters in 'Gone With the Wind' seem like they're from the American South?" but it's close.
I'm not as familiar with Game of Thrones, but I assume it's based on similar stuff. Tolkien is the grand-daddy of a lot of
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whilst there is a good analogy between the little British people (hobbits) kicking the stuff out of the evil empire of Sauron (Hitler), the entire world is based around anglo-saxon myths, so technically it includes Britain, and the northern Germanic and Scandinavian countries.
Dwarves come from the north part of Middle Earth, so it's natural they got Scottish accents, but they could so easily have been Norwegian instead.
The shire, BTW, is Warwickshire (that's wa-rick-shire), there's still a 'tolkien trail' [telegraph.co.uk] a
Age (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a question of cultural depth - America is largely a cultural offshoot of the UK. So when you want a voice for a 'centuries old' sort of tale, you go British. Conversely, the American accent has an association with Modern.
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That's what I was thinking - England is old school compared to the US. And for a large part, big budget movies are tailored for American audiences and the rest of the world is a secondary market that will contribute any way.
For example, last time I was in Europe I stayed with my father in Vienna - His apartment was a couple of hundred years older than the United States. My duplex in the US is ancient because it was built all the way back in the 50's.
Dragons and wizards are from a long time ago - English.
Medieval times (Score:3, Insightful)
Most fantasy settings are based in medieval times, and America didn't have English, let alone feudalism and other aspects common in fantasy novels. British accents just fit the real world time period we associate with fantasy settings.
Re:Medieval times (Score:4, Funny)
Dwarves (Score:2)
Re:Dwarves (Score:4, Funny)
Any why are Dwarves always Scottish?
Have you ever *heard* a Scottish person talk? C'mon.
Karen Gillan = sexiest dwarf ever!
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I'll have what he's having, bartender.
Also fantasy = medieval (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course another main reason is that general fantasy is most closely linked with the European medieval period. In that period English speakers were generally going to be speaking with an accent from Great Britain. It would strike us as strange to hear someone in a historical medieval period using a NJ accent for much the same reason that it does in fantasy.
It's obvious: (Score:2)
SWTOR (Score:2)
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I was going to add that if you consider using other dialects [wikipedia.org] or accents [wikipedia.org] for [wikipedia.org] villains, you're a racist. [salon.com]
Maybe because that is where they are based on? (Score:3)
It might have something to do with the fact that the fictional country Game of Thrones is set in (at least in the TV show, not very subtly either) is based off of England. The politics and geography bears an extremely striking resemblance.
And Tolkien (British) created the Shire in The Hobbit and LotR based off British countryside. Fantasy, in particular, is almost universally set in a Middle-Age-England-type setting and is often based heavily off of their mythology. It almost wouldn't make sense not to have a British accent. Don't blame the Americans: the British were doing that a long time before Americans were (hell, before America was even a colony). And of course Narnia (by C.S. Lewis, British) is actually set partly in England as is Harry Potter (again, a British writer).
Because these fantasies are based on Britain (Score:5, Insightful)
Star Wars Accents (Score:3)
It's dangerous thinking such as that which lead to the atrocity known as Jar Jar Binks. In all seriousness, look at the accents of Watto, Yoda, the head honchos of the Trade Federation, Emperor Palpatine, Admiral Ackbar, Jango Fett, etc.
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And the use of those accents led to accusations of ethnic stereotyping. It's a very dangerous path to traverse in our hypersensitive society and I don't blame filmmakers from avoiding the subject altogether.
why does the Geico Gecko have a British accent? (Score:3)
I'm not an advertising exec, but I bet you there is some study some where that Americans subconsciously associate British accents with greater trustworthiness and/ or authority
As for fantasy worlds: I disagree, the fantasy worlds cited are specifically medieval in quality, which conjures Europeanness, which conjures Britishness, as Americans don't deal well with foreign languages: no Flemish cave trolls or Hungarian dragons, for example (nevermind Cornish, Welsh, or Gaelic).
If we were talking FUTURE fantasy worlds, Avatar or Star Trek, for example, there is no association with Britishness. Although, Australian accents and actors figure heavily in that realm. Which is a whole other subject matter?:
Britain: the past, Australia: the future, from an American perspective.
(sorry Kiwis, Americans tend to group your accent with Australia, I don't want to step on any issues of national pride here)
Next question: (Score:4, Insightful)
Why are is the evil scientists always speaking with a German accent?
The "Mid-West" accent? (Score:4, Funny)
...Mid-West accent...
Wait, we have an accent?
I mean, there are jokes about California "valley girls" and Brooklyn accents, but those are stereotypes and most people from the coasts don't actually talk like that. So... if the universal average of the English language is the "Mid-West" accent... wouldn't that mean we don't have an accent?
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(Who said "universal average of the English language is the "Mid-West" accent" anyway? Is that in TFA or something? If ever a citation was needed it was with that bizarre statement!)
General American/Standard American English [wikipedia.org]. This is the accent that most anchors attempt to emulate as it is generally regarded as the most easily accessible accent. The article has a nice depiction of where the local accent is closest to SAE... you'll notice its location in the Midwest.
Now, for (unnecessary?) qualifications: I'm not saying that SAE is the "universal average of the English language". It's just widely adopted as the most clear and articulate way to speak by the media industry. And this does
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A while ago you could spot the Indian guy who learned British standard. That's less common now. So when people try to reduce their accent, they're going to try emulating American standard.
I'm gonna need another citation for that. Indian people who speak English when living in places like, say India or England, certainly don't try to emulate American "standard" (whatever that is). The tendency for ex-pats who moderate their accents is to moderate towards the prevailing local accent, like the guy I know from Turkey who has moderated his accent towards Mancunian because he has lived in Manchester for so long.
Re:The "Mid-West" accent? (Score:4, Informative)
The standard term is General American [wikipedia.org]" (GE) or "Standard American Accent" (SAE). It's not an average (or even just average).
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The midwest accent as "standard" is actual a radio thing. Apparently, the American midwest accent was the most intelligible over poor-quality radio back in the day, so most people on the radio had to cultivate an American midwest accent.
I'm not sure (though I'm doubtful) that this was true in Britain.
BBC English in those days was very prim and proper, I don't know if anyone on the street spoke like that but we see a lot of it in the old TV and films of the day. Only the Queen comes close to sounding like that nowadays.
The BBC has embraced a regional accents in their nationwide broadcasting more recently. I particularly like listening to Hugh Edwards who has a nice soft Welsh accent.
Obvious (Score:4, Funny)
Because there's no better fantasy shared by the common public than to escape to than one of rainy weather, bland food, a stifling bureaucracy, and one of the largest surveillance networks concieved of.
It's obviously a made-up world, with their shillings and their stones - one where cars wear boots... I mean, that's just pure insanity.
GPS must be British! (Score:3)
I can't wait to hear the answer from our British friends. As an American, I have an odd fascination for the British accent (and Australian accent too) and love hearing it. I even set my GPS to speak British English instead of American English. Seems I am certainly not alone in this, either.
How about it? Do the British (and even Australians) have any similar fascination with hearing American accents?
Accent fail (Score:3)
Anyone ever see that godawful film Alexander starring Colin Farrel as Alex the Great? They gave the Macedonians Irish accents! That was even more distracting than the constant jumping back and forth between three different time periods and creepy chemistry between Farrel and Angelina Jolie who was supposed to be his mom!
Re:Accent fail (Score:5, Funny)
The Princess Bride? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Emma Peel ... (Score:3)
Emma Peel, as played by Diana Rigg is the reason why all of my fantasies involve a British accent.
Oh, wait, did you mean something else?
Its a Jersey thing (Score:4, Funny)
Want an Elf Queen that talks like Fran Drescher? (Score:3)
No. Nobody wants that.
Re:Simple, really (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple, really (Score:5, Informative)
- Free healthcare to all, at much cheaper rates than the US private healthcare system. I've tried both, and I'd take the NHS in a heart-beat.
The NHS has its ups and downs but we count ourselves very lucky for having it as well as private healthcare providers like Bupa.
- Significantly subsidized education. You don't come out of college desperate to find a job to pay off your immense loans.
Desperate to find a job, maybe, but our student loans aren't taken out privately - for the most part - so the repayments are actually quite reasonable. In fact, the first £15k (around the $23k mark) of your earnings are disregarded when it comes to calculating repayments.
- They're not currently at war with any chemicals, nouns, or indeed any nation-states as far as I'm aware.
Some chemicals are very much targeted, but punishments are nowhere near as harsh as those in the US. Words... well, so long as you aren't encouraging violence, intolerance, etc. you're pretty much free to say what you want, including insults directed towards the Royal Family (see point the First). As for nation-states that depends entirely on who the US is after at the moment :P, but suffice it to say we don't have it in for Cuba; it's 4,500 miles away.
- There's no gate-rape or sanctioned government-grope at the borders
Nope, free travel between EU nations in particular is a wonderful thing and we've learned to take the rough with the smooth. We have enough home-grown nutcases anyway.
- They don't have 1 in every 31 adults [wikipedia.org] behind bars or on parole / being monitored. Think about that for a second. One in Thirty-one.
Amen to that. That statistic is quite saddening and I'm given to understand that many inmates are imprisoned for relatively minor drug offences.
- They live longer, and have less infant deaths
A double-edged sword, since we're careening towards the same pension crisis as many other nations. Infant mortality, however, is a bad thing however one looks at it.
- They have a genuine choice in politics - left, center, or right. As opposed to right and crazy-town here in the US.
LOL! Our choice is basically pro-business toffs (Tory - blue), pro-union spendaholics (Labour - red) and the Liberal Democrats, whose yellow ties should give some indication as to their character.
(I actually vote LD for their progressive social policies and attitude toward proportional representation... and partly because I'm curious to see how they would screw things up)
- Their police won't handcuff you, lie you on the floor, then shoot you dead [wikipedia.org] on a subway train.
Generally, no they won't, and the fact that most of them don't carry firearms, but the ones that do have been known to shoot people before [wikipedia.org] boarding a subway train. That was a dark day, but in our defence most of the nation was in uproar over it.
- No metal-detectors needed at schools. Schools, for $deity sake!
Not yet, thankfully, but we need to sort out the problem of knife crime, which is preferable to gun crime but still lethal.
- There's no software patents :)
Yes, but given that the blues are in charge and the reds seem keen on the idea too I think it's only a matter of time even without US pressure.
All told, the UK society seems to be functioning as well as any enlightened Western society should, unlike the USA. On th
Re: (Score:3)
That should be obvious. The target audience doesn't want to have to read. The accents keep reminding you that you are in a different country.
It's no different from the ridiculous computer programs that crime dramas use. They want to tell you what the computer is doing without either the actors explaining it, or having to read anything other than the word "Searching..." while faces pop up on a screen.
I think it's the best of both worlds - maintaining the culture as well as possible, but integrating the au
Re:Because to Americans (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
I'm allowed - I are one. I don't live there now and haven't in more than a decade, but that's where my family's from and where I were born. Even though I mostly grew up elsewhere, "Howdy" and "y'all" are part of my regular lexicon. Although I'm not redneck enough to ever use the two together.
Re:Because to Americans (Score:4, Funny)
Strider sidles into the Prancing Pony, spurs jingling.
STRIDER:
Howdy, y'all!
BUTTERBUR:
Whatcha drankin', pardner?
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Arlen, Texas Accent:
Strider Hill: It's dangerous out there, I'll tell you what.
Butterboomhauer: Big ol' dang ol' um talkin' 'bout Nazgul, man.
Re: (Score:3)
At the same time, characters with a Jersey accent sound arrogant and idiotic, a southern drawl makes them sound dumb, hick, and quite possibly inbred and crazy, and a Texan accent makes them sound all of the above.
FTFY :P
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Is it really a mystery? (Score:4, Funny)
"Fantasy" themes are generally based on mythical creatures and legends that stem from the UK. Hell even today you can't scan through 8hrs of BBC without finding something that is based on Robin Hood, Arthur/Merlin, Druids, or Sherlock Holmes so apparently the UK associates the UK with these themes as well. They even continue to add to it, the latest popular addition being Harry Potter. Again tying sorcery with the UK.
Yes, and what does the US have to offer in the way of rich cultural brogue?
Jersey Shore.
No wonder people look elsewhere to try and put an emphasis on rich culture in fantasy. Needless to say, you're not going to get the same look at feel with a fat orange midget running around Hogwarts looking for the tanning salon.
Re:There's no such thing as a "British" accent. (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely correct, and yet also so wrong. Yes, there are regional British accents, but when considered as a whole they are clearly distinct from American ones. Any fool can identify that someone from Cornwall or Glasgow is clearly not American, and if you take someone from New Jersey or Texas nobody is going to mistake them for someone from Yorkshire.
Re:There's no such thing as a "British" accent. (Score:4, Insightful)
Reminds me of a story I heard on NPR years ago. The Scottish speaker said he was at an American dinner party when someone used the term "you Brits". He kept looking around until he realized she was referring to him. He didn't consider himself British, so to answer the question, "Who is British?" he told a story that went something like this:
As a young college student attending freshman orientation at Oxford, he met a nice fellow from Wales. They discovered that, if they both spoke slowly, they could just understand each other through their strong regional accents. They both needed a flatmate and so decided to room together. Finding a flat listed in the paper at a reasonable location and price, they set forth. The woman who answered the door spoke such a thick Irish brogue that neither of them could understand a word she said. So, she fetched a gentleman from down the hall to act as interpreter. But his cockney accent was so severe they couldn't understand him, either. Eventually, he pointed at the newspaper listing, she held out her open hand, and the two of them put in the first month's rent. So, which of them is British? His conclusion was that, technically, they all were, but in practice they were all something else. He supposed the Queen was authentically British, but if anyone asks, he's a Scotsman!