Amaz0ns - Cheer Detergent Tennis Player

cpbell0033944

| Registered | 2007-09-26 11:58:50

I'm amused by the fact that the laundry lady is English and has a London-ish "charwoman" accent. :lol:

Lingster - Charwomen

| Super Administrator | 2007-09-26 12:22:33

There's a stereotype of the British that you sometimes blithely pursue a role or "station" with a kind of absent-minded monomania.

Examples include:
The Bridge Over the River Kwai
All three Indiana Jones films
Countless Monty Python sketches

cpbell0033944 - American

| Registered | 2007-09-26 12:30:49

Isn't this an American advert? They have chosen that sterotype, in that case. We do not usually stereotype ourselves - it was Hollywood that gave us Dick van Dyke's dreadful "Mockney" accent and overdone "chripy chimney-sweep" act in Mary Poppins. We celebrate the things you mention because they're a part of our cultural identity, just like you lot go on about baseball and Hooter's girls. Yes, we see ourselves in a particular light, as your examples show, but every nationality does the same. Hold on, what the heck have Indiana Jones films got to do with it? Harrison Ford's American, not British!?

Lingster - Yep

| Super Administrator | 2007-09-26 16:13:31

It's an American advertisement that employs a stereotype of the British. In the Indiana Jones films, English actor Denholm Elliott played a recurring character named Dr. Marcus Brody who despite enormous competence in one narrow niche was totally incompetent at nearly everything else. The character of Indiana Jones has less encyclopedic knowledge than Marcus (who is in many ways his academic mentor), but Jones has far broader competencies.

This is a typical American depiction of British vs. American strengths.

cpbell0033944 - So...

| Registered | 2007-09-26 16:49:28

...according to Americans, we're all one-trick ponies, eh? Well, ask most Brits, and I think their view of Americans would be "Jacks of all trades but masters of none".

Lingster - That's the point

| Super Administrator | 2007-09-26 20:17:29

Many Americans value jacks of all trades. A recent theme on some conservative blogs is that American men are losing their breadth of competence - for example a smaller percentage of men have carpentry and mechanical skills than a generation ago.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.