hello, Ive been told that saying Americans cant find Europe on a map is xenophobic. well i didn't mean every American, fool. besides, don't the Americans like to take the piss out of the state, shape and colouration of British peoples teeth? Ive heard about the joke that they use English people for films like the remake of 'the hills have eyes' because our bad teeth saves hours every day in make up before the days filming begins.
the map reference joke i made was referring a TV show that stopped American tourists in the street and showed them a map and asked them to point to where they were, I'm sure they cut out the ones who got it right but it still left a lot of ones who pointed to places like Greenland, Africa, Russia and other mad places. but that isn't their fault, the blame lies with the American education system that doesn't spend much time teaching kids about the world outside the U.S borders- or so an American told me once in a pub, mind you he knew the difference between Mongolia and Iceland (we later spent our time 'bad teeth spotting, great fun but i now fear there may be some truth in it). oh well, we Brits have all got bad teeth and the Americans are lost on a map, there that settles that.
P.S, i also don't think that there is any harm in taking the piss out of cultural stereotypes anyway, after all are they usually not only wrong but biased against the culture in question? they can also be mildly insulting. so is it wrong to take the piss out of a nasty joke in the first place? personally i like to hear what preconceptions foreign people had before visiting Britain, if you add a few together from different countries then we are a nation of animal loving mad buck toothed beer bellied snobs who like a good fight to finish off a decent meal, and of course we all think that everyone in the world speaks English and as for London, well London is still full of punk rockers and skinheads fighting, bowler hatted and stripe suited men with the times under their arms sporting handlebar moustaches and a stout umbrella, and cobbled streets that are full of drunk mockney voiced singing prostitutes and thick smog hiding dirty faced cheeky young street urchins ready to pick a ladies purse. we are also all supposed to be related to royalty.
That is a collection of images real people had about London before visiting i had collected, because i found them as wrong as i did amusing. on the other side of the coin is when, only a couple of years ago an Irish friend was asked if they had fax machines yet in Ireland, now we all laughed at the blokes question, clearly he had an image of Ireland as a 'horse and cart' backwards country where they die if they don't grow enough potatoes, my Irish mate was speechless and a little insulted at such an ignorant question but i enjoyed it for its innocent Micky mouse imagery, just as i like to hear stereotypes about the English good or bad, i consider them just a simple ignorance that can soon be changed, harmless and a good source of entertainment (have you heard that the french used to eat people in pagan religious rituals until the Romans stopped them?).
there is a difference between them and racist jokes which are meant to demean other people for reasons of racial supremacy.
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
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