They bust into someone's premises, clearing with MP5s and shotguns at the ready, but in the story there's always a justification, such as pipe bombs or perhaps a hostage. They always get the bad guys and it never goes wrong, unless of course they are held back from protecting people by nasty laws that restrict police powers. I think that's a fair generalisation.
At this point, I'm compelled to explain to anyone who may misinterpret what I'm saying as being anti-gun: I'm extremely pro-gun, quite Jeffersonian in my outlook, but am against the idea that police 'know best' at all times and should be given unlimited powers, that's all. In fact, this ties in with the pro-gun philosophy - there needs to be an unorganised citizen force to counterbalance the power of state armies and police forces, whose power must be kept in check.
"As we learned from the Clinton administration and much of the media, a machine gun in the hands of a federal agent is now a symbol of benevolence and concern for a child's well-being." - James Bovard
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DANGER: What follows is an intermission that may contain popular culture. It's a trace ingredient that is known to cause allergic reactions to free minds, so read on at your own risk...
Cops with MP5s have made it to British TV too (see video below). And yes, by the way, Wire In The Blood is awesome, you should watch it. Another humourous detail is that apparently, some Americans need English subtitles on this show to understand the accents! (do we speak funny? lol)
Actor Robson Green hails from Newcastle, not far from moi, so I probably sound similar to him. But I won't call myself a Geordie for reasons of footballing significance that only locals would understand. (on that note, I still can't believe Newcastle got relegated from the Premier League and Sunderland did not. Oh the joy! Only defeating the entire New World Order would make me happier, lol)
Time to address a British pet peeve. American TV steals all our good original stuff!
Wire in the Blood --> The Mentalist
The Office
Life on Mars
Steptoe and Son --> Sanford and Son
and so on.
not that I'm too bothered, lol! ;)
But you really crossed the line when you made U-571 which depicted Americans (not Brits, as really happened) capturing the first Enigma machine! (try defending that one lol)
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If you can stomach more popular culture than was contained in this intermission, click here
For the rest of you, we now return to today's post ;)
There's loads of other propaganda items that aren't unique to US programming, such as government databases helping catch that rapist, or police bending the rules to get results (and that always being for the best, because the Law knows best, of course).
So the moral of the story is...don't watch TV! ('do as I say, not as I do', and all that.)
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Men in black ski masks, TV, My Pop Culture fix
Okay so I barely watch any TV myself, not anymore at least. But one thing I always notice about American crime dramas and such (we do get them over here, lol) always feature the 'good guys' bounding around in black ski masks and body armour.
Well, I kept waiting for the subtitles, but they never showed up.
ReplyDeleteThe best part was when the one man used the word "goot" instead of
gut. I think that's what he was trying to say.
Y'all talk fuhnny.
Footballing, that's what you call soccer, isn't it?
lol I'm claiming the word 'football' for England. Our usage was there first! :P
ReplyDeleteUS "Soccer" = "Football"
US "Football" = "American Football"/"Gridiron"
'goot' for gut, you're right. haha that's the sound of a Yorkshireman. Sean Bean has an even stronger pronunciation of that.
You'd know if he was saying 'goot' because it's a northern thing to really emphasise the double 'o', for example I sometimes say 'cook' the way an American would pronounce the word 'kook', with the ridiculous double o sound in. Because it's a tradition :P
Some older people in Newcastle will literally say, and none of what follows is a mistype, 'gannen doon the toon fer an amborger' (going down the town for a hamburger). Unfortunately with the advent of mass media and delocalisation, such ways of talking are not seen so much among the younger generation, myself included.
Maybe it's just that we're exposed to more American language through TV than you are to British language, but I'm not aware of any American speakers who I couldn't understand. Unless they're drunk of course :D
Maybe it would be a good way to make some money, providing subtitles of British English for Americans, lol
The Founding Fathers fought a revolution in order to be free from such ghastly mispronunciations of vowel sounds!
It has been a long standing joke in America that if we'd lost the Revolution, we'd all be speaking
ReplyDeleteEnglish today.
It's way too bad I haven't had the exposure to the different British dialects, because I can just barely tell the difference between two British speakers of opposite dialects.
Would the Northern accent in Britain be affected by the Scottish?
Since you can more easily understand Americans than I can Brits, can you tell the difference between, say, New Yorker and Texan accents?
Just so you know, my speaking accent is "Midwestern", with a slight Southern inflection, which has been referred to as "Kansan".
I'd tell apart a Noo Yoiker from a Texan no problem. Midwestern, however, guess that doesn't get onto TV so much lol
ReplyDeleteYes far Northern English accents have a Scottish influence. This is most pronounced not where I live, but north of Newcastle, which at one time was on the other side of Hadrian's Wall but is now part of England. For example, the term 'laddie', though Scottish, is sometimes heard south of the border too. Geordies (people from Newcastle) often say 'lads and lasses' instead of 'boys and girls', just like the Scots and the Irish. It all goes back as far as the Roman invasion of Britain and which areas remained Celtic-speaking while others were exposed to Latin brought in by the invaders.
As for your revolution, aha we kept a foothold on your continent using our language. It's all a secret conspiracy to use America as a vehicle to spread English around the world :P
Ha ha ha - don't get me started on how much telly is stolen from the UK and put on air in America with such arrogance you'd think it was an original story line. I would be pissed if I was in the British TV business.
ReplyDeleteThe Geordie accent was the most difficult for me to understand when I first moved there. I eventually got used to it. I lived across from St. James' Park. What footy team do you support AdamS?
If you travel over yonder way, I can introduce you to some pretty strange American accents. Cajuns can be difficult to understand at times, as can real thick West Texas accents.
Oh dear, oh this just won't do Leslie...lol
ReplyDeleteI am a lifelong Sunderland fan ;)
Leslie Pirate,
ReplyDeleteCajuns, by far, are the strangest speaking people in America, with Minnesotans coming in close second.
:)