Bill Maher points out our reliance on the British accent
Bill Maher asks why Americans won’t take things seriously unless it is delivered with a British accent. He points out that in many movies where neither the actors nor the subject has anything to do with the British, the accent used is still British and not American. He played a clip of Brad Pitt and other American actors using British accents where it did not apply.
“Here is Brad Pitt as Achilles,” Bill Maher said. “He is from the Midwest. And we know the ancient Greeks were not. But neither were they from Notting Hill. So why does he have to say swoerd. Why is swoerd more serious than sword.”
Bill went on to make his case. It turns out that merchandising sex toys from a Fifty Shades of Grey site uses a British accent to sell butt plugs. A sexy woman with a British accent promotes Viagra.
“So what is going on here,” Bill Maher asks. “I think we know what’s going on. Americans, we talk a big game about we are the greatest country in the world, and about American exceptionalism, and the indispensable nation. Yeah, yeah. Whenever I hear someone bragging about themselves like that, I always think they are covering up a massive insecurity. And our reliance on the British accent to convey gravitas is kind of our admitting that we know we are really not a serious people.”
Bill Maher then summarily points out our shallowness. He said, “We drink wine out of a box. We invented Mormonism. Our best selling author is Bill O’Reilly. Most Americans don’t know that the Big Bang Theory is also a theory. … Look at all the childish stuff that defines America, super heroes movies, climate change denial, Palins, Ferrell’s hat. ..”
Therein lies our special relationship with England,” Bill Maher said. “They have the gravitas, we have the swag. It’s how we act. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. We have the aircraft carrier but they have the guy who knows a sentence needs a subject and an object. … Oh yeah. That war sounded a whole lot better coming out of Tony Blair’s mouth. Which is why the British accent is dangerous.”
Enough said.