This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Umptyscope: Of course, if the weather turns bad and everyone speaks by clearing their throats, it becomes Wales.
Seven Seals: "The prevalence of this trope in American media is probably due to the fact that to the untrained U.S. ear, there are only two non-American accents in the entire English-speaking world: Scottish/Irish, and everybody else." That's grossly unfair! Untrained U.S. ears can certainly distinguish the stiff-upper-lip accent of the stereotypical Brit as well ("I say, jolly good show old chap!"), and the slightly more trained ears even know the working class London accent ("rotten weather we're havin', eh, guv'ner?")
Morgan Wick: But to the untrained ear, that "stiff-upper-lip accent" is "everybody else". I can't tell the difference between the first and the second. (However, I can distinguish a British accent from an Aussie one.)
Hasher Britarse: Morgan Wick, get yourself some DV Ds, listen to an episode of Jeeves and Wooster, Minder and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet then tell me you really can't tell the difference between the accents of Hugh Laurie, Dennis Waterman and Jimmy Nail. (Okay, I'll admit, most Brits would lump Texan, New York, Deep South and California accents under "American" or even, to the horror of the Texans and Southern Boys, "Yank")
Licky Lindsay: I believe the words "untrained ear" are mine. If you are the sort of person who pays enough attention to what you are watching that you feel motivated to write about it on the internet, you do not have untrained ears. I was talking about the kind of lazy/ignorant listeners who think that Cat Deeley of So You Think You Can Dance sounds "french".
Ross N: Is this trope really *that* strong? Apart from accent confusion and a couple of similar stereotypes (red hair, violence, drunkeness) there seem to be pretty definite 'Irish' and 'Scottish' tropes, even in American film and culture. Maybe a separate Oireland page for Irish stereotypes?
Morgan Wick: I don't associate red hair with the Irish and I don't associate drunkenness with the Scottish (at least not as strongly as the Irish).
Ross N: Huh, well I guess that proves there is even *less* common ground for this trope then!
Fast Eddie: There may an interesting rule-of-thumb emerging, here. If no one can provide a straight-up example (not subverted, inverted, etc.), then the trope may not be drafted correctly.
- One episode of Dead Like Me had an Irish-American (probably even an immigrant, given his Irish accent) die at an Irish bar, and go off to an afterlife that welcomes him with a view of Ireland's Cliffs of Moher... while the soundtrack plays "Scotland the Brave".
Ophicius: Actually his afterlife was described as the Cliffs of Dover. Which makes it all the more wrong. I wonder how many Irish viewers were shaking their fists at the TV?
Michael: I hate to be pedantic, but no part of Ireland, north or south, is part of Britain. The UK is named the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for a reason.
