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alt title(s): Eaglelander
Flavor #1
When viewed from the outside, the USA comes in two different flavors.
Flavor 1
A country full of proud super patriots who stick to tradition and reside in a nearly Utopian society. This version of America is based on the export of American media made during The Fifties, which portrayed the United States of America as a homey, almost saccharine place built on nuclear families, family values, love, and old-fashioned simple mindsets. As well as this, America was also the land of progress, wealth, and luck, where people would be able to leave the past behind to make new lives for themselves - in short, the American Dream.
Flavor 2
America, Fuck You!
A country full of smug uneducated bullies who got real lucky and like to hide behind their inflated military budget. Americans come into your country either as tourists or invaders, thinking that they own the place and that they rightfully deserve everything. Not only are they less intelligent and less healthy than you because of their inferior education and health consciousness, but they also have the gall to look down and patronize you as well. They will not hesitate to tell you how they saved your ass during World War II. They may also all be trigger-happy cowboys and from the Deep South, or all glamorous movie stars from Hollywood California. Very often views themselves as Flavor 1. Anime uses this one a lot when they need Evil Foreigners while playing up the historical Japanese perception of their own superiority. Thus showing that non-Americans can often be every bit as bigoted and ignorant as America can be about them.
Flavor #2
In reality, of course, the United States is a lot more complicated. Some series decide to split the difference, treating America as the Boisterous Bruiser of nations — rude, crude, clueless, obnoxious, and vaguely psychotic, but still good-natured beneath it all. A famous Winston Churchill quote sums up this portrayal- "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." And he should know, his mother was American.
Although this trope primarily deals with foreign portrayals of Americans and the United States, we've got some American examples as well. This overlaps with Cultural Cringe in the case of Flavor #2 portrayals.
Subtropes include:
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Lt. Surge, the giant Gym leader from Pokemon is the stereotypical "American bully" from the second trope, taunting little children and having his bigger Pokemon beat up on them while he calls them "babies". This contrast in the game, where he appears to have the usual good sportsmanship required to be a gym leader and he is once said to be a war-hero (making him type 1 in games, type 2 in anime). And of course this is a little bizarre. That is, the first game was clearly set in the real world (an NPC talks about the moon landing and gives the date), but later games make up their own geography.
- Actually, the anime is still set in the real world (or an Alternate RW), it seems, since the anime clearly talks about Paris, there's footage of the moon landing, amongst others. The games may or may not be...
- The games are set in the real world, because there are references to the real world even in the new games. Also, the geography for the new games isn't made up; it's just based off of different parts of Japan.
- Chibodee Crocket from G Gundam straddles the line. He's quite sympathetic due to his past as an orphan who raised himself for years, but still shown to be a bit of a coward who often can't live up to his own hype and only fights to satisfy his own pride, having to go through several hardships like being infected with the DG cells and being almost abandoned by his crew to learn to truly love fighting.
- The man has natural blue hair with a pink toot, and his mother was killed by clowns. What is Japan trying to say here?
- His mobile suit deserves mention, too. If Gundam Maxter's design is any indication, the Japanese believe that all Americans are surfing, football-playing boxer cowboys. And it'd be terrible to disappoint them. In canon, you get the impression Chibodee drew up the design himself and just combined a bunch of things he thinks are cool.
- In Eyeshield 21, Leonard Apollo, the coach of the Nasa Aliens, is definitely an example of the latter type. His players are pretty nice guys, but Apollo is an overbearing blowhard who's bitter about his own failed dream of becoming a pro football player. This is actually a step down from the manga, as there Apollo is actually blatantly racist.
- He got better. He has softened up to Panther, the one he had despised so much, but also the one who admires him for his hardships and determination, to the point that he is willing to teach his trade in return for becoming a running back. It improves him so much.
- Americans were portrayed rather variously here in this manga, from nice people like Patrick "Panther" Spencer, Homer Fitzgerald, Leonard Apollo, to people like Donald Oberman.
- It's also sort of subverted in Billy Horide, the coach of the Seibu Wild Gunmen, who, despite being Japanese as far as anyone can tell, is loud, rude, pushy, loves shooting guns and even runs his offense in a fast, high-powered manner. He's almost sort of a weird Japanese Texas-otaku.
- Let's not forget "Bandit" Keith Howard from Yu-Gi-Oh, both an American and a ruthless dirty cheater, who has a Stars and Stripes bandana. Or Rebecca Hopkins/Hawkins, American champion, a cute little girl with a teddy bear... whose Catch Phrase is "God damn".
- The German/Japanese Asuka Langley Soryuu of Neon Genesis Evangelion has American citizenship and lived there for a time, possibly just to hint at her loud showboating personality. On the other hand, at the time the anime begins, she's thirteen, and she has already graduated from college "last year" — which does at least run counter to the Americans-are-idiots cliche.
- Then why is she in highschool with Shinji?
- It's implied that she's only really there because Nerv want her to be (same applies for Rei really) and because Misato wants Asuka and Shinji to live normal teen lives as much as is possible. In one early episode she fails a test at school, and eventually explains that it was because she couldn't read all of the kanji (anybody who's ever tried to learn kanji will surely identify with that one).
- In what has to be the pinnacle of a type 1 American in anime, or hell any medium, we have Roy Fokker from "Super Dimension Fortress Macross" who plays the role of Big Brother Mentor and The Lancer, though he is a bit of a skirt chaser.
- The anime series Konjiki no Gash Bell (Zatch Bell in the dub) contains a team of superheroes called the Majestic Twelve, who are portrayed as amazingly incompetent. The only female member is named Big Boing (Lady Susan in the dub) and her superpowers consist of having huge breasts, smelling like lavender and commenting every moment with the word "Yay!" But Apollo (and...that biker dude later in the series who's name escapes me) is the American character is the one we see most, and he is a definite type 1
- Aries of Mai-Otome and Mai-Otome Zwei has some definite parallels to the US, from a suspiciously Pentagon-like structure to the attitude of Brigadier General Haruka Armitage, a Determinator to the extreme who often charges in with little to no plan. Aries itself is mainly type 1 being one of the good nations with Yukino being a calm assertive leader who balances out Haruka.
- The Youre Under Arrest: No Mercy special had the two Lovely Angels of the show, already with a reputation in their traffic department back in Tokyo for excessive "enthusiasm", go on an exchange program of sorts to Los Angeles, where they are allowed to hunt down stolen car and gun dealers with shotguns. The other Nurse Jenny-esque members of the LAPD, for that matter, see nothing wrong with threatening to shoot a suspect for being "criminal scum".
- Shin Getter Robo Armageddon: After the apocalypse, the remaining nations struggle to survive against immortal aliens. A group of Americans come onto the Japanese base and start trying to rape and kill everyone. Their reason? They think the Japanese caused the disaster that drove them underground in truth, the UN over-reacted and launched a nuke at the, at the time, highly volatile Shin Dragon. Gai calls them out on this, asking why the Japanese would drop the bomb on themselves.
- They have a Heel Face Turn of sorts near the end of the OVA. One of the American pilots basically realizes he was being a jackass, and comments that using getter rays doesn't make someone evil. Later on the American pilots (along with everyone else) show up to defend a space station, so that the Getter Team can go on the offensive.
- In the original Getter Robo series and the Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo OAV, we get the Texas Mack robot unit shaped as a cowboy and its horse, piloted by the siblings Jack and Mary King. The depictions of Jack King vary as well; in the original Getter Robo, he was so Flavor 2 that even the Japanese found it a bit ridiculous and offensive. In Shin Vs. Neo, however, he at first appears to be Flavor 2 (a bit of a jerk, refusing to use Japanese, speaking bluntly, etc.) but quickly shows that he's willing to defend his country and his allies, even at great personal risk, without so much as a half-moment of hesitation.
- The Read or Die OAV has one of the superpowered villains waltz right into the White House and kidnap the President, easily dispensing with the Secret Service, and threatening the sniveling, cowardly President (who wets himself). Later on, he orders the army to attack the rising fortress of the Big Bad against the orders of the British Library Association On Steroids (and really, why shouldn't world leaders listen to librarians), of course to absolutely impotent effect. So he wets himself again. Then he gets blown up.
- Fortunately he survives, to wet himself again in the TV series. Which further humiliates him by changing his name to "Al Gore" while retaining the Bush character design.
- Several character also make reference to "unleashing the Americans" or "turning loose the Americans" on the I-Jin's headquarters (used as a threat).
- Since it was an early-2001 adaptation of a 2000 manga, it's hard to say whether the president was meant to be Clinton, Bush or an amalgam of the two. The cowardice aspect suggests Clinton, most likely in reference to the the cowardice that many Japanese perceived in his dealings with North Korea. (Who came this close to starting a shooting war with the Japanese, what with kidnapping their citizens and opening fire on one of the Japanese naval vessels.)
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro features possibly the pinnacle of type II Eagleland, ironically during a trip to a traditional Japanese Hot Spring. As well as ticking all the Phenotype Stereotype boxes (blond hair, blue eyes, large nose), and having a surprisingly plausible accent (until he has to speak English...), he whistles the "Star-Spangled Banner" to himself, hates Japanese culture, but pretends to love it just to get close to a woman, threatens to sue for the slightest slight, keeps a massive revolver in his pants, kills a woman for refusing to give him "her resources" (
oil her love), thinks that losing his pride is reasonable grounds for self-defense and is obsessed with working out to the point of walking around shirtless, dressed like someone from an L.A. street gang. Oh, and he calls America "a law enforcing Empire" which "raised [him] to have an emotionless heart". The kicker is that the episode ends as An Aesop about how people shouldn't be so narrow minded and intolerant of other people's culture. The irony is apparently lost on the producers of the episode.
- Gao Gai Gar is probably one of the most positive depictions of America by non-American properties. Swan White and her brother Stallion are kind, noble, and friendly—if a bit histrionic, tending toward cries of "Oh No!" or "Oh My God!" (or, once, "Jesus!"), as well as speaking in odd accents; Dr. Liger, who presumably emigrated from Japan, is a genius scientist well as a hoverboard-riding mohawked iconoclast; and the American Brave Robo Mic Sounders the Thirteenth, while speaking in gratuitous Engrish in his childlike Cosmo mode ("MAI FRENDZU" is a favorite phrase), is probably the second most powerful robot built by Earth. So, in general, Americans are smart, polite, friendly, a bit openly emotional by Japanese standards, and possessed of The Power Of Rock. Sounds about right, really.
- The Prince Of Tennis features the American arc, where a team of prodigy American players gathered by a money-hungry tycoon and coach (Richard Baker) come to Japan to play against a team formed by the best Japanese junior high players. Among the stereotypes found are:
- a cheerful red-neck and ex-cowboy who acts happy very happy-go-lucky (Billy Cassidy),
- an angry German immigrant who is disenchanted after the loss of his American dream (Arnold Igashov),
- two ultra-pretty and super close brothers raised in the Bronx and rescued from their abusive household (Tom and Terry Griffy),
- a Chinese American obsessed with perfection, taking it after an equally perfectionist family(Michael Lee),
- a huge bully specialized in lots of sports but seriously lacking sportsmanship (Bobby Marx), and
- the son of one of Nanjiroh's old rivals, who acts very violent and angsty because of his own convoluted backstory (Kevin Smith).
- Hell, Ryoma himself could qualified as well. He was raised in America, which could explain his incredibly arrogant, condecending, better-than-you actitude and the total lack of respect he shows towards his upperclassmen, with Tesuka being the sole exception.
- In the third Slam Dunk OAV, the half-American half-Japanese Michael Okita is the ace of a new high school basketball team, and is said to have been scouted by the NBA itself. He's ruthless and efficient in the courts, but turns into a cheerful and laid-back flirt outside (just watch him shamelessly flirt with Ayako and make Miyagi go ballistic). And he's a blue-eyed blond on top.
- Principal Kuno from Ranma One Half, a truly bizarre character with a penchant for loud shirts and whose catch phrase is "Oh my God!" Not actually American, but a Japanese citizen who spent a few years in the States (specifically Hawaii) and went native. To be fair he was already insane before then, it's just that instead of dressing up as a shogun, he now dresses up as an obnoxious tourist.
- Magical Project S has a brief sequence at the White House, where it shows the President as some gullible idiot willing to dump 60 billion dollars into a satellite surveillance system created by a 12 year old Genki Girl Mad Scientist for "military purposes". It then suggests that the security there isn't just incompetent, but also unobservant as said scientist also converted the White House into a rocket launch pad while they were "out on their nightly business".
"Ohhhhhhhh, I'm the president."
- The best part of all this is that the Americans actually portray former President George W. Bush like that as well.
- Then again, that selfsame 12 year old mad scientist was Washu, who is herself supposed to be an American in the same continuity. Besides, WASHU. Enough said.
- Subversion: In Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, the titular band was, according to the opening song, "made to hit in America," and the band trying to make it over there was the subject of much of the series. However, their idea of fitting in is wearing t-shirts that say "Jesus is Coming", and America is shown rather realistically (despite some pretty bad Engrish signage).
- The third episode of the 1990s OVAs of Black Jack features the "Federal Unites," complete with shots of the Statue of Liberty. This Eagleland is a corrupt, imperialist bully bent on controlling and oppressing weaker nations for the sake of their resources. This makes it very satisfying when Dr. Black Jack beats the crap out of the Vice President for murdering his patient. Black Jack is generally a very anti-establishment work anyway, so it's likely that this was just more of the "anyone with power is a corrupt dick" mindset than an anti-American one.
- Early '90s show Mad Bull 34 sends a Japanese policeman on exchange to New York's 34th precinct to be buddies with "Sleepy" John Estes, the most violent cop on the force, who cleans up the Big Apple's crime problem with shotguns, grenades, and a wanton disregard for legal procedure. The manga is even worse with some of the most racist portrayal of black people since The Birth Of A Nation.
- Episodes 10 and 11 of Genshiken Season 2. Angela is shown as riding roughshod over all cultural sensitivities in Japan, in an almost painful caricature.
- Lucky Star has Patricia Martin who is ostensibly an American gaijin otaku. She may represent America a bit better than most, because she speaks fluent Japanese, having learned the entirety of the language from watching anime... However, she's also depicted as being a bit air headed and somewhat undereducated in true Japanese culture outside of animeland. Patty's quite clearly modelled on the stereotypical Japanophile, so this isn't that far from Truth In Television...
- Anthony from Doki Doki School Hours is like a male version of Patricia. At one point he shows everyone a photo of his 14 year old kid sister - an large-busted (perhaps implausibly so for her age) blonde cheerleader.
- An episode of Excel Saga was set in Flavor 2 Eagleland, with a humongous New York that seemed to be nothing but Mafiosi and slums. Obviously Played For Laughs, though. Excel is able to immediately recognize that she is in America by landing "...in the very definition of a slum." Ouch.
- Any Lupin III episode set in the US, where the police are seen to be more heavily-armed than one would expect.
- Blood Plus: This one wins hands-down for Eagleland #2 in anime ( Condi and Rummy are raising an army of vampires. Well, not personally. Yes, this is seriously the anime's plot). The writers balanced this (somewhat) through the characters of George and the American members of Red Shield.
- America from Axis Powers Hetalia is a more benign blend of both flavors; his geography is terrible, he's loud, pushy, clueless, addicted to cheeseburgers and various sweets, and he's an Attention Whore (he calls himself the "World's Hero")—but he's also friendly and good natured, to the point of being a literal Friend To All Living Things and a serious Love Freak. Considering some of the other "America-tan" characters to come out of Japan (e.g. Meriken), Axis Powers Hetalia's take on America is actually pretty positive.
- This type of depiction is pretty much normal for this series. No country is not made fun of but most of the countries are also good at heart. (Except for Russia whose heart sometimes actually falls out of its place. But even he isn't completely and consciously evil.)
- Nevertheless, there are American fans who regard America as an overly positive and patriotic representation of the USA and basically turn him into Eagleland #1 in fanworks.
- On the opposite end of Moe Anthropomorphism depictions from Japan, there's Meriken from the Afghanis-tan web series
 . Unlike Alfred (America) from APH, Meriken is very much Eagleland #2; her profile is one big Take That. She's first shown on the White House lawn, singing that the whole world was made just for her. The 9/11 attacks are shown as a stray cat of Afghanis-tan's barely scratching Meriken's skin. She goes marauding and bullying a helpless, terrified Afganis-tan in response, destroying her home while trying to catch the mischevious cat. The worst she deliberately gives Afghanis-tan, though, is a stern warning to take more responsibility for her house so this doesn't happen again.
- The Marmalade Boy anime has several characters who incarnated diverse variations of Eagleland #2. The one who shows up more often is Michael Grant, who started learning Japanese after watching several Japanese movies, acts like an overactive Genki Boy and is quite fixated on his host sister, Miki. Also, we have Yuu's American friends and schoolmates: a Hot Blooded semi Jerk Jock (Brian), a blonde Clingy Jealous Girl (Jenny), a sweet and homely Cool Big Sis (Doris) and young man who pretends to be sexually ambiguous to a degree (Bill)
- The depiction of Americans in the Gravitation manga is...odd. The country is represented in early volumes by a semi-realistic New York criminal underground and the gun-toting, very, very Texan (although good-hearted) K; this and some miscellaneous executives are all that made it to the anime. In later volumes, however, they actually go to New York, where we meet K's family and the even crazier Rage, who flies a giant robotic panda through cities and has a tendency to shoot people with a (non-lethal) bazooka. Notably, the escapades of the American characters get at least two bodyguards killed (one of Ryuichi's shot by Rage's and one of Judy's thrown out an airplane window by K) with no fanfare whatsoever. What takes the cake, however, has to be Yoshiaki's comment that she doesn't object to Yuki killing her brother, nor would most Americans...because gang rape is a capital crime in the US.
- Donald Curtis from Porco Rosso is an exceptional #2 example. "Make way for the American!" He plans to be a Hollywood actor and later president. Sound familiar?
- Kimagure Orange Road both subverts it (manga) and plays it straight (OVA). In the manga story, Kyosuke, Madoka, and a new girl Sayuri (not Hikaru) find themselves on vacation in Hawaii. One day, Sayuri disappears after going to her room to change. After unsuccessfully searching for her, they believe her to have been kidnapped. Later, they get a phone call in their hotel room, telling them to go to certain locations, ending in a yacht in the harbor. The owner of the yacht tells them to spend the night, and that he'll be back in the morning with their breakfast. Since neither of them know what "breakfast" means, they assume it is something rather sinister. After a night of drinking, the owner returns, brings them their food, and produces a gun...which happens to be a lighter for his pipe. Turns out they were mistaken for a newlywed couple who had ordered a honeymoon package of sorts, and told to go to their locations. And Sayuri had gone off to a bar to hunt guys, completely forgetting about her friends. The OVA, however, had Hikaru actually being kidnapped by crazy Mooks with guns, and ended with a final shootout, with the police (or any sensible Americans) nowhere to be seen.
- Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing isn't from America proper, but rather a space colony that belongs to America. Either way, he can be seen as a combination of both types, being boisterous, flirtatious, and a bit eager to reap first and ask questions later, but is also a genuinely nice and friendly guy. A lot of his more outgoing traits come because he acts as The Lancer to Heero, who is very much The Stoic; that said, Duo is also without question the single most popular character in the series.
- Zettai Karen Children has the thinly veiled nation of Comerica taking the place of America. The Comericans (mostly ESPer team The Liberty Bells) fall somewhere between the two types of Eaglelanders. They are brash and outspoken, but more than willing to help out BABEL.
- In the Anime Ping Pong Club the tall, hairy, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, extremely smelly Mitchell Tanabe is..you guessed it. American.
- The Ronin Warriors OAV "Gaiden" takes place mostly in New York City, although they manage to feature some action in Los Angeles towards the end for good measure. Apparently, the OAV's Big Bad carries out his attacks in Manhattan even though his base of operations is located in L.A. The 3000-mile distance between the two cities doesn't mean anything to him...or to the writers.
- In Mahoromatic, American meddling with the remains of a giant alien crab mech causes it to go wild and tear the bathing suits off of young teenage girls on the beach. Hmmm. Could be a mixed message in there.
- Somewhat to massively subverted in Elfen Lied, grandmaster of mixed themes, by the fact that, while American support for Diclonius research is noted, 90% of it seems under direct Japanese control, and 90% of that control has been foolishly yielded directly to Kakuzawa Senior. In fact, it is later revealed that Kakuzawa is directly responsible for Lucy being an orphan and being abandoned a fact that indirectly drives almost every other event in the series. So the half-baked pseudo-racial theories of a Japanese madman are what gets the world in a fix, with Americans far in the background.
- Carrie from Bamboo Blade is depicted as a somewhat stereotypical American type 2. She is obnoxious and in-your-face, extremely arrogant, and generally disregards the traditional rules of Kendo in favor of practices she thinks are more cool. However, by the end of the anime series, she and her rival Miya-Miya do seem to have a grudging respect for one another.
- Pluto's America expy "Thracia" is fairly benign, although its leader is quick to give power to the Machine Behind The Man.
- In Full Metal Panic, the third novel (and thus the final story arc of the original anime) has an American submarine captain who's obsessed with hunting down the mysterious "ghost submarine" (the Tuatha De Danaan) because he's convinced it's part of a Japanese plot, at one point attempting to rouse his men by saying "Remember Pearl Harbor!" However, the rest of the crew is portrayed as level-headed, competent sailors who are frustrated with their skipper's Ahab act and either ignore him, or try to stop him when he tries to go too far.
- The historical manga about post-war girls' baseball, Tetsuwan Girl, plays this both ways with the type one being the matronly woman's coach who is the wife of a Negro League player and the type two being Mr. Banks, Connie and the rest of the American team. The Harley motorcycles and cowboy outfits almost seemed to take too long to show up. Did we mention the added layer of racism not only on the Japanese players, but the black people in the series? Yeah.
- Partial Adversion: the anime series Baccano! has tons of characters in Mafia-run Chicago/New York City and a runaway train running between the two. Some are silly, some are wimpy, some are batshit insane and the rest of them...
- In one of the earlier books in the manga version of Ah My Goddess, Keiichi races against two students from a California technical institute. They are shown as hypercompetetive, cheating, and, in the girl's case, obsessed with looks.
- Hajime No Ippo explicitly has both flavors in the serious with Takamura's major opponents - Type 2 is exemplified by Bryan Hawk, an exceptionally violent and crude brute who takes every opportunity to proclaim the superiority of his skills over the "weaker" Japanese. Type 1 (heck, it's in his NAME) is embodied by David Eagle, who is charismatic and honorable. However, this is played with when the Japanese crowd during his match with Takamura note that his behavior in the ring is more typical of a samurai warrior.
- Flavor 2 shows up in Darker Than Black a couple of times. In the first season, the guy overseeing the American embassy is a stuck-up idiot who deliberately gets in the way of Misaki Kirihara's attempts to prevent a terrorist attack by The Syndicate, and won't even let the Japanese police in to help security when "someone" drops a smoke bomb outside as an obvious distraction, which leads to the immortal line: "Don't test my patience-" *KABOOM*. In the second season, attempts by the American government to restore their superpower status are one of the causes of the Melee A Trois.
Comic Books
- Garth Ennis' Punisher run portrayed America as a glass half empty type 2, to the point where the military are launching terrorist attacks to justify war.
- Tintin in America is set partly in Gangsterland, partly in Injun Country.
- In the comic Jack Of Fables, there is a parallel world called Americana. This is a Fable world, made entirely of the myths and legends of America. In Americana, virtually every subtrope of Eagleland is an actual physical location. Interestingly, the community of Idyll, which is based on the 1950's Perfect Sitcom Family/Mayberry myth, is inhabited completely by zombies.
- Although in recent years he's become a bit more of a global hero who just happens to live in the Metropolis, Superman was/still is a shining example of Type 1. His original catch phrase was even to "Fight the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way". The "American Way" bit is usually left out nowadays (partly thanks to him being more Earth's No.1 Hero moreso than America's, and partly to not turn off those readers who had become a bit tired of the American Way's depiction in Real Life). Originally it was simply "a neverending battle for Truth and Justice and Peace" in the old Fleischer cartoons in the 1940s. "The American Way" was added later.
- A lot of the comic book writers from across the pond, even those that have written Marvel and DC books for years, tend to love turning our original superheroes on their ear, basically making them even more jingoistic, or just jerkasses, for shock value or to go Darker And Edgier. A handful of heroes still hold out as the fair-minded type one idealists, and ironically their scarcity makes them the more remarkable ones. Garth Ennis has a recurring interest in America, often playing off Type 1 (the national mythology of America and what the characters strive for) against Type 2 (what tends to be the reality in his strips) and the clashes thereof. Examples of this clash include Tommy Monaghan, Hitman, genuinely respecting and idolising Superman; and the views of British/Irish immigrants and visitors to the States, all of them noticing and decrying the Type 2 parts of America while simultaneously loving the place.
- All white Americans who appear in Spirou and Fantasio are Large Hams. They are typically fat (though in fairness, some of them are more buff than fat), and the only thing that's louder than their voices, are their shirts. Also, for some reason, they usually wear sunglasses and smokes cigars.
- In Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, Private Hank the Yank (as he is listed in official documentation) is an American who hopped the pond to get a jump-start on all that "war" business, and the only American in the otherwise all-British team. An explosives expert wearing a constant grimace and who only ever says "GAWD DAMMIT!", he's a lovely collection of stereotypes (you see, he's really, really stupid and violent) that fits right in with the rest of the Brigade. To be perfectly fair, the series doesn't let the Brits off very lightly, either. Captain Hugo "Khyber" Darcy is a ridiculously exaggerated caricature of a stuffy upper class Brit; virulently prejudiced against "jerries" (and indeed, all non-British people; he claims Germany's fatal mistake in the war was not being Britain), and is unshakably convinced that America is still a British colony (elsewise he would've killed Private the Yank ages ago).
Film
Literature
- Many popular British authors, especially pre-1965 or so (PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dick Francis) have real trouble rendering American characters accurately, providing a revealing look at common stereotypes of the era. The typical 'American' of these novels is described as taking things 'more free and easy', thus depicted as speaking in a sort of stylised gangland slang...which is nevertheless composed according to distinctly British grammar rules. The result can be a little jarring to say the least, especially if the character actually is a gangster, or supposed to be similarly menacing.
- In The BBS Jeeves And Wooster series the two defining features of America seem to be trigger-happy cops and Security Guards and businessmen who are obsessed with whatever industry they are in. Somewhat ironic, considering that Wodehouse spent the last twenty-odd years of his life living on Long Island. (And often used it as a location in his later novels.)
- Ditto for Ian Fleming's James Bond novels involving Americans (The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever): No sentence is complete without at least one "buster", "buddy" or "...see?"
- The movie based on Terry Pratchett's novel The Colour of Magic has the character Twoflower as a completely oblivious American tourist complete with straw hat, Hawaiian print shirt, and camera. This is different from the book, however, as Twoflower is from the Agaetean empire, which is based on Roundworld's China/Japan. To be fair, Twoflower being from Agate empire is largely a retcon, as he goes around with a camera, piles of cash, and gives credit to echo-gnome-icks, like an american stereotype in the book too.
- Actually, in the novel, the Patrician receives a message from the emperor of the Agatean Empire, urging the good people of Ankh-Morpork to look after Twoflower. So it's established pretty early on in the novel that Twoflower is a parody of the typical Japanese picture-happy tourist who walks around with cheap, superior technology.
- Dracula has a pretty good example of type 1 in Quincey Morris. One of Lucy's three suitors, he's presented as a cowboy-type from Texas, informal but friendly and honorable. Strangely, although repeatedly described by his friends as a man of action, he doesn't engage in all that much of it until he suffers a mortal wound fighting the gypsies that protect Dracula's coffin at the end and striking one of the fatal blows to kill Dracula.
- As shows the quote above, Rudyard Kipling saw both flavors at once, presenting them as best and worst sides of the same trait, which can be defined as "childishness". Though specific American characters in his books may or may not exhibit it.
Live Action TV
- The "special relationship" between the US and UK is not universally approved-of, something which comes through in depictions of the US government (although generally not its people) modern UK shows. Take the penultimate episode of Series 3 of the new Doctor Who, for example, where the President Elect arrives on UK soil to bullishly demand first contact with aliens take place under UN terms with the US in charge. The Prime Minister acquiesces. Prez sets up the meeting on a flying aircraft carrier, demanding his official seal in clear view during the proceedings and generally behaving like a bit of a dick. Of course, it turns out there's more going on than he realizes, and his hubris is cashed in when the PM reveals himself to be an Evil Genius and Magnificent Bastard, and vaporizes him. Oh, and the Reset Button of the final episode only erased the events immediately after the President's demise.
- In the same episode there is an example that is closer to the first stereotype. A trio of Buffalo Bills supporting teens watch the President Elect getting zapped live on TV, as they don't speak they are portrayed in Letterman Jackets/a Cheerleader outfit, eating fried chicken and pizza. The fried chicken tub has a star spangled banner on it, this probably meant to simply show that they are American to UK viewers. What, no cowboy hats nor six-shooters?
- Notably, the episode is presenting the President as a big prat who we want to see shot... while he's right that PM Saxon is a boob who's mismanaging the situation and not following protocol, and the President puts [[UNIT]], a United Nations group, in charge of the operation. Which is a wee bit of a disconnect.
- The first new series had the first Dalek captured by an American laboratory, populated by rich bastard Van Statten, Simmons, whose job largely consisted of torturing the Dalek, and an idiot security guard who didn't listen to the Doctor's advice. But the American women in that environment seem particularly strong and non-stereotypical, such as Van Statten's right-hand woman who eventually has him mind-wiped and put in some city beginning with "S" and the brave young female trooper who faces down the Dalek on the stairs long enough to buy Rose and Adam enough time to escape. As depictions of Americans in Doctor Who goes, it's actually one of the better ones.
- During the first Christmas special of the new Doctor Who series, 'The Christmas Invasion', after aliens are clearly involved, one of the characters informs the Prime Minister Harriet Jones "I'm getting demands from Washington, Ma'm. The President's insisting that he take control of the situation." to which she replies, "You can tell the President, and please, use these Exact words: He's not my boss, and he's certainly not turning this into a war."
- And then she later gives the order to fire a giant death laser, killing them after they are leaving. Granted, it looked cool and seemed reasonable, but would the Americans have done any different? She did get her own comeuppance, mostly because the Doctor doesn't approve of this brutish Americanized behavior. "Don't you think she looks tired?"
- It's subverted a bit with the "Children of Earth" special for Torchwood. The American general who shows up makes many (deserving) accusations against the British (in the context of this universe anyways) during his visit. There's even a bit of a nod towards the tendency towards Type 2 Eagle Land when at the end, the Prime Minister intends to save his career by blaming it all on America.
- Stephen Colbert demands to know why he is not the first example on this page! Specifically, the character demands to know why he is not the first type one example. The actor would like to know why the character is not the first type two.
- From the Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass":
I'm gonna to rise up, gonna kick a little ass
Gonna kick some ass in the USA
Gonna climb a mountain, gonna solo fly
Gonna fly on an eagle
I'm gonna kick some butt, I'm gonna drive a big truck
I'm gonna rule this world, I'm gonna kick some ass
I'm gonna rise up, I'm gonna kick a little ass
ROCK, FLAG AND EEEEEAGLE!
- Lexx in its Season Four is very much Type Two in its portrayal of the United States. Stupid moralistic rednecks, the prison industrial complex, crazy survivalists, suburban misery behind a facade of perfection, teenage druggies, criminals, heartless porn stars, reality TV... And the evil, crooked, and not-too-intelligent president is armed with nuclear weapons and is a puppet of a pure evil being. In comparison, the episode set in Quebec shows what looks like a genuinely nice place, until the US turns Quebec into radioactive wasteland and blames the whole thing on Cuba.
More of a hilariously over-the-top parody; the episode set in Newfoundland does include Stanley getting gang-beaten because of mistaken identity, the episodes set in Transylvania aren't much better and include Dracula being real and an invincible, hot, evil chick, with the culture shown being more of a pastiche than anything else. Japaneseland Japan is portrayed as even more ridiculous than most Americans tend to view it already. While most of season four is set in America, it would seem more like Type 2 traits are just very easy to take to an over-the-top extreme, which is basically the show's trademark. Surprisingly, the sentient alien carrots who control people by jumping up their butts aren't used as any kind of device for homophobia.
- Top Gear is particularly infamous for going over the top with the second flavor in its portrayal of US. Not only do the presenters joke about fat and lazy Americans with every mention of anything American, but the show proceeds to present mock evidence to all stereotypes, even the racing driver, "American Stig", that tested their cars at the end of the American special, was wearing stuffed overalls to appear obese. However in the American Challenge special (Series 9, Episode 3), where the presenters went to cross America, they almost got beaten up by rednecks, and the lawyer of a "charitable" organisation tried to extort money from them. The US state department retaliated to the bad publicity by revoking their filming visas.
- Jeremy Clarkson once flirted with an American audience member by saying "You can't be American. You're not nearly fat enough."
- Note that the reason the crew almost got "beaten up" by "rednecks" is that they were purposely and openly trolling people with stereotypical things Southerners weren't supposed to like painted on their cars. The people weren't pissed off because of the messages... they were pissed off that the Top Gear crew were being condescending assholes trying to get a reaction from them. Well, they got it, which made for good filming, but hard to say if they enjoyed it.
- The fact a seemingly large number of people on the Internet defending Top Gear about what they did there says something about the Deep South's status as an Acceptable Target.
- The idea that the shirtless incoherently hollering country gentlemen throwing rocks were actually angry about being stereotyped rather than about the "MAN LOVE RULES OK" in big pink letters seems curious.
- They also finished off the episode with a condescending speech about how sad it was that America, despite its vast riches, hadn't restored New Orleans to their satisfaction. Then, to show that they were much better and more charitable, all three (who routinely buy cars and other equipment just for the fun of wrecking them) donated their beaten, ugly, barely-working, gas-guzzling, bought-for-under-$1000 cars to needy families. Yeah, all that really proves that we're the Type 2, guys.
- During the Texas Revolution, the Mexican Army called Texan soldiers "Senores Goddamnes" because of their propensity to use that phrase in conversation.
- Ironic, when during the Napoleonic Wars it was the British that were referred to as "Goddamns" by the French, supposedly because of their frequent use of the word.
- Actually, the French called the redcoats 'Goddamns' because they believed they would curse God. Which beats being called a Crapaud (Toad) by a bloody long chalk.
- On an episode of What Would You Do, the crew planted two outrageous Type 2 Americans in Paris, just to test out that "snooty French" stereotype. It was pretty painful to watch. Oddly enough, the actual French citizens shown were all very patient and polite, if also mildly annoyed. It was actually the other American tourists who called out the actors, with one woman even scolding them like a mother and reminding them that they were guests in another country and should quit acting like a bunch of jerkasses. Someone should have given that massage to the Top Gear crew during their stay in the Deep South.
- An episode of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger features an American who's more eager than intelligent when it comes to learning the ways of the samurai.
- In all fairness, though, Super Sentai in the past has made all kinds of foreigners, including America, look bad and good. Abaranger gave us an eccentric black male basball player who kissed Yukito in gratitude while Magiranger cameoed a blonde girl who asked two of the Ozu brothers for directions in English and was given help by Makito who spoke surprisingly good English. Tsubasa, on the other hand, backed away nervously and said "I... can't... speak.. Englishu...". Richard Brown is actually a pretty positive example, as he spoke little English and wasn't a complete idiot. At worse, he's an "ascended fanboy". You can't tell me you wouldn't have acted like that in that situation.
- A Bit of Fry and Laurie used this trope more than once, most memorably in song form, when Hugh Laurie, wearing a plaid flannel shirt and a headband (he was making fun of Bruce Springsteen, obviously overlooking the fact that the song "Born in the USA" is actually condescending of America), sang a song that consisted only of the words "...America, America, America..." and "...the States, the States, the States..." and ended with Stephen Fry punching him in the stomach. (Use of the name "the States" falls under this trope, incidentally. We call it that way less than the British do. Honest.) See also the "Kickin' Ass!" sketch.
- The "Waldorf salad" episode of Fawlty Towers had an American guest staying at the hotel who wound up bullying Basil into submission. The portrayal isn't ridiculous, but you can get a kick out of hearing the expression "Hot dog!" used in total seriousness. (Oh, and the actor was Canadian.)
Music
- Kate Bush, Pull Out the Pin (with comments).
- Green Day's American Idiot album was all about calling attention to this trope.
- Anti-Flag's lyrics focus on their belief that the US Government is comprised of Type 2 Eagleland-ers and that they are trying to impose this on the country at large.
- The song Amerika by the German band Rammstein basically is all about Type 2. Don't let the beat or cheery-sounding refrain fool you, the lyrics satirize this trope pretty effectively if you know (or, for that matter, are) German.
- American Woman, originally by The Guess Who, seemed to hit this trope. Then Lenny Kravitz covered it up with a funk remix and a music video with American flags, hot girls on choppers and muscle cars, and Heather Lee dancing on top of a bus. So it's kind of Type 1 now regardless of what the lyrics say, or the Type 2's are just that stoopid. Incidentally, The Guess Who claimed it was never intended to be anti-American in the first place.
Theatre
- Freddie Trumper, the Jerkass American chess champion in Chess.
- When discussing the topic of English, Professor Henry Higgins had this to say.
Higgins: In America they haven't used it in years.
Video Games
Webcomics
Western Animation
- A Simpsons episode set in Japan has the family go to a restaurant called Americatown, where the waiters act out every negative stereotype imaginable. "I know nothing, I product of American education system!"
- The Latin American Spanish translation calls it "Gringolandia", and it's the Trope Namer for the Spanish translation of this article. It still plays the flavor 2, though.
- A rare case of Flavor 1 punishing Flavor 2: When the Simpsons family goes to Australia and Homer learns that the Embassy is considered American soil, he acts like the typical Flavor 2 American tourist, jumping in and outside the Embassy, shouting "Australia! America! Australia! America!" The Marine at the gate, no longer able to take it, finally decks Homer across the jaw, shouting "IN AMERICA WE DON'T TOLERATE THAT KIND OF CRAP, SIR!" The Simpson family represents Flavor 2 anytime they travel to a foreign country. It's a running joke that the family is barred from most nations, as well as most US states, except Nevada and Arizona.
- Via Positive Discrimination of the other Planeteers, the arrogant and rash Wheeler of Captain Planet And The Planeteers is the only one in the group with any major personality flaws. In fact, half the time America is seen, it's either a nice, relatively pleasant place of small towns and green communities in danger of being ruined by the villains, or it's a polluted, corrupt hellhole where Eco-Villains like Verminous Skum or Dr. Blight are free to wreak havok.
- The German-language version of Cats Dont Dance subtly shifts a single line of evil child star Darla Dimple's dialogue to suggest a more cutthroat and purely-for-the-money version of Hollywood:
(original) Darla: Mister Pussycat, listen to me; you don't have to be good, but you had better be...Big and Loud!...
(German) Darla: Let me tell you my philosophy: you don't have to be good, just better than them!
- The Americans in the original series of Captain Scarlet have a tendency to be of the former variety- strapping men, near-glowing skin etc. They're also more likely to get the cliche lines (something that also held true in the newer series).
- In Les triplettes de Belleville, all Americans seen in the background are grotesquely obese. Even the Statue of Liberty is a fat woman holding a cheeseburger.
- Flushed Away features a stereotypical American tourist (a Texan, to be exact) who teases the Royal Guards and complains how "these Brits don't know the first thing about football" while watching The World Cup.
- The Amazing Screw On Head:
Head: The World is counting on me Mr. President, and by the World, I mean America.
- Both flavors of this get parodied in the Finnish satirical animation Pasila. The conversation paraphrased:
Helga: Americans are great people!
Pöysti: Americans are idiots.
Neponen (or was it Routalempi? Feel free to correct): Yeah, that's so true.
Pöysti: Now don't generalise, there are lots of smart people there too. (gets a flat stare from everybody) What?!
- A Pucca episode has an obnoxious rich American couple visiting Sooga to open a fast food restaurant. The food is addictive and highly fattening, causing everyone who eats it to become really fat and out of shape. The wife is also a materialistic shopaholic who goes on a rampage of branding things she wants to buy with a freaking branding iron! Including flammable things!
Real Life
- Anyone who's worked in the tourist industry anywhere outside of the States can tell you that while Flavor #2 is by no means universally true, there are certainly enough Americans who embody it to ruin your day. It doesn't help that the more unpleasant someone is the more likely you are to remember them, so those few that do fit the negative stereotypes are the ones that will stick out in your mind.
- A survey found that Americans are a mixed bag in other countries, roughly akin to the "split the difference" view mentioned in the introduction to this trope. Respondents found Americans to be loud and fussy—but they are also the most likely to try a new language, and are generous tippers. The worst tourists are apparently the French, who are seen as really rude and stingy; they only earned good marks in cleanliness and elegance.
- Rick Mercer's "Talking to Americans" segment on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes showed real-life Type 2 Americans in their native setting, including high-ranking politicians, weighing in on issues such as Canada switching to metric time or our prime minister Jean Poutine.
- In a survey America only was about the middle in being proud of your own country. The two countries made up nearly entirely of people who think their country rules? Australia and Canada. Naturally the Japanese got dead last, not even reaching 60%.
- In some countries where America is not very well respected, it's not uncommon for American tourists to claim to be from Canada instead (possibly even adopting a pathetic imitation of a Canadian accent); including actually doing research and creating a fictional home in Canada.
Other
- John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman's podcast The Bugle has "the American" (played by Rory Albanese, whom Oliver works with on The Daily Show), whose entire character is Flavor 2 of this trope. For instance, when told that the American dollar is neither the strongest currency in the world nor accepted in other countries: "I don't believe you."
- "The Arrow" from Arrow In The Head is the most obvious example of Type 2 on the Internet. He speaks like the the typical redneck, judges the movies he reviews on tits-and-ass and gore content, and hates things considered to be effeminate such as elves or Christmas. He also directed a movie where he cast himself as the typical Stallone-like American Badass.
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