American and British cultural differences

Disclaimer: I'm an American.

From my experiences having watched movies, played video games, read books, etc., I've discovered that I'm not a big fan of British culture. I'm not saying that to be rude to our British tropers, and I've read British books, played British video games (I do like Donkey Kong Country by Rare, and personally wonder how the Texas-based Retro Studios will do it differently), and while I've met cool British people, heard some nice independent British music, their culture in general just doesn't appeal to me.

Now, there are a lot of similarities, of course, though there tend to be differences in how the same idea is handled. For example, both countries sometimes use randomness as a source of humor or in storytelling. It annoys me from both sides, but I've actually been able to enjoy American randomness at times (see for example: the Grey Griffins books, which are random as hell and pull backstory out of their ass, but still manage to be fun for me). I also prefer American dry humor (see: The Onion) to Britsh dry humour.

It might just be being raised here, but considering there are many people who prefer the culture of other countries to their own (for example, I tend to find Japanese video games more charming than American ones, in general), so it could just be me.

Any thoughts on the differences between the two countries' cultures?

edited 16th Sep '10 8:44:06 AM by BonsaiForest

British humor tends to be more about being shamed in front of others, while American is more about personal cluelessness. British stories more often seem to be about how character is destiny and no one can really change anything, while American stories are more about can-do characters who overcome all challenges. I think British society is more formal and structured than ours, and this is reflected in various media.

American culture relies nay is built upon the Indy Ploy. It might sound boastful, but we're absolute masters of improvisation.

Did you just now make that up?

Actually the major difference is cynicism - in all levels of society. The British only do "pride" in comparisons with others. When it's a straight up assessment of ourselves, it's seldom ever seen. Take our newspapers for example - even those which support the current ruling party will usually hate on it for some reason at any given time.

This cynicism of course extends down to the basic socio-cultural aspects, and we find much humour in creating and flanderising stereotypes based on ineptitude or general failings.

Would you kill your best friend, can you save yourself?

A few notable points other then their humor is their figure heads for example. The British have the Royal Family and other notable figures in their society like Beef Eaters, Bobbies, that charming accent, and other various cultural points that have become familiar.

Who watches the watchmen?

Also true, the Scots having tartan, haggis, Irn Bru and kilts, the Irish having sectarian bigotry and the Welsh having leeks and sheep as their contributions of that sort.

Would you kill your best friend, can you save yourself?

KILTS! THE MANLIEST SKIRTS ON EARTH!

No really. Hmm another interesting thing for the British the Black Watch. :3 Very interesting group.

Who watches the watchmen?

Quite a few really and I'll be mainly looking at it from a political point of view. For one in Britain the Head of State (Queen) is seperate from the Executive (the Government), whilst in the US the head of state is also the head of the Executive (the President). Furthermore the UK also doesn't have a seperation between the state and the church with the head of state needing to be the head of the Chruch of England. In the US despite being genreally quite religious doesn't have that kind of state/church overlap though the Christian influence is there. There are slo all sorts of other differences in the political system with power in the US being more spread out whilst in Britian it is almost entirely centralised in Parliament which generally means it is easier for a bill to be passed in the UK than it is in the US.

Also the US seems more traditionally a liberal society; minimum stateintervention, low taxes, whilst the UK has developed a strong welfare state which requires a more vocal state and higher taxation; of course there are those here who would prefer something more similar to the US model (Thatcher made it her career), but in general the words socialism or social democracy aren't as likely to spurn you as much hate. But that is because our two countries have just developed very differently.

Religion as well is very significant in both countries from the looks of it despite what the more right wing here will say about 'polictical correctess going made' and the like, it is still pretty much a Christian country. I won't say much about the US as never having been there I can only refer to stereotypes but it is obvious that religion plays any even more significant role there than it does here.

As for things like humour I can't really say as I don't know many Americans, however from watching both American and British sitcoms there seems to be a shared love of the absurd and abstract.

edited 18th Sep '10 3:16:31 PM by PiccoloNo92

On the humour maybe. What does the U.S. have that compares to Allo Allo, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, etc.

We both love our assorted Science Fiction and crime drama.

Who watches the watchmen?

Immigration is vastly different. I was speaking with a young man from Dubai today who attends my school here in the UK and he was shocked that it'd be difficult to get a visa to immigrate to the US. In the UK, if you graduate from university, you can extend your stay up to two years to work in the country looking for sponsorship to stay longer.

BTW, I'm a chick.

Piccolo you're saying Liberal when you mean libertarian. The liberal position by the British definition encourages state intervention via things like the welfare state, it's libertarianism that opposes it.

Also, I've already explained the difference in humour - cynicism. Black Adder is a perfect example (series 1 can be ignored)

Would you kill your best friend, can you save yourself?

I meant program wise for comparison.

Who watches the watchmen?

This is pretty much spot on - British humour is based, at its core, on cynicism, pessimism and miserablism.

However, I would add to the mixture healthy doses of word play, understatement, self deprecation, the macabre, the absurd and, most importantly, eccentricity. British comedy would be nowhere without the eccentric.

As far as I'm concerned, many of the differences between American and British culture comes from the British Class System, in so far as it still exists. British society always has, and always will be, obsessed with the notion of heirarchy in society, and you will find a massive difference between 'British Culture' as defined by the 'working class', and the same as defined by the middle and upper classes. Maybe I'm just being short-sighted, but America seems to have a more unified identity of 'American-ness', whereas 'British-ness' is harder to define.

Listen to Music with Tropers at The Troper Turntable!

^ Agreed with all of that.

Obviously the lines are blurred between the classes to some extent (I'm somewhere inbetween middle and working class myself, as are most of my friends), but it still forms the backbone of society and definitely affects our humour.

The upper class twit (Prince George in Black Adder), hyper intelligent but permanently-ignored woring class-man (Baldrick in the first series of the same programme), the middle class-man who aspires to the former but is in denial about being just as close to the latter (Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances) ...all are very common stereotypes within our culture (and we probably have a trope for each of them.

Would you kill your best friend, can you save yourself?

This is something that seems to come up pretty often talking to Brits and Americans..

95% of my humour needs no interpretation, so to speak, in conversation with my friends in the US. Interesting that a lot of American comedy & comedians I've liked over the years have been influenced by British humour.

An English friend of mine likes to note the role of pharmaceuticals in the States, which seems  ^*

a lot larger in everyday life than it is here. By extension of that, healthcare. Remember the anti-reformists- and rogue MEP Dan Hannan- who were so outspoken about the NHS? I don't think I've had enough experience with hospitals etc to form a real opinion on that though.

A few years ago, I might have thought that there's more political consensus here, that is, in terms of general elections given how close the W Bush ones were, but our ballot in May showed otherwise. That, and that voting reform is probably overdue.

...is out to lunch.

The attitude towards health care is very different. I got a vaccination done in five minutes at the welcome event at my new school; a friend of mine paid $100 per shot to get the same vaccination back home. At my old school in the states, there was this undercurrent of "X is expensive, are you sure you want to get it?"; in a LJ comm I read, someone posted about the doctor cracking wise that "Well it's daddy's money anyway" when they opted in for local anaesthetic.

BTW, I'm a chick.

Quite a few really and I'll be mainly looking at it from a political point of view. For one in Britain the Head of State (Queen) is seperate from the Executive (the Government), whilst in the US the head of state is also the head of the Executive (the President). Furthermore the UK also doesn't have a seperation between the state and the church with the head of state needing to be the head of the Chruch of England. In the US despite being genreally quite religious doesn't have that kind of state/church overlap though the Christian influence is there. There are slo all sorts of other differences in the political system with power in the US being more spread out whilst in Britian it is almost entirely centralised in Parliament which generally means it is easier for a bill to be passed in the UK than it is in the US. ______________________________________________________________________

Whilst the queen may have something to do with religion she has no influence on our laws and parilment. Infact it is a no go to pass a law based on religion. American has more religious influence than the UK, ie Bush using the excuse 'God told me to'. Religion has far much less influence in general society as well, whilst it is still going strong, to use your religion as an excuse of hate is considered to be bullshit and a cheap excuse. I will use the issue of homophobia to illustrate, in America and on American based forums I've been quite shocked about the level of homophobia and hate. For example not too long ago two men were arrested for being gay and were threatened with the death penalty. Used to the English conversations and reports about it of 'Who do they think they are wanting to kill someone over that?' I was very surprised to stumble upon it on a couple of American sites filled with, and I'm not exaggerating, 'It is an offence to God all gays must die'. Whilst there are plenty of resonable people in America and homophobes in the UK it seems that it's far more acceptable to show your hate in America whilst here in the UK its seen as frankly fucking rude and you're an intolerable person. Whilst we don't have gay marriage as an option in the UK (though we do have civil service cerimonies) the general attitude makes it easier for people to say 'I'm gay' rather than don't ask, don't tell. America is far more influenced by religion (especially the bible belt) than the UK is.

edited 27th Sep '10 6:10:06 AM by wmellulahw

>>On the humour maybe. What does the U.S. have that compares to Allo Allo, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, etc.

Megas XLR

EDIT: and stuff like I guess Eureka & whatnot, but i don't watch those so....

EDIT 2: >> British society always has, and always will be, obsessed with the notion of heirarchy in society, and you will find a massive difference between 'British Culture' as defined by the 'working class', and the same as defined by the middle and upper classes.

That's England mainly. DOn't the Scottish & other nation say 'fuck you' to that idea?

edited 27th Sep '10 10:23:49 AM by BalloonFleet

WHASSUP....... ....with lolis!

Well they claim to.

However plenty of those countries that claim to are full of shit. For example despite the american dream idea constantly espoused, they have far lower class mobility then us.

"When you cut your finger, I do not bleed." Response of a man who lived on the outskirts of a concentration camp.

I came up with a description of the differences between America and Britain, at least regarding religion and politics. America is the secular country where religion gets involved in politics and Britain is the religious country where religion is minimised in politics.

In other words, America is technically secular but in practice places great weight in religion and Britain has a state religion in theory but in reality ignores minimises religion in politics.

edited 28th Sep '10 10:20:27 AM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

^ Agree with that completely.

Would you kill your best friend, can you save yourself?

In other words, America is technically secular but in practice places great weight in religion and Britain has a state religion in theory but in reality ignores minimises religion in politics.

Yeah, this is an odd quirk I've noticed. Why, though?

MariaMoments: The wonder of 91% accuracy is that it [Thunder] still misses 50% of the time.

Its to do with the fundamental way each country was founded. America was founded with secularism in mind, but they can't get away from the fact that a great proportion of their population is fervently religious and will only follow a religious leader. Britain was built on an older system, back in the days when religion mattered in every facet of this countries systems. We have moved on from those days as a society, but are still a country built on a constitutional monarchy where unspoken rules, political realities and tradition underpin the foundations of our politics. We are not governed by a secular constitution, but by an unwritten one based on a very religious history. Therein lies the difference.

I made an edit there, so I'm afraid you'll have to play Wheres Waldo with my post.

edited 29th Sep '10 2:12:25 PM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

Its also partially because America had a great revival of Evangalism late in the 19th century, alongside an idea of "manifest destiny" the two became defined as a christian concept.