TheMeanBrit: NationalStereotype?

I'm a bit confused with The Mean Brit as a trope. The description seems to mostly revolve around Reality/Talent show in which the token British judge will be a lot harsher than the American ones, which seems overly narrow and oddly specific. Then it compares it with other National Stereotypes like French Jerk, Evil Brit and Violent Glaswegian, but the examples are still heavily skewed towards game/talent shows, reviewers, etc. Is this trope supposed to be a national stereotype (a downplayed version of Evil Brit if you will), or is it about "killer judge" on TV contests? As it is, the trope reads like it's entirely based on Simon Cowell's TV persona.

It does seem to just be about that specifically - it's a very "of its time" 2000s trope, back when Cowell's persona was seen and celebrated by millions. Not sure how common it is outside of Cowell, actually.

So using this trope as a more generic "mean, British guy" is a misuse right?

on the one hand, this is definitely something that was codified by Simon Cowell on American Idol. But it has also grown to be a thing outside of him as this article from 2011 discusses. Mean or harsh Brits being judges to ride the coattails off of American idol's success became popular in the American media in the 2000s. From that article it lists the following as essentially copy cats:

• Nigel Lythgoe on Series.So You Think You Can Dance
• Toby Young on Series.Top Chef
• Piers Morgan on Series.Americas Got Talent

I think from there, the idea of British people being overly harsh, dry, strict, and critical regardless of whether or not they're on reality tv became a stereotype. Off the top of my head, Charles Shaughnessy has basically made this a prominent part of his late career, portraying a mean or harsh British judge or exec in Hannah Montana and Victorious. And an argument can be made that a show like Nanny 911 leaned into it too

Thinking about this as a toned down version of Evil Brit is spot-on imo and the article offers it as one of the reasons why this became a thing:

Edited by amathieu13 on Jun 21st 2022 at 6:46:40 AM

This was created specifically to be about harsh British contest judges. Basically Simon Cowell expies.

I don't believe we have a trope for British people just being jerks, except as a downplayed version of Evil Brit. Nationality + Jerkass is edging towards People Sit on Chairs, IMO.

Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash on Jun 28th 2022 at 12:19:01 PM

FWIW this trope is on my TRS to-do list, so if no one else does it first I might do it.

That seems overly specific. And on the subject of contest judges, what about token mean judges who aren't British? A lot of contests seem to have that one "killer" judge, and I wonder if we can stretch the trope's definition in that direction if this isn't about national stereotypes.

Edited by Adept on Jun 30th 2022 at 2:27:04 AM

I agree that it's probably overly narrow.

I'll also toss Gordon Ramsay onto the list of actual examples.

I think The Mean Brit is the middle part in a Venn diagram of two separate concepts:

• The token mean judge, who is there to talk shit to the contestants, as pointed out ^^
• The snobbish asshole Brit, a specific type of "country + jerkass" based around the notion that British people are more harsh/cultured/refined and know better than these plebes (similar to French Jerk).

Edited by Synchronicity on Jul 2nd 2022 at 3:06:41 AM

I did a wick check on the trope, and so far, it seems to be used as the more general "country + jerkass" stereotype than a specifically TV personality type, so I guess we can just broaden it? But that'd probably be something for TRS to decide right?

Edited by Adept on Jul 4th 2022 at 11:31:59 PM

Yeah that's a TRS issue. You can add yourself to the TRS Queue if you want with the trope, and you'll be pinged to the thread when your slot comes up.

(Thanks for wick checking it by the way—I was going to myself, so thanks for taking care of it before me!)