i know what you mean. i get kinda bothered by this one sprite commercial, with the tiny little guy whose voice sounds kinda like chris rock... there's one where he's in a movie theatre, and he's got a sprite in each of the cupholders on his chair, one on the left, one on the right. when asked why, part of his response is "you can never be too far from the great taste of sprite" or some other praise... but if you actually listen to what he's saying, *literally*, he's saying that no matter how far away you are from sprite, it isn't far enough.

this is a commercial that slams its own product due to a staff of people who aren't paying attention to the details of their work.

but the important thing is, regardless of what exactly one says, people get the gist. if you say "i could care less", i know what you mean. it's almost, in a way, like if you said "do you want some of this pizza?" and i said "fuck that!". you would know i didn't mean that i wanted you to have sexual relations with the pizza. we all do our fair share of adjusting for the illiteral aspects of language, ain't it?

Rotten Tanx wrote:I added the aluminium thing cuz I know from other Americans I speak to that it gets a rise every time.

It got a rise out of this Irish guy too

Rotten Tanx wrote:The other one, that I can never get past though, is "I could care less". The expression is (over here) "I could'nt care less". Since if you could care less, then you obviously care somewhat.

I know not all Americans/Canadians say this though, but enough do.

It's pretty common over here, but we usually put the apostrophe in the correct place when we type it

Dammit.

Ok, I got it. This is the reason why America loses out:

When Pulp Fiction was shown on tv in America, they made the following changes.

Dubbed dialogue in Pumpkin and Honey Bunny's opening conversation
Omission of the entire scene after Vincent and Jules get off the elevator talking about foot massages
Omission of a part of the drug transaction scene starting with Vincent's discussion of how his car was keyed
Omission of the "shooting-up" sequence
The audio of Uma Thurman snorting cocaine as "Son of a Preacher Man" plays is absent
Inclusion of the "Mia Wallace" interview scene
Omission of the scene where Vincent finds Mia in her overdosed condition
Omission of the "oral pleasure" scene
When Butch opens the door to reveal the sodomy of Marsellus, an image of Maynard has been superimposed to prevent from seeing Zed's actual thrusting
Omission of the entire scene where Jules and Vincent argue after blowing Marvin's head off (both in the car and in Jimmy's bathroom)
Omission of the entire scene of Jules and Vincent cleaning up the back of the car
Among the list of words cut out: all variations of "fuck", "shit", "God damn", and "nigger". The use of the word "bitch" is permitted in some cases ("Does he look like a bitch?") but not in others ("Tell that bitch ['babe' in the TV version] to be cool!")


So, just the opening credits, a conversation about hamburgers, lots of shooting and then the closing credits?

yushbombn wrote:

SpankMarvin wrote:Mature Cheddar

ive actually had an argument with a girl from wisconsin (the 'dairy' state) regarding americas so called cheese superiority... the basis of her whole argument was that americas cheeses aren't too strong!

we have stilton for fucks sake... that cheese isnt for pussys

Stilton = British

I should know, I live in Stilton Country

Regarding Doctor Strangelove.

Kubrick himself may have been an American (though he seemed perfectly happy over here in Blighty ), but the film was shot in the UK and used a mostly British crew. It was also based on a novel by a Brit

Below, courtesy of imdb.com is a list of Brits who worked on DS.

Peter Sellars: Actor
Peter George: Original Novel and Screenplay
Laurie Johnson: Original Score
Gibert Taylor: Cinematography
Anthony Harvey: Film Editor
Ken Adam: Production Design
Peter Murton: Art Direction
Stewart Freeborn: Make Up
Clifton Brandon: Production Manager
Eric Rattray: Assistant Director
John Aldred: Dubbing Mixer
Richard Bird: Sound Recordist
John Cox: Sound Supervisor
Leslie Hodgson: Sound Editor
Wally Veevers: Special Effects
Ray Lovejoy: Assistant Editor

I suspect there are more, but the biographical info is incomplete for some entries.

Mark wrote:Regarding Doctor Strangelove.

Kubrick himself may have been an American (though he seemed perfectly happy over here in Blighty :D ), but the film was shot in the UK and used a mostly British crew. It was also based on a novel by a Brit.

All well and true, but I'm hardly into debating the stupid distinctions drawn by this thread. I just thought the "British vs. American" list of "funny things" was unfairly slanted, and thought that I'd throw out some "American" comedians, movies, TV shows, etc. Citing "Married... With Children" as representative of American comedy is hardly calling for a fair fight.

For the record, I'm well aware of Kubrick's "Englishness". I mean, he lived in England for, what, forty years? So your point's well taken. But he's still the crazy New Yorker that put together "Dr. Strangelove".

You know, it's "his" movie.

Although, truth be told, I ultimately don't give a shit about any of this.

Which means that I really don't care.

Rotten Tanx wrote:Anyway, bottom line is England wins cuz we pronounce AND spell Aluminium correctly. Aloominum my arse.

I spent a year in London during college. After spending the day with the Royal Shakespear Company's dialect coach (for a class) he informed us that American pronunciation of vowels is actually "Proper English." That's because we actually pronounce them.
Did you know that back in Elizabethian England, the British actually spoke with what is now known as a Southern American dialect? What I will give you with that...I'd change my accent too.

I vote Mexican as well.

If you can do the accent of someone from the very South West of England and then switch to American, they're actually very similiar. But the rest of England has a different accent from town to town. I'll bet it's one of the few countries where you can travel 100 miles and find someone speaking the same languge but have trouble understanding them.

For example, put someone from cornwall and someone from newcastle in the same room and you'd swear they were speaking different languages.

I could care less about this thread.