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| Downton Abbey: Americans love it |
I was reading Mail Online today ( a dirty habit I know - I do hate most of it, but I occasionally can't resist the temptation to find out who's dating who in the celeb world) and came across an article about the fact that actor James Corden (The History Boys, Gavin and Stacey etc) is about to start presenting the Late, Late Show in the US and Hollywood bigwigs are worried that Americans "won't get him."
In typical Mail style it seems trying to set him up for a fall and I was particularly amused/irritated by this paragraph.
During the
rehearsals Cordon's use of language has been criticised as U.S.
audiences are far more sensitive to swearing compared with those in
Britain. Also Americans do not understand words such as 'knackered'
which describes somebody who is excessively tired.
Also,
British references to drunkeness will prove difficult to U.S.
audiences, who do not understand terms such as 'half-cut' or
'bladdered'.
Yes, we all know that the UK and Brits are divided by a common language - goodness knows, I surprised some of my American friends a few times during my stint in New York. (A particular example comes to mind -- when I asked a woman at a party whether her children had had the "lurgy" yet. She looked horrified.)
But honestly, this patronises both American audiences and Corden, who I am sure is a clever bloke and knows exactly what he's doing. And what about all the American shows that U.K. audiences watch? Yes, we might not understand all the references on The Daily Show or even an "easy" sitcom like Friends, but isn't that what's nice about watching something from another country? You learn something. You go and look something up.
Americans have embraced always British actors with open arms -- see Eddie Redmayne et al at this year's Oscars. They love Downton Abbey -- and I'm sure they don't understand all the references there. They love our shows and steal the ideas (The Office, House of Cards ). As for TV hosts - well, the Daily Show's John Oliver is a Brit, and although Piers Morgan got sacked from CNN the end, in the beginning he was quite popular, I seem to recall.
If Corden fails, I don't think it will be because he's British. It won't even be because he's bad. It'll be because US TV is so ruthless that if something doesn't get massive ratings in the first few weeks, they pull it.
I hope he's a roaring success.
10 comments:
I've had more of a problem the other way around. I used to have this great American friend, who used to shout loudly about her children's "fannies" and "suckers." That always cracked me up.
You're right, his ratings will decide very quickly whether he stays or goes, although the ratings will also be driven down if people don't "get him".
I do think it's important for Brits to avoid very idiomatic phrases though. If you use a word like "knackered" or even "fortnight" it really gives no hint of its meaning to people who've never heard it before and you can lose people very quickly if your language is peppered with them.
Piers Morgan, for all he touted himself at knowing Americans, used British words all the time and sometimes you could tell his guests had no idea what he was talking about. That's not why he lost his show, but it probably didn't help his audience warm to him.
Here's hoping he does a great job! I think American's love a Brit's sense of humor. It's one of your greatest exports.
He's replacing Craig Ferguson who hosted the show for about 10 years and is from Scotland.
I don't know if he went through the same thing back then.
It'll be interesting to see.
I didn't know about "lurgy". What does it mean in US English?
Iota- I've never heard it said here.
Iota - it doesn't mean anything. But she was horrified because she thought there was some awful disease going round that she didn't know about!
Ah...
Glad to see Mr Corden has gone down a storm over there...somewhat sad that means he probably won't be doing much over here in the foreseeable...
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