I have never laughed so much in my life,

I'm watching this on TV right now. I like it but could definitely see how someone from Britain would find it laughable. I think the film purposefully pokes fun at British stereotypes. Although I think it plays Daphne up as the typical American tourist even though she's meant to be likable. This line stuck out to me though: Daphne and the grandmother are talking. Daphne gives her a hug and the grandmother says something like I'm British dear. We only show affection to dogs and horses. Like what the heck hahaha!

Yes! It was, in fact, made for 12 year old American girls. I was 13 when this came out and I loved it. Watching it now, 12 years later, I find it utterly ridiculous but I can see why it appealed to me when I was younger. I was a huge fan of Amanda Bynes.

I completely agree with your assessment of much of the movie, but I should point out that Debs and the Debutante "season" didn't really disappear in the early 1960s. The presentation to the Queen stopped in 1958/9, but other than that things carried on pretty much as usual for a long while. I was a half-baked "deb's delight" (supposedly eligible young man) in the early 1970s, when it was still going strong. I had some fun dining with strangers in nice London houses, and staying in lovely houses around England - for country balls you were allotted a weekend house party with nearby toffs, and for town ones invited to dinner parties beforehand. This all happened automatically once you were on "The List", you seldom knew any of the people who invited you.

During the later 70s & 80s it started collapsing badly, as fewer and fewer girls from aristocratic backgrounds expressed any interest in its lunacies (they were far more concerned with their perfectly ordinary professional careers) - and their parents were only too happy to be relieved of the ruinous cost.

However, there has been something of a revival in the thing in recent years, with a whole new class of increasingly wealthy parents anxious to "launch" their expensively-educated daughters into the British social scene, and late-teens rich girls once again happy to have guiltless air-headed fun with the sons and daughters of other rich folk. The difference now is that a debutante is far more likely to be the daughter of rock star, a self-made Hedge-Fund multi-millionaire or a Russian oligarch than she is to have a title in the family. And any distaste there might once have been for "new money" or working in "trade" has quite disappeared. I rather miss the days when background trumped money - well, as a toff with no money, I would! But to be honest it's fairer - everyone theoretically has their chance to 'elevate' their family within a generation or two, as long as they're clever, and lucky and ruthless enough. And that's how it always was until the 19th Century.

Plus ça change...