I've watched this on BBC America from time to time and it's kind of funny sometimes. Here is my problem- a large amount of their skits are about American stuff (which is sort of surprising), but their American accents are all HORRIFIC. The funniest part about the show is how embarassingly bad the accents are! I'm sure the British accents they do on SNL and the like sound awful to the British people out there.
shareSpecific characters or the more generic bits? Cos I always thought that, say, Jon Culshaw's take-off of GWB was spot-on - but then, I'm not American. So which ones were especially bad?
(On a related note - poor Rory Bremner! The election must have hit him hard. Not only is he Bush's biggest enemy this side of Michael Moore, but he knows Culshaw does a better Bush act than his and he was clearly looking forward to taking the mick out of John Kerry for four years instead. I loved his take on the debates: "Hullo, I'm John Kerry, it's good to be here." [Disappears, rematerialising up close to Bush.] "It's good to be here, too." [Then suddenly he's at the very back of the stage.] "And over here...")
I am always inpressed with how GOOD their American accents are, almost without exception...and I consider myself a fairly well-trained 'fake accent spotter', having a British mother, an American Dad, and having watched Britcoms all my life.
The one thing I HAVE noticed in 'Dead Ringers' is that occassionally when portraying Americans, they still use British spellings (if news is scrolling across the bottom of the screen, for example, in a news skit....like using 's' where Americans use 'z' in "realise" [realize] or "rationalise" [rationalize])...and sometimes British-syllabic pronunciation (such as 'ad-VER-tiz-ment', whereas in America we actually say 'ad-ver-TIES-ment', as one example...another is the typically British-pronounced e-RAZE [erase with a hard 's' or 'z' sound], where Americans actually say e-RASE [soft 's']).
Overall, it's brilliant, and I wish it were on more often!
the show isnt always completely accurate with accents for comic effect... exagerating accents like the bbc newsreaders + greg dyke,
the best characters have 2 b tony blair ["furrowed brow, sod the lot of you hand gesture"] and george bush ["I am happy to be re-electorizized president of the united states of albania"]
Im reading the qouts that you lot have posted and im laughing my head off!
One of the funniest shows on TV IMO!
"He ate the frogs legs, he made the Swiss roll, and now he's munchin' Gladbach"
I haven't seen the show yet...I was struck by the comment on 'bad American accents.' It seems like the Brits will pounce on an American actor who sounds like, say southeast London instead of southwest, but think they can do an 'American' accent, when we have at LEAST as many dialects as they do! Seriously! (Okay I'm done now.)
shareit's not really the same considering that this is a pure comedy sketch show, i can't accept any criticisms on the basis of regional american accents, i've noticed a few slip-ups but really it's what they say rather than the way they say it which is funny. I think Culshaw does a better Bush than Bush himself.
shareis that even possible?
share[deleted]
I've watched this on BBC America from time to time and it's kind of funny sometimes. Here is my problem- a large amount of their skits are about American stuff (which is sort of surprising), but their American accents are all HORRIFIC. The funniest part about the show is how embarassingly bad the accents are! I'm sure the British accents they do on SNL and the like sound awful to the British people out there.
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You people can't do British accents to save your lives.
I'm American and I was very impressed with their accents. They weren't perfect, but great for a sketch show.
I only recently discovered the show and it's amazing. Like our Saturday Night Live only still funny.
Renee Zelwegger, and Gwyneth Paltrow did very well.
Kevin Spacey i have never heard his English -Scottish -Welsh - accent - so cant comment.
But trust me on this - Johnny Depp is not much better than Dick Van Dyke for his English accent.