Man those were possibly the worst attempts at an English accent I've *ever* heard!! I thought they were just two effeminate North Americans, until they started waving the Union Jack about.
I thought the film was quite amusing otherwise...
yea it was awful and kinda weird in a film trying to take advantage stereotypes, I kinda got the impression it was just so they could have the scene where one of them says 'it's our sport' to annoy the main character's dad
shareI think you're all missing the meta-joke.
Half the time there's a "Chinese" character in a movie, they're played by whatever Asian they find available. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, it doesn't matter that they don't look Chinese or sound Chinese. It's not an actual concern for most directors, because "they all look the same."
So, they cast an obviously non-British guy to play Harcourt as a riff on that. It didn't matter that he didn't look or sound British, all White people are the same!
You think they couldn't have found a British guy to play his role if they actually wanted to find one?
Asian movies do this, too. Check out the French-accented "American" characters in some of John Woo's early films.
shareI'm glad you mentioned that - it was completely confusing - like you I thought that Harcourt was meant to be a rather camp Californian - - its a 4/10 film for preteen males but gave me a couple of laughs -
shareHarcourt had british heritage, but is American by birth. This is addressed in the film when Christopher exclaims "Dude, you're from, like, Encino!"
shareI have to agree with this poster, I noticed that as well.
Also the only time Harcourt tries to use a British accent is at the very end after the credits, when making a commercial for his table tennis studio... And boy does his British accent suck :-) well played.
Agree with all who spot the irony. But also, ping pong was invented in England so it is a goof on the Chinese oldsters who keep insisting it was invented in China.
shareI listened in on the commentary on the DVD. Gerald and his friend are not really british according to the writers. They are like C-Dub's counterparts. Like Cdub wants to be black the anatogonists are british wannabes.
sharehuh, that's interesting. weird little character quirk lol. and not at all obvious, at least to me, but i'm not the best at picking up on stuff.
I figured they just made them british to set up the opium jokes and, as the other poster said, the "we invented the sport" joke.
Lisa needs braces. Dental Plan!
Pyle! Shazaam!
Can't sleep. Clown'll eat me.