Another double-standard
It must not have been a very good commercial because I can't remember the product, but one of the actors used the British slang phrase "how's your father." And correctly, too, without a question mark as it's not an interrogative, but a noun for sexual intercourse. Look it up at A dictionary of slang if you aren't familiar with it.
Try using any other euphemism for it and I'll bet it's censored quicker than you can say "banging like bunnies." If you ask me, British slang just isn't taken seriously on the American side of the pond because of the pervasive isolationist culture here. Sure, everyone loves to hear a good accent from the isles, but don't forget that we are two peoples separated by a common language.
And it's not just slang that is ignored. If you've read any of my rants about the word frigging posted in the blog then you might have a clue as to what I mean. Not many Americans use that word but you'll find it in the English press, literature, and media broadcasts with some frequency (anyone else a fan of BBC Radio?). But when it's used here in the States ...
Spike is an example. This popular character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a cult hit in England, by the way) is supposed to be English so he gets away with the slang and rude gestures. Some of the opening credits show an episode clip where he "flips the bird" British-style. The American characters couldn't get away with their culture's version of it, could they?
Maybe this is one of the reasons, aside from my heritage, that I'm an Anglophile -- everything English is considered cool. Consider the Austin Powers movies. When the first one came out a few of my 6th grade students were highly taken with it and constantly used the words shag, shagging, shagadelic, and other variations as often as they could. The movie was PG-13. Why were 11-year olds watching it? More importantly, if the movie had been about a Canadian spy from the 60s, would they have been as popular -- assuming that the quality of the satire held up? I think not.
Quick! Name all the really cool cultures! I don't see too many people painting the flag of Bolivia or Myanmar* on the roof of their cars or making clothes out of them.
That ain't a Burmese flag, buddy!
Maybe I need to get rid of my own double standards, though. As a Christian I really shouldn't be using the word frigging (or bollux or wanker or ...) as much as a do when I avoid the vulgarity of their American versions.
* My apologies to Bolivia and Myanmar. They were just the first two that came to mind. But the latter is a great example. It's name was changed in 1989 but most people still call it Burma. How cool can it be?
