Who has seen....

[hannahdude]

a film called 'Withnail and I'?
i either read about it from ollie's book or in an article in the dudespaper.
i can't recall but got the strong impression it was SUPER awesome for TBL lovers and Dudeists.

[hannahdude]

unwatchable, couldnt understand ANY of the english accents( if thats what they were) and no subtitles for hard of hearing. it was like godot meets benny hill. fucking awful.

[Rev. Ed C]

unwatchable, couldnt understand ANY of the english accents( if thats what they were) and no subtitles for hard of hearing. it was like godot meets benny hill. fucking awful.

... ... ... ... ...

You're not making any friends here, y'know... :-/

You could have just said you didn't like it personally. Going on to attack it in such an... anti-English way.  Way to insult half the forum

You've managed to exemplify the natural sense of insular Americanism that makes me really hate the US for their narrow cultural views and insulting attempts to mimic or understand cultures other than your own, especially the English or wider British cultures.

"Withnail and I" is one of our great cult films which is full of something called subtlety, something the average American doesn't understand, I guess.  No explosions or car chases, heh

But, just... what the hell?  Something like that is just downright disappointing to read on here

[hannahdude]

super sorry to dudes i offended, i should have put that in better words, but didnt have them at the time.
im a huge hugh laurie fan( not the american show he does) a enormous monty python fan, prime suspect, ab/fab, black adder, the list goes on and on, it was just those accents, and i dont know what they were that i couldnt follow.
so in the nomenclature of our times please forgive the insult dude, i was wrong but im not a fucking asshole. i hope.

[Tripnastic]

unwatchable, couldnt understand ANY of the english accents( if thats what they were) and no subtitles for hard of hearing. it was like godot meets benny hill. fucking awful.

... ... ... ... ...

You're not making any friends here, y'know... :-/

You could have just said you didn't like it personally. Going on to attack it in such an... anti-English way.  Way to insult half the forum

You've managed to exemplify the natural sense of insular Americanism that makes me really hate the US for their narrow cultural views and insulting attempts to mimic or understand cultures other than your own, especially the English or wider British cultures.

"Withnail and I" is one of our great cult films which is full of something called subtlety, something the average American doesn't understand, I guess.  No explosions or car chases, heh

But, just... what the hell?  Something like that is just downright disappointing to read on here

I understand that you were insulted, but I would have preferred that you didn't answer that insult with...insults.  

Saying you hate the US and that we need car chases and explosions to like a movie doesn't exactly make me want to see your point of view.

That was also downright disappointing to read on here.

[hannahdude]

i was dissapointed too, by my own post since i didnt take the time to say that it was that particular accent that made it impossible to watch for me, but since i dont know the names of accents outside 'cockney'( because i am a dumb american) i left it unsaid.
hoping rev ed will also keep in mind my post( which wasnt too popular) in which i ranted and raved about the monty python one night only live at albert hall 'not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy', etc.
and even as a uneducated american, im still a dude with some ability for sublety, although i admit the finniest moment in TBL for me IS when dudes car hits the dumpster and goes 'up' that pole in that very funny way.
anyway, dissapointing thread all the way around and i'm slightly horrified this sunday morning to see i, myself perpetuated this thing.

[forumdude]

I think Ed way over-reacted to Hannah expressing an opinion. I don't think there was anything particularly anti English about her comment other than she just couldn't understand what they were talking about. English people often don't realize that their slang is so impenetrable.

But Ed's reaction was totally out of control. I think we need a retraction. You sound like a drunk soccer hooligan who's team was maligned.

This forum has become too humorless. What the fuck is going on here?

[forumdude]

Sorry, football hooligan. Don't want to be accused of cultural jingoism!

[DigitalBuddha]

I'll toss in a few thoughts here I guess. Having lived in Britain for three years and having a father who is British and a mother who is Canadian, and also being from the US and mostly grew up in the US (your basic beach brat) I might have, on this chat forum at least, a unique experience of understanding both cultures, that of British and American.

Two of the most ongoing points of view are that of Americans being arrogant yahoo cowboys who think "dark beer" is "high culture" and that of the British being culturally "narcissistic snobs" hellbent on "afternoon tea." Neither is true, obviously. There are dudes on both sides of the pond that would fit those descriptions, but they are hardly the norm.

When I was a kid, a bath robe was a "dressing gown, a face cloth was a "face flannel," a dead battery was a "flat battery," and before my Dad bought his first house when we moved back to the US, we lived in "flat." aka an apartment or today, more closer to a condo. I still call a bath robe a "dressing gown" to this day, and use a "face flannel" in the shower. My wife says I use the word "bloody" too much if I get pissed at some idiot on the road..."bloody idiot driver!!"

I kid you not; I couldn't even hear my dad's British accent until one day at 20 years old or so a person called our house when I was there and asked for me, my Dad had answered the phone and then handed it over to me. My friend on the phone immediately said "hey, I didn't know your Father came from England, " I answered "how did yoiu know that?" She answered "are you kidding, his British accent!" Because I had lived in England for a while as a kid, and with my parents all my life, I literally couldn't "hear" his accent until it was suddenly brought to my attention. And then I began to hear it! His British accent was so much the norm to me, it went unnoticed. That was probably due to him losing some of it by living in California, but it was clear enough for a person from outside of our family to hear it easily. But not to me!

From my experience, British and American culture is very close. Even more so when compared to say American culture and Muslim culture, which are miles apart. A large portion of Americans are just by and large transplanted Brits that share a common language, living style, economics, degree of affluence, and even government; parliamentary style of government is not that far from America's federal republic, both are representative forms of government controlled by a constitution.

Brits and Yanks share similar music, foods, morals, governments, religion, clothing styles, history, art, movie industry, laws, technology and a lot more that makes them almost closer than one might think. We have been allies in numerous wars and smaller global spats. Of course, as my Dad once told me; only us Englishmen would stop right in the middle of a fucking battle with the nazis and Rommel's Afrika corps for tea, taking the attitude of "its tea time, fuck all, mate!" Ha! Sorry, had to throw that in.

My Dad fought Rommel in Africa and later worked for British intelligence in Paris after the liberation of France. He hunted down and busted nazi collaborators. He was later sent to Italy to do the same and spent 2 years there after the war still working for MI6 (similar to US's F.B.I., Rev Ed would know about that then I would) in Italy I think it was. He later moved to Canada where he met my Mother and then to the United States; first to New York, then back to Britain for his company he was working for to help establish business there, and we finally settled in California where I mostly grew up around Southern California's beach communities, yup; Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and the whole area, close to where Donny was scattered on the "bosom of the ocean" looking out towards Catalina Island.

Anyway, my point is that there is little in difference between most Brits and Yanks, we're pretty much the same stock of dudes though both countries now-a-days have diverse populations and cultures from all parts of the world. Even that is the same in both countries; similar cultural growth and change.

And, of course, we all know British Dudeism is growing rapidly, as far as I can tell anyway.

[cckeiser]

Sorry dudes, but I think rev Ed had is tongue firmly in cheek when he wrote that...just another example of the wry British humor.
Am I wrong?

[Tripnastic]

You've managed to exemplify the natural sense of insular Americanism that makes me really hate the US for their narrow cultural views and insulting attempts to mimic or understand cultures other than your own, especially the English or wider British cultures.

I've gotta say dude, that doesn't seem tongue in cheek to me.   All the other stuff I could say "Maybe he was joking".  But that part, is intense.

I hope I'm wrong though, I really do.  

[Hominid]

I had a similar exchange, being accused of saying that Brits didn't know how to be parents. But I kept it all as personal messages, as opposed to airing dirty laundry. These kinds of undudely attacks in public just show the true personality of those involved.  I'm a relative newcomer in this forum (...just ordained in June), but I'm seeing patterns here. What Hannahdude expressed, was like - her opinion man...  Not some broad, sweeping statement about British culture. Others agree. It would be nice if this over-reactionary stuff was kept private.  Or not even expressed at all, thus no harm done.

Chill dude. And don't say "I'm calmer than you are!"  ;-)

[DigitalBuddha]

Brits and Yanks share similar music, foods, morals, governments, religion, clothing styles, history, art, movie industry, laws, technology and a lot more that makes them almost closer than one might think. We have been allies in numerous wars and smaller global spats. Of course, as my Dad once told me; only us Englishmen would stop right in the middle of a fucking battle with the nazis and Rommel's Afrika corps for tea, taking the attitude of "its tea time, fuck all, mate!" Ha! Sorry, had to throw that in.

I enjoy a good bottle of guiness over a standard oat soda any day.

~thinkingdude

Fucking eh, my "oat soda" of choice is a good Sheaf Stout.



............and I also drink tea.  

[Hominid]

Hey man, let's all pull up a rug and share our favourite (...note the spelling?) beverage and peace out. No marmots. No nihilists. No reactionaries.  No rug pissers. No known pornographers and their henchmen. Fig eaters are OK if they're not trying to find reverse on a Soviet tank.

Just us dudes.  I can hear the whale songs as we speak...   ahhhhhhhhhhh.

[DigitalBuddha]

Accents in general are cool especially the Brits, the Canadian's, the Aussies, the European's, and even all Asain's. I live in Wisconsin and friends through out this country say I have one too.   The Dude Abides. Peace.

~thinkingdude

I have a "California accent," and for some damn reason no one thinks that my California accent IS even an accent. Sometimes Californians are called "people without an accent." News services like CNN and Fox news actually train their news casters to speak like people in California as if it is a way of eliminating their accent if they, as an example, came from the American Southern states like maybe Mississippi or Georgia.