2 posts tagged “accent”

There is an urban myth that when Scottish Television’s Taggart was aired in the US, it needed subtitles because American audiences could not understand the accent. I’m not so sure, because I understand this is the norm these days on late night TV on CBS and Americans have no problem understanding this:

   What a pity The Late Late Show is not aired in the UK or in New Zealand. I think the Scottish humour works down here better than David Letterman’s. Craig Ferguson’s regular comments about living in the US as a foreigner are very Flight of the Conchords. I have been watching it regularly on YouTube.

Many years ago, I saw a Steve Guttenberg movie called Don’t Tell Her It’s Me (or The Boyfriend School). It was made in the days when Americans knew very little about New Zealand. Guttenberg plays Gus Kubicek, a Hodgkin’s Disease survivor, and in order to win the affections of Emily (Jami Gertz), he agrees to be transformed into a New Zealand biker called Lobo Marunga.
   Even without the Stonecutters’ help, I think Steve Guttenberg is a good actor, and his accent in playing a long-haired biker from Aotearoa was not too bad, given that no one else on the set seemed to know what a New Zealander sounded like. Add the name, which novelist (and screenwriter) Sarah Bird thinks is down-home Kiwi, and as a local, you feel a sense of, ‘What were they thinking?’
   Similarly, when my home town (Hong Kong) is portrayed with junks in the harbour and Chinamen in pigtails, you think, ‘What the heck?’
   It’s a pity the only YouTube clip that features Guttenberg playing a Kiwi only has a line or two. See what you think. The bits where he sounds like Carey Mahoney is when he’s trying to tell Emily his real identity, so you have to ignore them.

   Still better than Patrick Duffy playing a sheep farmer from Taranaki in The Love Boat.

PS.: As of June 13, this is number 11 in Google for the headline phrase. Scary.—JY