Obviously this character only appeared once but it's become a generalization about us Yanks that's been recounted again
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John_Dee_007 — 11 years ago(June 09, 2014 06:03 AM)
Well nothing in Fawlty Towers is particularly flattering, I mean Manuel doesn't represent all immigrant workers from Barcelona. And not all Aussie girls are blonde and tall (I'm Aussie and the exact opposite!)
And that actress's abysmal attempt at an Australian accent was the funniest thing in that episode.
OCJOC -
lubin-freddy — 12 years ago(February 01, 2014 11:02 PM)
Having travelled around the world, I can say that the Ugly American, if not the rule, is certainly a constant that you see often.
I was in Cambodia, at the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. It was mostly empty, except for my wife and I, and an American couple, who had hired a guide. I wasn't following them around, but just stopped for a moment to listen to the guide explain something. The man stopped him, looked at me, and said:
"We paid for him"
.
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul -
tbx5959 — 12 years ago(February 11, 2014 03:12 PM)
As an American, I'd likely say the same damn thing. Go get a tour guide if you want a tour, don't be in my space - that's what I paid for, an individual tour, and more than that my space, not a tour with a sprinkling of people hanging around during the interesting parts.
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lubin-freddy — 12 years ago(February 15, 2014 08:29 AM)
So you too are an ugly American, who thinks that his money buys whatever he wants. I wasn't following the guy around, and wasn't anywhere near them. I kept a distance, and just wanted to hear a few words. But, if the Americans paid, than they get to do whatever they want. The arrogance of power. They'd better get used to the Chinese doing it all to them in the near future.
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul -
tbx5959 — 12 years ago(February 15, 2014 11:45 PM)
Yup, guilty as charged. I exchange money for goods and services - I expect said goods and services delivered as agreed upon. Of course you don't think you were following him around or weren't in his space, but obviously he thought differently. Europeans and asians seem to have no problem with people in their personal space, Americans tend to, that has nothing to do with world politics - if/when the Chinese become the big swinging dick in geopolitics, I don't think Americans are going to instantly start standing closer to each other or decide, you know what, sure we agreed to something, but it doesn't matter if I get it or not, and sure, everyone come on in on the private tour.
If you wanted a tour, go get one. He didn't owe you a tour, you mooched in on his tour. If he ordered a steak should you feel fine coming in and cutting off a piece? He buys a magazine and there is an article you find interesting, so what, just peer over his shoulder? -
lubin-freddy — 12 years ago(February 16, 2014 07:00 AM)
I see a big difference between following a guide around the site (the GENOCIDE MUSEUM, for god's sake), and standing a good distance away, once.
As a teacher, my class is always open. People often ask if they can sit in, and I always say yes. The credits cost money (to the college), but knowledge is free.
If you see things differently, then that's how the Ugly American seems to most of the world.
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
to rock my soul -
Kinomachtfrei — 11 years ago(June 14, 2014 01:28 AM)
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
George Bernard Shaw
And that's one reason that the world will long remember Shaw, a socialist, while you, and your steak, might not linger so long in the imagination. -
deforest-1 — 11 years ago(August 09, 2014 05:37 AM)
I'm American-born and have written a book much of which is about the unwarranted anti-Americanism my family suffered when we settled in the British colony of New Zealand in 1960. So I sympathise in general, but to expect people not to listen in, in a public place? If you were that fussy about sharing you should have arranged a closed communication system between you and the guide.
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mcgmcgmcg — 10 years ago(August 30, 2015 03:54 AM)
Why is it so surprising you had a difficult time assimilating in a country that stopped being a colony in 1907?
Calling the Kiwis a colony of Britian in 1960 reeks of ignorance.
No cash here!! Here, no cash!!! Cash, no!!!! Robbo? No Cash! -
richard.fuller1 — 10 years ago(September 19, 2015 07:08 PM)
I remember hearing "you Americans did it first" as tho we thought of everything or did everything there was to do that was new.
Even saw an Englishman on The Price Is Right and when Bob asked him something about the way it was done in England, the guy just replied with, you did it first.
Bob laughed.
I do recall some incredible underlying envy tho with Band Aid and Do They Know It's Christmas? that none of our big American performers were on the breakthrough song.
No matter how much money We Are the World raised, how sensationalized it was (I thought the overall song was terrible), England still had it first. -
Noddy_Comet — 10 years ago(September 22, 2015 04:29 PM)
I suppose it's really a tale of two stereotypes: the diffident Brit and the pushy American.
For me though, the episode is actually more disparaging to the British than the Americans. We see the British guests at the beginning of the episode all meekly enduring a dreadful evening with bad food and shoddy service, the point being that the British would rather die than cause a scene. Then we see the brash, confident American who knows what he wants, how he wants it, and he wants it yesterday. It's more than an incompetent like Basil can handle, customer service not really being his area.
Make tea, not war. -
deem_bastille — 10 years ago(October 25, 2015 02:53 PM)
what upset me was the fact that the wife only said 'it's not very well known here' and things like that. she wasn't doing her duty as the country's citizen and standing up for it.
srsly, waldorf salad???? come on! [ps I have tried it, the mayo is disgusting! I tried it with yogurt and it was fine.]
she was such a wimp to her husband. the way he storms into the hotel and forcefully has her take this towel or something and she just takes it and the towel? what a wimp.
she was completely fine with him giving 20L for the chef to stay for 'a half an hour' [yeah right!] like she was entitled.
she should have known how eateries were run!
that was 4:00pm and he is freaking out about 9:00.
and what if he DID have something terminal? god, a little sensitivity, please!
then he barks at basil to make the waldorf salad. if it ain't on the menu, you're not getting it! he was like that highly strung, very clever kid.
Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again. -
Noddy_Comet — 10 years ago(November 29, 2015 09:11 AM)
I went to London in 2001 about two weeks before 9/11 and I didn't behave like this when pubs closed between lunch and dinner.
What the hell pub did you go to?! UK pubs stopped closing between lunch and dinner back in the 1980s
Make tea, not war. -
deem_bastille — 10 years ago(December 04, 2015 04:02 PM)
idk. it was a long time ago and there were at least 4 pubs on each street, for the most part.
but the point still stands I did not freak out and demand service when the pubs were shut.
and idk if I mentioned this before, but there was a bomb threat and the area was on high alert at the time.
Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again. -
darryl-tahirali — 9 years ago(June 30, 2016 07:21 PM)
I suppose the final irony is that Bruce Boa, who played the "pushy American" Hamilton, was Canadian. Canadians have the reputation of being polite and non-aggressive unless you put them into a hockey rink, or so the stereotype goes.
"Here is the ice you ordered, Mr. Ismay." Titanic Captain E.J. Smith