Anyone else hate British cuteness?

[GLo Jones]

"Wow, I hate the use of word 'muggle' in the Harry Potter series. I think I'll use that as the basis for my concept of an entire culture."

You know what I hate? America's love of chewing tobacco, it looks and sounds so nasty, and yet it's involved in everything American. You guys sicken me.

 

[BoTTeNBReKeR]

I'm Belgian and I have no clue what the OP is on about. There's plenty of stuff I read/watch/play that's from the UK and none of that stuff seems "cute" to me. A lot of it seems to be more grim/dark in many ways, which is why I usually prefer British entertainment over American.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The British don't make things cute. They just happen to be the second most sarcastic people in the world.

Second?

Who, pray tell, is the first?

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Mate, I've got no idea what you are talking about.

Most things that come out of Britain are tremendously dull and seedy and dark as far as art and entertainment goes. The British are one of the most cynical people in the world.

Quoted for truth.

You don't appreciate exactly how cynical the British are until you holiday elsewhere. It's something that aids comedy, not hinders.

 

[Stasisesque]

"Wow, I hate the use of word 'muggle' in the Harry Potter series. I think I'll use that as the basis for my concept of an entire culture."

You know what I hate? America's love of chewing tobacco, it looks and sounds so nasty, and yet it's involved in everything American. You guys sicken me.

People have to stop posting seriously when they have adorable avatars.

Galloping tapirs would never be sickened by anything ever.

 

[Vie]

Original Post

Yes I despise British cuteness.

But to be fair I also despise American Modesty, German sloppy workmanship, French military prowess, Italian food, Japan's bizarre hatred of tentacles, Swiss partisanship, Vatican Cities atheism, Australia's high quality of acting talent, Norwegian hatred of fish and the Netherlands repressive drugs laws.

 

[Dragonforce525]

Ok you guys should give this guy a break, everyone here keeps referring him to old comedies like Black Adder and Monty Python, well what about the new ones huh? Like Peep Show, remember that one episode of Peep Show where Jeremy killed that ladies dog, tried to burn the "evidence" and then wound up eating the dog in front of her? Wasn't that just pwecious! Or how about the time Jeremy tried to prostitute his girlfriend to Mark's boss, oh it's like My Little Pony reincarnated!

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

with only 18 posts, i'm calling troll on thisone, therefore; dont feed the troll guys

 

[krazykraig]

Anyone else thinking this i s a troll theard to get all the British in one place....
were all in danger, run for the hills!

 

[Headsprouter]

I've only seen this in harry potter, when I was thinking: "Mudblood? Doesn't sound bad enough, sounds like something a 7 year old would say."

 

[Chris Sutherland]

Black Books.

 

[Josef Hewitt]

Lord of the Rings... nuff said

 

[tahrey]

And there I thought Muggle was just supposed to be a derogatory slang work of the same provenance as stuff like Grockle, Sassenach, naff, tee-nuc et al. Something with a fairly strong negative connotation, and hopefully incomprehensible to anyone not actually part of the same community. Army slang, polari etc have had some influence and they're hardly cute.

Perhaps you were applying a hilariously literal, irony- and sarcasm-free (ergo, I suppose, stereotypically American and/or German) interpretation of material that was laden with huge dripping gobs of it, as well as a large dose of unfamiliar vernacular?

It'd be a bit like dismissing all cinematic or televisual material produced in a romance language as flowery, insubstantial and incomprehensible just because of the sound of the dialogue and its association with snooty high-class city breaks, whilst completely ignoring vast tracts of classic Italian horror films, or gritty French drama such as "Engranages" (showing the seedy, gangland underbelly of... Paris) that uses the exact same tongues.

(much as I am pretty indifferent to HP - I find it a fairly cliche and poorly written thing - the author was after all living in scotland where such attitudes are pretty much necessary for survival, and I certainly picked up an air of it when made to sit through the first film)

Very little British entertainment material is cute for cute's sake, there'll usually be some kind of satirical undertone running through it, with the appearing-cute nothing more than a piss take, or used for contrast. When we actually have a stab at something that's Hello Kitty style cute, you end up with crawling horrors like Teletubbies or The Tweenies... *shudder*

 

[Denamic]

Normally, whenever someone makes a 'am I the only one' thread, the answer is almost universally NO.
In this case, I'm gonna have to say that yes, you are indeed the only one that thinks so.

 

[MrDeano89]

may i just point out one giant flaw to this theory. Lord of the Rings

As an American, I do like British culture, especially comedy, but I can't get over their obsession with making everything cute.

I'm not even sure if cute is the right word, it's just the best word I can muster. They don't just apply cute names to things like the Japanese do, but apply cuteness and expect everyone to take it seriously. I can't get into Harry Potter, though I'm sure it's brilliantly written, just because non-magic users are referred to as Muggles. To compare, the Final Fantasy series has creatures called Moogles, but FF doesn't force us to take them seriously.

Again, it might just be the fact that I'm American. I'm used to mystical things sounding sort of Asian or Middle Eastern and putting apostrophes in random places. An ancient secret society should be called Kal'sur and the mystical weapon should be Dor'salim. So if non-magic using people in the HP universe were called Cara'sin instead of Muggles, maybe I wouldn't be posting this on the net, but as it is, Muggles is a word that forces me to accept the fact that I'm reading a book written for an 8 year old even though the later novels grow with the audience.

As it is, I hate British naming of Fantasy things. Posters should feel free to add their own grievances.

may i just point out one giant flaw to this theory. Lord of the Rings

 

[OrenjiJusu]

Despite being british and taking the piss out of most of what people say to me i have been called cute on several occaisions. So yes i do hate myself.

 

[Matthew Valkanov]

Interesting point, and one I've noted about Harry Potter. Thing was although Rowling had the series mapped out in skeleton form from the start she didn't really know how dark it'd get. At the start it's a very kid-friendly adventure book. The naming decisions were very kid-based. Muggles is a good example, but also Dumbledore and Hogwarts and Diagon Ally, (Diagonally. Geddit?) They're kind of silly words that are fun for kids because the first book was a lighthearted kids book with silly things in it. The darkest it got was a short confrontation at the end. Move ahead ten years to the seventh book at you have torture, you have enslavement, you have murder, you have a kid burning to death, you have a man getting a snake's fang through his throat and drowning in his own blood - and more. But what can you do? The world has been established and the words and names used to establish it can't suddenly change for more fitting ones.

My point is that there's a reason, in that series at least. As far as "British cuteness" overall, I haven't noticed it. At all.

I think what you've just said there is the very meaning of any cuteness put forward by British culture(with the exception of CBBC) : it's a trap to lure in the innocent and then slap them out of their naivety with a truncheon.