Anyone else hate British cuteness?

[gillebro]

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.

Yeah, I'm with this 100%. As an Australian (ie. a citizen of a country that I believe is probably considered one of the happiest in the world) who's lived in the UK for some time, this 'British cuteness' thing has me stumped. The British don't really do cute. If we want to talk about humour, theirs is cynical, dark, often quite clever, and brilliant. I've lived in both England and Japan, and I would be hard-pressed to find a country as cutesy or as obsessed with cuteness as Japan, and Britain is certainly not going to take the coveted cuteness trophy from Japan or any other country any time soon.

Also, as a humongous Harry Potter fan... there are some seriously un-cute things that happen, certainly in the later books. I will say that the way she names things is, compared to the Celtic and Asian names for mystical creatures, cutesy, but I wouldn't say that Americans (or any other English-speaking nations) are above naming stuff similarly. Cuteness is obviously subjective, and any relative cuteness we may see in these names is probably to do with the naming drawing inspiration from English, the language we are all familiar with, while not many of us are familiar with Celtic and Asian languages so those names sound mystical. Some of those Celtic names might literally mean "Bubbles and gummi bears", for all we know. Believe me, after learning a foreign language, names in that language stop sounding terribly exotic.

And cutesy though the naming in Harry Potter is, it's also clever, and full of relevant references.

Soo, Harry Potter is the litmus paper for British Culture? I guess by those rules we should judge America by The Wizards of Waverly place?

Or by Twilight. And I think even people who don't like Harry Potter would say that Britain would win, there.

 

[Lexodus]

As an Englishman can I just say WHAAAAAAA?!?!

I've never heard of this making everything cute thing at all, ever.
And with the example of muggles, I always thought it sounded more derogatory than cute.

Second this! (Muggles is used in a derogatory sense in the books) If anything the Americans are far worse!

'CRISS-CROSS APPLESAUCE'. Nuff said, 'Murrika.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

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.

So you're mad that the British, who have a completley different language and culture then the Japanese, don't name things the same ways the Japanese do?

No offense but this is pretty fucking stupid, also the thread title seems to have nothing to do with the actual thread. Also you have a terribly stupid grievance, you denounced an entire book series because of the use of one word?

 

[Duncan Trice]

I too am an english, I don't see how we are trying to make things 'cute'. I do believe that we are trying to be unoffensive so that don't been seen as hypocrites that we actually are.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Yeah... another brit here chipping in with a 'What the hell ?'.

I think the problem that you're running into is that very little of actual British culture gets taken abroad, and what does tends to be of the more family friendly variety, which yes, means it has cute stuff in it so that the kids will watch it too.

If you look at things that are more grown up you'll get a rather different image of us. Particularly look at our soap operas. They are full of ugly people living terrible lives in borderline poverty. That is pretty much the sum of our culture.

Britain is very much a knock-off of America, but with added nihilism. Your cop shows have cool sexy people doing cool sexy science and solving crimes with a witty one liner. Ours tend to be middle aged people living alone and probably with an alcohol problem. When the camera stops, you get the impression the NCIS guys continue to have their adventures. The people on The Bill stare into the middle distance and cry.

British culture is seriously weird, thats what I'm saying. There is a kind of entropy at the centre of us that knows that nothing we do will ever be important, we can never have nice things and the real core of our aspiration is to live someplace else and have much better lives.

Wow... erm... where to begin? Ok, to be simple and blunt: are you an American who is just trolling?

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I don't know what all you other Brits are talking about, we are a nation renowned for it's cuteness. Even Jeremy Clarkson:

 

[MRMIdAS2k]

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.

For crying out glayvin, IT'S A GODDAMN KIDS BOOK!

IT'S FOR KIDS!

Adults can twat about, deluding themselves with their fucking hardback versions, but the sad truth is they're wanking about reading a book written for 12 year olds.

They're called "muggles" because "dark gritty reality where everything is hardcore and names have more apostrophe's than superman's family tree" just isn't interesting to a 12 year old. THAT is why their vampires sparkle, their werewolves are twats, and even a Ginger kid can kiss Emma fucking Watson, because the grim reality of a dozen magic kids picking on the ginger does not a kids book make.

 

[Xan Holbrook]

It's not so much cuteness as quaintness, like using 'Spiffing' instead of 'brilliant' or 'superb' to describe something that is highly amicable. However, we aren't all THAT cute - try and find 'spiffing' in Richard III or Hamlet or The Pardoner's Tale, for instance.

 

[Zantos]

In fairness, this is an easy mistake to make, when British media goes to America it does hit the editing table and loads of that cynical, sarcastic, melancholy humour gets stripped out to make it more "accessible". BBC America should be ashamed!

 

[Dr. Crawver]

well, OP is a moron is all I can say

 

[Abengoshis]

It's not so much cuteness as quaintness, like using 'Spiffing' instead of 'brilliant' or 'superb' to describe something that is highly amicable. However, we aren't all THAT cute - try and find 'spiffing' in Richard III or Hamlet or The Pardoner's Tale, for instance.

Nobody I know uses 'spiffing'. In fact, the only time I've heard it used here is when we're mocking stereotypical posh people.

 

[Gameslayer_93]

to fix your stereotype, i would suggest reading the Hitchhiker series by Douglas Adams, or any Iain M. Banks book, seriously GO READ THEM

 

[alandavidson]

I'm going to join in with the chorus of "WHHHHAAAAAAA?????"

Seriously, go read some Brit-Lit and get over yourself.

 

[team star pug]

As someone from the UK, how on earth is "muggle" somehow the pinnacle of British fantasy culture. This just doesn't make sense.

 

[Fappy]

I am American and I am confused about the OP. I've never known the Red Coats for their "cuteness".

(Yeah, if you guys can calls us Yanks I'm going to call you Red Coats XP)

 

[Artina89]

I can't be bothered reading through 10 pages of comments, so I don't know if the OP has explained his reasoning, but I have absolutely no idea what they are going on about. I fail to see what the OP is driving at, other than they don't like the way J.K Rowling names things, in which case, how does that relate to cuteness? The term "muggles" does not strike me as a cute word, in fact, quite the opposite.

 

[universaltraveller]

Yeah, I'm with the 'WHATERS' saying WHAT!

Britain? Cute? You obviously haven't been to Glasgow on a dark Saturday night.

Glasgow is a cute place... If you have some heroin... haha

 

[Rienimportant]

I'm from the states, so I'm far from an expert on british...ness, but really?

Muggles...is...cute? What? Why? And the books are written by a western author in a western civilization setting. If they're called Cara'sin, it's blatant bullsh**ing that makes no sense.

 

[Adiona]

What the fuck are you talking about?
Maybe you've confused us with the fucking care bears or something?
Seriously, no one here as a clue what you are talking about.
Hell, i'm now tempted to set up a thread intilted- 'Anyone else hate American ignorance?' based off one person.

^^ This and on weekends yes a Care Bear is I.

<<<British well more specifically English. Yeah wtf are you talking about. When did we ever make things cute? o.o

I don't think Ridley Scott had cute in mind when he directed Alien, unless that film was too scary for your American eyes. As a Brit I can't stand your American stupidness o.ob

Austin Powers...he da man even though he was played be a Canadian I think?

I can't see the point of this thread unless you're just hating on us awesome sarcastic Brits.

 

[0986875533423]

This may have been said already, but the term "muggle" isn't supposed to sound silly to be cute. It's supposed to sound silly to be demeaning and racist, in order to explain (in a way children can understand) the (eventually quite complicated) sociopolitical landscape of the stories.

Maybe if you stopped believing that these things are meant to be cutesy and fluffy, you might realise they aren't.