Character Design help [Brits]

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

banded between the "south" and the "north" with the south being seen as middle class and posh and the north being seen as simpletons and louts

The great thing is is that I'm from Newcastle upon Tyne, and live in Leeds, have hardly ever gone down south, and yet am inordinately (or ordinately, depending on what your opinion is) post. And yes, I'm 100% state-schooled, no brolly-carrying governess or anything like that.

Also pants are used to refer to underpants with what Americans call pants being called trousers and fanny in the UK does not refer to the bottom but rather the front part of a women.

Our language, our rules. I think it's well within reason.

 

[Agema]

Mm... common follies...

Okay, one would be the posh Britain, although that's not so much an American folly, as a British folly enthusiastically exported by the British to the Americans to fit the existing stereotype (e.g. just about anything with Hugh Grant in).

The other one is the working class one, usually with bad accents (often Cockney), rain and dingy pubs (e.g. "Wee Britain" in Arrested Development, Daphne's relatives from Frasier).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Possibly the main thing to realise is that we have as much variety in our small country as the entirety of the Americas. The things that really affect us is the dourness (caused by our weather), our dark humour(caused by our legacy) and our bullheadedness.

We hate the rest of Europe, yet fulfil most of it's directives and our first to jump in if anyone else threatens them. Many of us have drunk in pubs older than the colonisation of the Americas, so there's quite a bit of resentment towards American intervention.

To really understand Britian, read Viz & watch Shaun of the Dead, Notting Hill and then Brassed Off.

Do NOT ever compare us to Benny Hill, Mister Bean or The Office. That will get you lynched.

Oh, and while America has guns; England has bombs, knives and dogs.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

British people are like American People, but just not as loud, much more polite (most of the time) and we hate the french for no adequate reason. Welcome to the Family!

This aside from one small correction
We hate the french, the germans, the spanish, the irish, the scots, the welsh, the english, the americans, the portugese, the russians, the chinese, the austrailians, lets just say we hate everyone

 

[Meado]

British people are like American People, but just not as loud, much more polite (most of the time) and we hate the french for no adequate reason. Welcome to the Family!

This aside from one small correction
We hate the french, the germans, the spanish, the irish, the scots, the welsh, the english, the americans, the portugese, the russians, the chinese, the austrailians, lets just say we hate everyone

No, we just hate the people we've had a nasty war with. We're pretty cool with Australia and India, for example.

As a London lad myself, I find it pretty hard to notice our quirks since I see them on such a regular basis that they fly under the radar. The only things I can suggest are that when we use a word with a H at the start, the H isn't very distinct (which probably doesn't help with a comic) and we're a little more liberal with swearing (but only by a little). We often don't take things too seriously, but without being slackers, plus we're generally more open to new ideas.
Maybe that's just where I live though.

 

[bluepilot]

hmm, why not live in Britain for a little while and find out what us Brits are like for yourself.

British stereotypes are quite funny, but have otherwise been done to the death. Why not create a British charater based on more realistic terms.

If you cannot come to Britain, why not look at various recent shows like `Britain`s got talent` and `X factor` and compare the people you see to the American equvilent of the show.

British culture can differ from region to region. British people have a tendancy to place a high regard to their region rather than there country.

Living here in Japan, I have began to realise more about British culture. If you ask a Japanese person about their culture they will talk about sushi, samurai kimono e.t.c. They see culture as something defined within history and external values (what you wear, eat e.t.c.)

If I was asked this question about British culture I would have a much harder time defining it. There is also this expression in Japanese talknig about `how Japanese` someone is. In Britian, we do not discuss about `how British` someone is. Being British is a black and white quality, you either are, are you are not. Therefore, being British seems less of a quality, and more of a state of mind.

With regards to Americans, I think that a huge difference bewteen Americans and Britains is how we think about life. There is an American dream but not a British dream. An American made Disney, Macdonalds `Happy` meals, Hollywood...America created the idea that a dream or ideal can be marketed and sold. I think the British are not so creative in this way and much more practical about solid ideas.

I`d say, pick a region, pick a background and start research there.

Study some comedians too. Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrot, Billy Connelly, ant and Dec for starters

 

[Standby]

This is a character design question for most europeans, focusing on people of the Great Britian. Let me explain what I'm doing.

I'm an american designer (college student) creating comic book characters. I want to include a variety of cultures in terms of characters, but I want them to be rich characters containing cultural overtones to contrast those I'm making for my comic*. The few british contacts I have tease my american ways. A good ribbing, you might say (or you might not). But the cultural differences just between he and I are at times, stark. I've shown him the Geiko Gecko [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMF8qp0pg_o], and he felt the depiction of his culture in american eyes was absurd.

My question to you folks is, what are common follys that american writers do depicting brittish characters? It could be an over use of, "'Ello mate," or "Bloody hell!" What are some mannerisms that you feel a brit would never do that americans might? Taking offense to being called a Brit, for example (americans can be overly sensitive to racial issues, whereas this detail is not so extreme in europe, I'm told). Basicly, think back to whatever form of media you once saw/read, and if there was any instances where you, an expert in culture in British ways, felt were absurd, I wanna hear about it.

This isn't a thread about taking the piss out of americans, either. Nor culture bashing. So please, lets not go there. Thanks.


* I won't be making this comic for some years, while I'm in school. I do work on building up script, and characters in the meantime. That way it's ready to go when I am.

If you remember one thing and one thing only, be it this: Not all Brits are Cockney.

 

[Nickolai77]

This aside from one small correction
We hate the french, the germans, the spanish, the irish, the scots, the welsh, the english, the americans, the portugese, the russians, the chinese, the austrailians, lets just say we hate everyone

Yeah, we hate everyone, including ourselves.

Possibly the main thing to realise is that we have as much variety in our small country as the entirety of the Americas. The things that really affect us is the dourness (caused by our weather), our dark humour(caused by our legacy) and our bullheadedness.

We hate the rest of Europe, yet fulfil most of it's directives and our first to jump in if anyone else threatens them. Many of us have drunk in pubs older than the colonisation of the Americas, so there's quite a bit of resentment towards American intervention.


Oh, and while America has guns; England has bombs, knives and dogs.

This guy sums it up quite well. We do love our bombs, knives and especially dogs. Even in Roman times, British dogs where regarded as the best breeds. Fortunately for most American's we don't usually get arrogant about our long, long, long history- but we are very tetchy when it comes to WW2, largely because Britain suffered under WW2, and we regarded it as "our" war, we after all, did declare it- got bombed badly, and fought a battle for our nations own survival, and then the American's sweep in on our show and fight most of it for us- which is a bit embarrassing. When in the company of Germans, Britons follow the maxim "Don't mention the war!" I would advise American's to do the same when in the company of Britons (especially on the internet)

 

[Volodanti]

a good plan would be to watch Lord of the Rings, because there are about 5 different British accents in there

oh and just remember; we'll only stop hating each other if there is someone futher away to hate together... this could be why we have a dislike of America (no-offense meant), cause there aren't many people further away than them

 

[Chipperz]

Watch Friends, then go and find a copy of Coupling.
Watch Scrubs, then go and find a copy of Green Wing.
Watch the American version of the Office, and once you've finished cleansing your brain with bleach (I find pouring it in through the ear to be the best shot), find a copy of the British Office.

They're all very similar in premise, but Coupling, Green Wing and the British Office are all VERY British about how they do the same things (notably, in Coupling, they actually show sex as a comic act).

 

[Sparrow]

They confused English people with British people.

British means English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish. If you want to do a proper nod to English people, call them English. If you want to do a proper nod to Welsh people, call them Welsh. You get the idea.

Also, we don't have bad teeth, none of us that aren't Cockney speak like we're Cockney, we don't all know the Queen, we're the best country in the damn world and don't all love tea. Infact, I rather hate it.

So, yeah. There we go.

 

[reyttm4]

Gotta have a dapper hat.
Also a cane.

A tailcoat, too.

Oh, and they should be the villain.
Obviously.

I would much rather live in that kind of England rather than this one, with all the Chavs n' such.

 

[teeb]

If I ever see a British character writing his mum again, I will come to your house and piss on your dog.

British people write to their mums.

 

[Splock]

As far as the posh stereotype goes, I guess i'm helping it continue somewhat. I have a posh (not quite queen's) english accent mainly because I live in Rutland which essentially has no accent . Also I love tea with the occassional crumpet, so I guess when I think about it it's not hard to see where that stereotype comes from...

 

[skintrade]

here's an idea - to help you get a spread of British accents and spoken language, watch BBC America they show a range of BBC programmes and can cover a lot of ground. There is such a variety in the spoken language that to sit and list everything would be as hard as trying to list every variation from the 50 US States (and Canada too as they have the closest to the British sense of humour IMO).

One idea you could do is decide on a rough character type, and location you would like them to come from (stick a pin in the map), then get the regional accent and idioms from that.

Language and the way that regional accents have come to bear is quite interesting in itself, for example where I live, the local accent is similar to that of "Norf London" except we drop the 'T' quite often on the end of words - due to a linguistic eveolution of glottal stop (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Glottal+stops) - which hails from hat makers holdin a thread bobbin in the mouth whilst working and talking "li tha"

 

[Silver Scribbler]

If you decide to make a Scottish character, he/she does not have to speak like they have been torn bodily from the film Braveheart. Seriously. And we do not all wear skirts. Most of the time...

 

[Mr Companion]

We are almost identical to Americans, but with a different set of accents and far left political views. Also we have a secret hatred to Americans for stealing our empire, Whoops I mean we secretly pilot the death star, I mean whoops we secretly did not turn up for the D-DAY landings as shown clearly in saving private ryan- I mean oh never mind. We are just fairly polite, left wing and occasionally chavvy.
In fact that is what you should do really, most British people I have met growing up have been chavvy (the young ones that is) so you should include one in your comic. It would be educational, yet not too insulting. A strongly recongnisable social group, but not steriotypical to anybody outside Britain. I cannot quite think of how he or she would contribute to the dialogue greatly but no doubt a good writer would be able to think up some practical uses for the idea. Sorry this is all turning into a bit of a ramble. The important thing to remember is do Not under any circumstances characterise him/her as an extremely polite upper class toff with his head located somewhere a good meter up his arsehole. I find that although those people probably do exist but I have never met one yet, plus the media has a glut of them already so yeh...

 

[Trivun]

Gotta have a dapper hat.
Also a cane.

A tailcoat, too.

Oh, and they should be the villain.
Obviously.

Does that mean you're British too? I'm not so sure that you'd be decent in a dapper hat, tailcoat and holding a cane. But the last little point...

Anyway, in most voice acting the British accent is absolutely terrible. I'm really glad that FFXII decided to use actual Brits for the voices of Balthier and Cid, since Americans trying to do any of the British accents (remember, several different countries, sort of) almost always fail epically.

I understand, OP, that you're talking about comics and not anything where there'll actually be sound though. In which case, simply most stereotypes of the British. Apart from having an original (and better) language, English, rather than 'American English' (seriously guys, wtf?), we Brits are for the most part not too different from you. Simply portray us the same way as you do fellow Americans, but make sure to have us using proper English (like saying 'chips' instead of 'fries' and 'crisps' instead of 'chips') and playing British sports/watching British TV shows/etc, or whatever.

 

[Mr Companion]

Thanks for your help folks. I didn't see many "this was a bad depiction," instead in favor of "do this instead." Also, Ninja Englishmen do use monocoles as throwing stars.

If I go to America I am going to wear the whole set, monocle, top hat, waistcoat, shiny shoes. And I will speak in the strongest upper class tone I can bear to adopt (my accent is fairly strong as it is but I would go well out of my way for humours sake) And see how the local resident respond to this. Some of them would see though me while others would likely stand sheepishly in a confused daze. Or perhaps laugh themselves silly. In any case it would be an interesting social experiment for the first week or so before the joke begins to weak off.

 

[The Aimless One]

Well....

I live in the Netherlands and most Brits I meet here all everything but posh.
Usually they're kinda trashy and drink lots.....good fun though! XD
But seriously....I've met people from Londen, Kent and Brighton and they're really not very different from my dutch friends.