We've all heard that other countries view America in a somewhat different light than we view ourselves. Under the Bush Administration, countries made fun of our president and burned pictures in effigy. Other countries, such France, view Americans as "culturally imperialistic" and go to great lengths to avoid our ways of life. (Giddens et al. 53)
It is funny to me, however, to see how the British view our culture. The sketch where Hugh Laurie sings "America" to his British audience captures their ideas of our culture and portrays them in a humorous way.
First of all, the shear appearance of Laurie in his character is a stereotypical "redneck" presentation. He has a greasy haircut, flannel shirt, and skinny hair bandanna. The backdrop of the stage is an American city skyline. The song is a drawn out ballad, much like an old Billy Joel song, with poor lyrics, specifically "America" and "the States" repeated over and over. The lyrics themselves signify that according to the Britons, America's songwriters only sing about our great country and although poorly, will gain recognition and fame in the United States. Then for the finale of the sketch, another British actor comes and punches Laurie off his piano bench, knocking him to the floor and the entire audience cheers and applauds. The audience's reaction is enough to prove that they symbolically (or even literally) feel they've been finally put "out of their misery" from enduring yet another horrible piece of American music.
Now from my standpoint, I don't find this sketch particularly offensive; due to the fact that it is generally light-hearted, harmless comedy poking simple fun at American music. However, from any standpoint, it is sort of difficult to be the brunt of any joke, especially one where the joker obviously feels they are superior to the subject. I do not feel this is an accurate representation of American music culture at all.
But could it be, perhaps, that the old saying "You can't see the forest through the trees" applies here? Maybe in many ways, Americans DO come off as ridiculous as other countries seem to think we do, but because of our pride in "the States", are we just blinded to this?
Giddens, Anthony et al. Introduction to Sociology. 7th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, Inc., 2009. Print.
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I was way too brief! I also liked reading your post a lot, though.
ReplyDeleteI agree; Hugh Laurie seems to be portraying the general "working class All-American boy" (a la Bruce Springsteen & Billy Joel) stereotype that seems to present itself in modern American music. I can see the sometimes overly-patriotic nature of our music getting annoying to non-Americans, which is what I think Laurie getting decked at the end signifies. I thought it was funny, but then again, I'm just starting to get into British humor.