Anyone else hate British cuteness?

[irrelevant83]

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.

 

[GodsAndFishes]

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.

 

[Radoh]

British cuteness? What are you talking about?
I've never heard of such a thing before, and I certainly don't agree that 'muggles' sounds cute.
Also, you'd better take the Moogles seriously, their knights will mess you up.

 

[SillyBear]

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.

 

[Aphex Demon]

Agreed, as another Englishman I don't have a fucking clue what you are talking about.

 

[Rylot]

Harry Potter isn't the end all be all of British culture, they've done a few other things. And also the whole putting apostrophes in words to make them sound 'fantasy' comes from old European fairy tales filtered through Tolkien, a British author, so yeah:

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

Yes, yes you may.

 

[AnnihilaSean]

If you want all your fantasy names to look like someone threw up some scrabble pieces so that the genre can sit around and stagnate into a big mess of cliché's and Gladiator speaches, you go right ahead.

Also, props on using one piece of fiction to generalise a whole nation. That's real cool.

 

[Domoslaf]

So the word "muggles" is for kids, but "Kal'sur" is for the adults? No way in hell.

I'll take my silly over silly and pretensious every day.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

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.

 

[Appleshampoo]

If you hate British naming of Fantasy things I'd steer well clear of Lord of the rings if I were you. It's just FULL of that British cute naming you're on about.

I just find it amusing how you're basically using a blanket statement due to ONE author calling a group of people 'Muggles'.

I heard a German once liked to kill people, does that mean all Germans have 'German rage'?

I heard one American liked to punch people a lot. Does that make all Americans suffer from 'American Punch syndrome?'

 

[Rylot]

Maybe you've confused us with the fucking care bears or something?

Going off of your avatar it's a pretty honest mistake.

 

[Lord Watermelon]

British cuteness? What are you talking about?
I've never heard of such a thing before, and I certainly don't agree that 'muggles' sounds cute.
Also, you'd better take the Moogles seriously, their knights will mess you up.

May I just say that your avatar combined with this made me laugh? It was awesome. Thank you, sir or madam.

On the subject, I never thought that muggles sounded cute - just kind of ridiculous. I couldn't take it seriously, along with many of the other names or titles in the books. I don't think it's a general british thing, though - I can't think of another example off the top of my head. If you have some, could you share them? I'm curious now.

 

[Penguin_Factory]

I have no idea what you're talking about. I live in Ireland and have fairly extensive contact with British pop culture since we just ingest theirs instead of making our own, and I can't say I've ever encountered this.

I think the subject of this thread should actually have been "do you think the word "muggle" sounds stupid", in which case my answer would be yeah, sort of.

 

[Demonicdan]

I'm slightly confused, you have one example which was mentioned about twice in all of the books. Harry Potter was designed as a older childrens book, it's just that adults liked it too so the later books became more mature. Also "Kal'sur"? Why should we replace something quirky and interesting with another generic sci-fi/fantasy name?

 

[Double A]

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.

As an American, I can say "What the fuck?" You guys should work on improving Freedom of Speech.

OT: What the fuck?

Um... you hate how muggle sounds like moogle? And that the British are being cute about it? I have seen over a dozen Britcoms, and I can safely say none of them are cute, unless there is a little girl doing something. But seriously... what the fuck?

 

[DEAD34345]

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.

Hey, our comedy is miles better than than anything America has produced! Red Dwarf, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, uh... Dad's army, all extremely British comedies that are all great.

OT: I am going to agree with everyone asking what the hell you are talking about, OP. Got any more examples than that one?

 

[Flatfrog]

I think there is one truth here, though, which is that the English (such as me) do have a general dislike of anyone or anything taking itself too seriously, and tend to want to undermine that when we can. You don't get nearly as many blood-and-thunder preachers in England, for instance, we find the whole thing a bit embarrassing - and when US politicians get all religious, we cringe. So yes, there is always an undercurrent of irony and understatement to Englishness.

Check out the book Watching the English by Kate Fox - it's really good on this kind of thing.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Maybe you've confused us with the fucking care bears or something?

Going off of your avatar it's a pretty honest mistake.

IT'S NIGEL THORNBERRY!
How can you not find him FUCKING AWSOME!
I shall educate you.

Spoiler

And i believe they were mostly American inventions (i think)

 

[LostAlone]

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.

 

[SillyBear]

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.

Hey, our comedy is miles better than than anything America has produced! Red Dwarf, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, uh... Dad's army, all extremely British comedies that are all great.

OT: I am going to agree with everyone asking what the hell you are talking about, OP. Got any more examples than that one?

When did I ever say British comedy was bad?