American Put-Downs

/ July 23, 2009

This one mixed with ‘toilet humour’ and starts at 1:30 “What happens is these big fat americans, of which there are plenty you gotta admit, they’re up to here with MacDonalds..they’re huge blubbery people…”

An interview with the delightful Jordan Sparks that very subtly opens and ends with put downs:
0:24 “You’re fortunately then one of those Americans who are aware that Australia and New Zealand are two separate countries?”
10:13″‘Well Rugby is our national game, it’s a little bit different to (American) football, you have to be a real man to play it”

Related posts

7 thoughts on “American Put-Downs”

  1. If the average New Zealander/Kiwi/Whatever- The- Term really dislikes the United States, our culture, and our people, so much, here is some keen advice. Some of us find that your anti- American hatred is rather amusing. Really. In fact, I rather get a kick out of it myself. I have read some of the comments that are directed “our” way, and, may I add, directed towards Great Britain, and Australia as well, and it reminds me of the very short, self- hating man that tries to be the “baddest boy” in the bar/pub. All mouth, nothing to back it up. If Australia did not exist, Kiwis would have no place to run to, and it says something about New Zealand, in a bad way, that so many of her young people go “across the ditch”, and never come back. Scenery is not enough. Making yourself out to be the “cleanest and greenest” is not enough. Bragging about “lifestyle” is not enough. And trying to drain money from foreign exchange students is not enough. The second, and perhaps even funnier, issue, that is tickling my “funny bone”, is this never- ending flag debate. Really? Your PM has nothing better to do, with your money? So your flag gets some people confused with the Australian flag. How about Norway, Sweden and Denmark? Yes, indeed, with your employment, emigration, and self- esteem issues, I would spend time, and money, worrying about my national flag. Before your throw more rocks at other nations, be it the United States, Great Britain, Australia, or Canada, ask yourself the question, why are your young people leaving, in droves, and never coming back? I would be finding out. And soon. Eventually, you are not going to have enough starry- eyed tourists, or backpackers, to prop up your economy. And if New Zealand is seen as racist, hostile, and hateful toward “outsiders”, why would anyone go there? Great Britain has some wonderful scenery, and actual castles, Canada and the United States are vast nations, with mountains and plains galore, why should tourists subject themselves to abuse? As far as your flag debate, good luck with that. Most of the world is laughing at your PM.

  2. I just found this site. You want a typical American-related story in the New Zealand media, go to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11254381
    Drug company is testing a brand-new antibiotic developed to use against super-bugs that plague hospitals everywhere, including in New Zealand. Clinical trial pits the new antibiotic against the standard one, which incidentally doesn’t work so well anymore with the evolution of these new super-bugs. New Zealand hospitals are participating in the testing, voluntarily. No one is forcing them, despite the fact that people with pneumonia in comas cannot consent to the trials (their relatives consent for them – so again, another level of decision-making that is not being made by Americans themselves). But guess what the headline is? “Those unable to give consent to be used in trial sponsored by American-based company!” In case you think this headline is in a tabloid – it isn’t. This is the national “newspaper”, which is similar to the UK Daily Mail or NY Post. Sensationalism. Stories written to play on people’s fears and prejudices. And this story is the tip of the iceberg, too. It isn’t even just the Herald. It’s everywhere. Constantly, stories like that portraying Americans as global villains. The Kiwis are too dim to perceive that Americans in New Zealand are individuals who in all probability have little to do with their country’s or its corporations’ decisions and policies, and they trust their own squawking pinheaded media, which in turn gives them massaged information to sell feel-good nationalistic copy and reinforce their anti-Americanism. They take it out on random expat Americans they run into in various ways, usually just verbal rudeness but sometimes much worse. It’s worst of all for the children. More classic ridiculousness – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10771656 Americans are all Commie-hating Fox News fans, then? Another one – buy American TV shows because you’re too lazy and poor to make your own kids’ shows, then call the cultural invasion “grotesque”? http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/8371864/Kids-TV-more-American-than-US

  3. http://thisnewtown.com/2011/02/08/homesick/
    Here’s one lady’s recent experience. Brought me back.
    I remember before leaving for my Awesome new life in New Zealand, I joined a Kiwi internet group relating to children and education (because I was going to be an immigrant mum there with children) and was treated like I had crashed a private party. I left the group because I was definitely not wanted, even though I planned to raise children in their country and met the requirements for joining the group. I thought it was “just that group”. But no, their whole society turned out to be like that., with a few exceptions who were not numerous enough to make a difference.

  4. Looking through that series of Youtubes, I was not surprised to see obvious expressions of “forced liking” peppered with more honest comments such as “Will we never get out of here!”. Judging by the parent s’ company account information, they didn’t stay long and moved back to the States. Didn’t FI, had to FO.

    Those Americans who are willing to completely gut their way of speaking and thinking are able to do better here. Cut out all “I” statements, first. Use an unsure tone of voice is you feel tempted to be observant, uh, uh, I mean “negative”. Start sentences with “It’s awesome that”. Never complain, and always say things are awesome. Look at the bright side of the most negative sorts of things. Ex.: It’s awesome that the mildew makes such pretty patterns on my wall. It’s awesome that we have learned to be less materialistic by being forced to spend all our money on low quality housing and food. Act content to be here, and you WILL be content, is what you will be told.

    Just don’t be honest, like those kids, if you can’t follow it up with a plane ticket out of here.

  5. Something about the way Americans comport themselves (saying things they believe confidently, even if they may be wrong, or simply speaking up at all) really sets Kiwis off, gets them frothing. I have witnessed this triggering so much that I zip my lip most of the time here.

    They are furious that Americans have a better lifestyle than they do. That is it, in a nutshell. That is why they are drooling down here at the thought of America doing poorly. They always want to drag the big guy down. Tall Poppy.

    Look through the pages and pages of comments on this youtube. They are just a couple of new arrivals, your basic half clueless middle-class Yank kids, commenting on the newness of it all after moving down to the Land of the Long White Cloud, and they become an instant magnet for a ginormous pile of Kiwi resentment and calls to harden up, shut up, etc. because they’ve dared to pronounce a less than glowing opinion of New Zealand on a public medium.

  6. Sometimes the treatment is just a hardening of the eyes the second they hear your accent. This person doing it may mean nothing to you. But if it happens too often, or happens on one’s bad days, which will increase the longer an unhappy immigrant stays in combination with the other treatment that actually affects your life, such as jobs or rip-offs, it grows in its impact.

Comments are closed.