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Making fun of accents

Skeptic Bob

Skeptic Bob

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I was watching some standup comedy tonight and it got me to thinking. What accents is it ok to make fun of and why?

I knows that French accents are a go. Chinese accents are a no-go. Are Mexican accents bad but Spanish (from Spain) accents ok? What about Northern accents vs Southern accents?

Just a wonderin’.
 
Majority power, white euro, is go. Minorities are no-go.
 
There is a simple test that shows which are or are not appropriate. Think of someone with the accent you want to male fun of, now the lighter the skin tone the more acceptable and as it gets darker the more inappropriate it is.

Just kidding btw, make fun of what you want. People that get offended by jokes aren't typically the ones you would prefer to be around in the first place.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
I was watching some standup comedy tonight and it got me to thinking. What accents is it ok to make fun of and why?

I knows that French accents are a go. Chinese accents are a no-go. Are Mexican accents bad but Spanish (from Spain) accents ok? What about Northern accents vs Southern accents?

Just a wonderin’.
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Well, it depends...if the person having their accent made fun of is a conservative, it's allowed...see Mrs. Trump for instance.
 
Must we make fun of someone's accent? I guess it's something to do....and were it possible to leave the derision unlinked to the persons who speak with any given accent, but, of course, that's all but impossible to achieve...Little is more personal, after all, to one than is the sound of his/her voice.

In my immediate family there are several accents that vary with one's generation, so as kids we sort of made fun of one another's accents. I have a tinge of the Mid-Atlantic accent, which is the accent of my parents' era, yet my younger siblings have none. The few years difference in our ages made a small difference in what pronunciations we most often heard and mimicked. Going to family events in the South with Dad's family, my siblings and I construed our cousins' Southern accents as a bit hickish -- they don't at all have the "hillbilly" accent, but we didn't know any better -- yet their parents, Dad's siblings, have the "Rhett Butler-ized" Mid-Atlantic accent.

Of course, being grown, our accents are what they are. My kids, when reminiscing, will, in jest, occasionally ape my or their grandparents accents. I think that sort of mocking is fine because it's well understood amongst us that the jibes at our enunciation is jockular affection not mockery.

Therein lies the distinction between making fun of anything about another person or class of people. When it's clear to the objects of one's remarks that they are the objects of spoof and not of burlesque, there's no foul. But one can only know what be a another's intent if one knows well the person making the remark, the exception being if both parties are particularly adroit linguists who choose words on account of both the denotation and connotation they carry.
 
In an egalitarian society, everyone is held to the same standard, so if any accent is fair game, then all accents are fair game.

Anything other than that is just shifting privilege. And I'm taken to understand that privilege is bad.
 
i do a fairly good caricature of a Beatles Liverpudlian accent. in college / grad school, my best friend and i were Beatles fanatics, so when we went to our first house party at our new school, we decided to pretend that we were from Liverpool. we pulled it off, and a good time was had by all. alcohol may or may not have been involved, but i regret nothing.
 
Helix said:
i do a fairly good caricature of a Beatles Liverpudlian accent. in college / grad school, my best friend and i were Beatles fanatics, so when we went to our first house party at our new school, we decided to pretend that we were from Liverpool. we pulled it off, and a good time was had by all. alcohol may or may not have been involved, but i regret nothing.
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I've done that with a Scottish accent, which tends to get better with the more I consume. So I play it as trying to hide my Scottish accent and it breaks down as I drink. It has been . . . rousingly successful from time to time.
 
Harshaw said:
I've done that with a Scottish accent, which tends to get better with the more I consume. So I play it as trying to hide my Scottish accent and it breaks down as I drink. It has been . . . rousingly successful from time to time.
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****ing genius. i would so love to do that. +1.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
I was watching some standup comedy tonight and it got me to thinking. What accents is it ok to make fun of and why?

I knows that French accents are a go. Chinese accents are a no-go. Are Mexican accents bad but Spanish (from Spain) accents ok? What about Northern accents vs Southern accents?

Just a wonderin’.
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I love poking fun at accents, and they are all fair game.
 
Jokingly or mockingly? Big difference.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
I was watching some standup comedy tonight and it got me to thinking. What accents is it ok to make fun of and why?

I knows that French accents are a go. Chinese accents are a no-go. Are Mexican accents bad but Spanish (from Spain) accents ok? What about Northern accents vs Southern accents?

Just a wonderin’.
Click to expand...


If the person with the accent is around, it's probably in poor taste to make fun of it. Never nice to hurt someone's feelers ya know.

But, if an accent sounds odd, no matter the color/ethnic background of the speaker, you can certainly mention it, or even joke about it, with your friends. A deep southern drawl is very difficult for me to understand, and it just sounds odd. When Asians speak broken English, I also find that odd, with the upward inflection on the end of virtually every sentence. I'm sure others feel differently.
 
Watch Russel Peters videos

He is Canadian of east indian ethnicity. He makes fun of all accents and cultural stereotypes

Quite funny
 
Nap said:
I have to ask, were you serious or kidding? I would assume most are joking with a comment like that, however you do have a history with the social justice stuff so I really don't know.
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I'm giving you the legit rules. Whether anyone follows them is up to them. By breaking them, one is not fined or arrested, they just look like an ignorant inbred douche. But hey, for some that gets them the invite to a militia they've been waiting for.

So ****ing yeehaw, cowboy. Do what you want.
 
Harshaw said:
In an egalitarian society, everyone is held to the same standard, so if any accent is fair game, then all accents are fair game.

Anything other than that is just shifting privilege. And I'm taken to understand that privilege is bad.
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Such an amazingly stupid and ignorant statement. What nazi taught you that garbage?

You need a basic education in what privilege means and what the social differences are between the power majority and minorities. Basically, you need Sociology 101 because the above is one of the most inbred stupid ignorant garbage posts to ever hit this forum. My God, man, have some self respect.
 
ecofarm said:
Such an amazingly stupid and ignorant statement. What nazi taught you that garbage?

You need a basic education in what privilege means and what the social differences are between the power majority and minorities. Basically, you need Sociology 101 because the above is one of the most inbred stupid ignorant garbage posts to ever hit this forum. My God, man, have some self respect.
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Apparently equality is too much to ask for......
 
ecofarm said:
Such an amazingly stupid and ignorant statement. What nazi taught you that garbage?

You need a basic education in what privilege means and what the social differences are between the power majority and minorities. Basically, you need Sociology 101 because the above is one of the most inbred stupid ignorant garbage posts to ever hit this forum. My God, man, have some self respect.
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Calm yourself.
 
ecofarm said:
I'm giving you the legit rules. Whether anyone follows them is up to them. By breaking them, one is not fined or arrested, they just look like an ignorant inbred douche. But hey, for some that gets them the invite to a militia they've been waiting for.

So ****ing yeehaw, cowboy. Do what you want.
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I think the person who appears to be ignorant would be the person who believes miniorities are somehow inferior to white people and can't take a joke.
 
The rule is: if the person is white you can make fun of them for any reason. If they are not white making fun of them is racist.
 
I'm an equal opportunity maker of fun. If it's funny and meant as a joke I have no problem with it, just like if your from Japan your a Jap, China a slant eye, German= kraut, English is Limey, Irish- Mc, Italian- whap, grease ball. Pollock, spic, nigger all go without saying. On 2nd thought thay all go without saying, we all know which is which and which ones we are.

Me? Kraut, Limey, red skin, or a mutt. Does it really matter?
 
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