Mr. Bean

[muck_a_luck]

My son and husband have been watching Mr. Bean all afternoon. Which means, *I* have been watching Mr. Bean.

No, the other Mr. Bean.

Grrr. I'd much rather watch Blackadder.

V. interesting bio-thingy on Rowan Atkinson, though.

Comments

[uisgich.livejournal.com]

Not keen on Mr Bean myself - not that Mr Bean, anyway! Do like Blackadder, though. Loved Brian Blessed for his over the top character in the first season, loved Rik Mayall as Lord Flash-heart in the Elizabethan one - wuf!, adored the "actors" in the Georgian one, and thought the WW1 season was so bittersweet, with some hilarious moments, but some scathing takes on how war, and that particular war, was run.

And Rowan Atkinson is another one who comes from my neck of the woods! The NE of England, not Scotland. Lives near a place called Whickham, and is a bit of a recluse - I think a lot of people choose to be, given the chance!

Re:

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Rowan Atkinson is another one who comes from my neck of the woods

I caught that early on in the thingy, and was trying to listen to his accent. I'm wondering if he maybe has been effected by his time at Oxford and elsewhere? Does he still sound like he's from "down home?" *snortle* Anyway, maybe I just need to rent Stormy Monday... Yessss, precious, dialect research...

Had a small dialect incident this weekend that made me laugh at myself. I've never been particularly Southern - Mom's accent is very light and Dad deliberately lost his when he went off to college. (Weirdly, I became *more* Southern when I went to school and spent so much time with my roomies, who both had lovely accents.) And after all my time in higher ed and among Yankees, I now usually speak "American intelligentsia" - sort of US newscaster with a tiny Southern twist (I still use y'all and cussing as part of my natural speech, say git instead of get, and a couple of other little dialectical clues). Much to my embarrassment at work the other day, I was having a particularly irritating day and slipped into a particularly Southern rant and one of my colleagues was shocked to learn that I'm an NC native.

OK, sorry, train derailed. As I was saying, dialectical incident - went out Sunday to get barbeque for a takeout lunch. And in the process of ordering, was suddenly drawling away... I'm surprised The Small Boy didn't comment! *snortle* Ah, the smell of hickory smoke must have brought it out...

My roomie's Mom used to say that there was nothing funnier than a Southerner trying to "do" a Southern accent. Now that I've been so far from home for so long, I try to be careful not to do that. It can be very dislocating. But it's useful to have the down home accent in reserve sometimes, you know?

Heh. For a long time I thought the movie Southern drawl didn't exist. Nobody I ever knew talked like that. (Want a good example of what people sound like where I'm from - catch Charlie Rose. Very genteel, but the real thing.) But then had a phone conversation with a distant cousin who lives in Texas. And realized that the Southern accent you usually hear on TV and in the movies is actually a Texas accent. So there you go. Learn something new every day.