by liberal japonicus
This insightful piece about Daily Central correspondent John Oliver in the Grauniad is quite interesting, but what I want to highlight
His earliest Daily Show appearances played almost exclusively on his Britishness; most Americans, he points out, hear his distinctively Brummie accent as standard Posh English. He once interviewed Tea Party activists while purporting to be offended that they called Obama a tyrant, on the grounds that it was an insult to real British tyranny in pre-revolutionary America. (Or there's this, from a back-and-forth with Stewart, on immigration: "Jon, like billions of other unfortunate people in the world, I tragically was not born American.")
Doing English teaching in Japan, you are going to run into a lot more Brits (and Aussies and Kiwis) than you would and the conflicting notions often slap one in the face. I love the observation about accents and there is also this
Until 2009, when he finally received his green card, Oliver's sense of outsiderhood in New York was not solely a joke: he was obliged to seek the renewal of his visa every year at the American embassy in London, and lived in fear of being turned down. "The worst experience I had was an immigration officer there, an American lady, saying, 'Give me one good reason I should let you back in to insult my country,'" he recalls. "I felt a pulse of ice go through me. Then she said, 'Oh, I'm just kidding, I love the show.' But I was too stunned to laugh. My life had just flashed in front of my eyes… You realise, if it's this difficult for me – and I have almost all the help and privileges I could have, to help me navigate the system – then clearly the immigration system is broken and barbaric."
Any other John Oliver fans out there?
Yes! Love his guns story. Does an interview with former PM Howard about the gun buy back, along with a great aussie riff.. Sorry cant link because of copyright stuff.
I’m not famikliar with John Oliver; thank you for the introduction.
I have a very hard time with accented English. When I went to Europe eons ago in my youth I had not trouble understanding the English spoken as a second language, but I could not understand the English spoken in England at all.
My husband and I are watching “The Top of the Lake”, a six part drama series set in New Zealand. I cannot understand most of the dialog. In fact, I looked the series up on Wikipedia so I coule read the episode plot summaries. I might as well be deaf when it comes to understanding non-American English speakers.
Here is the John Howard interview. It was posted by comedycentral, so I assume the copyright isn’t a problem.
I am looking forward to his stand-in for Jon this summer.
Knew it wasn’t the accents heard in London – didn’t realize he was from Birmingham.
I adore what the bugle has slowly evolved into and I’m looking forwards to seeing what John Oliver does with the daily show.
As a New Zealander you get exposed to just about every other accent in the world where as very few people ever hear ours (except for Flight of the Conchord, Top of the Lake and the odd interview with Peter Jackson).
Makes for a very odd experience.
Thanks LJ, not good at link stuff. 🙂
Top of the Lake was tricky, even for those of us familiar with the NZ accent, in part because several of the leads were not Kiwis, but Americans, Brits (Scots!), or Aussies. My wife and I struggled with it; too late someone suggested we should have tried to see if there was “close captioning” for the hard of hearing.
John Oliver is a funny man, but I’d be (pleasantly) surprised if he can replace Jon Stewart, chiefly because JS comes across as basically a nice guy, whereas JO seems more deeply sardonic. I realize this is all about “personas” rather than persons, but one cannot underestimate basic likeability in undertaking an ongoing public role, especially on TV. As they used to say “You’re inviting him into your living room . . .”
Having been apprehensive at previous Daily Show changes (Craig Kilborn replacement) but ending up pleasantly surprised, I wish Oliver the best. He probably wouldn’t have been my choice, but then I’m not running the show. I look forward to seeing how things turn out.
I think Americans are strangely forgiving, even blind, with us English. John Oliver is just not very talented, compared with the top tiers of American comedians. He’s alright… but why on earth is he guest-presenting the Daily Show? He’s not in the same sport as the likes of Stewart or Colbert, let alone the same league.
The same goes for a lot of English actors. It’s as if producers hear the accent and just assume they must be wonderful actors. Judy Dench and Anthony Hopkins are fine actors (thought they’ve been phoning it in for a few years now). Helen Mirren is good enough – but there are surely many American stage and TV actors just as good or better who never get a look-in when it comes to movies. And then there are the likes of Jude Law, Kiera Knightley, Clive Owen and Carey Mulligan, who are pretty terrible, and make movie after movie. I just don’t get it.
(As for Oliver’s accent, pace the Guardian it’s not at all ‘Brummie’. Yes he was born in Birmingham, but his accent is a nasal version of middle-class North London.)
I lived near Birmingham until I was roughly 20, and I can assure you that John Oliver’s accent is nothing like a distinctive Birmingham accent. What he has is a pretty generic urban British accent. The real Black Country accent is almost incomprehensible if you didn’t grow up in the area – and, in my view, spectacularly hard on the ears.