The New Anglophilia: Why the US is going wild for English accents and culture
Anglophilie outre-Atlantique: pourquoi un tel engouement pour la culture et les accents anglais?
L’engouement pour la culture britannique outre-Atlantique.
Vous trouvez que l’accent Frenchy fait son petit effet ? Mais est-il aussi populaire que l’accent British ? Outre-Atlantique, les us et coutumes britanniques connaissent un véritable essor. En plein Brexit, à l’heure où le Royaume-Uni se redéfinit, retour sur une anglophilie exacerbée du côté des States.
Given how busy the country has been disgracing itself on the world stage, you would think anglophilia would be about as fashionable as gout. And yet it’s seriously cool to be English at the moment.
2. Former Friends star David Schwimmer recently outed himself as a huge fan of The Great British Bake Off. Speaking to the Radio Times, Schwimmer said that he loved the show because “it’s competitive, but everyone’s so lovely with each other”, before adding: “It’s so not American!” There is one thing Schwimmer can’t get on board with, though: Marmite. “That is still completely perplexing to me,” Schwimmer said. “I’ve tried it, and I really want to understand it.” You and me both, my friend.
FROM FOOD TO SLANG 3. Over on Vogue, you will find Little Women actor Florence Pugh explaining how to eat a full English breakfast, alongside other national delicacies. “Eat away your hangover,” Pugh commands, chomping down on black pudding. Vanity Fair has an entire video series dedicated to celebrating English culture: fancy watching Riz Ahmed teach you how to use the word “peng” or Daisy Ridley explaining how to eat a scotch egg? There are videos for that.
4. When it comes to the new anglophilia, having an English accent is vital (sadly, other UK accents don’t get much of a lookin). Hugh Grant has been doing the rounds of late-night US chatshows promoting his film The Gentlemen, which mostly involves him speaking in his trademark clipped tones while adoring audiences holler and scream. (US chatshow audiences are huge fans of English celebrities hamming up their Englishness: see also Claire Foy explaining how to speak like the Queen on James Corden’s chatshow.)
5. English slang has even permeated the highest levels of US politics. The US congresswoman and luminary of the left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “Y’all are going to make me start a version of The Pengest Munch,” in response to an image of a sandwich. Ocasio-Cortez was referencing the Londoner Elijah Quashie’s cult YouTube series The Pengest Munch, in which the self-styled “Chicken Connoisseur” rates chicken shops across the capital. How Ocasio-Cortez came to be familiar with the Chicken Connoisseur’s work remains unknown, although I have no doubt that a US version of The Pengest Munch hosted by her would go down a storm among her acolytes.
A NARROW VIEW 6. But is there something a bit dispiriting about the new anglophilia? It pitches itself as a celebration of English culture, but is really a reminder of how Americans see us: as the bumbling idiots in a Richard Curtis film, driving down dinky single-lane roads and drinking tea out of china sets.
When it comes to the new anglophilia, having an English accent is vital (sadly, other UK accents don’t get much of a look-in).
7. The new anglophilia reminds us that we aren’t a world superpower, but as cutesy as a commemorative tea towel – and even less threatening. Which is just as well. Better to have the Americans smile and pinch our cheeks than see us for the national mess we really are.