Irish accents in tv and other accents too

dulpit

Hey, so I got a-thinking about this from watching the new series of heroes... In it there are some god-awful, terrible & chronic irish accents (all diddly-i and stuff, even though they are supposed to be from Cork...) and I was wondering is it only Irish accents that they [American TV/Films] butcher? Like in heroes there's a japanese guy, he sounds japanese to me when speaking it but would it sound fakey-wakey for actual japanese?

It's chronic, makes it quite annoying to watch, suffering through these "Cork people" speaking with nice irish brogues...

humanji

I'd say it's the same with most accents, it's just that being Irish, we find it more grating.

ixoy

They're apparently bad with most places. I even remember seeing Texans give out about Claire's accent, saying it was dire.

beanyb

People from New Orleans have been giving out about those too. They get to destroy French Canadian accents next, that'll be fun!

Hiro is actually Japanese, so I imagine his accent is pretty good. Apparently they had some ridiculous catchphrase instead of 'Yatta' originally and the actor made them change it. If only there'd been some actual Irish people around before they wrote the Cork storyline...

Toto Wolfcastle

beanyb wrote: »

People from New Orleans have been giving out about those too. They get to destroy French Canadian accents next, that'll be fun!

Hiro is actually Japanese, so I imagine his accent is pretty good. Apparently they had some ridiculous catchphrase instead of 'Yatta' originally and the actor made them change it. If only there'd been some actual Irish people around before they wrote the Cork storyline...

Although the guy who plays Hiro grew up in America, I presume his parents, etc spoke English with a Japanese accent so that wouldn't be hard for him to do. Plus, he's fluent in Japanese so that must help when he's speaking English with the accent.

SprostonGreen

British people hate being portrayed as the butler type in US tv shows, like yer man from Magnum.

BreeVdK

Pure Mule has to be the worst ever for Irish accents, it was absolutely vile ! couldn't watch it due to the accents. I heard recently, that one of the brothers has since died.

tobytobe

What bugs the begorra bejaysus out of me is the way actual Irish presenters and broadcasters pronounce words that end in the letter "T". Out becomes oussssssh and light becomes lyycche And no, I am not Gay Byrne. It's just seems to be case that anyone can get a job with RTE these days regardless of how goddam awful they sound. It's the girls that are the worst at it....

I hate makey uppy 'acquired' accents too - "Roight then, Oil just gow to town tonoight" You know who you are....:)

Toto Wolfcastle

That Cecelia Ahearne book that's been made into a movie is going to make Julia Robert's Irish accent sound native. That guy from 300 is in it and his accent is actually so bad it's scary. Are there not any Irish actors they could cast in the role of an Irish person??

mel123

BreeVdK wrote: »

Pure Mule has to be the worst ever for Irish accents, it was absolutely vile ! couldn't watch it due to the accents. I heard recently, that one of the brothers has since died.

R u sure on that??? Have u never watched Fair City?? I actually cant watch the program, its so bad (in more ways than one), the accents are so brutal!!!

phasers

anybody ever see the episodes of Murder she wrote set in Ireland?

absolutely hilarious, the worst begorrah-blarney-guinness-pot 'o' gold Irish accents I've ever heard

tobytobe

janeybabe26 wrote: »

That Cecelia Ahearne book that's been made into a movie is going to make Julia Robert's Irish accent sound native. That guy from 300 is in it and his accent is actually so bad it's scary. Are there not any Irish actors they could cast in the role of an Irish person??

They could borrow a few from The Tudors seeing how two thirds of that cast seemingly came from the same agency...cheaper by the dozen perhaps.

Toto Wolfcastle

janeybabe26 wrote: »

That Cecelia Ahearne book that's been made into a movie is going to make Julia Robert's Irish accent sound native. That guy from 300 is in it and his accent is actually so bad it's scary. Are there not any Irish actors they could cast in the role of an Irish person??

Wahay found the trailer...everyone cringe!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PLtVJ_VJM

beanyb

Oh dear God... Couldnt they have just made the film totally set in America without any reference to Ireland whatsoever? Changing it the way they did makes it different enough already so they should have just gone the whole way instead of subjecting us to one of the worst accents I've ever heard!

RobertFoster

janeybabe26 wrote: »

Although the guy who plays Hiro grew up in America, I presume his parents, etc spoke English with a Japanese accent so that wouldn't be hard for him to do. Plus, he's fluent in Japanese so that must help when he's speaking English with the accent.

The guy who plays Ando is Korean, so maybe Japanese people notice his accent.

phasers wrote: »

anybody ever see the episodes of Murder she wrote set in Ireland?

absolutely hilarious, the worst begorrah-blarney-guinness-pot 'o' gold Irish accents I've ever heard

I remember seeing an episode of Relic Hunter set in Dublin (centred around the GPO I think). The accents weren't Dublin accents, but all seemed to be Northern accents. It was weird.

fricatus

RobertFoster wrote: »

I remember seeing an episode of Relic Hunter set in Dublin (centred around the GPO I think). The accents weren't Dublin accents, but all seemed to be Northern accents. It was weird.

I saw that. It was desperate. And if I remember right, it wasn't shot in Ireland or anywhere that looked like Ireland. It seems to have been shot in Boston. They just had some shopfronts that were painted to look like pubs, someone outside busking on a tin whistle, and a cart (without horse) loaded with turf. I'm sure the cars were all Lincolns and Chryslers. Not a HiAce, Punto or Ford Focus in sight!

Oh yeah, the accents... DESPERATE!

starn

SprostonGreen wrote: »

British people hate being portrayed as the butler type in US tv shows, like yer man from Magnum.

The dude who played the butler was actually from Dallas,


Christ just watched the PS I Love You Trailer. I wish someone had thrown Gerard Butler down a well

pickarooney

janeybabe26 wrote: »

Are there not any Irish actors they could cast in the role of an Irish person??

They're too busy playing Spartans, Macedonians and Greeks, I guess.

odyssey06

pickarooney wrote: »

They're too busy playing Spartans, Macedonians and Greeks, I guess.

Or Brits, Italian, Spanish and French on The Tudors

shane86

janeybabe26 wrote: »

That Cecelia Ahearne book that's been made into a movie is going to make Julia Robert's Irish accent sound native. That guy from 300 is in it and his accent is actually so bad it's scary. Are there not any Irish actors they could cast in the role of an Irish person??

Oh my god, I was in the flicks tonight and saw the ad, the accent is ****ing terrible. A real well to be sure to be sure aw begorrah load of bollix. It looked like awful chick flick cheese but Id nearly want to see it for the comedy value (seeing as the only "Irish" character heard in the ad is your man you mentioned, I want to hear the rest of the impressionists). Its not as if there is a shortage of Irish actors out there, so why do this?

Maybe someone will save me having to do this and just make a funny 3 minute best of clipshow of it on youtube

The Irish kid in the Simpsons Movie, jesus I wanted to slap him in the ear.

The Don

phasers wrote: »

anybody ever see the episodes of Murder she wrote set in Ireland?

absolutely hilarious, the worst begorrah-blarney-guinness-pot 'o' gold Irish accents I've ever heard

Dear god yes. All the writers did was make it look as much like Darby O'Gill and the Little People as possible.

I used to live with some Korean guys and they said that everyone in Korea laughs at Jin's accent in Lost everytime he speaks. Apparently the Korean woman coaches him every episode on pronunciation but it still doesn't sound right. They said aswell that Japanese people they know say that Hiro's accent is a little bit off as he was raised in the states.

I suppose thats how americans see/hear other places so the writers play to it. :rolleyes:

dulpit

The Don wrote: »

I used to live with some Korean guys and they said that everyone in Korea laughs at Jin's accent in Lost everytime he speaks. Apparently the Korean woman coaches him every episode on pronunciation but it still doesn't sound right. They said aswell that Japanese people they know say that Hiro's accent is a little bit off as he was raised in the states.

That is interesting... That's why i posted this, to see if they (yanks) massacre other accents... According to The Don, they do.. Cheers...

Mark Hamill

At least in terms of the Irish accent, I don't its helped when Irish people do terrible Irish accents on American TV, like Colin Farrell on "Scrubs":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9A0HenYcs&feature=related

George White

I'll say Captain Planet or that episode of the Six Million Dollar Man, tho it was set in a subsitute for ireland called Balinderry, ruled over by the tihnly-disguised British or Dominion dressed in WW2 uniforms and made in awaht was obviously California with Hammer horror chick/Bond girl Martine Beswick being an air hostess and head of the IBA Indpendent Ballinderry Army, IBA I kid not.

I'd love to know what the previous poster was looking for to bump this 5 year old thread.

George White

George White wrote: »

I'll say Captain Planet or that episode of the Six Million Dollar Man, tho it was set in a subsitute for ireland called Balinderry, ruled over by the tihnly-disguised British or Dominion dressed in WW2 uniforms and made in awaht was obviously California with Hammer horror chick/Bond girl Martine Beswick being an air hostess and head of the IBA Indpendent Ballinderry Army, IBA I kid not.

Not helped with genuine stock footage of the Belfast streets spliced into the arid scenes of IBA members dressed like sans-culottes. I just had a similar idea for a thread. And found this.