Silly Americans!

To continue somewhere around where I left off last week (my apologies for the delay), let's discuss what these crazy English think about us on our own turf. Last night there were two things on television (well 3, but I only watched 2 of them) directly relating to this topic. One was another episode of Stephen Fry's America show, last week he visited the deep south, and this week he traveled up the entire length of the Mississippi. The other was what seems to be the second annual NFL game in London.

First we'll address Mr Fry. While it seems the Mississippi wasn't quite as exciting as his visit to the deep south, I couldn't help but get the impression that he ends up emphasizing the exact same thing in the US that an American show would try and point out in the UK. Basically, he goes around and finds weird people and weird places and then gawks and stares a bit. Like going to a voo-doo ceremony in New Orleans and ice fishing in Minnesota. Kind of like we might go to a Morris dancing festival and a 'football' game. But there are a few other things the show taps into as well: first off, that Americans are very friendly folk, secondly, they drive around in big cars, and thirdly, it's surprisingly rich in culture that vary per region.

While people do often enjoy giving us Americans a bit of crap for many things, it's generally admitted that none of these things are to be taken too seriously. People seem to think that Americans are a decent batch of people, unfortunately led by a bit of a, um, 'twat'.

So that brings us to football. Like, real football. The Chargers played the Saints at Wembley yesterday evening. Quite frankly, I'm genuinely surprised how many people are quite intrigued by it. I've already discussed it with two work colleagues today, both of which had attended the game. Both found the game to be good fun (the high score was much appreciated, and provided a nice contrast to this soccer business). I was also surprised to hear positive feedback on the number of pauses in the game, as apparently it allows you to go and get beer at regular intervals without missing much of the game. I was like, duh, of course. At soccer games everyone runs out at half time and then misses a good chunk of the second half because the lines are so huge as everyone goes at once!

I was also asked if we have chants at American sporting events. Now, I've been on the tube enough prior to Chelsea games to know that European teams tend to have little songs that their fans like to sing while, you know, walking along the platform to get out of Fulham Broadway tube station (and other places too, I'm sure). My response was that we did not sing songs, but fans tend to have established chants of a few words with coordinated arm movements, for example the arm chop for kick-offs at Washington games and the 'O-S-U' situation at Beaver games. Personally I think these are much better than songs as I'm not a good singer! Plus they're easy to catch on to, and even if it's your first game, you'll have the hang of things by the end! So there you have it, positive reviews of football by English people. Although I still don't understand their strange fascination with cheerleaders...

The third show, that I didn't watch, was about the influence of religion in the US. Now don't get me started on that...