24 TROPES THAT FILM AND TV GET WRONG ABOUT AUSTRALIA
When comedians from overseas take the piss out of Australians - they seem to think it’s cute to make fun of our habit of ending sentences with an upward inflection. You know - the stress on the final syllable that makes statements sound like questions.
Now I’m not saying we don’t do that. I reckon probably 20 percent of us employ what’s called “upspeak”, “uptalk”, or “high rising intonation”. OK, maybe 25 percent. Either way, if you’re part of the majority that doesn’t end statements with an approval-seeking intonation, do you find the stereotype annoying?
I posted that Trevor Noah bit on social media and asked if others were bumped by it. A lot of people told me to chill out.
So I asked if anything pisses them off about how Australians are portrayed on film and TV?
Kiwis have their own gripes:
US TV writers do their research by speaking to the only Australian they know - or whatever Australian ends up playing the part of “the Australian” they’ve written badly. Getting it right isn’t worth a ratings point in the US.
Yeah, didn’t Donald Horne use the phrase to describe a nation of lazy, incompetent people economically reliant on their country’s natural resources?
Exactly! I probably should have lead with this.
Haha! Thanks for your participation.