ArenaNet:International cultural references/United Kingdom/England

International cultural references
Home Africa South Africa Americas Canada Quebec Colombia Costa Rica Mexico America-Europe Asia Japan Malaysia Taiwan Europe Belgium Czech Republic Finland France Germany Italy Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Serbia Spain Galicia Sweden United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Oceania Australia New Zealand

In London there is Cockney Rhyming Slang: 'apples and pears' = stairs, 'Boat Race' = face etc. An NPC that speaks in a rhyming slang might provide a few smiles while you try and interpret the dialogue. --Evil Geek 17:21, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

ya stuff like Butchers Hook = Look, Rosie Lee = Tea and China Plate = Mate. There are many more and i would love to see some in Guild Wars :D DazUltra 13:24, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

lol That's so great :), proper stereotypes though. Gotta mention a cuppa tea if your the character is from London. BTW people of america not everyone sounds like Emily off friends. I hate her accent, everytime i watch the episodes with here i get annoyed. --Smithyben

Althought I'm not from England, I can't help but think about the BENNY HILL SHOW ! and the pursuits at the end of each show ( you know, when it comes to flee with a dozen dwarfs running after you ) ~^^^~Miranda Sweet Skin~^^^~

Heres a link to a great online cockney rhyming slang resource [1] --Evil Geek 23:03, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Pah, cockney rhyming slang - we only use that to scam money out of tourists. Besides, the septics would never understand it ;) How about sticking John, Paul, George and Ringo in there somewheres? --Snograt 19:08, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

What about a reference to the BBC, quite possibly the biggest broadcasting corp in the world? The beeb (that's an affectionate nickname for it) is responsible for producing many of our famous TV programmes, like Doctor Who and Monty Python's Flying Circus. It's also responsible for TV licencing in Britain -- all television owners must pay an annual fee for the privelage of being able to watch the BBC (and therefore, the privelage of owning a television). Oh, and it's also sometimes referred to as "Auntie", although I'm not so sure that particular nickname is affectionate. :p --Mme. Donelle 21:20, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Auntie beeb! RT | Talk 13:45, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

What about the Queen's English and the many other regional dialects that inhabit our fair shores? [2] - perhaps a farmer from yorkshire singing the Wurzles? Someone complaining about the good ol' rain, before tucking into their Toad in the hole with spotted dick and custard for desert whilst watching a game of cricket on the TV! Or how about someone just going to stick the kettle on for a cuppa' or afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches and scones! Apart from the food and drink (oh that reminds me how about a Roast dinner, Shephards pie or a plate of fish and chips!) - you can celebrate May Day by dancing around the May Pole with the Morris Dancers. A quick trip down the pub, only to come back staggering up the street singing a song like 'London Bridge is fallign down' or some other nursery rhyme... Or could you encounter Robin Hood lurking in the forest wanting to steal from the rich to give to the poor? Well thats all I can think of about our Land Of Hope And Glory... but there are some more obscure traditions too like Cheese Rolling and the like (its probably best not to ask about some of them though what can I say? some of us are quite eccentric *cough* xD) -- The Great Tomato 21:39, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Maybe they could have an Asura theatre manager named Beeb putting on a Pythonesque version of Norgu's Nightfall or a skit in which Mhenlo is chased by Jamei, Emi, Chiyo, Danika and Cynn to fast saxaphone music. I'd also like to see roughly Dalek-shaped exterminator golems. -- Gordon Ecker 00:20, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Dalek-shaped exterminator golems -- OH MY GOD YES. Doctor Who is a brilliant programme and definitely deserves loads and loads of references. I know Doctor Who is becoming quite popular in America, but here are the specific aspects of the show which are a deep part of British pop culture:

• The programme has been around since 1963, and every generation since then has grown up identifying "their" Doctor: the actor who was portraying him at the time. Unfortunately, Doctor Who was axed by the BBC in 1989 because ratings were so poor, and with the exception of an American-made film in 1996 (the less said about this, the better), it didn't return to TV until 2005. So an entire generation of children, myself one of them, was denied the chance to have their own Doctor. :(
• The Doctor (just The Doctor: he never tells anyone his real name) is a member of an alien race known as the Time Lords. He looks human, but has two hearts and, most notably, the ability to regenerate when fatally wounded; this completely changes his appearence and affects his personality. This was originally just a cheap trick to keep the Doctor around when the original actor portraying him quit, but it's become one of the Doctor's defining features. The Doctor can also be recognised from his TARDIS (see below), his sonic screwdriver (point it at something to make said thing open, blow up, or perform magic tricks), and his psychic paper (a blank piece of paper which displays whatever the wielder wants it to).
• Some of the idiosyncrasies of different incarnations of the Doctor have also become defining features: the third incarnation had the catchphrase "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow"; the fourth always wore a ridiculously long knitted scarf and kept handing out jelly babies (do they have these in America? They're gelatinous, fruity sweets shaped like babies, introduced in Britain in 1920 or so to celebrate the end of WWI); the fifth decorated his lapel with a stick of celery; and the seventh carried around an umbrella whose handle was shaped like a question mark.
• The Doctor spends his time exploring/saving the universe in a TARDIS, which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. It's an advanced spaceship and time machine that's vastly bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. On said outside, it has the appearence of a 1960's Police Box (the camouflaging circuit broke while he was visiting 1960's London), and for that reason it's often referred to as "the blue box".
• The Doctor rarely travels alone; he prefers to travel with one or two companions (usually human females, though his relationship with them is always strictly platonic, even when he's clearly in love), whose main job is to get herself into trouble, trip over her own feet during chase scenes, and scream a lot. Modern companions are a bit more competent, but the ones from the 60's and 70's were famously pathetic. One companion was a robot dog called K-9.
• DALEKS. They're the Doctor's sworn enemies and very dangerous, although they look ridiculous: human-sized pepperpots with large bumps on the surface, with an egg whisk for a gun, a plunger for hands, and a delicate camera-on-a-stick for eyes. This is just their armour, however: Daleks are actually very weak little creatures, essentially just a brain with tentacles and a single eye. They're very intellient and extremely xenophobic; their famous catchprase is "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!", which I notice has already been referenced in GW. XD Preferably, the catchphrase should be accompanied by a plunger held in the Nazi-salute. Daleks used to be made fun of because their already-hilarious design made it impossible for them to climb stairs, thus somewhat undermining their dangerousness. They were eventually given the ability to levitate (pronounced "LEV-I-TATE!"), some time in the 80's, however. Other popular enemies include the Cybermen, who are similar to the Borg of Star Trek only not as good, their catchphrase is "YOU WILL BE DELETED"; and The Master, an evil Time Lord whose life's goal is to upstage The Doctor.

PS, I am not a loser. I have an active and fulfilling social life. *cough* --Mme. Donelle 06:46, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Thought of some meta-references I forgot:

• "Hiding behind the sofa". Doctor Who is generally considered to be a kids' programme, but many episodes are almost too scary for children, so the phrase "hiding behind the sofa" has been used a lot to describe how kids supposedly watch Doctor Who, to the extent that it's become a common phrase for TV-induced fear in Britain. I was very amused to discover it even has its own wiki page: W:Behind the Sofa
• The 2005 revival of the series has high production values, so the current episodes have impressive sets, costumes and CGI effects. But the original series had a low budget and hilariously awful sets and costumes -- one monster was, I kid you not, a man wrapped in bubblewrap and spray-painted green. This became well-known to the point where low production values, especially obviously flimsy sets, are referred to as "Doctor Who-esque".
• Doctor Who episodes, particularly the old ones, tend to involve a lot of running down corridors to escape monsters (probably due to aforementioned low prodction values which leave little else to do), which is another thing that the show frequently got made fun of for. Also, I want to point out that describing the Daleks as "pepperpots", as I did above, is a pretty common tongue-in-cheek description of them.

--Mme. Donelle 11:53, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Guy Fawkes Night. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is commemorated annually in a number of countries on the 5th of November. For many, it is one of the more prominent events behind Christmas and Easter and is recognised as an official event for pyrotechnic displays. -- WarBlade 04:51, 13 December 2008 (UTC)