I come in peace...

[ulthar]

All you can do is laugh at these things; I don't get folks getting their underwear in a bunch over something like this.

A segment like this is either staged, completely fake, the people are purposefully hamming it up (to get their 15 minutes), miscue because being nervous/put on the spot or they genuinely don't know the answers.  If the latter, there probably are not many who don't know ANY of the answers - notice how generally they show a different person for each question.  I'd like to know how many correct answers they had to cut out to get that footage, just out of curiosity.

Regardless of the answer, it IS funny.  And it would be funny from any country; I will admit that many of us Americans set ourselves up to be superior and I get the joy of knocking a few of us down a peg.

I think my favorite part in the whole thing was how they relabeled Australia as France, Iran, North Korea, etc and asked folks to find it on a map..I'm still chuckling over that....Get ready for the invasion, Dean!!   

[Neville]

Yep, that was hysterical. I would have loved to see a reaction of any of those who did notice the fraud.

BTW, if France is in Australia this means my country has been mistaken for years. All my live we called the neighbours up north french, for Christ sake. That would explain their hatred of Spaniards.

[Scott]

I'm still waiting for anti-gravity and teleportation. It may be easier than we think. Excuse me while I get back to the lab. 

Watch those damn flies...

[Poogie]

Scott your YATTA: National Anthem song would go perfect with that picture...

[Scott]

YATTA is my national anthem and I watch it everyday before going to bed and upon getting up. It's the meaning of life. There would be peace on the earth if everone would watch YATTA.

[Dennis]

I think the fly on the left is kind of cute, Poogie is that you?

[Poogie]

I think the fly on the left is kind of cute, Poogie is that you?

      
You're funny.............

[Neville]

 

[Scott]

[Poogie]

Hey, I'm looking for that guy with the fly swatter.......... 

[Trevor]

You guys think you have it bad ~ we are awash in crime and corruption here in South Africa and our leaders deny the existence of any problems.     Sure they can deny it: they have several bodyguards all paid for by the taxpayer!

They only have one thing in their heads, namely the 2010 Soccer World Cup and only get their panties in a knot when an Afrikaans singer releases a song entitled De La Rey (a call for the late Boer General Koos De La Rey to return and lead the Afrikaners again) and they slam it as subversive propaganda. 

I really thought that when democracy came here in 1994 that things would be better, but it is not so.

[Yaddo 42]

Yeah, the female fly in that picture may be pretty shapely, but just think of how a fly eats its food.

Been reading this thread, kind of hard to get too worked up over the "Dumb Americans" cliche. Between Jay Leno and that Street Smarts game show that used to air, we hammer on ourselves pretty good about it already. Between the editing, the attention seekers, and the wannabe actors and reality TV stars (game shows like that and all those dating shows are notoriously full of people looking to get anything on an acting resume').

I feel cheated, "dumb Polack" jokes finally seem to be dying out in the US, even among the truly lame, and now the world is picking on Americans for being dumb. Just can't catch a break.

Trevor, is much of popular music in South Africa that political? We have music here that idealizes and even fetishizes "Johnny Reb"/Dixie/The Civil War/Rebel Flags/The South shall rise again. Mostly country music, southern and some hard rock, and white boy rap (Kid Rock - who's from the North BTW) but it's treated mostly as a goof, tough guy posturing, or sentimental hero worship. It's more imagery and attitude than substance.  But the turmoil and changes in your country are more recent. Is De La Rey (a major figure from the Second Boer War from what I read) that much of a rallying point in South Africa among Afrikaners? Or is this phenomenon new?

[Neville]

Been reading this thread, kind of hard to get too worked up over the "Dumb Americans" cliche. Between Jay Leno and that Street Smarts game show that used to air, we hammer on ourselves pretty good about it already.

True. Isn't Borat an american movie, despite the actor being British?

[Trevor]

 

Hi, Yaddo 

In the old SA (i.e. 1948 ~ 1993) music was political but rather subtly so. People were being indoctrinated without knowing it, censorship was rampant and if I had to tell you which classic films were banned and for what reason you would think that I was lying. There was even a film called Kaptein Caprivi (Captain Caprivi) which had a prologue in which a govt minister exhorts the nation to make the supreme sacrifice for the nation 

I think this De La Rey thing is a new phenomenon and another attempt by Afrikaners to establish identity. There are differing views, of course: my mom is an Afrikaner and she does not buy into this new Afrikaner thing ~ her thoughts are thus Dit is 'n klomp stront! ~ translation: It is a lot of s---. 

My opinion as the son of a British descendant (my Dad came down without a parachute  and an Afrikaner: all people who live in Africa irrespective of race, you are African, accept it and be proud of it. Just like that. 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

[As for California, when I lived in Oregon -- coming from New York -- I had no problems.  People there reserved their bile for Californians, because Oregonians felt that Californians were coming in and buying up all their houses.  (Didn't stop them from selling, though)

Foul Cursed Californians... I work for the Oregon branch of a Southern California company and they do indeed treat us like a cute little colony.  Look what happened to the Front Range in Colorado, it got discovered by the Californians and now its LA with snow.  The folks what serve the frappachinos or repair rthe computers can't even live in the towns where they are serving them.  Its getting that way here now.   

OK ranting done.  I hate to see anything local being turned into havens for chain stores and restaurants.  Everywhere is rapidly turning into everywhere else.   We're losing so much neat stuff in the drive to "develop".

Of course all the Californians here are not like that.  And if you want my house, it'll be $450,000
-Ed