Talking To Americans (hosted by Rick Mercier)

[Psypunk]

So that isn't the Canadian National anthem?  jk.  that Anthem was awesome!  
I am American, but I have only lived in America for a couple of years.  The rest of my life was spent in Africa, Asia, and Europe...next I'm planning on living in Tibet for a while. I still can't get over the ignorance and conceitedness of so many people in America.  And like someone mentioned before...the amount of overweight people.  i spent most my life in Africa, so it was quite a culture shock to see so many fat people (or are we to call them horizontally challenged?).  Millions are starving to death around the world, yet America throws away tons of food every day.  
I am not proud to be an American, and often when in different countries, I try to keep people from knowing that is what I am (by wearing Canadian flag shirts [] )  No one seems to hate Canada.
I'm trying to find a Iraqi flag to hang on my car (the way Americans always hang American flags everywhere incase they forget where they are, or what it looks like)  but I doubt people would know what it was, they'd probably think it was a sports team.  
Speaking of sports teams, I don't see how they like American football and baseball better than Soccer and Rugby.  A lot of good movies do come out of America though...and the Simpsons...where would the world be with out the Simpsons?

[goingslow]

All people are the same.. americans waste because we have more to waste.  Its absolutely ridiculous to hear people saying "im not proud to be american" and acting like Americans are not worthy of respect as much as all these other countries youve travelled to.  I've travelled to many countries too.. and what did i learn? PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE.  People conform to their society.  If a society thinks women are inferior people in that country think women are inferior.

In america waste is allowed we have tons of restaurants.. we're overweight and flaunt our wealth.  Show me a country full of wealthy people where all the wealthy people of that country dont waste (when they have things to waste) and dont oppress the poor.

This type of believing you're somehow so openminded for appreciating other countries but dissing your own is just as silly as doing the opposite.

There are starving people in america.. Do you think other countries are so open to other cultures too?  There are people in american who appreciate other cultures, there are some who think American culture is the only one worth knowing.

When You're in a society you see more of its faults.  In Iraq many believe the people in America are going to hell because of how are women are "allowed" to act.  All countries have faults and almost all think their way is the right way.

Get real already people are the same.. its what they've experienced in their lives that make them a certain way.  

What strikes me more as "stupidity" isn't people who dont know random facts.  I dont see shows like street smart and say "how dumb people are".  Its certain people's ideas more than their ignorance of facts that sometimes amazes me.  For example, a really intelligent guy on Jeaporady might have really illogical views like gays are going to hell.  Or God will punish you for not accepting Jesus.. Or a man has the right to hit his wife.

That's ignorance and stupidity.. not the fact they couldnt answer certain questions involving facts.

[Nick]

goingslow- Well said!

everyone-  I know that this is the Astral Chat section and that relatively anything goes...but...

To the non-americans- we Americans are a diverse group. My father was an immigrant from Europe as were my grandparents. I have relatives in Canada, Argentina and Italy. You will find every race, creed and color in the United States. We are multicultural. I speak three languages. Most of the people in Southern California (where I live) speak at least two. There are people with all ranges of intelligence, aptitude, caring, spirituality as well as those with the more negative human aspects-just like anywhere else.

Please don't knock us at a spiritual website, try a political one. You may say you're only joking but it sure has an undercurrent that harbors a different feel.

[Nerezza]

One thing I will say: Americans defend their country more vehmently than Canadians.

[no_leaf_clover]

hey nerezza or however its spelled,

if you read my whole post, youd understand that i said that statement would apply IF the test was internet based. according to what you said, its not internet based.

so since it isnt internet-based it was innaccurate in the face of official international documents comparing scores of school systems around the world, in which we ranked 3rd behind japan and germany but NOT canada. (i doubt canadians go wild with learning AFTER they graduate)

i got a little carried away and i've even posted that i did... you don't have to keep analyzing what i said.

[Nerezza]

*sigh*

I give up.

[Tom]

It seems to me that what matters most is if the show is funny.

There is nothing unusual about talking with americans where I live, here in Iowa. It is unavoidable.

So there is more material from the show which could be posted to this thread?

A while back I read that some people were given no external cues as to what time or day it was. They slipped into a 25 hour day. I don't know if it is true or not, but a 24 hour day seems unnatural to me.

[Nerezza]

Here you go Tom:

http://home.attbi.com/~wwwstephen/americans/

Actually clips from the show.

[Fyrenze]

quote:Originally posted by Tom

A while back I read that some people were given no external cues as to what time or day it was. They slipped into a 25 hour day. I don't know if it is true or not, but a 24 hour day seems unnatural to me.

Actually, yes, I was just chatting with a friend about a study in which a number of persons were put in rooms with no clocks and no concept of day or night. Eventually, all of them started random cycles, sleeping when they got tired, which varied greatly from day to day.

][\/][

[Tom]

Very funny. I watched a couple of them just now.

Someone told me that the letters of my home state (Iowa) actually stand for the phrase "idiots out wandering around". We just recently had to replace the gold dome of the "old capitol building" (the state capital was Iowa City, but it moved and the University of Iowa got the building). There was an accidental fire which melted the old dome. I don't remember how it started beyond that someone was doing something stupid and had been warned to stop doing it before the fire.

[Jenadots]

Hi, I thought it was funny just as I think Jay Leno's questions to people on the street get funny responses.  Its the "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" kind of thing.  

If they were asking teenagers - well, they are generally ignorant and proud of it.  They get a lot smarter as they grow up, somehow.  

Anyway, consider that if you are "average". 50% of the people you meet are dumber than you are and 50% will be smarter.  Not that intelligence has anything to do with knowledge acquired in life.

I suppose we will just have to "Blame Canada" for that!

[Fyrenze]

quote:Originally posted by Jenadots

I suppose we will just have to "Blame Canada" for that!

Don't get me started with the South Park quotes. I may want to better myself but I'm not above watching that show religiously and collecting the episodes.

][\/][

[kakkarot]

anybody see it last night? it was just WAY to cool to not post about[] (sorry to all the americans on the forums) (don't feel like you have to read it all at once)

basically Rick Mercier (of "This Hour has 22 Minutes") went around america asking americans stupid questions and getting them to say silly things about Canada. FOR INSTANCE, he convinced Govenor Tom Bilsak from Iowa that canada runs on a 20 hr clock and would soon be switching to the "american standard" 24 hr clock, and even got the govenor to say "Congradulations Canada on getting the new 24 hour clock."

Other things he's done:

He got a bunch of americans to sing Canada's National Anthem (or rather, what he SAID was Canada's national anthem)
Oh Canada, A great big empty land,
We look to america, for a helping hand,
with bannock bread, and caribou eggs,
the true north big and cold (brrr),
oh canada, we are on top,
we're close to ... the north pole,
fermez la bouche, mangez poutine,
can-a-da, a lovely winter dream,
oh canada, la la la la,
LA, LAAAAA.

He's gotten random americans to say various "Congradulation, Canada, ..." which i'll list some of:
"for getting a McDonalds"
"for getting 800 miles of paved roads"
"on becoming a part of North America" (more on this one later)
Govenor of Arkansas: "on preserving your national igloo"
"for legalizing insulin"
"on getting FM radio"
"on getting a volunteer fire station"
"on getting grade nine"
"opening a university"
"getting a second area code"
"getting one million people"
"allowing the irish to vote"

Group of Americans: "Hello Canada! our eskimo neighbors to the south."

And now for some of those questions i mentioned: (Q - rick is talking, not neccessarily asking a question, just talking. A - answer to something rick said)
Q: You think Taft, Nixon, and Mulrooney are not prime examples of the best american presidents?
A: i think there's others that show more american spirit
(for those who don't know, mulrooney is/was a canadian politician)

Q: Do you think that america should be bombing bouchard?
a: Yes

q: Should nato be bombinb bouchard?
a: yes   (bouchard is another canadian politician)

q: do you think america should line up the ground troops and send them into gille de sep? (another politician)
a: yes, america should line up the ground troops.
q: and send them into gille de sep?
a: yes

q: do you think that america should be bombing saskatchewan? (talking about how russia had invaded chetnia and saskatchewan.)
a: absolutely

(same topic) q: what about ground forces? do you think ground forces should be sent into saskatchewan? that might be safer.
a: if that's what they're gonna have to do, then that's what they're gonna have to do.

========
another cool thing that rick did was to create petitions for stupid things like the following petition that he got people from Columbia University NYC to sign:
"... given that 2001 has been declared the year of the senior citizen, we demand that the government of canada discourage the tradition of placing senior citizens on northern ice flows and leaving them to perish."
q: so what are you studying again? (to a person who wrote their name on the petition)
a: history.
q: right, very good.
---
q: (to another person who signed the petition) and you're a prof here?
a: yes
q: how many years?
a: nine
q: you like it?
a: yeah.
========

q: in the year 2000, we'll (canadians) be part of North America. Is that a good idea?
a: i don't know.

========
at harvard university:
---
q: are you a student here at harvard?
a: yes i am
q: and what are you studying?
a: biology
q: well that's good, this is sort of a biological question. We're down here getting student reactions to the fact that the canadian government has decided to resume the calgary seal hunt. What's your reaction to that?
a: i'm against that. actually i'm interested in conservation biology.
---
q: are you a professor here at harvard?
a: yes
q: well, we're down here getting reactions to the fact that the canadian government has decided to resume the saskatchewan seal hunt (notice that before it was calgary seal hunt ). What do you think of that?
a: well i think it's bad, myself. i'd like to see that stopped.
q: so we might see you up there some day visiting the seals on the ice flows?
a: who knows. good luck.
========

========
princeton:
---
q: actually, did you hear that the prime minister Tim Horton just got a double double?
a: i don't know what a double double is.
q: that means he has the support of both sides of the congress in canada.
a: wow.
q: what are you studying?
a: politics
(for those who don't know, Tim Horton is a donut shop. i don't know what the double double REALLY is though.)
---
student: "I'm studying political accounting here at Princeton and cangradulations to Prime Minister Horton on his double double."
========

========
Berkley:
---
q: canada's new prime minister, Jean Chretien, is one of the few black leaders in the G7. He's canadian african.
a: finally, the industrialized nations are getting to the point where they can elect a minority and it's nice that it's happening in our hemisphere.
(prime minister jean chretien is actually french canadian, so he's white.)
========

q: so do you think there's any point in canada having a navy if we don't have access to an ocean?
a: i don't know. i really don't know. i'd stick to the air, then, if you didn't have water.

================
and finally, the best part of the whole show (in my opinion.) it starts off with rick talking to some americans, and then he gets a group of americans to all say the response at the same time.
q: as you know in the states, they're going to bring in a dollar coin. now in canada, we've had a dollar coin for about seven years, and about two years ago we brought in a two dollar coin and now we're introducing a five dollar coin. our one dollar coin is called the looney, our two dollar coin is called the toonie (it's REAL name is the dubloon, but everyone calls it a toonie anyways).... (goes to a different group of people)
... now we're about to introduce the five dollar coin, which has a maple leaf on it and a wooden texture so people have taken to calling this coind the woody.
a: Congradulations, Canada, on getting your first woody!
================

TOO FRIGGIN GOOD!!! the show is awesome.

if you want more i can get you more. let me know what you think

~kakkarot

(there, much better, eh? [8D])