Was part of a conversation I overheard in Buenos Aires in 2006 between two Americans. Finding the answer is a sort of litmus test for Americanism. I don't hold the passport but knew the answer, and when you do know the answer and are among "fellow Americans" you have one of two choices: you either say the line immediately preceding/following it to show your prowess, or just say the name of the movie. If you get this right, you are in and you may be rewarded by continuing on this same sort of guessing game, generally in the same genre of the film originally in question, ad nauseam.
One wonders what need do Americans, who find themselves in a beautiful South American city, have to do the cultural equivalent of dogs sniffing each other's behinds. After all, they knew they were American, they knew each other quite well, they just needed to affirm it. That is culture. The Coen Brothers is culture in America; if you have seem their films, you can even borrow their culture for as long as you can repeat their best lines back to yourself. Therein lies the generosity of American culture - easy to adopt - and its insidious quality - it's so easy, it blurs everything else.
I was deeply amused when one of our professors, who is also the owner of an independent cinéma in la banlieue (the burbs), said he was wondering whether "The Other Guys"
(called Very Bad Cops in France) was going to be a film that would stand the test of time or just be swallowed up as one of the many American comedies. What I wanted desperately to share, but then realized that it was most likely an uninteresting point coming from an American, was that Americans don't make films to stand the test of time, and they especially don't make their comedies for this reason.
(called Very Bad Cops in France) was going to be a film that would stand the test of time or just be swallowed up as one of the many American comedies. What I wanted desperately to share, but then realized that it was most likely an uninteresting point coming from an American, was that Americans don't make films to stand the test of time, and they especially don't make their comedies for this reason. I don't think Mike Myers or Ben Stiller or Will Ferrell or even Judd Apatow (who the French like to think of an alternative take on American comedy- fat chance) ever stop to worry whether their films will have a lasting effect. What they do want to know is whether their films will be successful in the box office, because and in so doing they affirm their cultural identity. Repeating movie lines for Americans is like dipping your buttery, jammy baguette into your coffee, or arguing for argument's sake for the French. It makes them feel particularly identified with their own kind. American soft power has a deeply unifying quality, republicans and democrats both go to see the same inane comedies and they don't feel like their doing any disservice to their political ideology. A Frenchman makes a light, inane comedy and he's "sold out"-- this is what's know as "l'hypocrésie française." A Frenchman makes a long, dull, intellectual film with an open ending and he is considered a living museum.
American culture seemingly never ends. The French can't seem to get enough of it, and the Americans when they travel to see other Americans, they say: you haven't seen fill-in-the-blank's new show? I know, I've been affronted with this many times. My friend Cristina showing me Will Ferrell doing these rather violent scenes with a little girl named Pearl who's barely learned to speak and doesn't know what she's saying, which produced a sort of Andy Kaufman effect. I didn't laugh, I just felt supremely uncomfortable at what it was like to teach this little girl such horrid language for comedic effect. I couldn't bring myself to laugh. (To be fair, my brother did once come to Paris and very excitedly showed my "Flight of the Conchords" which I did find funny, but I wonder if they count. They're Kiwis.)
I missed the entire phenomenon of 30 Rock. I try to catch it or its best lines on youtube and I never laugh. Same for Entourage. Jeremy Piven is completely un-funny to me. Perhaps his assistant Lloyd is a welcome relief but that's all. That might seem normal for someone who hadn't lived in the States since 2004, but it is astonishing considering my afternoons during childhood were scheduled around a TV program grill that I had made for myself, with each half-hour sitcom that I preferred carefully written into a slot from about 3:30 pm to 7pm, including the Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince, A Different World, Living Single, and later, In Living Color etc. I devoured American culture, from its sitcoms, to stand-up on Comedy Central, to pop and hip hop videos on MTV. I could repeat all of Janet Jackson's moves, entire Jim Carrey films and Dr. Dré's songs and now the punchline seems to be lost on me.
Could it be that American culture is as easy to forget as it is to absorb?
Which is perhaps why they work so hard to export it everywhere to maintain their hold on the popular imagination...?
American culture seemingly never ends. The French can't seem to get enough of it, and the Americans when they travel to see other Americans, they say: you haven't seen fill-in-the-blank's new show? I know, I've been affronted with this many times. My friend Cristina showing me Will Ferrell doing these rather violent scenes with a little girl named Pearl who's barely learned to speak and doesn't know what she's saying, which produced a sort of Andy Kaufman effect. I didn't laugh, I just felt supremely uncomfortable at what it was like to teach this little girl such horrid language for comedic effect. I couldn't bring myself to laugh. (To be fair, my brother did once come to Paris and very excitedly showed my "Flight of the Conchords" which I did find funny, but I wonder if they count. They're Kiwis.)
I missed the entire phenomenon of 30 Rock. I try to catch it or its best lines on youtube and I never laugh. Same for Entourage. Jeremy Piven is completely un-funny to me. Perhaps his assistant Lloyd is a welcome relief but that's all. That might seem normal for someone who hadn't lived in the States since 2004, but it is astonishing considering my afternoons during childhood were scheduled around a TV program grill that I had made for myself, with each half-hour sitcom that I preferred carefully written into a slot from about 3:30 pm to 7pm, including the Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince, A Different World, Living Single, and later, In Living Color etc. I devoured American culture, from its sitcoms, to stand-up on Comedy Central, to pop and hip hop videos on MTV. I could repeat all of Janet Jackson's moves, entire Jim Carrey films and Dr. Dré's songs and now the punchline seems to be lost on me.
Could it be that American culture is as easy to forget as it is to absorb?
Which is perhaps why they work so hard to export it everywhere to maintain their hold on the popular imagination...?
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