I had never heard of the term “greaser” applied to Hispanics before. I knew it was an old derogatory term for Italian-Americans (of which ethnic group I belong) and later came to be a term for 50’s rocker punks (i.e. the movie “Grease”). It’s the latter use to which I was assuming the allusion was, since the guy had slicked back hair and a kind of thorwback look to him.
That said, I have removed the reference from my post and apologize to any who were offended by it. That was not my intent. I have replaced the term with “Bad Moustache”, which if it turns out is a racial slur as well then I may simply quit the internets all together.
It’s cool, dude. I didn’t get the impression you were using it with an intention to offend. I’m “bi-cultural Anglo-Hispanic” myself (a category oddly missing from the census forms), and have close Mexican-American half-siblings from California. My own mom is from El Salvador and is considerably less brown than theirs, and thus I am less darkly complected than them, so apart from my first name–José–I “pass” (ironically they all have English names), but I know they’ve been on the receiving end of the malicious use of that term, so I’m more sensitive to it than most.
DrDel
2744
I am offended and I am not even Mexican.
I don’t know what the hell that is, but I am not quitting the internets over it. Nice try though.
hepcat
2746
I usually just call the actor who plays Rick “that Limey”. Is this okay?
tryte
2747
That Limey has the dreamiest accent!
As someone who frequently uses limes both for cooking and garnishes, I am offended. Or offensive. I get them mixed up sometimes.
Until last week when I saw an interview with him I had no idea that Andrew Lincoln was British. It was a shock hearing that accent come out of him.
hepcat
2750
I remember seeing him in a show a while back and thinking “that’s the worst english accent I’ve ever heard.”
Well he’s no Hugh Laurie, that’s for sure. =)
It sometimes amazes me to learn an actor is originally form the UK or Australia and has made the transition to American TV or movies without bringing the accent along. Is it that easy to learn “American”, or our uncivilized ears just that easy to fool?
Two things:
First, that image above is of Frito-Lay’s ad mascot from ca. 1970 or so named “The Frito Bandito”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frito_Bandito
Second, back to the show: why is it that all TV shows that show firearms insist on playing that “here’s a gun” sound whenever someone pulls a gun, or even just picks one up off a table or from a container (I think it’s the sound of a hammer being pulled back). Funny part is that they use it even when the gun in question has no exposed hammer.
A lot of British/Irish/Australian/NZ actors have a very good ear for accents, or at least certain ones.* It helps too when the production springs for a good dialect coach.
One particularly egregious exception to the generally excellent work done by said actors in this regard was Cate Blanchett’s absolutely horrid Southern US accent in the movie Hannah. Just made one’s ears bleed. Maybe the movie just didn’t have a dialect coach on staff or something.
*From personal experience, when I was much younger and lived in Germany for a while, often I was taken for a Brit because of my decent (aka non-murderous) pronunciation of German. Brits apparently have a good reputation re: pronunciation (at least of German).
hepcat
2754
Why is it that every time we see someone with a grocery bag in a tv show or movie, they have a loaf of french bread sticking out of the top?
Why is it that every time we see the inside of a police station on a tv show or movie, some cop is pushing a reluctant prostitute across the room at some point?
walTer
2755
So what, now we don’t like the French? Oh wait, nm…
corsair
2756
I think the current crop has gotten better at it - I’d use to be able to tell Brits doing American accents because they’d lapse for a moment or just plain leaned on the R’s too hard. So they are sneaking past me more and more - I knew Laurie from British series, but had no idea that Lincoln was a Brit, or Ryan Cartwright (Gary in Alphas) also until I saw interviews. Not to mention all the Aussie/Kiwis who seem to be floating about.
hepcat
2757
Ryan Cartwright is a pretty impressive actor. I have a feeling that kid’s going to break out eventually.
Lauren Cohan, Maggie on TWD, is also a (naturalised) Brit, I learned to my surprise the other day. She sounds almost Australian though in her natural voice.
Watch her in Supernatural, where she’s an occasional guest star for a couple seasons, and you can hear her at her classiest and most sophisticated. Rowr. Same with Chuck, where she plays the British-schooled daughter of Volkoff, the major season 4 villain. To me, hearing her do a southern American accent was the shocker.
Scrax
2760
Imagine my shock when I noticed Dish network has AMC again, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! And within a week of the first episode of The Walking Dead airing! I imagine they rethought their position when Walking Dead brought in a billion viewers.
