Like most Americans, I'm a bit of an Anglophile. The "special relationship", James Bond, Monty Python, Yes Minister (and much of the BBC telecomedy tableau), the pomp and circumstance of the Royals, the accents -- love it all.

But I'm sad to say I'm being rapidly disabused of a particular impression I'd had since boyhood: that Brits are, on the whole, quite a bit more knowledgeable or intelligent, or at least have better character than Americans. Of course, I've always suspected this was probably wrong, on the basis that IQ doesn't hang around any particular nation, etc. But still, I like my idealistic vision of the UK.

The first chink in the wall was an (Oxford, I think it was) linguist who stated that Americans and Brits diverged linguistically mostly because the British accent changed. Hmmm. Then came increased exposure to the BBC, where I started to notice many stupid little linguistic mistakes -- like saying someone was being "pressurized" where the reporter mean "pressured" or "coerced". Not pretty. Then my more recent observation that Brits seemed to have trouble handling acronyms lately.

Today, Rachel Lucas drives another nail in that coffin by complaining about the widespread British confusion about "irony" -- the misunderstanding of which is also an ongoing pet gripe of mine. Apparently, they often say Americans don't do "irony". (Huh?)

First, and might I note, ironically, it seems her contacts are using it only to mean "sarcasm", a small subset of ironic expression -- a bit like saying "beverages" every time one means coffee, specifically. If you heard someone speaking this way, you wouldn't get the idea they were as much of an expert on said "beverages" as some who varied their usage to connote nuance. As Rachel notes about a tongue-in-cheek (there, I'm doing it again!) Amazon review, called only "ironic" by the BBC: "Wouldn't you be quicker to call it smartass, or simple mockery?"

RL's other observations roughly parallel criticisms which appeared six years ago in the Grauniad:

... we think Canadian Alanis Morissette is American, and she proved some time ago, with her song Ironic, that she didn't know what irony meant (this is so ironic - first, because we think we're the more sophisticated and yet don't know the difference between America and Canada, second because America sees Canada as such a tedious sleeping partner, and yet Canada is subversively sending idiots into the global marketplace with American accents. Of course, I'm being ironic. Canadian accents are not the same as American ones!)

In fact, this is absolute moonshine, since the consummate and well-documented superiority of US telly over British telly is largely due to their superior grasp of irony (as well as the fact that they have more cash)...

Lucas:

I was reading some anti-American comment thread on a British blog a few weeks ago. I did not bookmark it but if you don't believe me, Christ whatever, I will slog through and find the link if it's the last thing I do in my life, but the point is this: more than one British/European person said "Americans don't do irony because they are stupid" and used Alanis Morissette as an example.

Beautiful, isn't it?

I was going to end there, but let me toss up one final observation: I think I know, a bit, why this is happening (besides the Alanis thing). One of the reasons Americans come across as stupid (and "un-ironic", as well) is because our media frequently portrays us this way, and the viewer automatically (and unconsciously) assumes the vantage point and sympathies of the writer and producer.

Consider The Simpsons (or any of dozen of comedies featuring stupid white American father figures): The producers depict Homer as dim and simplistic, without any sense of irony, utterly unable to laugh at himself -- a prototypical American male! A foreign viewer might deduce (on this faulty basis): "This is what Americans are like! Stupid, and unable to laugh at themselves." Of course, he or she knows it's an exaggeration, but assumes there's a kernel of truth to that view.

Yet the greater irony is that The Simpsons is being produced by Americans (meaning the British viewer is absorbing a uniquely American ironic presentation of itself), and is also wildly popular in the US (showing that Americans savor the ironic content of the show every bit as much as British viewers). Worse: American viewers are laughing at a funhouse-mirror presentation of themselves, aware it's not remotely accurate, while British viewers are laughing at someone else, and apparently earnestly absorbing (and parroting!) the mistaken impression there's some great cultural truth lurking in there. Who is taking themselves more seriously? Which behavior is ultimately more ironic?

Sublime, isn't it?