What is this issue some Americans have with British teeth ?

[amadeus]

What, by calling them American?

No, by saying we have a problem with British dental hygiene.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

I've stumbled onto remarks (usually made by across-oceaners) insinuating British have bad teeth. And I don't understand it. During the times I've been in the UK I have not noticed that.
What is the reason for these innuendos ?

Every weekend the British drink as much as possible before kicking the **** out of each other in the street. Those teeth which aren't knocked out, are rotten due to excess alcohol.

 

[GenMarshall]

Hence why Americans 'should get over it' aka stop going on about it.

Hense why Europeans 'should get over it' aka stop going on about it.

 

[Sidhe]

Hense why Europeans 'should get over it' aka stop going on about it.

Well to be frank most English people find it funny. Not everyone does, such is a country. Before the advent of national health care and universal suffrage we all had scurvy and rickets, so if our teeth fell out it was considered free dental, and our knock knees made us slightly self aware. Them were the days we ruled the world, but from a ship or a saddle, unless we weren't rich then we'd have to caper around like lobsters.

 

[Halcyon]

Take a leaf out of the Irish's book, they invented most of the Irish jokes. Good on them, if you can't poke fun at yourself or anyone else in a light hearted way, then you need to get a sense of humour.

I don't think anybody's actually insulted, as such. Brits do self-effacing humour more than just about anyone. It's just that it's only humour if it's funny - the teeth thing is itself a stereotypically 'dumb Yank' thing to say, and therefore annoying. I don't think many Irish comedians make 'I'm a wifebeating, alcoholic, mentally crippled terrorist' jokes, just because some people hold/held stereotypes to that effect.

Equally, there's not much comedy in claiming to be a snaggletoothed 17th century chimmurney-sweeping redcoat with an umbrella fixation just because some Americans got their British stereotypes from Austin Powers, bad history and Dick van Sodding Dyke. Everyone knows that Brits are actually tea-obsessed, drunken madmen who complain all the time but never actually do anything, because doing things is rude.

 

[Disenfrancised]

There is, I believe, something else also at play here. You must recall that we cast off our "parents" across the pond and went our own way. Well, even now it seems the only time we see British influences in commercials, TV shows, and so forth is when it is an attempt to show superior culture and whatnot.

Uh what? Are the british inflitrating your TV with a sneaky master plan...or is it American TV executives finding sterotypes cheaper than plots ?

Anyway the Bad Teeth thing needs to go, its like asking the irish about how their potato farm is doing, it needs to be updated with modern sterotypes as Halycon says:

Everyone knows that Brits are actually tea-obsessed, drunken madmen who complain all the time but never actually do anything except queue, because doing things is rude.

 

[Halcyon]

I was going to say queue, but it wasn't my turn yet.

 

[Disenfrancised]

I was going to say queue, but it wasn't my turn yet.

Good show old chap, if anyone pushes ahead in the queue we should both give them a jolly harsh disapproving glare!

 

[ComradeDavo]

No, by saying we have a problem with British dental hygiene.

I did not start the thread. You seem to be confused. Perhaps sit down for awhile and have a drink of cold water?

Hense why Europeans 'should get over it' aka stop going on about it.

Touchy touchy!

 

[Halcyon]

Good show old chap, if anyone pushes ahead in the queue we should both give them a jolly harsh disapproving glare!

Quite right, Biggles. Queue-jumping is barbarism on par with scooping out and eating the brains straight from the severed skull of a fallen opponent. In public. With your fingers. Civilisation would crumble. Ever driven in Paris, or Milan? Imagine that, everywhere. You'd be driving down the A19 to Dishforth and there'd be a bloody war in the way, so you'd have to take the turning off to [goes on for half an hour about side roads].

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Hense why Europeans 'should get over it' aka stop going on about it.

Why do Europeans care about an American Stereotype about British teeth other than to ask where it came from? They need to 'get over' asking why such a stereotype exists?

None of you see the real issue here. Bloody Dutch trying to get between our "special relationship". They're either trying to improve their US sales of clogs or it's in direct response to:

Nigel Powers: "Don't play the laughing boy. There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch."

 

[Mr_Fusty]

From my experiance, the Irish are even more obessed with tea-drinking than Brits. Tea is slowly dying out here though, coffee is taking over with the younger people. Neither are good for the teeth.

It's all a matter of standards. Simple as that. Kinda odd coming from a nation who reveres a man with wooden teeth.

 

[Rik Meleet]

Uh what? Are the british inflitrating your TV with a sneaky master plan...or is it American TV executives finding sterotypes cheaper than plots ?(..)

'Allo 'Allo is American ??

 

[Rossiya]

Well to be frank most English people find it funny.

I find it rude and offensive.

Do you feel the same way about how a lot of europeans sterotype americans?

Should they 'get over it' as well?

Everybody knows that Americans are scum.

My British grandparents have functunal teeth. They are not pretty.

I suppose your grandparents are also very old. Pretty much makes it self-explanatory.