Lager louts

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Responding to yesterday's remark that "the consistency in supporting and back-slapping low-brow entertainments straight out of the gate is what sets Americans proudly apart from other cultures....is there another big-time industrial western society as blue-collar oafish as ours?," hotshot Manhattan entertainment journalist Lewis Beale writes the following:

"I would submit that if you've ever been in a European resort when it has been descended upon by lager louts from Britain, Germany, Holland or wherever, you will know that the ratio of idiots in these Western industrial powers is as high as in the U.S. I once spent a couple of days in Fuengirola,Spain, on the Costa del Sol, when it was overrun by tour groups from Britain and the Netherlands. The men started drinking at 10 a.m., and spent the entire time watching soccer games, fighting and vomiting. Quite an eye-opener."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 5, 2007 at 11:10 AM

comment #1

MovieBob says ...

Really, man. I understand the point you were making, but you really gotta open your eyes on the whole Europe-versus-U.S. thing. We tend to think of Europe as more sophisticated because we're mainly exposed to their "best" stuff, pop-culturally. Every national cinema on the planet has it's middlebrow junk, and right down the line it's always really, really popular.

Posted by MovieBob at March 5, 2007 11:40 AM

comment #2

Mr. Buckles says ...

I think one just has to apply the Seinfeld aphorism, "people, they're the worst." But here we're talking about tastes and it's pointless to lecture on whose are wise and whose aren't.

If you look at the bell curve, a C is at the heart of it. I see mass culture as a C student and I don't think any one culture, race, or country anymore enlightened ultimately than another.

You've been serve motha' f'ers.

Posted by Mr. Buckles at March 5, 2007 11:43 AM

comment #3

MathewM says ...

I thought it was funny when our family received a care package from relatives in Germany and printed prominantly on some of the newspaper packaging was an advertisement for 'The King of Queens'. Loafish behavior is universal and apparently exportable.

Posted by MathewM at March 5, 2007 11:46 AM

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

I'd rather live in a culture that supported "back-slapping low-brow entertainments" than one that supported state-sponsored terrorism, the regular religious degradation of women, or dictatorships run by power-hungry madmen. But hey, that's just me.

Posted by Josh Massey at March 5, 2007 12:30 PM

comment #5

OddDuck says ...

"I'd rather live in a culture that supported "back-slapping low-brow entertainments" than one that supported state-sponsored terrorism, the regular religious degradation of women, or dictatorships run by power-hungry madmen. But hey, that's just me."

Wow, what an elightening statement! Makes me reassess my feelings on the whole matter. Now that I really think about it, yes, you're right! Bad movies truly are better than state sponsored terrorism!!! Dude, you've changed my life.

Posted by OddDuck at March 5, 2007 1:14 PM

comment #6

StewartforPresident says ...

The sad thing about this sentence is I am not sure which part is refering to the US and which is refering to Europe.

Posted by StewartforPresident at March 5, 2007 1:31 PM

comment #7

Craig Kennedy says ...

I don't actually have to be in a European resort town to know the joint is lousy with morons. The German obsession with David Hasselhoff speaks volumes all by itself.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at March 5, 2007 3:35 PM

comment #8

Mark G. says ...

I can assure you two things:

First of all, here in Germany we certainly have low-brow entertainment making huge amount of money. Even if the rest of the world doesn't believe it, but we really do have comedians (even if I don't share the same kind of humor for the most part) and the biggest blockbusters in Germany are usually comedies featuring those comedians.

2. There is no German obsession with David Hasselhoff, another myth. His series KNIGHT RIDER and BAYWATCH were quite successful - just as everywhere else in the world. Unfortunately one or two of his records were quite successful in Germany, but that's about it. Even if Hasselhoff sold one million records in Germany it just means that 81 million Germans didn't by a record by him...

Posted by Mark G. at March 5, 2007 4:42 PM

comment #9

Craig Kennedy says ...

Damnit Mark! Stop trying to diminish my gross stereotypes with actual facts born of experience! :)

Posted by Craig Kennedy at March 5, 2007 4:52 PM

comment #10

Mark G. says ...

Sorry cjK!

Posted by Mark G. at March 5, 2007 5:00 PM

comment #11

le corbeau says ...

Just remember, it's European shows being remade for American TV that have made our network TV so crappy in the last few years.

Posted by le corbeau at March 5, 2007 5:06 PM

comment #12

nemo says ...

Next Mark G. will be telling us that the French don't really love Jerry Lewis!

Posted by nemo at March 5, 2007 9:24 PM

comment #13

bacio says ...

what s wrong with "king of queens" it really is quite sucessful in Germany. I dont watch it regurarly but it doesn t strike me as the worst stuff to come.

I donÃ‚Â´t think Europeans are more intelligent or sophistacted than Americans - per se. Yet, being such a densely populated continent, people are more urban - they live in cities and are bound to be a bit more liberal and open-minded for that alone. Plus, somehow the media people manage to put the right ideas into peoples mind, donÃ‚Â´t know how they are doing it, cultural tradition, I suppose. So, stuff like no to death penalty, Iraq war, yes to abortion, gay marriage, is generally by the mainstream media and therefore reflected in mainstream opinion. sounds a bit fascist, actually, but we all know how important the media are.

I remember a comment about media coverage before the war on Iraq. It said that had we gotten the media coverage the Americans got, we would have been pro-war. And the other way around. obviously, itÃ‚Â´s hard to prove.

Posted by bacio at March 6, 2007 2:37 AM

comment #14