A post for our native southerners – IOTW Report

A post for our native southerners

Tuesday, 29 November 2016, 16:23 BFH Uncategorized 69

I stumbled upon a forum thread where people listed, in their opinion, the worst attempts at southern accents by actors.

As a northerner, I don’t think I’m qualified to judge how good or bad a job an actor did, but I can definitely offer my opinions about what accents I thought sounded ridiculous and silly, and then you, the southerners, can be the voice of authority.

My nomination is Tom Hanks – The Ladykillers

Here are some of the performances named in this forum’s thread. I will link to a youtube video for people to check it out.

George Kennedy – Cool Hand Luke. Kennedy was born and raised in NYC. We’re only picking on George because he won the Academy Award.

Robbie Benson – Ode To Billy Joe. Benson, although born in Texas, was a New Yorker.

Kevin Costner – JFK. Costner is a Californian.

Dan Aykroyd- Driving Miss Daisy. Aykroyd is Canadian.

Tom Hanks – Forrest Gump. Hanks is a Californian.

Julia Roberts, Keanu Reeves, Emilio Estevez, Alec Baldwin, Nicolas Cage

These are the nominations by some other site.

Feel free to offer your own nominations.

My nomination for best southern accent by a non-southerner is Fred Armisen, From SNL and Portlandia fame. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I like how he’s thinking about what makes the accent. 

 

69 Comments on A post for our native southerners

  3. JC, the tired sounds like tarred. “I ain’t no ways tarred”. On the other hand it could refer to retarded.

    We will ignore the double negative because she is illiterate.

  5. As a life long Southerner my first thought was the area the accent was from would be required.
    Someone from Atlanta sounds way different from somebody from Savannah.
    A Charlestonite sounds sophisticated compared to someone from Greenville.
    Don’t get me started on somebody from AllBennie, GA, Paula’s hometown.
    After listening to them, that isn’t any longer a need for a qualifier, they were all pretty bad.
    The order you posted them in seems pretty accurate Bubba Fur.

  6. A couple cringe worthy ones that come to mind were Brad Pitt in that Taranteno Nazi killing movie-didn’t buy it although I liked the flick. I almost think he went over the top on purpose.

    Also in an otherwise pretty damn good movie, The Devil’s Advocate. Keanu Reeves and Charlene Theron both have some bad southern accents.

    My favorite all time bad accent was Richard Gere in some Olden Time movie about knights and I think King Arthur-it’s knee slapping hilarous-it’s like they plucked him right out of Brooklyn and put him in armor.

    Now my favorite accent to listen to is probably Michael Caine.

  7. George Clooney in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The story was he hired his verrry Kentucky uncle to help him get his accent correct – and George ended up sounding just like he always does.

  8. All terrible accents.

    Because they hate the South, and hate (white) Southerners, the accents are always done as a cartoonish caricature.
    The better to ridicule the South.

    Another terrible set of faux-Southern accents
    was the entire cast of the movie GETTYSBURG. Well educated Southern gentlemen are deliberately voiced as trailer park rednecks.
    Martin Sheen does Robert E Lee like a Foghorn Leghorn parody. Tom Berenger does Longstreet like Bubba The Cable Guy.

  9. And since about 1985, network news anchors, commercial voiceover casting directors, and all the sitcoms set in NYC have aggressively normalized a generic Noo Yawk/Joe Pesci accent as being the ‘new normal’ generic American accent.

    To hear a genuine Southern accent nowadays you have to find someone older than age 40.

  13. Mr. Mxyzptlk: Yeah, the accents were almost comically bad, but “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is one of the few Hollywood films that treated the South’s history and culture with respect, even its dark side.

  15. Zoos are a bigger difference between north and south.

    In both regions there will be a sign or placard describing the animal and it’s habitat.

    But in the south there are also recipes.

  19. I was born and raised in Southeast Texas. A few years ago, I was on vacation in London and while riding the tube, a group of young English school children got aboard and sat all around me and my wife. I asked them what school they belonged to as they all had on the same school uniform. Eventually, they asked me where I was from and I told them I was from near Houston, Texas. They were very surprised and said I didn’t sound like I was from Texas. I asked them if they wanted to hear a real Texas accent and they said yes. I broke out in my best Texas cattle rancher accent and went on about inviting them all to my ranch for a BBQ and gave them directions. “Y’all can’t miss it. It’s twingst Dallas and Amarillo. It’s not real big though, only 365,000 acres.” I went on and they seemed to get a real kick out of it.

  25. @Hambone In my work I have had occasion to be posted to several different places around the US.
    When I was in WA it was almost comical the way my accent was embraced.
    This was in Everett and Spokane, not Seattle, I couldn’t even buy a drink in a bar there.
    I would go to pee and when I got back there would be a pile of “Round tuits” by my drink.
    It seems that is a placeholder for a drink as in: Bartender, get me another drink when you get around to it.
    Looked like poker chips with Round Tuit stamped on the face.
    I would be carrying on a conversation with a girl and she would run off and get a girlfriend to listen too. First time women ever bought me a drink, this southern gentleman was flustered at times. I said flustered, never frustrated, that’s another story.

  26. My mother’s accent got thicker when she visited Ohio, I sweah. Yayus=yes, all =oil. My one syllable middle name became 3 syllables. I do miss the accents of the NC people from high school and college.

    @Rufua T, ‘To hear a genuine Southern accent nowadays you have to find someone older than age 40. ‘
    That’s the truth. My brother has the full NC good ole boy accent, my nephew has none.

    Sometimes the Lake Erie clogged sinuses honking that passes as an accent grates and I need to call home to hear normal.

  28. Unfortunately, actors continuously use Vivian Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara as the de facto template for how Southerners talk. They have no idea she was British.

    The worst southern accent comes from Jennifer Nettles. She makes Reba McEntire sound like Jane Seymour.

  30. I visited New Hampshire once and within a week I caught myself saying things like, “How fah is it by cah?” (I know that’s off topic, by I can’t help it. I’m deplorable.)

  32. John boy from the Waltons was in some movie, Civil War movie I think, but I can’t name the movie because I turned the channel as soon as I heard him speak. Yankee faggot.

  33. I’ve heard poor attempts at southern dialects my entah life. Do believe they are intended to make us look backward and inbred.

    But I have to admit we have members of the Georgia Legislature that don’t help a damn bit. Like was mentioned earlier in the thread, some of those bastards sound like Foghorn Leghorn and I think it’s deliberate.

  34. Not qualified to comment. Born in yankee Ohio, raised in LA. Moved to Virginia in 77. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to dissect the accents I hear. I live among generational residents in Hanover County and they all sound like Foghorn Leghorn to me. That’s a midwestern LA valley guy talking. Wonderful and helpful people but I don’t always understand them when they speak. Likewise during my brief residency in Massachusetts.

  35. i met an older patient of mine in AZ 30 yrs back for the first time. She didnt know me from shinola. She told me where i was from within 30 miles, just by my accent. That was impressive.

  41. Jimmy Stewart ~ ‘Shenandoah’
    Rock Hudson ~ ‘The Undefeated’
    Richard Harris ~ ‘Major Dundee’

    … thought John Turturro & Tim Blake Nelson had hilariously over-the-top accents in ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ … “My Daddy always sed ‘Never trust a Hogwallop’ … ‘Ok … I’m with you fellers’

  50. Julia Roberts is from Smyrna, GA. Her accent is real.

    We say there are three Southern accents: Southern, Country and Redneck.

    The Southern accent is most closely related to the English/Irish/Scottish accents as those are the major groups to settle the Southern US. Therefore, English actors (i.e., Vivian Leigh) are more capable of producing a true Southern accent than anyone born in another region in the US.

    Fred Armisen is mocking us. Not funny.

    I’m fixing’ to blow a fuse here!

  51. What’s the difference between a yankee and a damn yankee?

    The yankee visits The South and then goes home.
    The damn yankee visits the The South and doesn’t leave.

  53. @Extirpates – true story.
    This evening when checking out at the supermarket.
    I asked the checkout girl, “how you do in’ today?”
    She replied, “I’m tired.”
    To which I replied, “You must be, you’re pronouncing your words wrong. Everyone around here says tarred .”

  55. @Blink — You just triggered a great memory.

    Years ago, when the kids were still at home and their dad called on his way home from work, I’d ask, “how are you doing”. He replied, “tarred”. We then went back and forth for a minute or two. “Tarred?” “Tarred”. Drove the kids crazy. 🙂

  56. We haven’t subscribed to the local rag in more than 12 years. The paper had a feature called The Vent. Call in comments were selected and printed. I still have this browned-out clip on my fridge:

    According to the AJC, the influx of Northerners has made us Southerners much smarter. Having lived in Atlanta for 59 years (with and without Yankees) I have concluded that being dumb was a whole lot better.

  57. We cancelled our subscription to the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation about 14 years ago. Prior to the cancellation, they had a segment called The Vent. People could call in and leave comments. A few were printed every day. This ragged brown newspaper clip is still on my fridge —

    “According to the AJC, the influx of Northerners has made us Southerners much smarter. Having lived in Atlanta for 59 years (with and without Yankees), I have concluded that being dumb was a whole lot better.”

  59. How about , “Poke”, meaning a paper bag?
    When I was stationed at Bainbridge, Md. my wife started working at the Navy Exchange.
    When she first started working there – one day she asked a customer if he wanted his stuff put in a poke.
    He couldn’t figure out what the heck she was talking about. Till another customer inline said, she’s from WV she means a bag.

    Well, at least the TV series Lonesome Dove was 20+ years in the future! wherein Poke had a completely different meaning.

  60. Hillary Clinton, in her role as Awful Presidential Candidate #3, in the 2016 production of Trump, Hail Victory!, but only during the scenes in southern States – which were the only scenes where she tried to fake the accent.

  61. As a Confederate re-enactor, I will say that myself and a couple of my re-enactor friends think very highly of “Oh Brother” in spite of the over the top accents. We know they are making fun of us. And we don’t care. Even though George Clooney is a liberal idiot, I don’t hate him.

  63. When I was in the border region of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, back in the early eighties, I first heard the word, you’ns. It was used by Oklahomans as a replacement for y’all. Closer to Texas, I would often hear, “you’ns all”.

    It is a bit depressing to hear young people from Dallas or Houston who speak with a neutral accent. Thirty-five years ago, new arrivals to Texas would often take lessons on how to speak like a Texan. No need now, apparently.

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