Eagleland Osmosis: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Louis Ciccone:''' Your honour, may I approach the bench?
'''Judge:''' You've been watching too much American TV, Mr. Ciccone. No one "approaches the bench" in a Canadian court. |''[[Seeing Things]]'' <ref> And in Canada, it's "My lord"</ref> }}
 
A special case of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]], Eagleland Osmosis occurs when people outside the United States consume American pop culture and start to believe that aspects of their own society work like they do in these imported films and television shows.
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The most common forms of this concerns the legal system, with people expecting to be "read their rights" if they are arrested, expecting that police should have a search warrant in cases where they do not need one under local law, or calling a serious crime a "felony". Another one is expecting 9-1-1 to be the number for emergency services, even when the actual number is usually displayed prominently on phonebooks and phone booths.
 
This isn't new, or limited to the United States--itStates—it's a side effect of World Power status. Elements of the major power's culture and language bleed into the popular culture of other countries. The Japanese adoption of Western customs like [[Christmas in Japan|Christmas]], Valentines Day, and [[Weddings in Japan|wedding ceremonies]] are a good example. In older tales, an astute reader will find Limey Osmosis, Frenchie Osmosis, and even Kraut Osmosis. Granted, modern mass media and the Internet certainly accelerate the effect.
 
=== Compare with ===
* [[SoCalization]], where southern California serves the same function to the US as a whole as the US does for the world in this trope.
 
=== Contrast with ===
* [[We All Live in America]], where this time it's the Americans themselves who assume that things work elsewhere the same way they do in America.
 
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** Of course, this is hardly limited to Finland.
*** Heck a lot of people in the US don't understand that police don't have to read you the Miranda Warning unless they intend to interrogate you.
*** And technically, they don't even '''have''' to read it to you, then. Failure just means that nothing that was said in interrogation is admissible as evidence at trial -- thistrial—this isn't enough to sink most cases by itself.
*** AND they don't have to READ them to you while you're being arrested; quite a few police stations will give them to you later, and often in card form. You have to be informed of your rights, not have them read it to you, so they'll just give you a little card with your Miranda rights on them. Or just let you sit in a cell for a couple hours to see if you will spontaneously confess, which is admissible in court.
* Parodied in a 2006 advertisement for a digital satellite television service in Greece. A poultry thief is confronted by a policeman in what seems to be a country village. He screams at him to freeze (in English) and when he finally reaches him, he tells him to "put the cot down, slowly" (cota is the Greek word for chicken) and remarks "you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in the court of law". All this is said in English with a Greek hill-billy accent. The concept was later re-used in another hilarious variation, in the same village with an old lady and her donkey. This was [[Played for Laughs]], since the company's channels would mostly feature Hollywood flicks.
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** So much so that ''[[Rescue 911]]'' included a regular segment with host William Shatner reminding viewers in Australia of the correct number, which is 000.
*** The same thing happened for the UK showings, with Shatner giving the emergency number 999.
* Les Connards Boiteux have a song ''[http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/55086 American Wave]'' about this. Appropriately, its lyrics are ''pidgin''ized -- anized—an unholy mixture of French and English.
* A fictional example in ''[[Rush Hour]] 3'': Lee and Carter hitch a ride from a Parisian taxi driver, who assumes that all Americans are violent action movie characters, and it seems that he is proven right when Carter and Lee are chased by motorcycle-riding thugs. {{spoiler|The taxi driver gets to shoot the [[Big Bad]] in the back and kill him, and becomes really excited that he felt what it was like to be "an American".}}
* Reader's Digest once ran a bullet about how American police shows caused some French people to demand to see a warrant before having their home searched, which wasn't required in France. This was in the 1980s. They would also quote "rights" from the American constitution, even though they have their own "Bill of Rights" called "Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme" ("Declaration of Human Rights").
** Many French judges also get annoyed at hearing themselves being called "Votre Honneur" ("Your Honor", the American form of address) instead of the correct French address, "Monsieur le juge" / "Monsieur le président".<ref> the feminine forms -- "Madame la juge" and "Madame la présidente" respectively -- should be used where appropriate</ref>.
*** The problems with forms of address also appear in Germany. "Euer Ehren" (your honour) is incorrect - it's "Herr Vorsitzender" or "Frau Vorsitzende". Sometimes "Hohes Gericht", under certain circumstances. But never "Euer Ehren".
* From the [[German Media|German]] [[Sketch Comedy]] ''[[Switch]]'', spoofing a German court-show (roughly from memory):