Funny Foreigner: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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Foreigners are funny! Or so say a good number of comedy shows. The jokes practically write themselves; foreigners [[Malaproper|mangle the language]] ([[Blunt Metaphors Trauma|especially idioms]]) in [[Asian Speekee Engrish|funny ways]], they are [[Fee Fi Faux Pas|ignorant of customs]] in the show's home country, and they have their own [[Culture Clash|bizarre little customs]] that make no sense. They will either be unsure of themselves, or (more frequently) totally oblivious to how odd everybody finds them. This is incredibly old, probably dating back to when cavemen joked about people in the cave down the road.
The
Old
In [[Speculative Fiction]], they might be visitors from a [[Innocent Aliens|completely different world]], which has the advantage of avoiding [[Unfortunate Implications]] and offense to real-world foreigners ([[Space Jews|most of the time]]). If the character is an otherworldly being (relative to the rest of the cast), then the trope is [[Amusing Alien]].
If done poorly, a
Compare and contrast with [[But Not Too Foreign]], [[Fun with Foreign Languages]], [[No Social Skills]], [[Raised by Natives]] and [[Evil Foreigner]]. Also see [[Crazy Cultural Comparison]], which is when the
{{examples}}
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* Ling Yao from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is this when he's first introduced as a happy-go-lucky weirdo who frequently collapses out of hunger, always tries to weasel his way out of paying, and can pop in and out of the picture without warning. While to a certain extent you could say this is a natural part of his personality, [[Obfuscating Stupidity|It doesn't last.]]
{{quote|"I so sori, I no understand much language of this countwi! Bye bye now!"}}
* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' is a
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* [[Rowan Atkinson]]'s character from ''[[Rat Race]]'' is a perfect example of this trope.
* [[Marx Brothers|Chico Marx]] is a holdover of the classic "dialect comedian" from vaudeville.
* [[Peter Sellers]] made an art of playing the
* [[The Room|Tommy Wiseau]] both in his film, and in real life, unintentionally.
* The Russian cosmonaut in ''[[Armageddon]]'' is this, serving as the film's [[Comic Relief]].
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== Literature ==
* Otto Chriek, a vampire from the [[Discworld]] novels is an example, playing upon stereotypes of both Eastern Europeans and vampirism. He is similar to Poirot in that his
** Twoflower, however, is classic funny foreigner on vacation.
** [[Discworld/Jingo|71-Hour Ahmed]] makes this trope work for him, in similar ways to Otto Chriek. He plays up Klatchian stereotypes when in Ankh-Morpork, but since he went to school in Ankh-Morpork, he ''acts Morporkian'' in Klatch. He tells Vimes "I find it helpful to be a little bit foreign wherever I go."
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* Mister Bobo, the old man in the upstairs flat in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'', described as being "Romanian or Slovenian or Livonian, or one of those countries" by Miss Spink. The film version gives him the slightly more believable name Bobinsky and makes him an even more obvious example of this trope.
** It's Bobinsky in the book, too, you just don't learn it until the last couple pages.
* In ''[[The Stormlight Archive|The Way of Kings]]'' there are quite a few instances of
* In ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked]]'' Fiyero would be the
** Avaric embarrasses Boq by kissing him on both cheeks, a custom from his homeland.
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' has Ax, the Andalite (alien) ignorant of human cultures and customs, often reacting hilariously to new scenarios he encounters.
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* Latka from ''[[Taxi]]'' is a refugee from a [[Ruritania|generic Eastern Communist country]], with all kinds of jokes based on obscure customs, etc. This makes sense, as Latka was basically [[Andy Kaufman]]'s "Foreign Man" character given a name, job, and backstory.
* Balki from ''[[Perfect Strangers]]'' and his famous Mypos Dance of Joy.
** Bronson Pinchot played another
*** And yet another as Serge in the [[Beverly Hills Cop]] movies.
*** Let's just say Bronson Pinchot built a career out of playing funny foreigners.
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** In one of the later episodes, we meet a friend of his from the "Old Country": a white guy with a British accent. Apparently his friend is from the west side of the island.
* The Czechoslovakian "Wild and Crazy Guys" played by [[Steve Martin]] and [[Dan Aykroyd]] on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.
** And lest we forget, their spiritual descendants the Butabi Brothers as portrayed by [[Will Ferrell]] and Chris
* In the British comedy ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'', the German character Herr Lipp is a Funny
* ''[[Royal Canadian Air Farce]]'' had a set of characters that exclusively used this trope: English As A Second Language News, with the anchors Heiki Flergenpootz and Svetlana, who began their broadcast with "Goodnight" (and, less subtly, ended it with "Hello"). There were also several correspondents attached to the skits, such as the Espresso-Drinking Greek (who would calmly sip his espresso and then energetically shriek out his views on a given story).
** Further, the Foreign Taxi Driver, who would drive around (poorly) in front of a bad bluescreen with a customer who could barely follow what he was saying as he [[Deadpan Snarker|snarked with an accent]] about recent news events. He usually dropped people off at the wrong stop, and said, "You pay Vy-sa, I kill you."
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** In one episode, an [[Arab Oil Sheikh]] visits the store and attempts to buy a pair of trousers in exchange for a goat...When the goat is refused by the sales assistants, the sheik then tries to trade a beautiful woman.
** In another episode, it's a [[Japanese Tourist]] with his "[[Japanese Ranguage|Cledit Caa]]" (Sooooooo!). Captain Peacock's attempts to communicate with him are at least as hilarious as the tourist himself ("You wanty buy?" "Whaty-wanty?")
** Also, a cranky German couple in "German Week", and Japanese businessmen looking to take over the store in "Monkey Business". Also, short-lived regular Mr. Grossman could qualify as a
* In ''[[Black Books]]'', Fran tracks down some [[Long-Lost Relative|long lost relatives]] that fit this trope, hailing from what would appear to be [[Ruritania|somewhere in Eastern Europe]].
* Some talk show hosts like to have funny foreigner sidekicks or recurring sketch characters. Jimmy Kimmel has Guillermo the security guard, and Conan O'Brien has band member La Bamba.
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* This shows up a ''lot'' in pro wrestling, often with [[Unfortunate Implications]]. One of the more well-known examples in the US is hapless, [[Engrish]]-speaking ''Smackdown!'' wrestler Funaki.
** INDEED.
* Most foreign characters in American [[Professional Wrestling]] who aren't [[Evil Foreigner
** And, of course, Santino Marella.
* The Japanese promotion Dragon Gate did a legitimately hilarious version, though: constant losers Raimu Mishima and Taku Iwasa took a sabbatical to refine their craft in the US. They returned as full-fledged residents of [[Eagle Land]] Type 2: their hair bleached blonde and their wrestling attire [[Wearing a Flag on Your Head|consisting entirely of reds, whites, and blues.]] They took the names Michael and Daniel and used loads of [[Gratuitous English]] in their promos and theme songs, all while using the sort of cheating tactics that are more common in US wrestling than its Japanese counterpart. They proceeded to go on a huge winning streak - winning ''every match'' by disqualification. The result was [[Refuge in Audacity|pretty hilarious.]]
* The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers in [[The Eighties]] and Kenzo Suzuki in [[The Naughties]] tried to be [[Evil Foreigner
** Kenzo Suzuki deserves special mention here, debuted as
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* [[Canada, Eh?|Canadians]] and Europeans, particularly in the United States.
* Polish tourists tend to be seen as these throughout Europe, mainly thanks to unusual customs like wearing socks with sandals or clapping on planes.
* [http://www.cracked.com/article/187_6-people-who-got-away-with-living-implausible-lie/wa_user1=2&wa_user2=History&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended This cracked article] show us the case of George Psalmanazar, a frenchman that in 1703 pretended to be Formosian and Japanese at Italy and England. Using [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] he pretended to be a
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* In a one-act play of ''[[The Thirty-Nine Steps]]'', pretty much every character was one of these. Especially Annabella, who has a ''ridiculous'' German accent.
{{quote|"The ''bleends''! Close the ''bleends''!}}
* The scandal-mongering Italian-accented duo of Valzacchi and Annina in ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' are somewhat menacing at times, but fall short of being [[Evil Foreigner
* The musical ''[[Phantom of the Opera]]'' has Italian opera singers Carlotta Guidicelli and Ubaldo Piangi, the former a prissy diva and the latter short and overweight, among the other characters who are mostly French.
* Funny Foreigners were already a stock source of humour in [[Older Than Feudalism|ancient Greek and Roman comedy]]. One such example is Triballos from [[Aristophanes]]'s ''The Birds'', a "barbarian god" that is part of the embassy of the Gods to Cloudcuckooland, where his lacking grasp of the Greek language results in the Birds hornswoggling the Gods.
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== Video Games ==
* Played with in ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)|Fahrenheit]]'' (known as ''Indigo Prophecy'' in the States), when one of the detectives goes to a book shop to find out if there's anything useful to be determined from an old book that was left at the scene of a murder. The owner is a little old Chinese man in stereotypical little-old-Chinese-man dress and with a high-pitched, English-mangling accent, who asks you to find a book for him while there because he's forgotten where he's placed everything. This turns out to be a [[Obfuscating Stupidity|test]] to mess with customers because he doesn't like selling to stupid people, and once you pass it he straightens up, gaining a few inches of height, and turns out to have a deep Bronx accent with a voice like he's been smoking since he was born.
* ''[[Punch-Out!!]] Wii''... oh where to begin... Quicker to name which boxers AREN'T an example of this trope, who are [[Ambiguously Gay|Disco Kid]] and [[Scary Black Man|Mr. Sandman]] - and those two are pretty goofy as it is. Everyone else is a
** Outside the US perspective, [[Surfer Dude|Super Macho Man]] is one as well because of his [[Eagle Land]] attitude.
** ''Super Punch Out!'' gave us Mad Clown (a sadistic Italian [[Monster Clown]]), Bob Charlie (a laid-back Jamaican who fights according to "the rhythm"), Heike Kagero (an effeminate Japanese kabuki actor), Gabby Jay (a French [[Expy]] of Glass Joe and feeble old man), Dragon Chan (A Hong Kong native [[Bruce Lee Clone]]), Hoy Quarlow (a rude Chinese [[Old Master]]), Narcis Prince ([[The Fighting Narcissist]] from Britain), and Masked Muscle (A Mexican [[Masked Luchador]] who fights dirty). It also had Piston Hurricane from Cuba and the Bruiser brothers from [[Parts Unknown]], but neither of them have any traits that are very funny.
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* Rolf from ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', who comes up with odd traditions (many of which involve fish) and sayings ("Do not burn the candle at both ends, as it leads to the life of a hairdresser") from his home country in nearly every episode.
** "You have broken the celery stalk on the back of a sea urchin!"
* Another science fiction example: Dr. Zoidberg from ''[[Futurama]]'' gradually became a [[Shout-Out]] to vaudeville
** And one robot in the Ultimate Robot Fighting League, “The Foreigner”:
{{quote|'''The Foreigner:''' ''I’m not from here!! I have my own customs!! Look at my '''crazy''' passport!''}}
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