Unexplained Accent: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|"More inexplicable is Andy Richter's work as a limousine driver with sinister connections to music piracy rackets. He is given an accent, from where I could not guess, although I could guess why: At a story conference, the filmmakers looked in despair at his pointless character and said, 'What the hell, maybe we should give him an accent.'"|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''' on ''[[New York Minute]]''}}

When a character has an accent that cannot be explained by the setting. It's often wildly dissonant with other accents. Similar to [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]], except that the actor doesn't have the accent, ~~either -- there~~'s simply no good reason for it. It ''can'' be explained as being for humor, because [[Real Life Writes the Plot]], or to take advantage of a cultural stereotype for characterisation, but sometimes it happens for no good reason at all.

When a character has an accent that cannot be explained by the setting. It's often wildly dissonant with other accents. Similar to [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]], except that the actor doesn't have the accent, either—there's simply no good reason for it. It ''can'' be explained as being for humor, because [[Real Life Writes the Plot]], or to take advantage of a cultural stereotype for characterisation, but sometimes it happens for no good reason at all.

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== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Redwall]] tends to use [[Planet of Hats|species-specific]] [[Funetik Aksent~~|Funetik Aksents~~]], but occasionally gives one character an accent that doesn't fit. Most of the vermin speak either "generic thug" or [[Talk Like a Pirate]], with the smarter ones and each book's [[Big Bad]] often speaking Standard English, but for some reason Dingeye and Thura in ''Salamandastron'' were recognisably [[The Midlands|Brummie]], and Wraith speaks with [[Trrrilling Rrrs]]. Most of the hares come under the heading of [[Upper Class Twit]], but Rockjaw Grang had a very broad [[Oop North]] accent; justified in his case as he originally came from [[Grim Up North|the Northlands]], which are usually depicted as a Scotland analogue but likely have a nearby Yorkshire analogue.

* [[Redwall]] tends to use [[Planet of Hats|species-specific]] [[Funetik Aksent]]s, but occasionally gives one character an accent that doesn't fit. Most of the vermin speak either "generic thug" or [[Talk Like a Pirate]], with the smarter ones and each book's [[Big Bad]] often speaking Standard English, but for some reason Dingeye and Thura in ''Salamandastron'' were recognisably [[The Midlands|Brummie]], and Wraith speaks with [[Trrrilling Rrrs]]. Most of the hares come under the heading of [[Upper Class Twit]], but Rockjaw Grang had a very broad [[Oop North]] accent; justified in his case as he originally came from [[Grim Up North|the Northlands]], which are usually depicted as a Scotland analogue but likely have a nearby Yorkshire analogue.

* Different species of [[Talking Animal]] in the ''[[Spellsinger]]'' novels also have different accents, and they're often [[Played for Laughs]] (e.g. Brooklynese tough-talk from a robin).

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* In-universe use: On ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' Kate wants to ditch her date, so she asks the guys to act like her crazy family so that her date would ditch her. Oswald comes in with a thick Ozarks accent claiming to be her brother and her baby's daddy. The date calls him on it: "If you're her brother why do you have an accent and she doesn't?" "Because... I was born on vacation!"

* Cat from ''[[Red Dwarf]]'', played by an English actor, speaks with an American accent, was born in space.

** The logic behind the Cat race having American accents is that they learned English by watching the film & TV programs stored on the ~~ship -- presumably~~, the majority of the media is American.

** The logic behind the Cat race having American accents is that they learned English by watching the film & TV programs stored on the ship—presumably, the majority of the media is American.

** Chris Barrie uses a fairly ambiguous accent to play Ace Rimmer as opposed to the (more similar to Barrie's real accent) normal Rimmer accent.

*** He speaks with a blend of English RP (which suits his status as stiff upper lip officer) and Trans-Atlantic, which is generally used to sound "cool", but has the side-effect of sounding slightly bogus, cheesy and affected. It's essentially perfect for the character of Ace.

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* Gordon on ''[[Catscratch]]'' has a Scottish accent, despite both of his brothers having "ordinary" American accents.

* [[Shrek]] the Scottish Ogre.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' ~~-- Moe~~ Szyzlak has Russian ancestry and a pseudo-Slavic name, yet has a heavy New York accent [[Brooklyn Rage|to make him sound harsher]], and in one flashback he speaks with an Italian accent. He's also from Indiana. Judging by the name Szyzlak, he could be from the Gary area/Chicago area. Chicago and New York accents are somewhat similar, though he sounds as if he's from the Bronx.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]''—Moe Szyzlak has Russian ancestry and a pseudo-Slavic name, yet has a heavy New York accent [[Brooklyn Rage|to make him sound harsher]], and in one flashback he speaks with an Italian accent. He's also from Indiana. Judging by the name Szyzlak, he could be from the Gary area/Chicago area. Chicago and New York accents are somewhat similar, though he sounds as if he's from the Bronx.

* Scar from ''[[The Lion King]]'' is another character whose own family doesn't share his accent. He's got a cultured British accent, while nearly everyone else, including his brother, sounds American. It seems to be an [[Evil Brit]] ~~thing -- he~~'s not [[Department of Redundancy Department|British because he's British]], he's British because he's ''evil''.

* Scar from ''[[The Lion King]]'' is another character whose own family doesn't share his accent. He's got a cultured British accent, while nearly everyone else, including his brother, sounds American. It seems to be an [[Evil Brit]] thing—he's not [[Department of Redundancy Department|British because he's British]], he's British because he's ''evil''.

** Zazu gets a British accent as well, but he's the only one of his kind in the movie.

* In the ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' cartoon, Antoine Depardieu ("D'Coolette" in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|comics]]) has a French name and accent despite everyone else around him having some sort of American accent. This is unexplained, except for a throw-away line that he had training in the "Delmont Province". The accent seems to be mostly there to have him fit the stereotype of a [[Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey]] (er...coyote).