We All Live in America: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* The [[Opening Monologue]] of ''[[Code Geass]]'' makes a big deal about how the Britannian Empire has suppressed Japanese culture. However, the school system we see has almost nothing in common with the British system; it's really just the Japanese system with funny uniforms.

* ''[[Red Garden]]'' is set in New York and does a good job of reflecting that, but a few bits of Japanese society leak through: people bow to each other, students have access to the roof of their school, the metric system gets used casually, etc.

 

 

* This could just as easily be called "European Writers Have No Sense Of Scale In North America".

** British ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' [[Fan Fiction]] often has the Winchesters speaking in British slang and claiming that their small Indiana town is 30 minutes away from the Canadian border. Problem is, Great Britain is ''much'' smaller than the United States -- "from Land's End to John o' Groats", the longest distance in the isle, means 874 miles, whereas "coast to coast" in the USA means at least ''2500 miles'' depending on where one is measuring from.<ref>The drive from Jacksonville, [[Florida]] to [[Los Angeles]] along Interstate 10, the shortest coast-to-coast highway, is 2,460 miles; the drive from [[Boston (useful notes)|Boston]] to [[Seattle]] on I-90, the longest, is 3,101 miles.</ref> In [[Real Life]], ''anywhere'' in Indiana is at least three hours from Canada by car, and that's just going from the northern extremes of the state to Windsor, the closest Canadian city. From Indianapolis, it's closer to five hours, and from Evansville, seven and a half. For anywhere ''of note'' in Canada, tack at least a few more hours on to that.

** We could say the same thing about the behaviour of the Lt. Sosa in the German part of ''[[The A-Team (film)|The a Team]]''.

** Such a policy was proposed in real life. See [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/nov/16/terrorism.usa here].

* Despite being ostensibly an American film, [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'' (which was shot at London's Pinewood Studios) comes off as British. The Joker holds up a bottle of "moisturi''s''ing" shampoo in one scene, and at the end of the film Alfred can be seen driving an automobile whose steering wheel is on the right side.

* Ridiculously parodied in ''[[Bruno]],'' when the ''Austrian'' protagonist appears on a talk show and talks about African-Americans... from Africa.

* The ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series of games is, in theory, set in America, but is made by Scottish developer DMA Design/Rockstar North; Americans who play it can tell this is neither real America nor quite [[Eagle Land|Hollywood America.]] A lot of place-names in San Andreas are thinly-disguised ones from Scottish cities. There's also an exact replica of the Forth Rail Bridge. Rockstar are based in Edinburgh and Dundee, and evidently like their in-jokes.

** One of the trailers for ''The Ballad of Gay Tony'', a DLC for ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', is done in the style of a celebrity news program. The (American) announcer refers to television as "the telly."

** One of the radio talk shows has a child refer to an actor as a "Paedo", which is a shortened slang for paedophile in the UK.

*** That's equally true in the US and Canada, though the North American spellings would be "Pedophile" and "Pedo".

* ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' and ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' are set in New York and Philadelphia, respectively, but were made by a French company, and there are a bunch of telling details—for example, both games feature apartments with the bath/shower and toilet in separate rooms, which is not unheard of in Europe but is pretty much never seen in America.

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' games are apparently set in Europe or America but the characters retain certain Japanese mannerisms such as bowing, a lot of the characters love Japanese foods, and some of the plants are native to Japan.

** Another example from the series. A memo in ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'' has the police weapons storage being broken up and scattered around the station to prevent terrorists from stealing it. A real US PD would find such an order highly suspicious, as US city police are not all that well armed outside of SWAT units (most have only the handgun issued to the officer and a rifle or shotgun in the patrol car), and firearms are quite easy to obtain (acknowledged by the large gun shop).

* Almost all the games developed by DICE take place in America, even though the company is Swedish. Justified in ''[[Battlefield: Bad Company]]'', as it is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of American action movies. However ''[[Mirror's Edge|Mirrors Edge]]'' takes place in an unnamed city, in an unnamed country, at a nonspecified point in the future.

* Having been made in the UK, all the cars in ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' have their steering wheels on the right side. However, one of the missions takes place in Russia, where cars should have their steering wheels on the left side.

* Notable aversions include Max Payne and Mafia II.

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