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We All Live in America: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Kermit the Frog''': And we've also got a big musical finale from Sam the Eagle. Sam, what's it about?<br />
'''Sam the Eagle''': It's called "A Salute to All Nations, But Mostly America".|''[[Muppet
Every country and nation in the world has a different culture and set of traditions, and many have different traditions within a single country. However, you'd never realise that if you [[Did Not Do the Research]].
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Often, when writing a story set in another country, the writer simply takes their own country and adds foreign names, and might refer to some famous local festival if you're lucky. If you're not, it will be writers' own country half-turned into a [[Planet of Hats|Land of Hats]] with "[[The Theme Park Version|local colour]]". If you find an author who truly understands the other culture, cherish them, for they have a gift.
The title is inspired by ([[Beam Me Up, Scotty|but is not a direct quote of]]) a line in the [[
Please note that, despite the [[Trope]] name, this is not an exclusively American phenomenon; writers from other countries will often project their own cultural mores, vernacular, and sense of geography onto countries other than their own, including the United States, as well (most common is the strange tendency to treat all the landmarks and major cities of a country that spans an entire continent as if they are within a couple hours' drive of each other).
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* ''[[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.
* ''[[Kaleido Star]]'' does this a couple times. It takes place in America, but the characters who are supposed to be non-Japanese occasionally do Japanese things, like bowing. One of Sora's friends, Mia, uses the Japanese gesture for "come here" (the maneki neko paw gesture), in an episode of ''Kaleido Star New Wings'', but it may not count since she was signaling Sora.
* In ''[[
* ''[[
** Not to mention that every mafia thug knows exactly what a [[Gratuitous Japanese|Shini]][[Hypocritical Humor|gami]] is. And half the FBI speaks Japanese.
* ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'', though it's set in Italy, had many of the adult handlers be quite reserved towards their charges, probably causing [[Values Dissonance]] for any Italian viewers. They even bow sometimes. The girls don't act much like typical Italian girls, either.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Frequently in U.S.-centred comics of ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[The Dandy (
** The Mayor of Cactusville in ''Desperate Dan'' dresses like the Lord Mayor of London, complete with gold chain of office and tricorn hat. Even ''British'' mayors don't really dress like that, except on special occasions.
* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' occasionally shows people driving on the left side of the road in America. Also, background text tends to use U.K. spellings.
* [[
* In the comics, [[Superman]], who ostensibly helps people all over the world and can fly anywhere on Earth with little trouble, is head of the ''[[Justice League of America]]''. Despite their title, they don't seem to have a "jurisdiction" limited to America or even the planet Earth. The "of America" part is jettisoned in the ''[[Justice League]]'' animated series.
** In the comics they were briefly Justice League International. Then JLI split into JLA and Justice League Europe, then JLE became JLI again. Then they abandoned the whole concept.
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== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* 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 [[Useful Notes/Boston|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.
** RPG writer Graeme Davis once wrote a scenario for the Call of Chtulhu RPG set in the 1930s where an NPC starts in Los Angeles, drives over to San Francisco on an errand, drives back and "spends the rest of the afternoon in her hotel room". (From memory, some specifics may be off.) For reference, [http://local.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=los%20angeles%2C%20ca%20to%20san%20francisco%2C%20ca&mrt=all Los Angeles to San Francisco is roughly a 6-7 hour drive] via modern highways in a modern car (not counting the frequent backups along that route); the drive would have likely been even longer in the '30s.
** A pair of German ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' fans wrote a fic in which Xander and Faith drive from Boston to California in 8 hours...
** And then there's the story set in rural northern Canada, where the protagonist keeps himself warm through the winter by raiding the local used book store for Harlequin romance novels and by digging through his neighbour's recycling for their old phone books. Putting aside the fact that books don't burn very well, rural northern Canada ''doesn't have'' used book stores, recycling, or large telephone books (some phone "books" up North are the size of magazines). Even if paper did burn, the number of books and other paper products you could scare up within 50 miles would probably keep you warm for two or three ''hours''; you need cubic yards of wood to get through a winter where it gets down to -40 or lower for weeks on end. Did we mention that they were going to pick these books up via car, even though vast areas of northern Canada ''have no roads''?
* Reading an ''[[The X
** It could arguably make sense in the case of Mulder, seeing as he went to college in England (though he never says anything in the show to give one the impression he adopted British culture to any degree). Scully, however, has no excuse.
*** Ironically, the opposite would be true of their actors. Gillian Anderson spent some of her formative years in England and slips into a British accent easily in real life, while David Duchovny has lived all his life in the States.
* ''[[
* [http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/9187871.html This] fanfic-rant. Who could think, and yet...
{{quote| '''OP''': Dear [[Final Fantasy VIII
'''one of answers''': Do they even have a ''[[Alternative Calendar|July]]''? }}
** And another answer: 'I'm reminded of another fandom where the artist had drawn the main character with an American flag. His reasoning was that the canon had Christmas.' And it might not be a joke.
*** It sadly wasn't. The canon in question? ''[[
** Another ''[[
* We could list all the examples of this in the infamous ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfic/ripoff ''[[My Immortal]]'', or we could read ''Order of the Phoenix''. Which is quicker is up for debate.
** The vast majority of British schools have uniforms. This includes Hogwarts. (though to be fair, the descriptions of the uniforms are very vague in the book and the characters seem to wear whatever they want underneath the robes. In most illustrations in the American versions at least, Harry is frequently depicted wearing jeans and a T-shirt.) Most American schools, especially public schools, don't bother with uniforms.
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** It's easy to get mad at ''[[My Immortal]]'' but this is rather common with [[Harry Potter]] fanfic written by American fans. The "American exchange student" (or Japanese, for otaku fans) in HP [[Self-Insert Fic]] could be a trope all its own. It's to the point where some HP roleplaying communities require that all characters be born in the UK or Ireland, not just to keep with the established canon but also to remove this tendency.
*** It's also common for the British students at Hogwarts to suddenly start speaking in American slang. Seriously guys, we don't normally say 'sweater', 'pantyhose' or 'French fries'. (In case you're interested, they would be jumper, tights and chips).
* ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' is supposedly set in Japan, but the characters constantly refer to ''American'' media and pop culture. Some of this is understandable, some not; [[Hunter S. Thompson]] is famous, but why would Shin compare something to an NBC sitcom?
* In about every AU fanfiction where [[Everyone Went to School Together|the characters go to the same school]], the school is very American. They use lockers, which most countries only have for the gym class, they change classes and friends get to meet only in some subjects, in most countries all the students stay in the same class for all the time with the same people, they rarely carry books in their backpacks, they carry binders etc. It's not a big problem until it's mentioned that characters wear [[Sailor Fuku]]. Or they're students at [[Harry Potter|Hogwarts]].
* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' fanfiction, it is a very common mistake for personified nations to act like people from the nation the author is from. For example, Nordics having an Asian hot pot tradition in a Japanese doujinshi.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Vantage Point]]'': It's set in Spain, yet the Secret Service (the U.S. President's bodyguards) are seen seizing cars from the locals, as well as chasing, arresting and ''shooting'' them, even cops. Plenty of wars have started over much less.
** We could say the same thing about the behaviour of the Lt. Sosa in the German part of ''[[The
** Such a policy was proposed in real life. See [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/nov/16/terrorism.usa here].
* ''[[Best Of The Best]]'': The South-Korean Taek Kwon Do team cheered for their country as "Korea, Korea!" while it should've been "Hanguk, Hanguk!" "Daehan Minguk," being another possibility.
* Despite being ostensibly an American film, [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Batman (
* Ridiculously parodied in ''[[Bruno]],'' when the ''Austrian'' protagonist appears on a talk show and talks about African-Americans... from Africa.
{{quote| '''Audience:''' They're not African-American, you idiot! They're ''African!''<br />
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* Japanocentric version: ''A Wind Named Amnesia'' takes place in the U.S., but in the novel Wataru refers to the fifteen-year-old Lisa as a junior high school student; fifteen is usually high school age under the American school system. (Wataru is speculated to be of Japanese origin, but that was before his memories were wiped -- everything he knows now was taught to him by an American boy, so there is no in-story justification for the mistake.)
** Bit of an border case - U.S. school structure is pretty consistent within a given state, but it is ultimately a decision made at the district level and there's a fair amount of variance state-to-state, plus a variety of experiments with different models. Until around the early 90's, junior high school ended at 9th grade (age 14) in quite a few places. So it was possible for someone to have a birthday during the school year and turn 15, though this may just be a case of [[Accidentally Accurate]].
* ''[[
* The ''[[
* [[Dan Brown]]'s ''[[Angels and Demons]]'' for some reason has a camerawoman for the [[The BBC|British Broadcasting Corporation]] who is "African American".
** Not to mention her partner, who is allegedly British but seems to think and speak using an awful lot of American terminology. The whole thing is so dastardly pointless, because the characters would have made just as much sense being from CNN instead of the BBC.
* [[Older Than Steam]]: The Chinese Epic ''[[Journey to
* [[Left Behind]] has references to "Captains" and "Lieutenants" at [[Scotland Yard]] -- in the British police they would be "Chief Inspectors" and "Inspectors".
* Likewise, the original ''Aladdin'' is often said to be set in China, as this was the most distant and magical land that most Arabs had heard of. The character's names, the genies and so forth all seem Arabian, however.
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== Music ==
* As mentioned above, the subject of "Amerika" by [[
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* Despite the Sega Mega Drive being named 'Mega Drive' pretty much everywhere except North America, the majority of games sites, American or not, as well as this very site, use '[[Sega Genesis]]' as the default name. If the Mega Drive is mentioned, it's often described as [[Did Not Do the Research|the European version of the Genesis]].
** A common example of this is when ''[[Zero Wing]]'' is said to be a Genesis game. It was released in Japan and Europe on the Mega Drive, but wasn't released in North America. Which is truly ironic when you consider it's the poster boy for incorrect translation and is usually mentioned in that context.
** Similarly, if [[Market-Based Title|a game has different names according to where it's released]], the North American title will be the universal standard, whether the game was made there or not. As a result, attempting to discuss certain games (''[[
*** It also makes it difficult to search for info from a game if it is called something simple (and popular in the English language) like ''[[Bully (
* As a general rule, games which go through America before they reach Europe are not translated into British English. What makes this a true example is when the 'English' option on the language selection screen is the ''Union Flag'' in all its <s>colors</s> colours.
* ''[[Sim City]]'' does a very mild--and entirely justified (though not [[Justified Trope|Justified]])--version of this by having the police be run and funded by the city government. On one hand, this just isn't true in many places, where either the national (as in France) or state/provincial/what have you government (as in Germany) is responsible for the police. On the other hand, this is ''[[Sim City]]'' we're talking about. ''What'' national government?
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* Similar to the GTA example, ''[[Jade Empire]]'' features the occasional very English phrase like "buggers" to refer to a group of panicking rats, but as everyone in the game sounds Canadian save for [[I Am Very British|Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fondlebottom The Magnificent Bastard]], it comes off very odd.
** "Buggers" isn't uncommon in [[Canada, Eh?|Canada]], or at least the easternnmost portions, so it doesn't come off very odd at all in reference to nasty little buggers like rats.
* ''[[
* ''[[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.
* ''[[Resident Evil 3 Nemesis]]'''s Raccoon City is a supposed to be a modern, Midwestern, American city, but the size of the streets and presence of extensive back-alleys and shopping arcades are clear evidence that Raccoon was based on a contemporary Japanese city. For reference, many of the streets are blocked by a single, longitudinal car across the road. When's the last time you [Americans] saw a road that narrow, especially in a city of over 100,000 residents? Further games in the series that revisit Raccoon, however, seem to retcon them to the proper width.
** Another example from the series. A memo in ''[[Resident Evil 2 (Video Game)]]'' 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, 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 ''[[
* 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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** Something similar happens on [[The Other Wiki]]. Some of their edit wars are over British vs American spellings.
* Frequently parodied on ''[[The Bugle]]'', a podcast hosted by two Brits, one an expatriate living in New York. And it sometimes gets inverted, with the large contingent of American listeners -- familiar with John Oliver from ''[[The Daily Show]]'' -- writing in at their confusion over many aspects of British culture, language, etc. that, obviously, go unnoticed by the hosts.
* Satirized (possibly?) by [[
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