Something that amuses me sometimes is parts in films where a character is clearly meant to be a jokey stereotype of a nation. (take Buzz Lightyear when he turns Spanish in toy story 3 and becomes a passionate dancer, or the frogs in Flushed Away who when told it is time for action reply "WE SURRENDER") i always wonder how is that joke going to go down in that country? Will they be offended? Will the find it super funny? Do they even get the joke?
So i remembered this comic book called Asterix and Obelix, which is a French comic set in the Roman Empire about the last village to stand against romans thanks to a magic potion. It’s a comedy and often they go abroad to take the mickey out of the country they go to.
I wondered if they ever came to Britain.
They did.
and they said that "Julius Caesar has invaded Britain and succeeded in his conquest, mainly because the British soldiers under Cassivelaunos stop fighting every day to drink hot water (with a drop of milk) and they refuse to fight over the weekend. Caesar, using his military genius, decides only to fight when they stop to drink hot water and on the weekends. “That our version of Asterix was called "Anti-climax" and that our pubs stored warm beer.
I have concluded that i am amused by this definition of us, though i don’t know where the warm beer thing came from. At least they didn’t go after our teeth. So i think some of the comedy of it has been lost on me.
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