u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk

non-Americans, Canadians in particular keep asking this over and over again. What are the actual reasons?

A lot of the problem is that Westminster style governments function very, very differently. See how fast the Brits ejected Liz Truss once she started costing them real money.

What comprehensive answer should we give to the question they keep asking?

Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. Al Bundy. Various others.

He has a small fanbase in the US. I asked an Australian about him once and she got mad. I was like "yikes! Better not bring him up again.". Her and I used to exchange tasteless jokes, so I didn't see that coming. This must have been 25 years ago.

Also, the line "me dick's on the dole, living on handouts again" is one of the greatest dirty couplets I've ever heard. Did he come up with that, or is it an old one?

That was US comedian Jeff Foxworthy's main bit. He had hundreds of them.

Examples: "...if you've ever been too drunk to fish."

"...if your standard of living improves when you go camping."

"...if your cousin's last words were 'hey fellas, watch this!'"

You can't go for too long on Reddit without hearing someone differentiate "fake Americanized TexMex" from "authentic Mexican."

We Americans get that one all the time. I recently discovered that the Australians get it just as much as we do. I had thought we caught that mudball on behalf of them and the Canadians, but apparently not.

Anyhow, we get it from certain continental Europeans and the occasional Chinese or Indian nationalist. Every once in a while a Brit will pile on, but usually you guys know better. To be sure, it seems to mostly be a stupid internet thing. I live in Italy and I have never come across this claim in real life, not even from those who will vociferously criticize the place while I'm part of the conversation.

However, on a recent r/askanaustralian thread, a Swiss guy said his Australian girlfriend was regularly catching that, along with other insults, from other Swiss people. Like, to her face, in real life. That's the first instance I've heard of in the wild.

Cutting to the chase: do you guys ever catch that one? Or is your europass strong enough to avert it?

I heard it's the 10 year anniversary of the referendum today. Good job, everyone!

For example, New Yorkers will tell you that pizza is trash once you get too far past northern New Jersey. And then I once heard a guy from Napoli say that pizza starts to suck once you get up to Rome.