not being funny, but if Bruno starting taking the p*ss out of Gordon brown I hardly think anyone but his missus and his mum would be offended

Some, not all, but some Americans take themselves and their nation way too seriously.

They seem to lack a sense of humour about themselves.

I mean, is Len going to get death threats like the Dixie Chicks did? Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Pretty much my reaction - inappropriate maybe, but I had to laugh...!


^ good point!

I think the problem is that we view the USA president primarily as a politition, as we do our own priminister and therefore fair game for any kind of satirical p*ss take.

However many Americans view the president as more of a head of state, as our Monarch is. Jokes about the queen on a prime time family program would be much less exceptable.

Also Americans seem to be much more sensitive about critism from foreign sources in general than we are. Although we would still have a jingoistic minority up in arms.

The problem seems to be a mis match of cultural expectations rather than a deliberate attempt to offend. Also Len's comments just cut to close to the bone at a time when the US is feeling isolated and vunerable.

There is no such thing...not in life and certainly not in broadcasting.

Perhaps Len needs to take it easy for a while. Allthis trave is no good to him , making him a bit cracity with the other judges and the dancers. He has a lot of knowledge but he should be careful he doesn't get overkill with it all

To be fair the "Outraged of Whitebread Illinois" posts on the ABC forums are matched if not outnumbered by people who see the joke and whose knickers remained resolutely untwisted. However, some of the things posted by people who took the hump are rather scary.

The US President is unusual in being both head of goverment and the Head of State; the two roles are (wisely) kept seperate in most democracies.

I thought Gordon Brown was the queen of england

You really couldn't get more spelling mistakes in a single post if you tried. If you're going to discuss politicians or the Prime Minister, you might just try to make it readable.

I'm dislexic, so shoot me !!
P.S I teach English as a proffesion
Didn't know politics were confined to the elite and grammitically ejucated
I really hate pompysity

What was the studio crowd reaction like? Can't find it on youtube, anyone got a link?

How very dare you !!! That particular title so obviously belongs to Mr Blair ( and not the Tony Blair who posts on here, I hasten to add )

PPS Not that there is anything wrong in being a queen , of England or otherwise!

I can understand you making mistakes (60% of people these days are dyslexic) but if your in "eductaion" you should at least know hoe to spell that word

Do you use Firefox? You can add an English dictionary to it exactly like you have on Word - it'll underline your mistakes and suggest corrections.

I don't know if IE has the same facility.

[quote=duryea;19170107]Some, not all, but some Americans take themselves and their nation way too seriously.



Isn't that the same here, though? (Here, as in this country, not on this forum - if you know what I mean?)

If you install the Google toolbar on IE, it has a spellcheck facility which will check any forms you complete before you press the button.

BTW, I wasn't claiming to be perfect, but the more you can try to cut down the spelling errors, the easier it makes it to read.

I took at look at some US forums yesterday after Len had caused a stir with his president "joke". The English on some of those posts was so bad, I didn't have the slightest idea what point they were maiking!!

Making remarks about the US President, seems to me a bit like making remarks about the Queen here. Senior BBC heads have rolled, quite recently over that (I'm thinking of the photoshoot fiasco).


I do hope they will show it. They didn't edit out Marie Osmond's collapse.

The way Len said the remark is all important - the body language. Was the remark made with a sense of humour, or seriously, as though he meant it.

When Len laid into Kelly and Brendan at the start of SCD last Saturday, there wasn't much humour or much forgiving in the way that he did so.

On the question of the "lifts" issue, the previous week, there was a big difference in the way Len attacked Brenden on SCD, and the way in which Carrie Ann dealt with the same issue on DWTS. Carrie Ann was almost apologetic for having to mark the couples down. She certainly was nothing like abusive.

When Len appears with Claudia on ITT he tries to give an impression of being suave and debonair and well-mannered (though he often ends up making some crude innuendo to Claudia (come back Dom, all is forgiven)).

Who on SCD really does have genuine good manners - probably Anton. He ought to give Len some lessons.

I got the impression that Len didn't really appreciate what he was saying.

I'm sure he had no idea that he'd be linked to the Dixie Chicks and the comments they made about Bush a few years ago.

There do appear to have been a fair few Americans who thought it was amusing but most seem to read far more into it than I suspect was really meant when Len made the comment.

What was so terrible about that comment?

Very little, in my opinion. But just take a look at the US forums and you'll see the vitriol that has poured out regarding him being disrespectful to the President etc etc

I should imagine there was anger as the inspiration for his comment came from Natalie Maynes, of the Dixie Chicks.

She said at a gig on eve of Iraq war 'i'm ashamed the president of the usa is from texas'....which caused uproar...many radio stations still will not play their music.

The Americans seem to be under the impression that it exists over there - they're rather proud of it, ironically!

The lLenism made no sense at all.

Sambas come from Brazil. Presidents come from anywhere and rarely Texas . It just doesn't work as a joke.

They like a lot of British programmes I wonder how Dead Ringers would fare. Seems they don't like their politicians to be made fun of.