“In America, there are 51 states. Or maybe it’s 80 by now. Does England count? I’m not quite sure.”
A perfect contrast with A Bit of Fry and Laurie’s “America” sketch:
(Except no one calls it the States. Perfect otherwise.)
Tags: comedy, kids in the hall, kith monday, television
My dad’s gag for a while was to ask people how many Mexican states there are. Lol no one he talked to ever could answer.
Aaah, that’s fantastic.
My dad's gag for a while was to ask people how many Mexican states there are. Lol no one he talked to ever could answer.
I work for a company based in the States but in London and all us Brits over here in my building say ‘the States’ many times a day and will never stop. The States.
I always say it, and I have lived in The States for…omigod, THIRTEEN YEARS now.
I got in the habit of saying ‘the States’ when I lived in the UK… even though all the locals I knew there called it America. But I hate calling my country America for reasons I have yet to fully work out, so the States it was. (And so it was for all the other Americans I knew, funnily enough.)
It sounds nicer!
I’m trying to get out of the habit of calling it “America” because that feels kind of like saying “there are two entire continents called America but who cares, our country is the bit that counts.” I still haven’t settled on what to call it instead, though. Maybe I should try out “the States” and see how it feels!
Objection: everyone in Canada calls it “the States.”
Truth! I say it many many times every day.
Also I have had Discussions with people who REFUSE TO BELIEVE that the US has only fifty states, no more, no less. Only fifty.
come on you know what i mean, no one AMERICAN calls it the states, if you are going to pretend to be a jingoistic american piano player you gotta do your homework!!!
I’m an American, but I regularly call it “the States,” however, that’s because I’m dating a Canadian who complains bitterly about our attempt to take over an entire hemisphere through our encroaching nomenclature.
(This is when he is not complaining about Ontario’s attempts to hijack Canada.)
State Dept brat weighs in: we called it the States the whole time I was growing up overseas ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Australia chiming in: we tend to say “the you ess”. (But NEVER “the you ess aye”. That makes you sound like you might wave a flag or something equally abominable.) Then when we go to the US, we say “America”, so as not to confuse Americans.
Although confusing Americans is an excellent pastime. You would not believe some of the lies I told on my recent trip. Or maybe you would, if you’re an American!
It works out pretty well if you play both of these videos at the same time, actually.
I don’t get the Marineland joke. Marineland is in Canada, not America.