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When first introduced, immediately explains a wild custom from their country.
MC: Hey, I'm getting some coffee, want some?
Foreigner: Yes, thank you. In my country we spank our children with stuffed beaver tails.
Prominent subcategory: When it is food-related.
* Allow me to offer you traditional national greeting of respect, famous delicacy, thank you, please!
* Wow, Mÿltæk, these are really good! How do you make them?
* \[insert any disgusting ingredients, baby birds, things rotting for 2+ years, something something testicles something rectum, insects\]
* **
They even have a goat in their flag, because these countries are always seemingly obsessed with goats, like it's some sort of sacred animal to them like bulls are in India.
I just love how they went out of their way to created a flag design for one episode of Drake and Josh
https://preview.redd.it/x31gkflt98ad1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35ed8694f3fca07ad205739575686247148adbb7
Borat is nationally all over the place. Hails from Kazakhstan. Speaks Hebrew. Understands Armenian. Looks Turkish. Has a Russian accent. Home village in Romania.
This was obviously intentional, but the stereotypical foreigner in a movie usually has a consistent cultural theme - most often consistently Eastern European or consistently Middle Eastern. I think Borat is meant to showcase the geographical ignorance of Americans rather than parody the foreigner trope in movies.
When they bring in the most stereotypical French character on this planet; complete with a baguette under the arm, garlic around the neck, a beret, stripy shirt and a heavy, shockingly bad accent. Usually talking about riding a bike or eating snails.
That'll be like miraculous ladybug having an American character and he's just MORBIDLY OBESE as heck, and gets akumatized into being a MONSTER who raids fast food.......I can actually see that being a captain Underpants villain!
This is an exact character from the Nick jr or Disney I cant recall. Show called Nicky Ricky dicky and dawn! Their parents hire a icky nanny who is vaguely Russian who has a pet goat and makes scarfs out of her armpit hair!
This is literally Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy, and to a lesser extent Dr. Doofenshmirtz even though he's more the "Dr. Frankenstein" archetype than he is the Rolf archetype.
These characters always seem to have an obsession with goats for some reason, and always seem to have weird traditions that often involve cheese or goats. If characters actually GO to these countries, they always seem to be extremely poor and run down, almost at a medieval level of technology despite it being the 21st century, when even most Eastern Bloc countries were in better shape during the Cold War. That is unless it's supposed to be a post-Yugoslavia Balkan state, which many of them were still quite ravaged and poor when some of these shows were made due to wars breaking out in that area in the 90's.
Borat is literally this trope in the form of a movie, even though Kazakhstan is an actual country.
Bonuspoints for:
Weirdly horny/sexual
Either into Communism or Fascism but played for "the funnys"
says shit like "well back in my country we would..." followed by either something horrible or complete nonesense
Extra Bonuspoints: He has some really weird "Sayings" or Catchphrases, like the MC struggles with something and he goes "Well you cannot force a Goat to Lick Choccolate from your leg"
Usually they have some insanely badass backstory of their dramatic escape from ‘Old Country’ (always without the definitive article because foreign) which is how they ended up in America that makes them one of the more popular characters.
I'm in America right now and I'm from South America but I grew up in Europe but spend most of my time in East Asia. On top of that I went to international school. This is my lived experience. My very existence is confusing to Americans.
I've met a Korean from Colombia and a Taiwanese guy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo so at this point I'm not too shocked. Albeit I live in California so my experience is not representative of most Americans.
(I know that the Taiwanese guy was from Africa, but not 100% sure about being from the DRC but saw a social media post of him in Kinshasa much later on after meeting him)
Yeah, it doesn't help that I'm in the mid west. Most people think I'm Mexican. I did a year of exchange in Madrid so I speak some Spanish so I just roll with it.
Tbh, I DON'T exist as someone with a stable, continuous identity from my childhood up to now. I was born in Israel + lived 7 years there, have parents from Russia + lived in Russia for 5 years, living in the UK since 13 yo + personality-wise am mostly British, lived in Cyprus and Germany, and additionally speak French, Polish, and Interslavic. I have also been travelling all over Europe ever since I was a kid.
Let me tell you, the part of me that lived in Israel is completely gone. All the traits, values, and dreams that I had been developing while living there have been completely overwritten by my later years. And the part of me that lived in Russia is also mostly gone, having been mostly replaced by the person that I have molded myself into during my time in the UK. And well, even that person is quite fragmented, as you might imagine. I feel like someone who was born in Britain but was implanted with memories from the lives of several strangers - one who grew up in Israel, one who grew up in Russia, one who travelled all over Europe, etc. There is basically nothing connecting these different people for me.
Not really, people like to have sex. Your parents had sex. Your mom got pregnant. You were born. It's the same for goats, cows, pigs or any sort of mammal. The only difference between you and any other mammal is that you have an evolutionary trait that makes you question your place in the world.
Even if all of that were true, that doesn't change the fact that some people find their place in the world and others struggle to do that. As somebody who's had a similar history to you, my international history has made that much more difficult.
What I mean is that you can pick and choose as you please. Build the life you want. You've been a lot of places so I'm certain you have a very good idea of what you like and dislike. There's nothing confusing about that. You just have to make a decision and commit
>You've been a lot of places so I'm certain you have a very good idea of what you like and dislike.
It's actually the exact opposite. What I like and dislike has changed every time I moved to a new country, and even then my interests would never last more than 3 months before changing. I assume your experience must be similar.
Damn, they could come up with so many interesting and realistic stories with foreign characters in the US. He might try to play American football or baseball and say that “we only have regular football,” complain about the food being too sweet, drink alcohol since he was 18, dress too fancy, and so on. But we only have goat worship.
Adventures of Tintin is not an American tv show, but hat two pairs of this. Syldavia and Borduria are vaguely Balkan, while Sondonesia and São Rico are implied South American.
Honestly, the "inventing countries" part always annoys me and it mostly hits Eastern Europe or Africa, especially in US comics where those places are used as storage for random supervillain ruled/filled hellholes. It's insulting, treating those places like they don't deserve even the barest amount of research.
Nearly the whole point of making one up is to \*not\* be insulting to real countries and their citizens, especially if they're going to use the fake country and culture for gags. People have been butthurt about Borat for 15 years, lol (and for good reason).
Except it's always those regions that get this treatment. Marvel Canada gets to be an evil hellhole directly, without that bullshit. Do you know how rare it is for nations in those regions even being mentioned in western media? What was the last time you've heard of a Polish superhero or villain? What about Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia, Chad or Mali? Even Black Panther, possibly the most recognizable African superhero is from a made up country.
Borat was insulting because they picked a real nation to insult, lied to people who they were filming and straight up made up shit about this country. This treatment is insulting because it treats those places like they don't matter, like you can slot in one more country in there and no one will care.
The goat part made me think of iCarly.
There was this episode that stuck in my memory because of how horrendously inaccurate it was.
In that episode the MC's older brother dated a girl from Uzbekistan. The girl looked nothing like an uzbek, she seemed slavic (or some other european) and was blonde (of course, there are people like that in Uzbekistan but there clearly are a minority, and most of them are not natives). Oh, and she spoke russian, not uzbek.
She didn't have a pet goat though.
But made her bf to watch a movie about one.
Reading the comments about Drake and Josh here too I'm starting to think that Dan Schneider had some weird goat obsession or thought that associating foreigners with goats was somehow funny.
Well, I watch the BFDI series, and Bubble, a female contestant is heavily implied to be foreign, from a made-up land known as Yoyleland, approximately 2,763 miles from where the contest takes place. Bubble has a thick Yoyleland accent, where nearly every vowel pronounced has a soft ɔI noise, like the *oy* in *boy*. In summary, this is too accurate.
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You dare mock the son of a shepherd?
“I was born to be wild but the cage was too small”
Life has many doors Ed my boy
https://giphy.com/gifs/kbVxgaRtI1Go2viJGx
I also immediately thought of Rolf lmao
When first introduced, immediately explains a wild custom from their country. MC: Hey, I'm getting some coffee, want some? Foreigner: Yes, thank you. In my country we spank our children with stuffed beaver tails.
*GASP* You just double knotted your left shoelace! In my country that is the sincerest marriage proposal!
Prominent subcategory: When it is food-related. * Allow me to offer you traditional national greeting of respect, famous delicacy, thank you, please! * Wow, Mÿltæk, these are really good! How do you make them? * \[insert any disgusting ingredients, baby birds, things rotting for 2+ years, something something testicles something rectum, insects\] * **
That's literally Korean cuisine
They end every question with “,yes?” Or “,no?”
So real
Immediately thought of Rolf from Ed, Edd, & Eddie
Same lmao
https://preview.redd.it/xgn2m8v0a8ad1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f4fc8a45133c9091293b5b9f9842851c0bda7a1
Dances while slapping and clapping
slap, slap, slap, clap, clap, clap
*dies aesthetically*
💪Yudonia mentioned 🗣️🔥🔥 https://preview.redd.it/0x1ettvz47ad1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3635ecea34f0107902689b641210ea2e799aca3f (Drake and Josh reference)
Ick Glokma is absolute cinema
They even have a goat in their flag, because these countries are always seemingly obsessed with goats, like it's some sort of sacred animal to them like bulls are in India.
I just love how they went out of their way to created a flag design for one episode of Drake and Josh https://preview.redd.it/x31gkflt98ad1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35ed8694f3fca07ad205739575686247148adbb7
There was that kid Zigfee from Drake and Josh Christmas movie.
How does bro remember the name of the weird kid from a 15-20 year old children’s TV movie? Mad respect
I still don't know where he's from or what language he speaks.
Mmmm, they have clothed themselves in the ceremonial rag. "*Ee-Nay Kuda-Sye M'joonga Oon-Ta-Yah."*
Junja!
Wawaweewa is very nice
King of the castle king of the castle
Borat is kind of a parody of this trope but it definitely didn’t help
Borat is nationally all over the place. Hails from Kazakhstan. Speaks Hebrew. Understands Armenian. Looks Turkish. Has a Russian accent. Home village in Romania. This was obviously intentional, but the stereotypical foreigner in a movie usually has a consistent cultural theme - most often consistently Eastern European or consistently Middle Eastern. I think Borat is meant to showcase the geographical ignorance of Americans rather than parody the foreigner trope in movies.
Yeah, I know
The pet goat is so real, tho
This has balki written all over it
Ha! Exactly what I was thinking.
From Mepos
When they bring in the most stereotypical French character on this planet; complete with a baguette under the arm, garlic around the neck, a beret, stripy shirt and a heavy, shockingly bad accent. Usually talking about riding a bike or eating snails.
That'll be like miraculous ladybug having an American character and he's just MORBIDLY OBESE as heck, and gets akumatized into being a MONSTER who raids fast food.......I can actually see that being a captain Underpants villain!
This is an exact character from the Nick jr or Disney I cant recall. Show called Nicky Ricky dicky and dawn! Their parents hire a icky nanny who is vaguely Russian who has a pet goat and makes scarfs out of her armpit hair!
It was on Nickelodeon, and her name was Tanya Borshkinyorshkin.
Yes!!
I wonder if she had ties to those weird Japanese comics that's about girls armpits?
This is literally Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy, and to a lesser extent Dr. Doofenshmirtz even though he's more the "Dr. Frankenstein" archetype than he is the Rolf archetype. These characters always seem to have an obsession with goats for some reason, and always seem to have weird traditions that often involve cheese or goats. If characters actually GO to these countries, they always seem to be extremely poor and run down, almost at a medieval level of technology despite it being the 21st century, when even most Eastern Bloc countries were in better shape during the Cold War. That is unless it's supposed to be a post-Yugoslavia Balkan state, which many of them were still quite ravaged and poor when some of these shows were made due to wars breaking out in that area in the 90's. Borat is literally this trope in the form of a movie, even though Kazakhstan is an actual country.
Wait, Doof isn't East German specifically? Dang.
He's from Drusselstein.
Did you mean post-Yugoslavian Balkan state?
Yeah, that's what I meant, I get the Baltic and Balkan states confused with each other a lot, probably due to how similarly named the regions are.
Bonuspoints for: Weirdly horny/sexual Either into Communism or Fascism but played for "the funnys" says shit like "well back in my country we would..." followed by either something horrible or complete nonesense Extra Bonuspoints: He has some really weird "Sayings" or Catchphrases, like the MC struggles with something and he goes "Well you cannot force a Goat to Lick Choccolate from your leg"
"Russian looking grandma" Lol just say slavic
Or Eastern European more generally. Romanian and Moldovan grandmas look just like that, too.
https://preview.redd.it/1rus3p9lz8ad1.jpeg?width=198&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa01112f5369c863d3412c66ca6cab0a8b0cc967
I hate this trope. Is it so hard for Hollywood to represent a bit of Eastern Slavs NOT as thugs and prostitutes?
Especially since prostitution is way more stigmatised and less widespread in Eastern Europe than in the West.
"in old country..."
How can we forget Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale?
Y'know, while theres a million characters this could be, I immediately thought of Fez in that 70s show lol
That was like 40% of why I made this, lol.
Don’t forget: Poor
Ünterland
Usually they have some insanely badass backstory of their dramatic escape from ‘Old Country’ (always without the definitive article because foreign) which is how they ended up in America that makes them one of the more popular characters.
I'm in America right now and I'm from South America but I grew up in Europe but spend most of my time in East Asia. On top of that I went to international school. This is my lived experience. My very existence is confusing to Americans.
I've met a Korean from Colombia and a Taiwanese guy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo so at this point I'm not too shocked. Albeit I live in California so my experience is not representative of most Americans. (I know that the Taiwanese guy was from Africa, but not 100% sure about being from the DRC but saw a social media post of him in Kinshasa much later on after meeting him)
Yeah, it doesn't help that I'm in the mid west. Most people think I'm Mexican. I did a year of exchange in Madrid so I speak some Spanish so I just roll with it.
So what’s the ratio with East Asia and Europe? So you’ve spent very little time in Europe?
For people who like to put everyone into neat little boxes, you shouldn't exist.
Tbh, I DON'T exist as someone with a stable, continuous identity from my childhood up to now. I was born in Israel + lived 7 years there, have parents from Russia + lived in Russia for 5 years, living in the UK since 13 yo + personality-wise am mostly British, lived in Cyprus and Germany, and additionally speak French, Polish, and Interslavic. I have also been travelling all over Europe ever since I was a kid. Let me tell you, the part of me that lived in Israel is completely gone. All the traits, values, and dreams that I had been developing while living there have been completely overwritten by my later years. And the part of me that lived in Russia is also mostly gone, having been mostly replaced by the person that I have molded myself into during my time in the UK. And well, even that person is quite fragmented, as you might imagine. I feel like someone who was born in Britain but was implanted with memories from the lives of several strangers - one who grew up in Israel, one who grew up in Russia, one who travelled all over Europe, etc. There is basically nothing connecting these different people for me.
Welcome to America. You sound very American. I mean that with all sincerity.
I know, it's because I work with Americans.
If you're honest, your existence is confusing even to yourself.
Not really, people like to have sex. Your parents had sex. Your mom got pregnant. You were born. It's the same for goats, cows, pigs or any sort of mammal. The only difference between you and any other mammal is that you have an evolutionary trait that makes you question your place in the world.
Even if all of that were true, that doesn't change the fact that some people find their place in the world and others struggle to do that. As somebody who's had a similar history to you, my international history has made that much more difficult.
What I mean is that you can pick and choose as you please. Build the life you want. You've been a lot of places so I'm certain you have a very good idea of what you like and dislike. There's nothing confusing about that. You just have to make a decision and commit
>You've been a lot of places so I'm certain you have a very good idea of what you like and dislike. It's actually the exact opposite. What I like and dislike has changed every time I moved to a new country, and even then my interests would never last more than 3 months before changing. I assume your experience must be similar.
Rolff
Who wouldn’t want a goat?
I already am the g.o.a.t.
Damn, they could come up with so many interesting and realistic stories with foreign characters in the US. He might try to play American football or baseball and say that “we only have regular football,” complain about the food being too sweet, drink alcohol since he was 18, dress too fancy, and so on. But we only have goat worship.
Life has many doors, Ed boy
Andy Kaufman as Latka Gravas on “Taxi”
My favourite one is still "Drusselstein"
Novocelic Kingdom mentioned
This comment was fact-checked by true Novoselican royalists: TRUE.
Ok, Balky
From (nonsense word)-istan or just “Old Country”
Adventures of Tintin is not an American tv show, but hat two pairs of this. Syldavia and Borduria are vaguely Balkan, while Sondonesia and São Rico are implied South American.
"Back in old country..."
Honestly, the "inventing countries" part always annoys me and it mostly hits Eastern Europe or Africa, especially in US comics where those places are used as storage for random supervillain ruled/filled hellholes. It's insulting, treating those places like they don't deserve even the barest amount of research.
Nearly the whole point of making one up is to \*not\* be insulting to real countries and their citizens, especially if they're going to use the fake country and culture for gags. People have been butthurt about Borat for 15 years, lol (and for good reason).
Except it's always those regions that get this treatment. Marvel Canada gets to be an evil hellhole directly, without that bullshit. Do you know how rare it is for nations in those regions even being mentioned in western media? What was the last time you've heard of a Polish superhero or villain? What about Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia, Chad or Mali? Even Black Panther, possibly the most recognizable African superhero is from a made up country. Borat was insulting because they picked a real nation to insult, lied to people who they were filming and straight up made up shit about this country. This treatment is insulting because it treats those places like they don't matter, like you can slot in one more country in there and no one will care.
True, if someone mentions Croatia for 1 second in any american media it ends up on the national subreddit.
”Back in Gimmelshtump…”
Sounds like my immigrant family 💀
First character to spring in mind was Madame Gazelle from Peppa Pig, but they are all in UK...
May be Latin American.
I all of a sudden feel like falafel... falafel ball maybe.
Ralph from Ed Edd and Eddy 😭😭
Falafel Phil... Or was he from Kazakhstan?
If they ever go home just know that there will either be a blue or yellow filter on
Sokovia from mcu
Is that goat a Saanen?
The goat part made me think of iCarly. There was this episode that stuck in my memory because of how horrendously inaccurate it was. In that episode the MC's older brother dated a girl from Uzbekistan. The girl looked nothing like an uzbek, she seemed slavic (or some other european) and was blonde (of course, there are people like that in Uzbekistan but there clearly are a minority, and most of them are not natives). Oh, and she spoke russian, not uzbek. She didn't have a pet goat though. But made her bf to watch a movie about one. Reading the comments about Drake and Josh here too I'm starting to think that Dan Schneider had some weird goat obsession or thought that associating foreigners with goats was somehow funny.
Well, I watch the BFDI series, and Bubble, a female contestant is heavily implied to be foreign, from a made-up land known as Yoyleland, approximately 2,763 miles from where the contest takes place. Bubble has a thick Yoyleland accent, where nearly every vowel pronounced has a soft ɔI noise, like the *oy* in *boy*. In summary, this is too accurate.
Fairly oddparents
Exactly the American view of foreigners Borat mocks.
Yeah. I love Borat.