Professional Northerners

[DonaldStott]

Disclaimer - I am a Northerner, but I cannot fucking stand these people. Jason Manford, peter kay, shelley lindsay, paddy mcguinness, 'ooh I'm so northern I go the chippy for me breakfast', ooh only northerners get me cos I'm so northern',

Fuck off.

Only because I have just heard jason manford on the radio making up his northern stories that never happened and it really annoyed me

Haha. Love it Curls

I am not saying all Yorkshire people are mean bigots and racist, but that's what he trotted out as his excuse for meanness and nastiness. sorry Yorkshire, it put me off you for years.

There must be something about people's perceptions about Yorkshire folk though, as when I told people my new boss was from Yorkshire, everybody, literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON said 'ooh, they''re tight/mean, etc you wait and see etc.

And without fail, my boss has lived up to this stereotype and what's more is utterly proud of her attitudes/behaviour

I find her so completely depressing, it's unreal. Totally unnecessary.

Also, she hams up her accent (really does) then gets offended when people mimic her.

Most comedians take some aspect of their own life as the basis for their comedy, and for public performances, whether that's a stand up show, a sit com or on the radio, will exaggerate it for what they like to think of as comic effect.

So we have Adil Ray as an Asian in Britain, Henning Wehn as a German in Britain. I liked Jo Brand when she first came on the scene, but very quickly got bored of her men, sex and periods routines (and a lot of female comedians use 'aren't men stupid' in at least part of their act). Paul Sinha does a version of Asian in Britain, even though he's British, but the last show of his I saw was all men, sex and 'poor unlucky me' and I was bored stiff. Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steele base their shows on their hard left political leanings, Ben Elton did it as a shouty radical.

You either like the comedy or you don't according to personal choice, but the reinforcement of stereotypes is the bread and butter of the job for most of them. It can become tedious, but a lot of people go to their shows - it must be funny to some people.

Most of Jason Manford's act seems to be of the 'kids, eh?' variety.

Thread title made me laugh. Im a northerner myself, and me and my sister refer to some people as "professional northerners", eg Alan Titchmarsh and his brass band playing away in the background.
I never mention where I'm from, but find it is often mentioned to me, eg, speaking to a client the other week, very dry, boring conversation about finance. Client suddenly says "so, Berts, are you a Yorkshire lass?", me: "erm, well yes".

My accent is pretty non-existent most of the time now. However if I'm visiting my parents or speaking to someone with a similar accent, I find it comes on

Same here, I am from a coastal town in the Lake District so definitely northern but I moved abroad to teach English after Uni so I very quickly "lost" my accent because I had to consciously slow down my speech and enunciate my words clearly to help my students.

My flatmates and Ex-DH all used to say they knew when I was on the phone to family/friends back home because my speech would suddenly get a million times faster and my accent would come out broader than ever and they wouldn't be able to understand a word I said. Also if family/friends came to visit my accent would come out in force and I'd have to spend a few days after they had left getting back to my "normal" teaching voice.

My DD is 9 and spent the first 6.5 years of her life living in Spain and we moved back to my hometown about 2.5 years ago and despite being bilingual and having no problems understanding me, her dad (fellow northerner) and all our families, DD struggled for a while when we moved because she wasn't used to hearing such broad northern accents, not to mention the speed we talk at!

I'm from north of the wall (proper northerner??) and live down south due to where I went to uni/first proper job. I don't think being proud of your roots means you can't live elsewhere. When I visit family up north, my accent adapts. It's not a conscious thing. Otherwise, I am accentless. I am definitely an accent snob, I can't bear certain accents. I know, double standards.

I am from the north, west riding,and all places in the north have their own accents,
For example people from Barnsley, usually have very broad Yorkshire accents as have a lot of South Yorkshire,
Having moved from there over 50 years ago,i dont think i have any particular accent now,and i have never spoken broad Yorkshire,
I hate listening to it,
My ex was from somewhere on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and although it was classed as Lancashire then,now Yorkshire, but he had a strong Lancashire accent
My sister lives near Blackpool and she has no particular accent,but her daughter and nieces who have always lived ther speak more Lanashire, but not as broad as Bolton or even Manchester
I cant stand Essex accents, they also seem to drawl, can always tell if someone is from Leeds too, they sound different to Huddersfield for example,even though very close in proximity

Londonyard how can you say the Doric dialect is ridiculous?! (It's a dialect not an accent, there's a huge difference). It originates from old Scots ( which is a different language all together) and is a rich dialect which has survived 100s of years. Just because you weren't brought up with it doesn't make it ridiculous. There are many rich, full dialects across the British Isles which makes us unique. A Northern dialect is no more ridiculous than a southern one ( e.g.Cornish).
I think they're all bloody fantastic and love to hear new dialects/ accents- it makes us all individuals.
Perhaps people in the media are just proud of their accents after RP being the accent of media discourse for time immemorial.
Pp who spoke of all comedians having their particular type of comedy has it bang on the money.
Sorry to derail your post op, didn't mean to be so serious, but it pisses me off when people say something is ridiculous just because it is different. THIS is why the teenagers I teach are self conscious of their broad Glaswegian accents and are intimidated by 'posh' or English people. I encourage them to write in their dialect and it's phenomenal how feeding it is.

*freeing

I'm the opposite. I find I minimise my accent when I'm out of where I grew up (my parents had their accents drummed out of them in grammar school) but it comes back when I go home.

I'm from Liverpool although I live in North Wales. I have quite a neutral accent but when I talk to my family or other people from Liverpool, my accent comes back thick and fast.

Those of you who think others play up their accents when away from their region should be aware it can be inadvertent. Look up downward divergence

I'm northern and find some southerners over effusive which I suppose is the equivalent of them finding me a bit short with them

You can't win this one sometimes..I am from an impoverished area, so poor that when I tell people, they have been known to simulate banjo playing. Even if they live a few roads away. I now live in a very affluent area, to the British here I am 'So Northern' yet when i go home it's all 'oooh get you, you've lost your accent' - a foot in both camps.
I was once very conscious of my accent but even the other day some Midland delivery lads were telling how much they loved it.
We all have our preferences, I love a soft Scouse accent, particularly if it sounds like David Morrissey but I also love a well spoken posh man, Michael Portillo has a nice radio voice..

Can you add Terry Christian to the list...

It's not just professional northerners who exaggerate their origins. Plenty of professional cockneys too, for example.

I cant bear Vernon Kay or Sara Cox for this reason. It's not that theyre northern, it's the exagerated northerness.

I find Kevin bridges really funny but I do like that sort of comedy

Love Patrick monahan. Especially when he gets talking about his Iranian heritage.

Try to get to see him if you can. Hugs are free. Lovely man. Does s lot for local hospice

Northern accents can vary hugely from town to town. In Bolton it's 'riight at liights' whereas in Wigan it's 'reet at leets.'
I have a strong Northern accent which is usually mistaken for Yorkshire despite it being pretty classically Lancastrian. To be honest I've always been self-conscious about my accent so I doubt I've ever been guilty of hamming it up.

Someone back in the threads said they hate hearing Essex people do the exaggerated put on accent. Just coming on to say that if it's the TOWIE accent you're talking about, it's bollocks, no one talks like that. I grew up less that 2 miles from The Sugarhut, went to school locally etc and I don't know anyone who speaks like they do. It's nonsense.

Also, as an Essex Girl (and living in London) I think everywhere is the north too. I had a boyfriend from Mansfield who seemed incredibly northern to me and my family and friends (he said "battth" and "pattthhh" and liked gravy on everything) and I'm probably going to be told now that he was basically a southern Jessie.

I can pick up on a Welsh accent at a hundred paces.
Was talk to this chap and after a while I said what part of wales are you from then?

He looked really astonished. How could you tell
I said it was when you said yur instead of here 😀

I was just going to say - I come from a part of the north with a very strong accent and I know for a fact my accent falls back into a stronger one when I'm around my friends and family from that area. It just happens naturally.

There are professional northerners, but so what? There are professional Southerners as well.

HarrietSchulenberg - the Victoria Wood sketch:-

Flipping Oasis used to drive me mad for this. I am northern but the whole loutish, beer swilling, belligerent oasis thing is far from what I know.
I did take a while to realise that down south people don't really mean it if they ask how you are

YANBU, I'm a northerner, these people are beyond ridiculous