Aaaaargh!

[bunn]

I have watched the TV series 'Fargo', in which increasingly hideous and bloody things happen against a mundane backdrop of Minnesota life.

Turns out that, if, like me, you have no other connotations for a Minnesota accent *other* than 'Fargo', if you hear two people wandering along chatting in a dull manner and praising the colour of the azaleas, in exactly that accent... 

It is TERRIFYING.  I automatically froze and looked around for the body.  :-D 

Comments

[grundyscribbling]

*cracks up laughing*

[diejacobsleiter]

I tried, but survived only one episode. Martin Freeman (whom I like) was making so many facial movements per second, that it was too much for me.

[baileyboybee]

Loved that show!! I actually work with Minnesotans and travel there frequently. They aren't quite as bad as the show related to accents. However, you haven't lived until you've experienced "Minnesota Nice" (also the name of the documentary on the movie Fargo). My boss tells me I've adopted it well.

[timetiger.livejournal.com]

Hee! Your reaction sounds most understandable.

I have never seen Fargo, either the film or the television series and my associations with a Minnesota accent all derive from an American humorist called Garrison Keillor. For decades he had a weekly radio show with music and comedy sketches, and the centerpiece was a monologue about the doings of a group of small-town Minnesotans. It was funny, heartwarming stuff with the merest hint of gentle satire.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Hee!!

It's very different when you live here, I promise--that's really a northern MN/Northern ND/northern Wisconsin-ish/southern Canada-ish accent. Down here in the Twin Cities (which is a lot more of a cultural mix) there's a lot less of it.

That said, after my first decade living here I noticed that I HAD picked up that broad northern 'o'. It only comes out sometimes, thankfully.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd ever heard it before, or at any rate, not in such volume. The wandering tourists I overhead admiring the azaleas said 'Oh ya' a lot too, so to my very unaccustomed ear, they really did sound like the actors...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd heard the accent before at all, or not more than in passing, anyway. In the series the warm friendly sounding voices contrasting with the building horror seem to be a big part of the atmosphere...

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Oh, the movie is COMPLETELY accurate as to that particular accent and manner of speech. The first time I heard someone with the accent I had to surreptitiously pinch myself to make sure that I was, in fact, not hallucinating or otherwise dreaming it.

And then years later when I caught myself saying "aboat" I nearly melted into my chair in mortification right there.