Stereotypes that are true

[ICTChris]

Damon Albarn sang “oh there just be more to life than stereotypes” but we all know he was wrong. 

I was reading the Twitter thread where posters were talking about the preponderance of Chinese people in bookies and casinos which made me think, what stereotypes do P&Bers think are true? I don’t spend much time in bookies or casinos but in every single one of the latter I’ve been in there has been a disproportionate representation of Chinese people. 

What stereotypes do P&Bers think are pretty much true?

Do any P&Bers recognise stereotypes in themselves? 

[sophia]

gammon 

 

[throbber]

Irish people stick together and are overall pretty gullible. 
 

People I have spoken to who do B and B say that Chinese people don’t get the fact that they just have the one room and try and help themselves to the entire property including the kitchen which they assume is at their disposal. They also leave showers running for hours on end.

[Guest]

I listen to Limmy's streams on Twitch and he was talking recently about the "miserly Scots" stereotype. He thought this was created by English people which is wrong. It's from USA and came from the high amount of Scottish heritage men who became capitalists there. Andrew Carnegie, most famously, with the spectre of Adam Smith looming large. That's why the Scottish heritage characters Scrooge McDuck by Disney and Mr Burns by The Simpsons were created. I think that stereotype of Scottish emigrants being particularly bloody-minded and ruthless with wealth accumulation was true. We maybe still see the legacy of it today in the Scottish heritage Rupert Murdoch.

So I know this is more an historical rather than contemporary stereotype but it's one I see misunderstood a lot so wanted to mention. It may well have later been imported back to the UK, pizza effect, but the stereotype was originally about Scottish emigrants rather than Scots in Scotland.

Edited October 23, 2022 by FreedomFarter

[LongTimeLurker]

9 minutes ago, FreedomFarter said:

...That's why the Scottish heritage characters Scrooge McDuck by Disney and Mr Burns by The Simpsons were created. I think that stereotype of Scottish emigrants being particularly bloody-minded and ruthless with wealth accumulation was true...

Think that's a bit of a stretch given Andrew Carnegie ultimately handed all his wealth away in an American context and is hence remembered as a great philanthropist. The Scottish stereotype in The Simpsons isn't Mr Burns but Groundskeeper Willie. In Star Trek it was Scotty. Don't think being miserly figured particularly prominently with either of them. Think some of Sir Walter Scott's novels had a role in building that stereotype in a UK context.

[ICTChris]

56 minutes ago, sophia said:

gammon 

 

A couple of guys I used to work with absolutely fit this stereotype to a T. Big fat red faced divorced men who reply to Aaron Banks and Guido on Twitter.

[Moomintroll]

The virgin is a virgin.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

26 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Think that's a bit of a stretch given Andrew Carnegie ultimately handed all his wealth away in an American context and is hence remembered as a great philanthropist. The Scottish stereotype in The Simpsons isn't Mr Burns but Groundskeeper Willie. In Star Trek it was Scotty. Don't think being miserly figured particularly prominently with either of them. Think some of Sir Walter Scott's novels had a role in building that stereotype in a UK context.

In terms of the Simpsons it may shock some to know that I am somewhat of a fan (of the good seasons 1-17) and when they did away with Hank doing Apu ‘because the stereotype offends’, I asked the question as to why it was bad to laugh at Apu (who tbh wasnt ever really the brunt of any jokes where they were ‘on him’) but it was ok to portray Willie that way. Now I love Willie as a character, I like it, I also saw loads of indian people on twitter who loved the portrayal of Apu, it seemed many of the calls to stop Hank voicing Apu came from white American ‘right on’ types?  

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Think that's a bit of a stretch given Andrew Carnegie ultimately handed all his wealth away in an American context and is hence remembered as a great philanthropist. The Scottish stereotype in The Simpsons isn't Mr Burns but Groundskeeper Willie. In Star Trek it was Scotty. Don't think being miserly figured particularly prominently with either of them. Think some of Sir Walter Scott's novels had a role in building that stereotype in a UK context.

I didn't mean Carnegie was the example those who created the stereotype most looked to. I meant he's who we've all heard of but was only one of many Scots of that era in USA that made fortunes in cattle raising, railroads and mining. With Mr Burns in The Simpsons, they'll surely have chosen his name deliberately to indicate he's Scottish-American. 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

4 minutes ago, FreedomFarter said:

I didn't mean Carnegie was the example those who created the stereotype most looked to. I meant he's who we've all heard of but was only one of many Scots of that era in USA that made fortunes in cattle raising, railroads and mining. With Mr Burns in The Simpsons, they'll surely have chosen his name deliberately to indicate he's Scottish-American. 

https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Charles_Montgomery_Burns
 

you’re right. 

[coprolite]

Cats. Manipulative self centred wee b*****ds all. 

At least you know where you stand with cats. 

[Ekhibee88]

2 hours ago, throbber said:

Irish people stick together and are overall pretty gullible. 
 

People I have spoken to who do B and B say that Chinese people don’t get the fact that they just have the one room and try and help themselves to the entire property including the kitchen which they assume is at their disposal. They also leave showers running for hours on end.

I noticed that when I was down under, the young Irish people who went over to work tended travel around and live in groups. They tend to be more family orientated than us.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

In terms of the Simpsons it may shock some to know that I am somewhat of a fan (of the good seasons 1-17) and when they did away with Hank doing Apu ‘because the stereotype offends’, I asked the question as to why it was bad to laugh at Apu (who tbh wasnt ever really the brunt of any jokes where they were ‘on him’) but it was ok to portray Willie that way. Now I love Willie as a character, I like it, I also saw loads of indian people on twitter who loved the portrayal of Apu, it seemed many of the calls to stop Hank voicing Apu came from white American ‘right on’ types?  

I don't think its overstating it to say the entire motion was orchestrated by a single person, the comedian Hari Kondabolu. Indian-Americans face racism. Interpersonal discrimination can rob them of social and economic opportunities. Then there's violent racism such as the 2012 Wisconsin massacre. Yet in comparing Apu to minstrelsy, Kondabolu was trying to draw a parallel between the Indian-American and Black American experience which I found a bit minging. He was appropriating Black anti-racism to try and add validity to his own flimsy argument.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

7 minutes ago, FreedomFarter said:

I don't think its overstating it to say the entire motion was orchestrated by a single person, the comedian Hari Kondabolu. Indian-Americans face racism. Interpersonal discrimination can rob them of social and economic opportunities. Then there's violent racism such as the 2012 Wisconsin massacre. Yet in comparing Apu to minstrelsy, Kondabolu was trying to draw a parallel between the Indian-American and Black American experience which I found a bit minging. He was appropriating Black anti-racism to try and add validity to his own flimsy argument.

If you look at Apu, he was an entirely accurate character, he was a first generation immigrant, worked his arse off, got pissed off with the ignorant folks but saw the good intentions, was shown as a guy with good humour and if anything he made the American characters look bad. I just cant see it. Whereas Willie is a wholly negative stereotype, but the Rowdy Roddy Peeper joke will never not make me laugh. Or ‘The whole towns come out to see us’. 

[Hillonearth]

The Chinese gambling definitely seems to be a thing - I remember being out in town with a mate one night who at closing time remembered he had a membership of the casino on Sauchiehall St so we could carry on scooping there. Us and the staff were the only non-Chinese folk in the place.

A few more off the top of my head that have a degree of truth to them:

Seemingly everybody in France smokes - it's certainly the only place I've ever seen a long twitchy-looking queue outside a tobacconists.

Americans are fat.

Russians are alkies.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

1 hour ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

(of the good seasons 1-17) 

Behave

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

3 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Behave

True. Its not as good now. 

[Moomintroll]

6 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

The Chinese gambling definitely seems to be a thing - I remember being out in town with a mate one night who at closing time remembered he had a membership of the casino on Sauchiehall St so we could carry on scooping there. Us and the staff were the only non-Chinese folk in the place.

A few more off the top of my head that have a degree of truth to them:

Seemingly everybody in France smokes - it's certainly the only place I've ever seen a long twitchy-looking queue outside a tobacconists.

Americans are fat.

Russians are alkies.

 

I am an alkie, I am definitely not Russian. I worked in C&Cs for many years & it is incredible how many people originally from Hong Kong, not China, are hopelessly addicted to gambling. I know someone who has a chain of Buffet Restuarants who should be a multimillionaire but every night after closing time, emptied the till & lost it all. He was a sharp Operator when it came to running his Businesses & he got a very good deal out of me within the parameters I was set, but that went clean out the window every night.

[19QOS19]

True. Its not as good now. 

I think it's more the timeline you've given. For me it got shit after 10. 11 had some half decent ones but it really started going downhill then.


My one would be that travellers are slobs. Originally that was due to seeing the state they leave places in on certain tv programmes but you believe everything you see on tele. There have been a few of them popped up within Dumfries and on the way in to Carlisle in recent years and the mess they've left has been pretty much exactly like they're portrayed on tv tbh.

[Hillonearth]

9 minutes ago, Moomintroll said:

I am an alkie, I am definitely not Russian. I worked in C&Cs for many years & it is incredible how many people originally from Hong Kong, not China, are hopelessly addicted to gambling. I know someone who has a chain of Buffet Restuarants who should be a multimillionaire but every night after closing time, emptied the till & lost it all. He was a sharp Operator when it came to running his Businesses & he got a very good deal out of me within the parameters I was set, but that went clean out the window every night.

I suppose many of the punters going to the one in Sauchiehall St would be from the long-established Chinese community in Garnethill most of whom I understand originally came from Hong Kong, so that would bear that out.

From what I remember (it was maybe 20 years ago) there was serious gambling going on that night as well - we're not talking a fiver or a tenner, but hundreds or even thousands on a spin.