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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 26, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The Thick of It isn’t less sweary than Veep. It’s more that Veep was written by outsiders rather than insiders and so after season 3 the jokes were less creative or funny and they had to rely on a combination of character-based humor and funny profanity. They swapped to a largely American writers’ room afterward and that had advantages in some ways and made things worse in others. Veep season 1 makes no effort to even be American, it’s about as American as GTA, half the expressions are British.

half the expressions are British

Would you mind giving some examples? I've been curious ever since I heard this claim, but for a few reasons I'm not very good at distinguishing them myself.

It’s a common complaint about Succession, too. Things like ending sentences in “yeah?”. Here’s an interview with Matt Walsh (not that one) who plays Mike in Veep where he discusses it. GTA is a good example, I played 4 again recently and it’s full of Americans saying stuff that just sounds off for Americans to say. Even Red Dead 2 has it on occasion, and they made a real effort there. The same of course exists in reverse when American writers try to write British characters.

Isn't Succession based on the Murdochs, though? Rupert is notoriously Australian, and it looks like all three of James, Lachlan and Elizabeth spent most of their careers outside the US.

Per Wikipedia, Logan Roy (the Rupert-equivalent) is British in-universe.