Who Is Cowtown Pattie?

My photo
I was Lillie Langtry in another life, and might have a crush on Calamity Jane.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

"And How Are Yew?"

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but...

I hate it when Hollywood butchers Texas' accents.

One of the new lineups for television this year is about small town Texas and a high school football team - Friday Night Lights. We watched the season opener, but I doubt we will hang on for its predictable short ride. It does have hunky Kyle Chandler in a lead role, and I know it has only had one episode, but I just don't think this is Emmy material. I could be wrong.

Besides, I just can't listen to one more badly pronounced "ya'll" without retching.

Maybe it's time for the....ta da..."Texorcist!"

The Texorcist, slowly eradicating bad fake Texas accents, one "yew" at a time.



Ewwwww! We don't tawk that way, do we?

I do make an exception for the character of Joy on "My Name Is Earl". Joy's accent and pronounciations are fine even if the writers never actually say what state Earl and his cohorts live in:

''I can't loose my teeth, Earl. I'm going to be the first woman in my family to get to thirty with all my originals.''


For more fun, here is a The Joy Darville Random Quotes Generator

Yew all come back, yew heah?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I of course can't say what a genuine Texas accent truly is, being from New England myself, but it seems to me from what I've heard of it that it is not the typically Southern, but rather a soft and barely perceptible drawl. Very pleasant, very inviting, not twangy or defined. Some of my favorite singers are Texans; Waylon and Willie. My English Professor is from El Paso, so I've listened to a lot of it, and would not have placed it as typical Southern.

susan @ spinning

Whisky Prajer said...

So what should we call this inappropriate mash-up? Holly-Tex? Holly-As? Texy-wood?

The attempted Texas accent (and swagger, for that matter) has bothered me, too. It's the sort of thing that grates on an unconscious level, and doesn't come to the fore until I hear someone who has the real deal - Renee Zellwegger, for instance. Aah!! Musicality, people! And these days it's a little much to expect "musicality" from La-La Land.

DarkoV said...

As my ever-loving wife said about Kyle Chnadler,"Not only is he hunky, he's thinking hunky. You can tell by how often his brow is furrowed, his eybrow's piqued."
Me? He's either pulling a load of thinking with him or he's in need dumping a load of....

Whichever, he seemed to be perpetually in pain on last night's episode. I liked the first "Friday Night Lights", especially the portrayal of the over 30 crowd hanging like vampires onto the shoulders of the high schol kids. Ghouls never looked better dressed.

DarkoV said...

My favorite Texas voices have been:
Lyndon Johnson
Jim Hightower
Molly Ivins
Ben Johnson (the actor)
Willy Nelson
Steve Earle
Sam Elliott (yeah, yeah, I know he was born in Sacramento)

Is that a good representation of what's true "Texas", or simply a Northerner's fantasy.

Cowtown Pattie said...

Susan - the drawl can bwe pretty pronounced, depending on the specific locale in Texas. But, you are right - a southern drawl and a Texas twang are surely different.


WP - Renee is delightful, no? She makes Texans proud - well, not counting that little marriage thingy...

Darko- your wife is sooo right, and I laughed out loud at the "thinking" hunky! As to your list, I think I prefer the Texas accent of Lyle Lovett over Steve Earle, but you have the ear for a good Texas accent...

On My Mind - you think so? I never really thought of my accent as attractive, but beauty is in the ear of the listener, I suppose. Thanks!

Karen Townsend said...

Yeah, your observations are true, as usual, Liz.
Having lived most of my life in Louisiana, I am also offended with the fake LA accents. And the last worst one I heard recently is Sean Penn in "All the Kings Men." Truly yukky.

Anonymous said...

Moving to Texas was for me, accentwise, a step up. I could have ended up with the form of broken-English my mom grew up with but does not practice for the island she grew up on in Virginia, or I could really have a drawl that my dad's southern-Virginia-tinged speech still echoes with. Sure, Hollywood gets it wrong, because there's nothing so linguistically beautiful as carrying your native state on your speech. And that can't be faked.

- Texas "Virgnia Ham" T-bone

Anonymous said...

That's what I love about this country -- all the different dialects we bring to the scene.

I was a northerner who spent some serious years in a southern state next to Texas. Somehow, I picked up a little bit of accent from there, and I don't mind a bit.

My favorite Southern hospitality expression I first heard as a young girl when friends would come to visit my parents, and if it was a weekend, I was allowed to stay up with them. They might stay 'til midnight or more, then when they'd leave they'd always say to my parents, "Y'all better come and go home with us!"

Given my warped mind, (yes, it started when I was a mere child) I was privately thinking that we should take them up on it, then see what happened,and what they'd have to say. *grin*

GUYK said...

HAHAHAHAHA Texas is so big and the diferent parts of Texas so different that I don't think there is a distinct 'Texas accent'. I have been accused of having a southwestern drawl..I reckon that I do and it is noticable if you are not from the southwest

spookyrach said...

This is dead on true, Pattie. I think they did a good job on accents in the Friday Night Lights movie, but I haven't seen the TV show.

Joared, you made me laugh! I remember people saying that around my house, too.