This Sunday, see the Dandy Fish take on the Prancy Horsies!

February 21, 2013 4:35 AM

David Rappoccio has redesigned all the NFL logos to be British.
posted by JDHarper (72 comments total)

Has our once-great empire been reduced to a mere pipe and monocle in the world's eye? Shame on you, America, and shame on your stars-and-stripes top hat.
posted by pipeski at 4:45 AM on February 21, 2013 [8 favorites]

Those are all pretty much hilarious.

David Rappoccio previously.
posted by Drinky Die at 4:51 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

What a smashingly delightful post. I dare say my guffaws were heard for a many mile
posted by littlesq at 4:56 AM on February 21, 2013

Has our once-great empire been reduced to a mere pipe and monocle in the world's eye?

You forgot the moustache!
posted by indubitable at 5:01 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

And high above the stadium, the Goodyear Colonel Blimp.
posted by pracowity at 5:17 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

All in for the Swoopy Little Blighters! What ho!
posted by fight or flight at 5:19 AM on February 21, 2013

Once again, an Englishman views a creation by an american to make something 'British' and I am left baffled. Have the people that do these things even seen anything of my country other than Mary Poppins? Do they know that most of the language and 'quirky things' that they think of as British largely either don't exist or are about 100 years out of fashion?

It's like if I did something 'typically american' and it centred on nothing newer than prohibition. Because the yanks don't have alcohol! How amusing! They all ride horses in Americaland you know! It's all dusty everywhere too, with these little bouncy plant things everywhere.

Honestly, looking at this, I see almost nothing that matches the 'I made these British' claim. This happens often, too, but people still identify it as 'British' and yet everyone outside the US are all kinds of confused - just as much as the Jeeves and Wooster (also 100 years out of date) replies here.
posted by Brockles at 5:25 AM on February 21, 2013 [29 favorites]

I do not follow football, but I might root for the Beaky Bastards. I might even reconsider my disdain for Those in Her Majesty's Service, if only to hear the announcers try to get that out repeatedly.

However, surely the Uncouth Norsemen should be wearing a lower-class hat?

It's like if I did something 'typically american' and it centred on nothing newer than prohibition. Because the yanks don't have alcohol! How amusing! They all ride horses in Americaland you know! It's all dusty everywhere too, with these little bouncy plant things everywhere.

To be fair, my younger brother has an impressive scar on his chest, and, while staying in youth hostels in the UK, he met quite a number of people who could not believe that he had not sustained his injury in any way other than random urban violence. So that seems to be a persistent view of the US from the UK, although not entirely undeserved.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:30 AM on February 21, 2013

I was all meh until the Stripey Wotsits, and now I cannot stop giggling.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:33 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Manning Face logos are this guy's real masterpiece.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:38 AM on February 21, 2013 [4 favorites]

Some of these are amusing, but the imagination and/or repertoire of 'British' motifs did flag a bit.

By 'British' of course we mean 'English' and by 'English' we mean Woosterlandic.
posted by Segundus at 5:51 AM on February 21, 2013

> It's like if I did something 'typically american' and it centred on nothing newer than prohibition. Because the yanks don't have alcohol! How amusing! They all ride horses in Americaland you know! It's all dusty everywhere too, with these little bouncy plant things everywhere.

I know you're sniping, but you should actually do this.
posted by ardgedee at 6:07 AM on February 21, 2013 [9 favorites]

Once again, an Englishman views a creation by an american to make something 'British' and I am left baffled. Have the people that do these things even seen anything of my country other than Mary Poppins? Do they know that most of the language and 'quirky things' that they think of as British largely either don't exist or are about 100 years out of fashion?

I was thinking the same thing, too, and then I noticed that literally every single one of them has a monocle and handlebar moustache, and the joke sank in. It's a parody of the exact mindset you're talking about.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 6:07 AM on February 21, 2013 [8 favorites]

I can safely say that every time I've been in England, there have not been as many monocles as I wanted.
posted by Kitteh at 6:09 AM on February 21, 2013

Clicked the link expecting club crests, got monocles all the way down. Oh well.
posted by Spatch at 6:16 AM on February 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

Now in Buffalo--- Williamson Williamchester Williams III
posted by travertina at 6:21 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I was expecting something more Britpop which, in my defense (defence), is only 15 or 20 years out of date.
posted by JoanArkham at 6:23 AM on February 21, 2013

I was hoping to see some reworking of the Flying Elvis logo, but he did the old Crouching Pirate one instead.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:45 AM on February 21, 2013

I don't really care about pro sports, but after finding the local team on there, I could see myself supporting the Delightful Chums We Had A Tendancy To Oppress.

(And like Genjiand Proust, I'd love to giggle at the announcers trying to get the whole mouthfull out in hurry!)
posted by easily confused at 7:00 AM on February 21, 2013

I'm thinking he must be a Browns fan considering the extra content at the end. As a fellow fan of "The Loo", I share his sentiments.
posted by charred husk at 7:06 AM on February 21, 2013

One Trick Monocle. That was disappointing bereft of imagination and insight into the habits and customs of those on the British isles.

I can't see a lot monocles here:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=UK+football+logos
posted by mary8nne at 7:40 AM on February 21, 2013

Wow, some people in here have no sense of humor.

I'm sorry, humour.
posted by Old Man McKay at 7:45 AM on February 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

Design, comedy, concept, imagination, irony, typography, copy, website, page header... all sadly lacking – piss-poor.
posted by niceness at 7:49 AM on February 21, 2013

Some funny ones, but penalty for overuse of monocles.
Err, what Mary8nne said.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:53 AM on February 21, 2013

I was expecting 100% more giant corporate logos and 100% less mustaches.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:53 AM on February 21, 2013

It would actually be really interesting to see a serious attempt at NFL logos redone in the style of EPL club crests, the same way this designer did soccer kits for MLB teams.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:57 AM on February 21, 2013 [4 favorites]

Fifthended - being British isn't just wearing a monocle and being gay although that's good on Saturdays. I've always wondered these bizarre portrayals of the UK and France arre revenge for some ancient slight.
posted by forgetful snow at 7:58 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

But what would that greatest of Englishmen and acknowledged arbiter of taste, Paul Calf, say? Would involve a bag, I fear.
posted by Abiezer at 8:01 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Assuming this guy intended to troll every English person who finds his website, I give it a 10/10. Especially since he's obviously aware of the best way to piss off English people--to wit: assume that English people do nothing but stroll around Russell Square wearing a tophat and a monocle whilst screaming in shock at the chimney sweep / street urchin / humpback who has magically sprung out of the gutter in front of them.
posted by anewnadir at 8:10 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's like if I did something 'typically american' and it centred on nothing newer than prohibition. Because the yanks don't have alcohol! How amusing! They all ride horses in Americaland you know! It's all dusty everywhere too, with these little bouncy plant things everywhere.

Hi! I'm exactly that thing you just said! You may remember me from every time a Brit pretended to be American on the BBC between 1969 and 2000.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:10 AM on February 21, 2013 [7 favorites]

I think the UK comic-book stereotype of an American has evolved over the years. I remember from reading my father's Radio Fun annuals that in those days an American was an obese man who wore a check waistcoat with a non-matching loud check suit, wore glasses and had a crew cut. He smoked a cigar and was generally amiable but his only purpose in life was to talk monotonously about how much bigger everything was at home until amusingly controverted in the final panel by the locals' cunning japery.

I think by the time I was reading the Dandy the crew cut, suit and glasses were gone, replaced by shorts and what we understood to be a baseball cap, not then a common item of dress over here; and instead of a cigar he had a camera. But the schtick was the same.
posted by Segundus at 8:28 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

You may remember me from every time a Brit pretended to be American on the BBC between 1969 and 2000.

No, they were generally just fat and loud, wearing brightly checked shirts and often wearing hats. Flashing money around and demanding most of the attention in any given situation (plus, as mentioned above, commenting on how small and 'not as good' everything was compared to home), much to the chagrin of their long suffering and mousey wife.

But, you know, we got over that 20 or more years ago.
posted by Brockles at 8:30 AM on February 21, 2013

No, they were generally just fat and loud, wearing brightly checked shirts and often wearing hats. Flashing money around and demanding most of the attention in any given situation (plus, as mentioned above, commenting on how small and 'not as good' everything was compared to home), much to the chagrin of their long suffering and mousey wife.

But, you know, we got over that 20 or more years ago.

Really? Outnumbered did it (exactly, hitting every point you brought up) three years ago.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:03 AM on February 21, 2013

At least that's an actual stereotype - this monocle business is just weird
posted by forgetful snow at 9:05 AM on February 21, 2013

Honestly, looking at this, I see almost nothing that matches the 'I made these British' claim. This happens often, too, but people still identify it as 'British' and yet everyone outside the US are all kinds of confused - just as much as the Jeeves and Wooster (also 100 years out of date) replies here.

I was expecting to have this reaction - it's Pavlovian, or as we're being 'British', maybe that should be Black Forestian? - but I was left wondering if the author knows what 'buggery' is. Maybe he does, and NFL is a lot more welcoming of Teh Gayz than the Premier League is.
posted by mippy at 9:07 AM on February 21, 2013

Actually, 'Buggery Bandits' kind of means the same as 'arse bandits'. So maybe it's a META JOKE.


To be fair, my younger brother has an impressive scar on his chest, and, while staying in youth hostels in the UK, he met quite a number of people who could not believe that he had not sustained his injury in any way other than random urban violence. So that seems to be a persistent view of the US from the UK, although not entirely undeserved.

Me, aged 20: 'I'd really like to go to New York one day.'
Mum: 'Don't go to AMERICA! They have GUNS!'
Me: 'Mum! I live in Manchester. They have guns here too, you know.'
Mum: 'Yes, but they're not supposed to have them.

Mind you, my mother is still convinced that you can live extremely well as a tourist in Russia through selling your jeans to people.
posted by mippy at 9:11 AM on February 21, 2013 [8 favorites]

At least that's an actual stereotype - this monocle business is just weird

True enough; and the monocle thing isn't even a stereotype of the British, but of rich Americans. See Mr. Peanut, the Monopoly guy, the Penguin, etc.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:12 AM on February 21, 2013

Just a thought, but it's possible that his intent with these logos was not, in fact, to imagine what a realistic, contemporary British sports club would actually design for the logo of an American football team. It just might be that he was having fun with playing around with exaggerated and over the top stereotypes. You know, just as Monty Python's writers didn't actually believe that the entire academic staff of a typical Australian university would all have "Bruce" for a first name or that it would run a sheep dip as well as teaching logical positivism.
posted by yoink at 9:19 AM on February 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

Wow, some people in here have no sense of humor.

I'm sorry, humour.

David Rappoccio chief among them. If you figure telling the same joke 32 times in a row is the very definition of sly wit, you might also want to check the mirror.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:22 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you figure telling the same joke 32 times in a row is the very definition of sly wit, you might also want to check the mirror.

But the joke isn't "What British stuff is he going to put in this logo?" it's "How's he going to cram a stupid monocle and mustache into this logo?". Especially for the logos without humans or faces at all, it's pretty funny. Like the Manningface logos, he is specifically putting the same thing into all the logos. I guess maybe if you are not already familiar with the logos it loses something?
posted by Rock Steady at 9:30 AM on February 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

Also, the dolphin is smoking a pipe through its blowhole. That's comedy gold, right there.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:32 AM on February 21, 2013

"You know, just as Monty Python's writers didn't actually believe that the entire academic staff of a typical Australian university would all have "Bruce" for a first name or that it would run a sheep dip as well as teaching logical positivism."

Monty Python is forty years old now, we've moved on a little bit when it comes to mocking our former colonies, so that stereotype would just seem weird and dated in a modern skit rather than funny. The Aussie stereotypes we have here now are more informed by decades of watching Neighbours and Home and Away at teatime. That university would probably be staffed with tanned attractive people with slightly Greek or South Asian names all, like, talking like this? And investigating the Bunyip? Before going surfing? And then backpacking to London to work in a bar?
posted by mippy at 9:35 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Monty Python is forty years old now, we've moved on a little bit when it comes to mocking our former colonies...That university would probably be staffed with tanned attractive people with slightly Greek or South Asian names all, like, talking like this? And investigating the Bunyip? Before going surfing? And then backpacking to London to work in a bar?

Yeah, that's probably true. And just imagine how completely you'd think someone was missing the point if they saw a skit based on that stereotype and responded by fuming about how Neighbours wasn't actually a documentary and ordinary Australian life ISN'T ACTUALLY LIKE THAT!
posted by yoink at 9:39 AM on February 21, 2013

Kirth Gerson: "I was hoping to see some reworking of the Flying Elvis logo, but he did the old Crouching Pirate one instead."

Please. He's called Pat Patriot.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:39 AM on February 21, 2013

yoink - I live in London, I've met a number of Australians - I lived in Acton for a while which is virtually an Antipodean micronation, and I've looked at some shitty, shitty houseshares shared by 13 Kiwis who were all over for short-term work so they could spend a lot of time travelling - so I'd be fine with them objecting to that if they wanted to. You have to be really, really good to take a stereotype and make it funny rather than just boring or lame. The Fast Show could do it; Little Britain largely couldn't.

The funniest mocking of Australian culture has been done by their own - the OG Kath and Kim (which was even funnier if you'd ever seen Sylvania Waters) and Summer Heights High - my ex-colleague said that the girls at her school were exactly like Jam'ie.
posted by mippy at 9:45 AM on February 21, 2013

Really? Outnumbered did it (exactly, hitting every point you brought up) three years ago.

I left 6 years ago, so I had no idea about that. Besides, Hugh Dennis isn't somebody I'd associate with the cutting edge of anything, let alone comedy progression of stereotypes. He hasn't ever really been funny, just funny looking and annoying.

At least that's an actual stereotype - this monocle business is just weird

It's more this point that gets to the crux - it is so common that we see 'this is what it is like to be British' comedy things that it is starting to seem bizarre. When I came over to the States and Canada even the good natured jokes were all "pip pip! What ho! Guv'nor!" and all sorts of random bizarre noises (which is one thing) but they seemed to think I'd recognise it as how we actually talk. They thought I just didn't realise it was funny, whereas I was staring at them thinking "What the fuck are those noises supposed to be, and how do they relate to me?". This stuff is a continuation of it (I agree not necessarily a perfect example of it) and it is, in the fullest sense of the word, baffling to me. I know some people are saying "Oh, it's only an old stereotype" but it just isn't. It's nonsensical. It's as relevant as me saying "Aha! I'm wearing a Penguin on my head and barking like a cabbage because I'm supposed to be american see? ". It just is not a stereotype, it's a random selection of noises and images. If it was a valid stereotype I'd probably find it funny - I have no problem with laughing at myself or my culture. Make a joke about Colonialism - no problem. Stiff upper lip? No problem. This other stuff...... er. What?

The stereotypical american character (loud, obnoxious tourist) that was used is at least relatively current - maybe 1970's or so at the latest before US tourists became self aware?* But the stuff that people say when they put on their fake (and terrible) English accents just ... doesn't make any sense. I get that there is an outside chance that this guy is mocking this same issue, but I'd bet most of his audience won't realise that. "Oh, a monocle! Because it's British, see?" Just makes 'sense' to too many people, bizarrely. Trying so hard to cram the pipe and monocle into each one shows a certain doggedness that is to be admired, though.

* In the same way that UK tourists did with the 'football hooligan in the England shirt' bad press. For a long time, you just would NOT see an Englishman wearing a nationally identifiable piece of clothing and the people that did in England were almost certainly tourists from somewhere else (usually Japan initially). I'd love to wear an England Rugby shirt every now and then, but the stigma is still strong enough that I'd feel weird if I wasn't actually watching a game at the time. Canadian people wear nationally identifiable stuff all the time and its great. I wish I could forget the connotations that England shirts in bars in Spain decades ago raised.
posted by Brockles at 9:51 AM on February 21, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'm gonna draw all the Premier League mascots as American! They're going to be overweight, gunt-toting, wearing a baseball cap and oppressing black people! Coz that will be right funny! And nobody can say it's not because it's satire or summats!
posted by Jehan at 9:58 AM on February 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

The funniest mocking of Australian culture has been done by their own - the OG Kath and Kim (which was even funnier if you'd ever seen Sylvania Waters) and Summer Heights High - my ex-colleague said that the girls at her school were exactly like Jam'ie.

But you're presuming that what we're talking about here is "mocking" somebody's culture. And I think that may be the fundamental mistake that is getting so many people's backs up. Whatever this guy is doing, he's not "mocking" Britain. He's under no illusions, at all, that this is what the British are "really" like. The point of the exercise is not to say "ha ha ha, those silly British, just look at the lame way they would make sports logos!" The point is simply comic defamiliarization--take these familiar images and tweak them by using these silly, artificial "British" stereotypes.

Comparing this to something like Kath and Kim or Summer Heights High (both of which I have, as it happens, seen substantial chunks of) seems to me to be a real category error. Those are social commentary, we're meant to read them as having some kernel of genuine social observation at the heart of even their most exaggerated comic portraits. But a joke like the one linked in the FPP (or like Monty Python's Australian philosophers sketch) is not.
posted by yoink at 10:09 AM on February 21, 2013

This stuff is a continuation of it (I agree not necessarily a perfect example of it) and it is, in the fullest sense of the word, baffling to me. I know some people are saying "Oh, it's only an old stereotype" but it just isn't. It's nonsensical. It's as relevant as me saying "Aha! I'm wearing a Penguin on my head and barking like a cabbage because I'm supposed to be american see? ". It just is not a stereotype, it's a random selection of noises and images.

All you're saying is that it's not a set of stereotypes that British people recognize as comically exaggerated stereotypes of Britishness. But he's not writing for a British audience, is he? I mean, it's like shouting at a French person "cocks don't go Ki-ri-ki-ri-ki-ri, they go Cockadoodledoo, you moron!" Or like US Southerners getting all bent out of shape when they hear non-US people refer to Americans generally as "Yanks" or "Yankees." Well, sorry--but in most non-US English "Yank" means "American"--and that's just the way it goes. Similarly, in most countries outside the US all that Bertie Woosterism ("Pip pip, old chap" etc.) signifies "British" rather than specifically "upper class twit of a certain era." But it's a matter of sheer and almost arbitrary convention. No one actually thinks that all British people say that, just as no one thinks that every man in France wears a beret and a horizontally striped pullover. They're just available conventional markers that can be employed as a kind of short hand.
posted by yoink at 10:18 AM on February 21, 2013

As a British chap myself, it's pretty simple to resolve the aforementioned weird cognitive dissonance from the cultural whathoery. These aren't British-themed logos, they're steampunk.

(...I've resolved nothing!)
posted by comealongpole at 10:20 AM on February 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

Actually, the next logical step would be the NFL logos redone as Frenchmen, with a beret and a horizontally striped pullover in every one. And a baguette.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:30 AM on February 21, 2013 [4 favorites]

Comme ca: Les Patriotes d'Angleterre Nouveau. With a beret and a striped pullover, holding a baguette.

Les Hommes Vache. With a beret and a stiped pullover. On a bicycle.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:34 AM on February 21, 2013

Keep in mind that the only UK tv that makes it to the US is Masterpiece Theatre and Downton Abbey. As far as most Americans know that's how contemporary Britons look and speak.
posted by fshgrl at 10:37 AM on February 21, 2013

Not true. They also look and speak like Graham Norton.
posted by Curious Artificer at 10:41 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Les Cardinaux (add striped pullover and baguette)
posted by Rock Steady at 10:42 AM on February 21, 2013

I wanted to check something about the old 49'ers logo, and instead found these great images of teams from the All American Football Conference, which included the Chicago Rockets and the L.A. Dons (think Don Ortega, or Don Nieto, dating from the Rancho period of Southern California). Check 'em out.

A Don.
49ers vs. Dons.
Another 49ers vs. Dons.
The best one: Chicago Rockets vs. L.A. Dons.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:52 AM on February 21, 2013 [2 favorites]

fshgrl: "Keep in mind that the only UK tv that makes it to the US is Masterpiece Theatre and Downton Abbey. As far as most Americans know that's how contemporary Britons look and speak.
"

To test out this claim, we're bringing out our tame racing driver.
posted by boo_radley at 10:55 AM on February 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

Keep in mind that the only UK tv that makes it to the US is Masterpiece Theatre and Downton Abbey. As far as most Americans know that's how contemporary Britons look and speak.

It's like when watching Friends you learn how all US folk are whiny infantile 30-somethings leading meaningless and pathetic lives and who can't tell jokes more sophisticated than sarcasm.
posted by Jehan at 10:56 AM on February 21, 2013

benito.strauss: A Don.

That first LA Dons logo has the Manningface built in!
posted by Rock Steady at 10:58 AM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's like when watching Friends you learn how all US folk are whiny infantile 30-somethings leading meaningless and pathetic lives and who can't tell jokes more sophisticated than sarcasm.

I think a lot of Brits think most Americans live either in permanent sunshine like in, I dunno, LA Law, in a gritty city setting with five locks on the door and where people get mugged for their trainers like in Cagney and Lacey (my mum's belief that America is DANGEROUS is based on this I think) or all in massive suburban houses like in Desperate Housewives. There aren't any big Canadian shows here, so to us Canada is just America with seals an' that.

Personally, if the US was like Parks and Rec, I'd move there like a shot, healthcare or not.
posted by mippy at 11:41 AM on February 21, 2013

I've never actually seen LA Law, mind, I've just watched an infomercial about it.
posted by mippy at 11:42 AM on February 21, 2013

mippy: "I've never actually seen LA Law, mind, I've just watched an infomercial about it."

Well that just raises more questions. An informercial? About LA Law?
posted by boo_radley at 12:00 PM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I did a little digging, and it seems the "monocle + handlebar = British" stereotype comes from the hit American play "Our American Cousin" which you may have heard of for other reasons.

But aside from that Ms. Brockles, how did you like the post?
posted by Rock Steady at 12:10 PM on February 21, 2013 [3 favorites]

Well that just raises more questions. An informercial? About LA Law?

Please tell me Harry Hamlin has found regular work after Veronica Mars and that weird reality show. I will contribute some of my American pence to such a venture, posthaste.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:33 PM on February 21, 2013

But the stuff that people say when they put on their fake (and terrible) English accents just ... doesn't make any sense.

But this is the same thing British shows would do when they'd feature an "American" who was somehow the unholy love child of Colonel Sanders and a Brooklynite using cowboy-speak that would be utterly foreign to either of them, or to real cowboys for that matter.

It just is not a stereotype, it's a random selection of noises and images. If it was a valid stereotype I'd probably find it funny - I have no problem with laughing at myself or my culture.

I think you're just underestimating how amazingly stupid American stereotypes of British people can be and still be honestly held.

And more generally how amazingly stupid and inaccurate stereotypes of $ETHNICITY can be in $DISTANT_COUNTRY.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:34 PM on February 21, 2013

FAMOUS MONSTER: "I was thinking the same thing, too, and then I noticed that literally every single one of them has a monocle and handlebar moustache, and the joke sank in. It's a parody of the exact mindset you're talking about."

This reminds of the Olive Garden review thread.

"This person is completely clueless!"
"Are they? Or are they playing a DEEPER game?"
posted by Chrysostom at 1:00 PM on February 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Monocle. Good one. At least it didn't get rote after the third instance. Oh wait, it did. #fail.
posted by nickrussell at 2:10 PM on February 21, 2013

Oh come on, you can't tell me the repurposing of the Chargers lightning bolt to a mustache for the Dazzling Lightybulbs didn't elicite a chuckle. I found this heartily amusing.
posted by Existential Dread at 6:26 PM on February 21, 2013

There are comedians that do jokes concerning blacks folks enjoying fried chicken and watermelon, and then there's the stuff that Chris Rock did.

The difference is that Rock obeys the first rule of comedy : Be funny.

This guy doesn't.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 4:39 AM on February 22, 2013

I think the funny could be upgraded by relabeling the exercise as "Doctor Watson formerly of Her Majesty's NFL"
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:19 AM on February 22, 2013

For anyone still wondering what exactly the joke was supposed to be, Rappoccio did a short interview: "Americans all think British people are classy, and it's a fact that nothing says class like monocles, bowler hats, and bushy mustaches. I was just going to have them all saying "Cheerio" and "'ello, Govn'a" but the joke got old too fast."
posted by Copronymus at 2:48 PM on February 22, 2013

Featured on NFL Live. (Skip to the end if you want, but the rest of the video is pretty amusing too)
posted by Drinky Die at 2:17 PM on February 27, 2013