Accents are truly fascinating. Put simply, they are how a person sounds when they talk. From England to America and all over the world, the way people speak in their native tongue can vary drastically. What are the influences? When do accents begin to take hold? Can you lose or gain an accent? Learn about all this and more in today's decidedly interesting episode.
AI Summary
# Stuff You Should Know: Accents
Josh and Chuck dive deep into the fascinating world of accents, exploring how we develop them from infancy and why they're so incredibly hard to change once they're formed. They unpack the difference between accents and dialects, trace how British colonization created wildly different English accents around the world, and discuss why a thick Southern accent or Boston accent can actually affect how people perceive your intelligence—whether that's fair or not. Along the way, they share personal stories about learning foreign languages, bad Hollywood accents, and how something as simple as listening to the BBC can literally reshape how people speak.
American Beauty
1999
2h 2m
★ 8.0
"American beauty. He was, okay, no, no qualms here with American beauty. — Chuck mentions American Beauty as an early Kevin Spacey film he enjoyed."
— Chuck
Baby Driver
2017
R
1h 53m
★ 7.4
"I love Baby Driver and I liked him in it. — Josh discusses enjoying Baby Driver and Kevin Spacey's performance in it."
— Josh
Capote
2005
R
1h 54m
★ 7.0
"Philip Seymour Hoffman doing Capote apparently is dead on. — Josh references Philip Seymour Hoffman's acclaimed accent work in Capote."
— Josh
"He in the season of Fargo, he was great and I loved it, but he just has such a hard time. — Chuck discusses Ewan McGregor's accent challenges in the Fargo TV series."
— Chuck
House of Cards
2013
TV-MA
★ 8.0
"That's why I couldn't watch House of Cards, because Kevin Spacey. — Chuck mentions avoiding the show due to Kevin Spacey's poor Southern accent."
— Chuck
Inglourious Basterds
2009
2h 33m
★ 8.2
"Inglourious Bastards is doing it right because there's like whole scenes that are spoken in German. — Josh praises Inglourious Basterds for using authentic German dialogue rather than English accents."
— Josh
Pay It Forward
2000
2h 2m
★ 7.4
"I think Pay It Forward really killed it for me. — Chuck mentions Pay It Forward as a film that turned him off from Kevin Spacey."
— Chuck
Star Wars
1977
2h 1m
★ 8.2
"Even in that first Star Wars movie, Carrie Fisher sort of vacillated between English accent and regular American. — Josh discusses Carrie Fisher's accent inconsistency in the original Star Wars film."
— Josh
The Limey
1999
R
1h 29m
★ 6.5
"I wish they all talked like Terrence Stamp from The Limey. — Chuck expresses appreciation for Terrence Stamp's cockney accent in The Limey."
— Chuck
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