Why does America continue to have a false perception of British people?

For example in the American media - British people are portrayed as having either an RP accent or a cockney accent. Sometime British people who have a different accent are paid to adopt these accents. Also, why are the bad guys in most films British.Why does America continue to have a false perception of British people?
You'd think America would have a great relationship with Britain, and I think it mostly does.





Movies have to establish characters FAST and stereotypes are usually used to this end. Some stereotypes are positive, some not.





Many American infomercials use an announcer with a British accent. And many of the movies about ancient rome put Brits in the role of Romans and Americans in the role of slaves, like in Sparticus.





Brits get a lot of American TV but America doesn't see much British TV, and that may be one reason americans are slow to develop a more balanced image.





I don't think it means much, most folks are decent enough and won't hang on negative stereotypes.





Anyway, I hope you'll be patient with America. Bush can't last forever.Why does America continue to have a false perception of British people?
Get out of Ireland you limey scum.
Because Americans are not well travelled, make the movies and are very insular!





They are also great people!
Funnily enough, the American media rarely deals with concerns outside of America.





Where European media would focus on world events, American would focus on American issues, such as Iraq, and even then only the American soldiers, despite the British fighting alongside them








So I assume the media likes to portray all other nations with the stereotypes people feel at home with. I'm Irish, and I know that any Irish portrayed in films usually have accents from Cork, or Northern Ireland.





Rarely are they Dublin middle class accents








It's all to do with stereotypes!
The British have wit, charm and sophistication.


The Americans have burgers, obesity and very ugly motor cars.





It's not just that the British make the best bad guys... the world's favourite screen hero is British too..... 007.





We're the best at everything we choose to do, on screen and off.





It would take too long to explain anything of worth to an American, not least one of their reporters, so why waste breath? It would be like asking a monkey to point at India on a map. Not of benefit for either party, nor revealing of anything we didn't already know.
because their idiots!!!
I've found that a lot of the British villains in television are portrayed as very intelligent, lethally so. Maybe it's not that much of an insult as you think it is.





But yeah, a lot of people are used to the stereotypical accents so it's a supply and demand sort of thing, I suppose. It's unfortunate. I like different accents.
I think you meant ';english'; not British.
Because they are thick as poop.
In movies, the reason British people are bad guys is that they have an aire of confidence and pinach茅 - and a voice that usually commands - is commanding. When Americans hear a Brit speak, they listen!





I love Alan Rickman as the bad guy in Die Hard, and in Robin Hood - but, you put him in the place of the broken-hearted, rejected love in Sense and Sensibility - and he becomes part of the scenery.





I have met many Brits in business, and they're nothing like the characters in the movie.





The only British actor I've seen that I like as both a villain and as a good guy is Jason Isaacs. He is the coolest British actor around right now - oh yeah - Hugh Jackman is also an awesome actor, and he played a hero in one of America's biggest selling blockbuster franchises (X Men), and ';Curly'; in Oklahoma!
First of all, you need to expand the scope of your movie watching as the 'bad guys' in only SOME films are British - this number would undoubtedly increase in England, however, where there are quite a few more British people to choose from. Secondly, the accents are not limited to RP and Cockney - they are much more diversified than that to those that can tell the difference. We Americans don't spend a lot of time in England (per capita) and, therefore, don't hear enough varieties of English accents to be able to distinguish them. I can distinguish more different English dialects than I can German or Russian ones (because I watch the BBC), but I still can't distinguish that many. I don't know because I'm not subjected to them often enough to be able to tell the difference. I wish I was, though.
Just to piss you off.
From my experience most Americans think England is London.


They only know London and Scotland nothing in between.





With regard to your question I dont think its as bad as it was.


With more tv progs going over and stuff.