[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Yes, the Goblin thing is probably not what you'd expect after reading The Hobbit, though it's perfectly in tune with British humour. Which is what I'm arguing - that's not specifically American humour so to use that argument against it is a straw man

Well firstly, of course if it came down to that, one could say that there isn't really anything like a "British" or "American" humour, really. At least I, being a very strong opponent of all generalisations, would argue that. This kind of jokes like falling goblin is present everywhere and it is just a certain kind of humour. However, why I think these generalisations can be used (when we aren't making them a set fact) is that the major, mainstream or most famous movies (since we are speaking about movies and TV) coming from these countries, at least lately, tend to have this particular type of humour in them more than elsewhere. Or: it is more distinct in comparison to others. That's not to say you can't have an "American" joke in a British movie or vice versa, and anyway I am not claiming to be an expert on the British humour (I can't be), but there are some prevailing things that seem to be a British "speciality", if you wish. Simply put, when you are observing from the outside, you say: "Well this is the kind of humour others really don't have so much".

But this is all a sort of meta-discussion. The basic point being, and you said that, the Goblin thing is not in tune with the Hobbit. And for me, not even the sled - from what I have seen. But truth be told, we haven't seen very much yet. Heck, it's a three minute trailer (and on top of that, very probably made to contain the scenes aiming at certain kind of audience).

(and I am sick and fed up with the rest of the world assuming all our comedy is twee Richard Curtis stuff when that comprises about 0.001% of it).

Huh, I had to even look up who Richard Curtis is. On wikipedia. (Tells something about me, I know. ) But apart from Mr. Bean, if you are thinking that when somebody says "British humour", I imagine Love Actually or such, then that's certainly wrong. I was never thinking of anything of that sort, for sure.

Well average is what you hear from Fili and Kili. From one line I've no inkling of which of the dozens of northern accents they're trying to do, but it sounds fairly normal to me. As does Ian McKellen, who still retains his accent. And Sean Bean, who failed to disguise his as Boromir. Richard Armitage also retains his normal voice which is generic East Midlands - gently northern sounding, not as rich as say Sean Bean's.

No, it's average accent of something. Since I am an outsider, let me say how I hear it (but of course many outsiders' experiences would tell you differently, based on their expertise in English): Ian McKellen has "normal English". Likewise I think Sean Bean. These Dwarven guys have an accent, however, and that's it.

My personal observation, of course. I think it may show how differently things can be perceived (Even more so if some other foreigner told you something even completely different.) This movie is of course English (American-British-whatever), though being such an international blockbuster as it definitely is aiming to be, there will be certainly many non-native English speakers in the audience, and some may have similar impression to mine. Anyway, I wasn't here to argue that my point was in any way "right", I simply said what I think, and that is that I don't like the accent the way these guys say it.