Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 19, 2024

Stephen loves making fun of people especially when they tell him not to…

Similar maps have been around for a while of course. Google, for example, ‘the world according to Reagan’.

What kind of accent does a talking rat have?

“People with funny accents” should include Texas, Georgia, Mississippi . . .

I never memorized state capitals because I stick to the important stuff.

I’m proud to come from the only country where people talk normally.

Not very inclusive is he?! Isolationist!

Rat, a great deal of almost everything you eat, wear, and use comes from those other countries these days!

Rat knows where the USA is. Many Americans don’t.

My takeaway is that Antarctica is the land of the funny accents, and everyone with an accent migrated from Antarctica!

Rat has spoken: Hawaii and Alaska are not part of the US

Actually, all accents outside of Western Canada are funny.

Hey, I’m not joking- the “flat Canadian accent” is the most sought-after speech for broadcast and has been influencing all other English speakers for so many years that all other accents are fading away. Think about it: many, many Hollywood actors are Canadian. Many news anchors and TV personalities also speak the same way. Even Queen Elizabeth’s accent was fading away, as you can hear when you compare her early speeches to the most recent.

Flat Canadian is recognised as the most widely understood English accent.

Well, I know many Americans who aren’t from Minnesota who talk mighty funny then, don’cha know.

I grew up in Brooklyn and still have a lot of my Brooklynese. Even my daughter jokes about the way I say some things. I like to try and guess where folks come from by their accents. I had an adjunct professor and I recognized her upper midwest accent right away. I told her by the end of the first class I’d tell her where she was from. After class I told her I thought she was from the UP (upper peninsula) of Michigan and I was right. I think our different accents are great.

An Australian friend of mine has a t-shirt with a world map showing the countries “upside down”: Oceania etc at the top, N America etc at the bottom. It says “Oh yeah?”Basically the message is that a round planet hung in space can be seen from many perspectives.

At least he found his home country. There are many in the US that can’t even do that.

Explains a lot. Just too bad that the US empire forces seem to know geography. I mean, just imagine if they mistook Canada for Iran.

If Rat’s U.S. arrow is pointing to Mississippi and Alabama, I’d have to say he’s not wrong. The people who live in that region do have an accent that some might think is funny.

Rat doesn’t know anything at all.

In Noo Yawk, we don’ tawk funny.

That is the extent of many Americans’ knowledge of the subject.

Has Rat been to the southern US? Or Boston? ;-)

Don’t forget that the Mercator projection makes Africa look much smaller than its actual size.

‘Taint no one don’t have a dialect!

Rat’s a ’Murican all right!

Funny accents? Rat, have you ever been to Boston, Brooklyn, New Orleans, and many places in the Deep South?

I love seeing those “man on the street” interviews where the guy will ask some young person a really simple question like “where is the US Capitol” and they have no clue.

He missed a few.

I’m surprised it’s not “People who don’t speak English”.

Didn’t even label Alaska as part of the U.S. Bruh.

“Nation’s of the World”, “Wakko’s America” and “Yakko’s Universe Song” come to mind. All these songs written by Randy Rogel for Animaniacs. Look them up on YouTube.

Rat has obviously never been outside of whatever part of the country this comic is set in.

This map was used for broadcasting the Olympics.

A Jeopardy champ in the Cliff Claven mold.

U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

Even more succinctly, “Us” and “Them”.

Where I grew up, our accents were so obvious, even we knew it.

PLEASE don’t go political.

He put Alaska as having a funny accent. We don’t, y’all in Conus sound funny to us.

Consider the possible interpretations of “USA” in other places. Lots of interesting possibilities!

I was going to make a political comment… but it’s really not necessary

Yay! Rat’s map includes New Zealand (often left off maps) but sadly forgets Iceland and Greenland.

Englishburg, Germanville, etc.

So many people are ignorant about geography. I don’t just mean countries all around the world, but even places in the US. Pick a state, any state and then ask someone where the capital is. We have a La-Z-Boy leather recliner that was under warranty and I needed the footrest repaired. The service rep told me I’d have to take to Salt Lake City. Why there instead of Las Vegas (both had repair centers)? She said SLC was closer to where I live. (Near St George UT) Umm – no, it’s not.

SLC is about 5 hours north and LV is two hours south. She kept saying SLC was because it’s in Utah and LV is in Nevada. I argued with her. I told her that SLC was at the top of the state and I lived at the bottom of the state. I even faxed a map to her. She was resolute in her opinion. Finally, she asked if I would accept a check for $600 and relieve La-Z-Boy of any future warranty issues.I said yes, took the chair to a local upholstery/furniture repair place, paid them$75 and got it fixed. That was about 10 yrs ago and no other issues since then.

Sadly, true…most Americans.

You’re not from around here are you … to New Yorkers, Texans, South of the Mason-Dixon Liners.

He forgot Alaska. And Hawaii.

In those countries, Rat, YOU have the funny accent!

Them and us. Same as it ever was.

England is the one that invented English. So they have a right to say we’re (the US) the ones that talk funny.

There’s a metaphor for current events going on there, but for the life of me I can’t say what…

we have funny accents too

Although I read and write in the English language daily, I rarely speak it anymore. On the rare occasions when I have, I recently discovered I have developed a Spanish accent – not the phony movie stereotype, but more of the cadence and inflection of a Spanish speaker fluent in English.

There are a lot of ‘funny accents’ in the US. At one point in my career I had to translate between co-workers from California and New England, and none of them could speak proper Southern!

I’m from Philly, but moved away after high school. I ended up spending several years in Wisconsin. One time, on a visit to my parents, my mother remarked that the way I pronounced certain vowels sounded “funny” to her. I can’t remember which ones they were, but no doubt had been modified by the time I had lived in the Midwest.

Apparently Rat has never been to Boston

Americans are like Dark Age peasants. We don’t care about elsewhere. It full of strangers and monsters.

At least Rat acknowledges there are other places in the world. In the comments here on gocomics·com it seems many have a hard time remembering even there are Canadians and Mexicans.

I’m pretty sure Rat knows there are 2 types of nations (for the most part) – those on the Metric System, and those that have walked on the Moon. :-)

Not all the other countries have names. This country (USA) doesn’t even have a name – just a description.

I learned geography by looking at the maps on the wall in grade school while the teacher explained stuff to the kids who didn’t get it the the first or second time.

In Rat’s defense, most countries (large enough) have several different accents and idioms within their own languages.

Those other places have the same maps.