{"id":8737,"date":"2011-09-22T00:11:56","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T04:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=8737"},"modified":"2012-12-26T20:07:59","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T01:07:59","slug":"how-the-british-recaptured-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/cultural-correspondent\/09\/22\/how-the-british-recaptured-america\/","title":{"rendered":"How The British Recaptured America"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queen of England gave the President of the United States the evil eye.<\/p>\n

President Obama deserved it. He raised his glass over the band\u2019s rendition of \u201cGod Save the Queen\u201d. Her Majesty glared. The Commander In Chief bit down on his lower lip. The band played on. And just like that, the most powerful man on Earth was chastened\u2014the one-time clarion call for Change hushed\u2014by a starchy, octogenarian grandmother. <\/p>\n

Alas, the Queen\u2019s wordless reproach of President Obama was only the latest and all-too-public of reminders: Mother England has grounded the rebellious son.<\/p>\n

\"Barack<\/p>\n

America has suffered her indignities at the hands of England before. Beatlemania. The unfortunate Spice Girls-Weakest Link-Teletubby triumvirate of the late 1990s. But from Piers Morgan to the Royal Wedding to the premiere of X-Factor, the British at last conquered American culture in Fall 2011.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

In the pantheon of Empires, the Romans turned the Mediterranean into their own lake. The sun never set on the British Empire. And America made the world its TV room. Until the British Empire struck back.<\/p>\n

Perhaps American is chastened. Humbled after a rough-and-tumble decade of wars and truculent unemployment. Or maybe we need Mel Gibson back. Because ever since the Aussie actor stopped lobbing spears and musket-balls at the British (1990s) and started spewing diatribes at minorities (2006-Present), the British recaptured America one TV room at a time. They invaded not by sea but reality TV shows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The British already came to a theater near you. Colin Firth and the \u201cKing\u2019s Speech\u201d plundered the Oscars. English shape-shifter Christian Bale scored Best Supporting Actor as the drug-addled n\u2019er-do-well brother in \u201cFighter\u201d. J.K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 hexed box offices all summer, grossing $1.3 billion and soaring.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, America\u2019s chief entertainment exports in 2011 are the Jersey Shore to Italy and the deranged musings of Charlie Sheen. Update: Abercrombie & Fitch requested The Situation no longer don their clothes in a thinly-veiled marketing stunt. Charlie Sheen\u2014ever the Winner\u2014now lives with his mother.<\/p>\n

\"Situation<\/p>\n

Jack Bauer defused bombs, tortured terrorists and foiled the Chinese, but he proved no match for English spirits. The actor was found inebriated, filthy, and shirtless, giggling to himself in a London gutter last April. But Fox coasts on thanks to British franchises. Rupert Murdoch\u2019s daughter convinced the media baron to introduce a London talent show she took a liking to stateside. That talent show became American Idol. Yet the curmudgeonly Simon Crowell outgrew Idol as he debuted X-Factor this Wednesday.<\/p>\n

American networks subsist only off of British imports. Twenty three million Americans tuned in for the Royal Wedding coverage this May. NBC limps along off of the American adaptation of Ricky Gervais\u2019 The Office. MTV\u2019s most controversial show was not The Jersey Shore but Skins. The adaptation of the British series stunned American audience with borderline teenage pornography. Larry King endured seven wives and the Jurassic Period before finally relinquishing the CNN baton to Piers Morgan. HBO airs two Ricky Gervais shows (Extras, The Ricky Gervais Show) along with his Out Of England comedy special.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Ricky Gervais is the field general. The portly front man for a new wave of cheeky British comedians pummeling American double-standards one punch-line at a time. Gervais ruthlessly skewers Red State ignorance to Scientology to, most memorably, the Golden Globes:<\/p>\n