Talk the talk? Funny.

Everyone assumes that they way that they talk is "normal"; that other people in other nations have "accents".  It's basically impossible to say that any one way of speaking is the "normal" or "original" way, but certainly we can all concede that not everyone pronounces words the same.

There are some accents that are more recognizable than others.
There are also some that are WAY funnier than others.
Funny accents include, but are not limited to:
1. Cockney British.  "Allo govna!  Blimey, me arse is sore!"
2. Backwoods American.  To be accompanied with banjo twangs.  "Y'all want me ta cook up some squirrel??"
3. Asian Grandma.  "You too skinny!  Eat!  Eeeeeaaaaatttt!  Why you spend money???"
4. Any accent Bob does ever.  They usually turn into a sort of Japanese-Mario hybrid.  If you haven't watched "I Love You Man", you really should.  It's really, really, really damn funny.  And if you have seen it, and you don't think it's funny, we probably should never meet, because you'll hate everything I say at all times.  In "I Love You Man" there is a scene where the main character is trying to do a Jamaican accent.  "Slappin' the bass!  Yeah man!".  It's hilarious.  His (the guy in the movie) accents always turn into weird Leprechaun.  Bob- Japanese Mario.  No matter what he was trying to do.

I feel like- and I am embarrassed to admit this- that I am the kind of person who goes to another country and immediately adopts the local way of speaking.  I think I even do this when speaking with someone with an accent.  There was an episode of "Fresh Prince" where the dad has British colleagues, and he keeps picking up their accent and saying doofus stuff like "Pip pip cheerio" and whatnot.  This episode was particularly hilarious because Geoffrey, their butler, was British, and spoke in a British accent...but Phillip managed to not pick up that accent....  Anyway, I hope that I don't do that, but I probably do.

I am also not very good at producing accents.  Even though I laugh at Bob's total inability to do an accurate accent, I suffer from the same problem.  Everything degenerates to Asian Grandma Mario.  Or something like that.

 

There are also ways of speaking from different eras.  I am enamored with the 1920's newsroom "accent". 
"Listen, Charlie, if ya don't get that dame on the up and up, I'm gonna ring your head like a Chinese gong, capiche?"
"Well it's two bits on the dollar for ya, see, and no funny business."

There already exists "International Talk Like A Pirate Day".  This is a funny concept to me, and generally easily executed for the average person.  Most people can do pirate, even if their pirates sound more like Mario than others.
I propose that we introduce more accented days.  Or, at least, people accent their voices to fit the theme of the day.
After all, we dress up...we eat themed food...we listen to themed music...let's go one step further and get right into character.

Moral of this story: I'm going to have to research some events that call for Japanese and Asian Grandma Marios.