History Main / JustAStupidAccent

* ''Series/MacGyver'' tended to do this with Russian characters.

* The ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' series uses this a lot, though ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellPandoraTomorrow Pandora Tomorrow]]'' had a lot of NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent instead.
* Done cleverly in the English dubs of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' and ''Portable Ops'', in which Snake is an excellent speaker of Russian. Russian characters speaking in Russian are [[TranslationConvention translated to English]] using an accent [[AccentAdaptation that analogizes to their Russian one]] (Volgin sounds American, Sokolov sounds British, etc), with the exception being Granin, who, when encountered, is drunk. Because his slurred speech is harder for Snake to understand, we hear him talking with a thick Russian accent.

* ''Fanfic/IAmRedacted'': An InUniverse, inverted, and intentionally invoked example with [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Midoriya Izuku]]. While in his hero identity Nimbus, he deliberately speaks with an American accent so the public will [[MistakenForForeigner mistake him as an American]], further distancing him from his SecretIdentity. It works because he wears a fully-concealing helmet and hero suit, which prevents anyone from seeing any of his discerning physical features.

* ''Fanfic/IAmRedacted'': An InUniverse, inverted, and intentionally invoked example with Izuku. While in his hero identity Nimbus, he deliberately speaks with an American accent so the public will [[MistakenForForeigner mistake him as an American]], further distancing him from his SecretIdentity. It works because he wears a fully-concealing helmet and hero suit, which prevents anyone from seeing any of his discerning physical features.

mixed in.

** Of course it's repeatedly lampshaded where even his fellow countrymen can't understand his accent, and most French individuals portrayed in the films speak completely accent-free.

* ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. To [[JustForFun/{{Egregious}} the extreme extent]] that PopCulturalOsmosis from London has somehow seeped all the way to the slums of Mumbai.
** Not entirely though, much of the first part of the movie, when the main characters are kids, has them speaking in subtitled Hindi. This does strangely vanish once they grow up, though.

** The movie has only a few American actors and characters. But it has some French actors, [[FakeNationality playing Italians]], and it seems [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent they don't care]].

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' - Utterly subverted. Background: Creator/JRRTolkien's Middle-Earth has lots of languages spoken by different peoples and nations; in the Third Age, Westron (the "Common Speech") spread as a ''lingua franca'' for trade and politics (and also as mothertongue for some, e.g. the hobbits). In the novels, Westron names and speech are always rendered as English, while other languages may stay original or be rendered English too depending on the situation.) When the live-action films were made, a great deal of time and thought was put into what accents each character should use, because it reflected their background. They * do* speak their own languages from time to time, not just "we're representing someone speaking in Russian by having him speak in English with a heavy fake Russian accent". Because the Hobbits only speak Westron and they are the viewpoint characters, most of the dialogue is in English. The accents they figured out are:
** Gondorians - speak with a Received Pronunciation accent, proper London English, because Westron is a descendant of the language of their Númenórean ancestors (Adûnaic, no longer in use), and thus Gondorian is the "correct" version.
** Rohirrim - Horse barbarians from the North that settled next to Gondor and allied with it, they speak with a Rhotic accent (some think this is an "American" accent, but other English-speaking regions like Cornwall also sound like this). The actual language of the Rohirrim is always represented through Old English in the texts (to convey a lingual familiarity to the hobbits/readers), so their Rhotic accent is a hint that Common Speech really isn't the mother-tongue of Théoden (who is actually mentioned as having a very odd accent in the books, since he grew up speaking Elvish in Gondor, due to his father's political exile, and only learned Rohirric when he returned), Éomer, and Éowyn.
** Elves - you'd think Elves would speak drastically different like in other fantasy stories, but in Tolkien's storyverse the Elves are master-linguists, able to perfectly learn any language. So the hint of this is that they actually speak ''very'' formally and very precisely, sort of like the Gondorians but you can tell they're concentrating on what words they use.
** Hobbits - "Hobbitish" is a regional dialect of Common Speech, which they represent with a West Country English accent. Sam and all of the "standard" Hobbits speak this way. Bilbo and Frodo are book-educated so their accent isn't quite as pronounced. The movie-makers ingeniously decided that Pippin has a Scottish accent because Tookland is hilly like Scotland (and so actor Billy Boyd's Scottish accent fit in with Pippin). Merry sounds like a complete oddball, because Buckland is nothing like the other parts of the Shire.
** Dwarves - Funny story here: by WordOfGod, just as the Rohirrim are Middle-Earth's counterpart to the Anglo-Saxons, Dwarves are the counterpart to the Jews. That is, just like Jews, Dwarves in Middle-Earth are dispossessed of their homeland, and while speaking the language of the land, have their own private language which is nothing like it: Tolkien constructed Dwarvish (or Khuzdul) according to the rules of Semitic, including [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_root triconsonantal roots]]. Their origin story (in ''The Silmarillion'') even echoes the sacrifice of Isaac. So logically, you'd think they should have Yiddish accents or something. However, in the movies, they decided to give Gimli a Scottish Lowlands accent, because it has "an old-sounding feel to it". (This takes after pretty much every fantasy dwarf since Tolkien. Heaven knows where they got it.) However, because Gimli's actor was Welsh, Gimli's accent is somewhere between.

* Averted in ''Irma la Douce'': for once, a comedy (in English) set in Paris where no one tries to put on a frog-eating accent.

* Completely invoked in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', which takes the style of a 40s war film. Nazis and members of [[StupidJetpackHitler eventual-Nazi-offshoot HYDRA]] never seem to speak in German ''at all'', whether they're speaking to each other or to Cap, whether they're healthy or taking their last, cyanide-laced breath.
** However, the Norwegians were briefly heard speaking in their native tongue. [[{{Narm}} Not that they actually spoke it that well]]...
* ''Film/TheDebt'' (American version): Played straight when the characters are supposed to be speaking Hebrew. Other languages are subtitled.

* Lampshaded in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. "I'm French! Why do you think I have this outrrrageous accent, you silly king-a!?". (Made funnier when later dialogue implies most of the French knights don't actually understand actual French).

* Disney's ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' takes place in France, so presumably [[TranslationConvention everyone is "really" speaking French]]. Except Lumiere and Lumiere alone has a French accent, apparently just because he has a stereotypical French personality.
** Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts are obviously supposed to be a British valet and a British maid, respectively, so at least ''their'' accents make sense.
* Played straight by Creator/TomCruise in ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', with a German accent, but then averted by the rest of the cast, who speak plain English. All the characters in the movie are German, but Cruise is the only American actor, so it almost makes sense, sort of...

* In the film adaptation of ''Literature/TheBookThief'', everybody speaks English with a German accent and the occasional German word.
** This stays faithful to the book it's based on, where the character's dialogue is English with some German words mixed in.

Not to be confused with PoirotSpeak, where a foreign character speaking English will pepper their speech with words and phrases from their native language. Although the effect is much the same, JustAStupidAccent can grate a little more, as the viewer is left to surmise that [[HerrDoktor Doktor Von Evil]] speaks flawless English but somehow never learned the word for "yes" (though this is somewhat justified in that a spontaneous response to something is likely to trigger your mother language, especially if it's something that can be said without the need for sentence building in your head).

** "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Several Species of Small Furry Animals]] [[LongTitle Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict]]" has Roger Waters attempting a Scottish accent as he tells a story a bunch of rodents about a battle [[UnreliableNarrator he apparently]] [[PosthumousNarrator died in]]. His accent is stunningly modern for a ''pict,'' who were absorbed into the Gaels by the 11th century.

* ''Music/PinkFloyd'''s "A Spanish Piece" from More has the very-British David Gilmour attempting (and failing comically) to imitate a Spanish accent to tell us, that, yes, this piece is supposed to be taking place in Spain. Because there's no way we could have known that from the title, right?

* The ''{{Hellsing}}'' manga has a brief flashback to Pip Bernadotte's childhood, where we see his grandfather explain the family line of work to him. Both characters are French, but they speak to each other in English with a heavy French accent, at least in one translation.

* ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. To [[{{Egregious}} the extreme extent]] that PopCulturalOsmosis from London has somehow seeped all the way to the slums of Mumbai.

* If ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'' is an indication, the Greeks, Egyptians, Eastern peoples, Carthaginians, Numidians, and the various barbarian tribes, all spoke perfect English aside from their accents. ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'' takes this one step further: Scots speak in a thick Scottish accents, The Holy Roman Empire and France speak in thick over-the-top German and French accents and throw in GratuitousGerman/[[GratuitousFrench French]] on a regular basis, the English speak in a posh [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents English accent]], the Moors, Turks and Egyptians speech is in an Arabic accent and is laced with Arabic terms, the Spanish, Portuguese, various Italians, and the Byzantines all speak in a generic Southern European accent, the Eastern European factions (and, for some reason, the Danes) speak in a generic Eastern European accent, and the Mongols and Timurids speak in an {{egregious}} East-Asian accent.

** Dwarves - Funny story here: by WordOfGod, just as the Rohirrim are Middle-Earth's counterpart to the Anglo-Saxons, Dwarves are the counterpart to the Jews. That is, just like Jews, Dwarves in Middle-Earth are dispossessed of their homeland, and while speaking the language of the land, have their own private language which is nothing like it: Tolkien constructed Dwarvish (or Khuzdul) according to the rules of Semitic, including [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_root triconsonantal roots]]. Their origin story (in ''The Silmarillion'') even echoes the sacrifice of Isaac. So logically, you'd think they should have Yiddish accents or something. However, in the movies, they decided to give Gimli a Scottish Lowlands accent, because it has "an old-sounding feel to it". (This takes after pretty much every fantasy dwarf since Tolkien. Heaven knows where they got it.) However, because Gimli's actor was Welsh, Gimli's accent is Welsh, not Scottish.

* ''WebOriginal/SCPFoundation'': Captain Dmitri Arkadeyevich Strelnikov talks like your standard Russian movie bad guy. Goes even further in his masterpiece of BlackComedy, [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/reddawn Killing The Enemies And His Family Too]].

** English appears to be the only human language in the setting, regional accents are all you get. Antivans speak it with a Spanish accent, Fereldan uses British accents, Tevinter used a different subset of British accents etc. Dwarfs also speak English, with a mix of North American accents this time (they occasionally mix in a few words of an old Dwarf language, but the common tongue apparently started as a Dwarf trading language). Dalish elfs speak mostly English with a Welsh accent, with a few Elven words mixed in (the Elven language being mostly lost). The Qunari actually do have their own language, but outside their own territory speak English in a very distinct, flat way with no identifiable accent (mainly because very few of them can speak the common tongue, and mastery is prized in the Qun, so they are silent and stoic with flat affect out of shame)..

Occasionally, a film or TV show will be set in a foreign country, where another language is spoken. [[TranslationConvention Instead of having the actors speak normally]], or having them attempt to speak in their characters' actual language, the characters instead speak English - except in a ridiculous accent to constantly remind viewers that these characters are foreign. A TranslationConvention that bats you over the head with the RuleOfPerception.

This is ''potentially'' TruthInTelevision, since when a foreigner speaks English, they do exhibit an accent more or less specific to their country of origin.[[note]]Unless they chose to go through much more rigorous training to try to eliminate it.[[/note]] Of course, the actual accent depicted doesn't really need to correspond to anything real to qualify for this trope.

* Paul F. Tompkins' routine "Cherry Picking", where the joke quickly from [[RefugeInAudacity superstar migrant laborer Jesus Guerrero signing baskets at fruit-picking fantasy camp]], to how bad the voice Paul is using for him is ("it kinda just sounds like you're a vampire or something") -- and finally, to Jesus commiserating that he knows "this bit has outworn out its welcome", but he can't stop as long as the audience keeps laughing.

* ''TheCompleteWorksOfWilliamShakespeareAbridged'' does ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' in (deliberately) terrible Scottish accents.

* [[Film/CaptainBlood Captain Blood]] has Basil Rathbone put on an atrocious French accent in case the viewers forget Levasseur is meant to be French. [[LargeHam He milks it to a hilarious extent.]]

* In Franchise/FireEmblem, [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Tiki]] has been given a British Accent for some reasons.

* In ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans Path of the Furon'', in the map Belleville (a parody of Paris) one of the nameless NPC s found wandering the landscape will lampshade this trope in one of their readable thoughts.

** While the trope was averted in the first season episode "The Crepes of Wrath," it was played ''awfully'' straight in the Latin American dub, with all the French substituted with French-accented Spanish. They had people literally telling Bart they couldn't understand him because of his ''accent'' rather than because he was supposed to be speaking a completely different language.