Beloved-in-their-home countries cultural phenomena that is otherwise baffling

[Ferris]

Not having this. Slade aren't shit. Plus aren't Kiss basically just a vehicle with which to sell more and more Kiss-branded tat?

You used to be able to get Kiss branded coffins. Paul Stanley leering out at the mourners as you are lowered into your final resting place and the lid disappears from view. What a thought.

[Mr Banlon]

Belgian Finch Sport : https://youtu.be/72Idf9bDxv0?t=366

[Sebastian Cobb]

You used to be able to get Kiss branded coffins. Paul Stanley leering out at the mourners as you are lowered into your final resting place and the lid disappears from view. What a thought.

I used to work with a bloke who stumped up £1100 to go to a Kiss gig with a meet and greet attached.

Apparently they were 'really nice'. I'm sure I would be for a line of people stumping up over a bag to see me as well.

You could probably meet and greet Noddy for nothing if you went to the right old man pub.

[Danger Man]

The wonderful 'Tora-san' a kind of Japanese OFAH. 49 movies made between 1969 and 1997, a world record for the number of movies with the same star.


A cultural icon in Japan and.......Austria, where they have inexplicably taken him to heart. So much so that one of the 49 movies was filmed in Vienna.

[Ferris]

I used to work with a bloke who stumped up £1100 to go to a Kiss gig with a meet and greet attached.

Apparently they were 'really nice'. I'm sure I would be for a line of people stumping up over a bag to see me as well.

You could probably meet and greet Noddy for nothing if you went to the right old man pub.

That is fucking mental. Sorry about your inheritance, son - me and your dad just had to meet Gene Simmons and the one who looks like a cat at the Milton Keynes arena.

As a side note - I've seen both Noddy and Roy Wood in the same Esso (?) garage off the A5 near the junction with the A38. Not at the same time, but still. A friend of a friend swears he saw Chris Tarrant and Tony Iommi sharing a canal boat near Llangollen - they're neighbours and really good mates apparently. Get about, these old West Midlands rockers. No payment required to see them - they're fucking everywhere.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Heh, I once saw racist football pundit Ron 'Big Ron' Atkinson at the petrol station near Lydiate Ash.

[MidnightShambler]

The wonderful 'Tora-san' a kind of Japanese OFAH. 49 movies made between 1969 and 1997, a world record for the number of movies with the same star.


A cultural icon in Japan and.......Austria, where they have inexplicably taken him to heart. So much so that one of the 49 movies was filmed in Vienna.

Wasn't Norman Wisdom a national hero in Albania?

[kngen]

Been watching a few Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies. And they're odd, faux-American cop comedy movies with Disney-ish silliness. Beloved in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe and around the world, but not in Anglophone territories - the very areas they seek acclaim from.

Saw one of these as a child when I was living in East Africa. The combination of us (me and my parents) being the only people in the audience not in absolute fucking hysterics at their on-screen antics and the slightly off ersatz America the characters inhabited (enough for my 10-year-old brain to pick up on) was one of the more alienating cultural experiences I've had.

Whenever I see their names mentioned (including when I read this post), that feeling of 'yeah, you really don't know as much about this world as you think you do, smartarse!' comes flooding back. Quite bracing, really.

[SteveDave]

Kiss are to US what Slade are to Britain.

Get out.

[Autopsy Turvey]

Kiss have way more killer songs, but the best songs by Slade are better than the best songs by Kiss.

[Icehaven]

Isn't there some very old British sketch that's a huge New Year's Eve tradition in Germany despite being all but forgotten in the UK?

Edit; Yep this is it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One

It actually has an incredibly bleak premise, old woman throws a Christmas party but she's outlived all her friends so her equally old butler impersonates them and gets shitfaced. Still better than Jools Holland though.

[thenoise]

We've had dinner for one already, so here's Merry Christmas Mr Bean, which they probably love too.

[Ferris]

The sketch Dinner For One. Massive in Europe. Obscure in the UK.

It's just a slowly whimsical and frankly quite tedious sketch, save for a few slapstick moments.

Shoulders got there first!

[Icehaven]

I originally thought it was a play, that it was just big in Germany as a New Year's Eve thing and had forgotten what it was called anyway so I didn't clock the earlier mention as being the same thing. Well Europe is welcome to it after the dee-vorce.

[Ferris]

I originally thought it was a play, that it was just big in Germany as a New Year's Eve thing and had forgotten what it was called anyway so I didn't clock the earlier mention as being the same thing. Well Europe is welcome to it after the dee-vorce.

It is vaguely familiar to me as well, though I also thought it was a play (or sketch that everyone did?)

[Icehaven]

It is vaguely familiar to me as well, though I also thought it was a play (or sketch that everyone did?)

Well according to Wikipedia it's 18 minutes long, which is very long for what we'd call a sketch, but short for a play so it's maybe more of a...piece? 

[QDRPHNC]

I'd say a genuine cultural touchstone here in Canada who you never hear of anywhere else is Terry Fox, who was diagnosed with cancer at 21, had a leg amputated, and then raised loads for charity by running a marathon a day for 150 days before he died. Every kid gets taught about in school, there are nationwide Terry Fox runs every year, he's a big deal.

[Ferris]

I'd say a genuine cultural touchstone here in Canada who you never hear of anywhere else is Terry Fox, who was diagnosed with cancer at 21, had a leg amputated, and then raised loads for charity by running a marathon a day for 150 days before he died. Every kid gets taught about in school, there are nationwide Terry Fox runs every year, he's a big deal.

Nice people dying of incurable cancers and doing something positive on the way out is a very Canadian trait. I quite like that no one has heard of them outside of Canada - they feel more personally affecting because they are "ours" as Canadians, not for the rest of you who cannot be trusted with nice things.

See also: former leader of the NDP, Jack Layton's Letter to Canadians after his cancer diagnosis became terminal.

Or the Tragically Hip touring and playing one last show after Gord Downie's diagnosis with terminal cancer. It was broadcast live on the CBC for free, and on the radio, and shown on massive outdoor screens in public for free. I went to a public viewing and we all stood in the dark and watched the Hip play what they all sort of knew would be their last few songs. Incredible performance. Approx 35% of the country watched it, which would be like 23m people in Britain tuning in to BBC1 to watch something 3 hours long.

And Bob and Doug McKenzie, but as far as I am aware the actors are all cancer-free so they don't really fit with the rest of my post.

[petril]

I used to work with a bloke who stumped up £1100 to go to a Kiss gig with a meet and greet attached.

Apparently they were 'really nice'. I'm sure I would be for a line of people stumping up over a bag to see me as well.

You could probably meet and greet Noddy for nothing if you went to the right old man pub.

as long as it's not the one weekend in February when I like to pretend him, Roy Wood, East 17 et al have Real Christmas to celebrate when the royalty cheques turn up

[George White]

Yes, I love Slade but both are glam bands that reflect their countries. Kiss being a capitalistdystopia, a gothic Banana Splits

[George White]

Saw one of these as a child when I was living in East Africa. The combination of us (me and my parents) being the only people in the audience not in absolute fucking hysterics at their on-screen antics and the slightly off ersatz America the characters inhabited (enough for my 10-year-old brain to pick up on) was one of the more alienating cultural experiences I've had.

Whenever I see their names mentioned (including when I read this post), that feeling of 'yeah, you really don't know as much about this world as you think you do, smartarse!' comes flooding back. Quite bracing, really.

A lot have Brit actors in them. There is a Bud Spencer, Charleston that has Herbert Lom, Geoffrey Bayldon, Ronald Lacey.
John Sharp, who played the dr in the Wicker Man extended and was Betty's brother in law in Coro played the heavy in at least one, as did Frank Tate off Emmerdale and wrestler King Kong Kirk who died in thering in a bout with Big Daddy