Ask an Aussie if he is English, and you’ll have on your hands, an Aussie that’s not a happy chap.
Tell an Aussie that an Englishman is actually an Aussie, and you’ll have a seriously stroppy Aussie on your hands, mate!
My boss and a co-worker are late for the meeting. I go wandering around looking for them and find them in accounting coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress, working on her computer. I don’t know why I didn’t just look here in the first place, seriously.
I walk up and immediately sense some posturing brewing like the winds before a storm.
“Have you ever considered memorizing the Geico ads?”
My eyebrows climbed up my forehead, “What?”
“You know the Geico lizard, you should memorize his commercials”.
At this point I was expecting the Twilight Zone theme to start, and I got ready to click my heels together, “What on earth are you talking about?”
“He’s one of your countrymen”.
“He’s WHAT?”
“Australian.”
“You’re out of your mind!”
“He is!”
“He most certainly is NOT. He’s English!”
“No, he’s got an Australian accent”
“Like hell he does!”
I’m flabbergasted. Even after being bombarded for years by Crocodile Dundee, Fosters commercials, Outback Steakhouse ads, Steve Irwin being an embarrassment hunting crocodiles, and those damn Brawny ads. It would seem that Americans still couldn’t tell the difference between an Aussie accent, and those uniquely English characters such as Jamie Oliver or … or…or, that damn Geico Gecko.
Even if he is pretty damn cute.
Comments
Wait. Don’t all Aussies wrestle crocs? You do say ‘crocs’, right? *giggles*
You think the Geico gecko is cute? Because I think he is annoying. Well, this new Gecko anyways. I kind of liked him back when he was first introduced, and they had the whole Geico vs. Gecko thing, and he did NOT have an English accent. (BTW, *I* can tell the difference). But now, this revamped gecko is kinda snobby and condescending. I do like when he says “pie and chips” though. 
And what are you talking about, Brawny ads?
I used to wrestle crocs in my highschool years but I gave up on that. I was never very good at it.
Yes, I like the Geico Gecko. Quite nifty. I think that they are doing a bang up job with the ad campaign. His accent is awesome and the things he says are pretty spot on, have not a single shred of Aussie lingo in them at all.
Ooops, not Brawny, was it Swiffer? The ad where the kangaroo bounds through the house leaving the muddy footprints and then some burly Aussie comes in and whips out his swiffer to save the day.
Is that the reason you like that gecko??? Because he doesn’t say anything Australian??
BTW, you are thinking of the Hoover Floormate. As in…”I can clean that Floor, Mate.” Get it? hehehehehe. Anyways, I’m pretty sure the word ‘mate’ is the only reason they used an Aussie themed ad.
I’m a brit who has contended with this very issue myself. The gecko has always been English and if I’m not mistaken, he’s from the London area. I grew up in the south hearing this accent often. It’s far from being pretentious.