"A tour de force of dropped R's"

January 26, 2016 6:17 AM

Late Night's Seth Meyers (previously) has released the trailer for Boston Accent, the most Boston movie of all time. [SLYT]
posted by Room 641-A (36 comments total)

Kinda makes me hope that Affleck pulls out a southie accent for Batman vs Superman for some inexplicable reason. Plus lots of shots with Bruce Wayne heckling the Yankees at the Gotham Stadium which is totally not Fenway Field.

But unfortunately I'm not sure Snyder will deliver on that.
posted by vuron at 6:37 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

needs more conversations which consist only of inquiries about various relatives health
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:42 AM on January 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

Not dropped, transposed.
posted by brujita at 7:05 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

How could he have overlooked Woburn?? Wicked pissed about that, guy.

(pronounced WOO-bin, fyi)

posted by the painkiller at 7:18 AM on January 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

If they want Gritty Boston then they need to take a dead body out to the giant sewage digester "eggs" in the Hahbah and drop it in.

And I would love to see some actors trying to maintain their accents while shouting at each other over the noise of the green line trolleys squealing around the underground turns in Back Bay.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:41 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Trying to be heard over a packed B train en route to Kenmore before a Sox game, etc., etc.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:00 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

White Boston.
posted by allthinky at 8:11 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I watched this. It was pretty funny for most of the video, then the end was a hilarious montage of people getting the backs of their heads blown off with guns, complete with blood sprays. Over and over again. I think it was the punch line. I closed the video after about the third one.

I get the joke, sort of, but why go there at all?

Otherwise, it was really funny. Seth Meyers, why?
posted by amtho at 8:16 AM on January 26, 2016

Not mentioned in the interesting place names: Peabody, Quincy, Woburn.

Something I didn't realize is that sometimes you need to add an R.
posted by A dead Quaker at 8:18 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is terrifyingly accurate.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:43 AM on January 26, 2016

Pronounced Meffid wrong, tsk tsk.
posted by maryr at 9:10 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

BTW, actual movie coming out soon: Manchester By The Sea.
posted by maryr at 9:12 AM on January 26, 2016

Nissan Maxima, bro.

Missed an opportunity to say Haunder Accawud.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:36 AM on January 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

There's only ever been one good Boston movie. Affleck's been trying to remake it ever since.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Otherwise, it was really funny. Seth Meyers, why?


Because of the way Boston noir movies exaggerate the amount of crime and violence in Boston.

BTW, I overheard the real "pahk the cah at hahvahd yahd" the other night. "So, I lehnd [name elided]'s my brotha from anotha motha".
posted by ocschwar at 9:49 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mocking Boston accents is so 2009. If they wanted to stay timely, they'd pick up on mocking subregional eastern Massachusetts accents, like Fall River. Problem is, the only way to get it right is through some serious method acting, which requires that you develop a meth addiction and change your customary greeting to "Howzya motha ya fadda, he workin'?"
posted by Mayor West at 9:58 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Did they mention beeby wheels even once?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:10 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

Lynn, Lynn, city of sin.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:04 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

> Pronounced Meffid wrong, tsk tsk.

And I'm pretty sure I heard a third syllable there in Sum-ville. tsk tsk indeed.

The problem for me is that I love accents and will obsess over them no matter where I am — I used to be able to do five different versions of "dude" that corresponded to various communities running north-south along California. So now I live in Boston and people who've spent the least bit of time here won't stop talking about the damned accent. I've gotten tired of it, and I can't imagine how sick of it people in other parts of the country must be. So while this was pretty well done I'm hoping we, as a country, will soon move on from Boston accents.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:04 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

change your customary greeting to "Howzya motha ya fadda, he workin'?"

"Gonna Dunkies fa'a cawfee? Moy gull's a'Almacs dina, gonna meeta."
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:12 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

So now I live in Boston and people who've spent the least bit of time here won't stop talking about the damned accent.

Which is kinda weird, since you don't actually hear it that often outside of Southie. At least, not since the T switched all of its vehicles over to automated stop announcements.

What you hear a lot more often around the city is actually the Townie accent, which is similar to but not quite the same as the classic "Boston" accent (which probably would more accurately be called the "Southie" accent in the first place).
posted by tobascodagama at 11:42 AM on January 26, 2016

Yeah, there's actually a wide variety and I shouldn't have said "the accent".
posted by benito.strauss at 11:48 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Actually, I think my main point was that it's actually pretty rare to hear any variation of the regional accent when you're anywhere near downtown parts of Boston/Cambridge/Brookline/Somerville. Not only because you've got a lot of transplants via work or college hanging around those areas but because the accents are dying out among the younger generation as well.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:57 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

At least, not since the T switched all of its vehicles over to automated stop announcements.

Oh no! One of my favorite Boston moments was on the T, when the driver announced "Next stop, Haymahket" is just this dead, dead voice. Like, "I am praying for a derailment" kind of voice.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:38 PM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

I look forward to picking up the soundtrack.
posted by ckape at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

From the team that brought you Don You Go Rounin Roun to Re Ro
posted by BungaDunga at 1:29 PM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

One of my favorite Boston moments was on the T, when the driver announced "Next stop, Haymahket"

I was in the bus here in L.A. earlier, and there was an announcement for a stop at DoRRchesteRR St and after listinening to this for a few days it just sounded so wrong.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:08 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I didn't think these accents were very accurate, to be honest.

And it certainly wasn't filmed in Beacon Hill.

The other side of Boston:

My grandfather was a GP back in the day. He was tending to some ailment of a very well-heeled Beacon Hill Boston brahmin. The woman was expressing to grandpa that she understood her affliction was very rare indeed, she had heard that only three or four people had had it.

My grandfather politely disagreed, pointing out that he had personally treated more people than that who had the same thing.

The woman looked at him and said, "Oh, well, I mean the people."

That's the other Boston.
posted by crazylegs at 3:10 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

"There's only ever been one good Boston movie. Affleck's been trying to remake it ever since."

The Verdict still holds up really well. I saw it again last summer after not having watched it in 20 years.

And I really liked Next Stop Wonderland even if it is a romantic comedy (that may be the first place I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman).
posted by Cassford at 3:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

That's the other Boston.

Hey Andy Cohen Real Housewives of Beacon Hill please and thank you. #RHOBHMA
posted by Room 641-A at 3:34 PM on January 26, 2016

BTW, I overheard the real "pahk the cah at hahvahd yahd" the other night.

Back before they were purchased by Shaw's, I used to crack up everytime at the store greeter's delivery of "Welcome to Stah Mahkit. Do ya have yer Stah Cahd?"
posted by TwoStride at 3:39 PM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

You may be pleased to hear that all the Shawses have reverted to Stars.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:05 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

I know people from Foxboro who have this accent. It occasionally creeps into Plainville. It is a scourge that must be stopped at the North Attleboro border.
posted by Biblio at 6:50 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

OK, here's the deal with the Boston accent: you only have it if your family (ie, parents) have it. I grew up in and just outside of Boston, in two neighborhoods where the classic Boston Irish accent is super-strong, and I don't have a trace of it, except with a very small number of words. My parents were transplants. This is in contrast to, for instance, the Minnesota accent; I went to school there and have friends whose parents were transplants but they still wound up with the accent.

So that's why, as mpbx says, you hear the accent a lot more on the South or North shores, or in neighborhoods where there are still a lot of older families (West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Dorchester, etc.).
posted by lunasol at 10:14 PM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

I associate the accent with my dad's family in Stoneham and Melrose.

Star Market is back, but there is no longer a Star Market Card, which is sad because the only thing more Boston than a creeky crackly "Pahk Street, up the staiahs feh the Green Line, B, C, D, E and Lechmeah" was a sullen "Got ya Stah Mahket Cahd?"

(And no, you cannot park your car in Harvard Yard. You can't park fucking anywhere in Harvard Square.)
posted by maryr at 8:25 PM on January 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

lunasol: This is in contrast to, for instance, the Minnesota accent; I went to school there and have friends whose parents were transplants but they still wound up with the accent.

Wellllllllll, it's all relative, innit? :7)

My wife is from Rhode Island, one of four kids. Both parents have the accent, as does one brother; she and the other two kids do not. The Mass. accent, to my ear, is strongest on the south Shore and metro-south, Dedham over to Taunton and the like.

I grew up in Minnesota and no one in my family has that accent. (Our speech is pure and clean and fresh, like the water of the 10,000 Sky-Blue Lakes.) My uncle moved up to the Iron Range and he talks like that, though. Sometimes when I have gone out to visit it creeps in a bit: those round vowels!

We live in Rhodey, and our kids have only small, weird bits of any accent: some scraps of oddball syntax (e.g., "When you are done your homework…"), and a tendency to mispronounce one or two letter combinations. As they grow up and spend more time with peers and adults outside the family, I am interested to see what direction their accent goes.

*shrug* The spoken word, she is a land of contrasts, non?
posted by wenestvedt at 9:06 AM on January 28, 2016