American Vocabulary in the TV Series Frasier
Salla Hanhineva, Fall 2011
FAST-US-1 (TRENPK2) Introduction to American English (Hopkins)
The FAST Area Studies Program
Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

This paper discusses the use of language in twelve episodes of the popular television series Frasier, and how social status and education influence a person's speech, at least according to the series' scriptwriters. It also shows differences between American characters and Daphne Moon, an English immigrant who by the end of the series has lived in the US for eleven years. Since later episodes are more likely to contain popular culture and other references relevant to the present day, the main focus is on the last two (10th and 11th) seasons.

Frasier was first aired from 1993 to 2004. The main character, Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer), was originally a side character in Cheers1 but moved from Boston to Seattle in the beginning of the series. Much of the show's humor relies on word plays and puns rather than visual gags – for example, the name of the radio station Frasier works in, KACL, sounds like cackle.

The Main Cast

The eldest of the Cranes, Martin (John Mahoney), is a former police officer in his 70s. He's a down-to-earth common man who would rather watch sports and drink beer in his infamous arm chair than discuss composers in French – in other words, he's someone with whom an average viewer can identify. His character serves as a contrast and often a voice of reason to his sophisticated sons, Frasier and Niles (David Hyde Pierce). Both are middle-aged psychiatrists who have studied in reputable universities in the United States and Great Britain. They speak several languages, love wine and classical music and sometimes look down on "common folk". In the first episode necessities force Martin to move into Frasier’s apartment, and the arrangement that was supposed to be temporary lasts until Martin’s marriage to Ronee Lawrence (Wendie Malick) in the last episode.

Frasier works as a radio psychiatrist in KACL. While his pride and ambition often lead him to a brief downfall, most of the time he tries to do the right thing. His unlucky love life is the center of many episodes. He has been married twice, and while the second marriage wasn’t a happy one, the couple had a son. The same plot repeats itself over the series: Frasier finds a woman he is attracted to, but just as they are about to sleep together he ruins everything, usually by overanalyzing the situation or putting his foot in his mouth. However, the last episode implies that he finds happiness with Charlotte Connor (Laura Linney).

Niles both envies and despises Frasier’s line of work. He has a practice where he meets the same patients and groups year after year, while his older brother spends only ten minutes with every caller. On the other hand, Frasier is a local celebrity and his work is more appreciated due to its visibility. This is one of the many sources of rivalry between the two brothers. During the first few seasons Niles is trapped in an unhappy marriage with an emotionally abusive and whimsical heiress, Maris. He falls head over heels in love with Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), Frasier’s English housekeeper, but doesn’t want to leave his wife. Even after his divorce it takes him years to tell about his feelings. Eventually Niles and Daphne get married and have two children.

Daphne is Martin’s physiotherapist who lives in Frasier’s home and takes care of the apartment. She believes herself to be a psychic, and although this aspect of her character was played down in later seasons, she still retains some of her eccentricity. As can be seen in episodes where other Moons visit the US, Daphne has a rather difficult relationship with her family – her brothers are drunks and ne’er-do-wells, her mother criticizes every aspect of her life and her father prefers pubs to home. For years she’s oblivious to Niles’s growing feelings for her, but ends up leaving her fiancé for him.

As the years go by, Frasier’s producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) becomes a part of the family’s inner circle. A couple of times there are hints that she and Frasier might become lovers, but their relationship never moves beyond friendship, save for a drunken one night stand. She’s Daphne’s best friend, and while her interactions with Niles during the first seasons consist of both trying to get under each other’s skin, their bickering develops into a friendly rivalry. Frasier often makes quips about Roz’s active sex life, possibly compensating for the lack of his own.

Differences in the Types of Language the Characters Use

Even though Martin and his sons are have lived most of their lives under the same roof, the differences in lifestyle result in different use of language. While Martin often greets people with expressions such as "How ya doin'?", Frasier uses French: "Enchanté." The brothers’ speech is filled with uncommon expressions that mark them as being more “civilized” than the people around them. Sometimes this habit leads to misunderstandings. In Proxy Prexy Niles asks Roz to join him and Daphne in mélange (fruit salad), but Roz mistakes the offer for ménage (à trois) (threesome). The list below includes some examples of the way Frasier and Niles speak.

Niles: "Will you look at this crowd? It’s like a Who’s Who of the crème de la crème of the upper crust!" (The Doctor) – best of the best; French

Frasier: "Well, I don't mind [squirrels] in their own milieu." (Freudian) – environment; French

Frasier: "In fact, you know, the last time we saw each other she wanted to have a little reunion hug, but alas, I was still married to Lilith." (Caught) – an expression of unhappiness

Frasier: "My problem now is that she’s invited me to her dressing room for an... après-show tryst." (Caught) – after; French

Frasier: "This is passion, kismet!" (Caught) – fate; Turkish

In Freudian Sleep the family is visiting a mountain cabin. To others’ great annoyance, Frasier tries to adapt to the situation by imitating stereotypical hillybilly speech:

Frasier: "I'm fixin' to have me some vittles." ( Freudian) – "I’m about to eat."

Other characters use slang expressions more often (and with more success). This makes the rift between Frasier and Niles and their friends even greater.

George (a parking lot attendant): "Look, I really don't care, Jack, I just got to get this lane re-opened." (Enemy) – a fellow. Considering that George is rather annoyed with Frasier, "Jack" could also mean jackass.

Niles: (reading Maris' message) "'Big ups to all my homeys in lock-down.'" (The Ann) – "big ups" is an expression of respect and "homey" means a homeboy or -girl, i.e. a good friend.

Martin: "That was really nice of your boss to give you the cabin. What made him do it?"
Ronee: "I put out." (Freudian) – to offer to have sex with someone

Roz: "We just got in our convertible and drove through the desert, and we stopped at this honky-tonk." (Freudian) – an inferior pub

Kenny Daly (the manager of KACL): "But should I quit my job, throw away my whole career and financial security just to chase some cock-a-mamie dream?!" (Goodnight) – crazy, senseless

Nanette Gooseman (Frasier's ex-wife): "Gosh, I’m sorry." (Caught) – God

Donald (Nanette's husband): "Mr. Bunny’s using again." (Caught) – to take drugs

Nanette: "You don’t know how many times I’ve sat down here (backstage), curled up in a ball, vomiting like a wino." ( Caught) – a homeless alcoholic

Frasier: "I have also wildly applauded her trumpet rendition of "Froggy Went A-Courtin'". -- There will be no discussion of a lawsuit tomorrow when I send her a-packin'." (The Ann) – a- prefix is an intensifier that has fallen out of use.

British English Used in the Series

As was mentioned above, Daphne Moon comes from England – to be precise, from Manchester.2 In earlier seasons she still uses British vocabulary, but by the last season her speech has become more American: for example, she talks about cookies instead of biscuits (Caught). However, she still retains her accent. When her family makes an appearance, they use British English, and to the amusement and annoyance of the British audience of the series, Simon, one of Daphne’s brothers, has a Cockney accent:3

Simon: "Well I heard you was knocked up so I, er, brought you a present. Come on in, lads! We knew you’d be here when we went to your house and you wasn’t there." (Goodnight)

The examples of British English used by the Moons include:

  • biscuit tin (The Good) – AmE: cookie jar
  • loo (The Good) – AmE: toilet
  • gent (Dinner) – gentleman
  • bobby-dazzler (Dinner) – AmE: well-dressed
  • to bump the gums (Dinner) – AmE: to chitchat
  • cheerio (Dinner) – AmE: bye
  • bloody (Goodnight) – AmE: damn
  • luggage (A New) – AmE: baggage

References to American History and Popular Culture

As the following examples show, the series makes frequent references to American history and popular culture.

Jen (Roz's young cousin): "I gotta say, Florence is over. It was probably cool, before all the Americans found out about it."
Frasier: "You mean three hundred years ago?"
Jen: "Exactly. That's why I'm going to Vietnam. Americans have never even heard of it." (Kissing) – Even though Jen tries to appear smarter and more knowledgeable than other people, she has no idea about the Vietnam War.

Martin: "In my day it was simple: girl would put on something slinky, guy comes home, has a couple of pops, throws some Dean Martin on the Hi-Fi and bim-bam-boom, you're lightin' a Lucky." (No) – Pop means a soft drink (however, in this context it's likely that Martin means a couple of 'shots' of whiskey or some other alcoholic beverage), Dean Martin was a popular singer and actor, and “lightin’ a Lucky” refers to Lucky Strike cigarettes. In older movies it was common to have characters smoke a cigarette after having sex.

Bebe Glazer (Frasier’s manager): “Darling, it’s San Francisco! Do you know what life is like there for a good-looking straight man? You’ll be like a Snickers bar at a fat camp!” (Goodnight) – San Francisco has a strong gay rights movement, Snickers is a well-known candy bar and fat camps (or weight loss camps) are places where obese children or adults and children can go to lose weight over the summer.

Daphne: “Isn’t she the children’s entertainer?”
Martin: “Yeah, SpongeBob Hotpants.” (Caught) – SpongeBob SquarePants is the titular character in a children’s cartoon series.

In the following excerpt, Frasier hasn’t had a single phone call on his show. As an act of desperation he tells Roz to play a caller, and she starts to recite the plot of Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise (1991).

Roz: I'm new in town, from Texas, and uh, I just left my husband.
Frasier: I see, and why did you do that?
Roz: Well, uh... Oh, I know, he was abusive!
Frasier: That couldn't have been easy for you.
Roz: Well, my girlfriend helped me. We just got in our convertible and drove through the desert, and we stopped at this honky-tonk. I started dancing with this cowboy--long story short, he roughed me up, and my friend killed him--but then... we met the cutest cowboy, but he stole all our money, so we robbed a gas station and blew up a tanker truck...
--
Frasier: Well, thank you, Thelma. Or is it Louise? -- You know, I really think you were closer with that character yesterday--the young teen who moved into the town that had banned dancing. Now that, that had the tang of reality.
Roz: That was Footloose, you idiot. (Freudian) – Footloose is a 1984 film directed by Herbert Ross.

References aren’t limited to dialogue: the titles of many episodes are derived from songs or movies.4

  • Death Becomes Him (season 1, episode 11) – Death Becomes Her (1992, dir. Robert Zemeckis)
  • Guess Who’s Coming To Breakfast? (1.13) – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967, dir. Stanley Kramer)
  • Flour Child (2.04.) – “flower child” is a synonym for hippie
  • An Affair to Forget (2.21) – An Affair to Remember (1957, Leo McCarey)
  • Fraternal Schwinns (10.16) – fraternal twins. Schwinn is a bicycle producer, which is fitting for an episode that centers on a charity bike- a-thon.
  • Guns N’ Neuroses (11.09) – Guns N’ Roses is a popular rock band.
  • The Ann Who Came To Dinner (11.13) – The Man Who Came To Dinner is a play written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman in 1939.

Language as Subtext

The cast of Frasier includes a wide array of different people, each with their distinctive voice. Their speech reminds viewers of the underlying differences in their lives and backgrounds and keeps the dramatic tension between characters alive. The scriptwriters also sneak in jokes that are instantly familiar to American viewers and require people abroad to have some knowledge about the country's culture. While it is certainly possible to enjoy the series without being familiar with American language and culture, background information adds another layer to the show's humor.

Notes

  1. Cheers was aired from 1982 to 1993. It got its name from the bar whose regular customers the series told about. A few of those characters had cameos in Frasier.

  2. The actress Jane Leeves is English as well.

  3. Since the Cockney accent is one of London's dialects and the Moons live in Manchester, it shouldn't be possible for Simon to have a different accent than the rest of his family.

  4. In this section episodes are marked with numbers that indicate their order of airing and the season in which they appeared. "2.4." would be the fourth episode of the second season.

Works Cited

Top — US-1 'Second' Papers Index — US-1 'First' Papers Index — US-1 Class Schedule

Last Updated 30 November 2011