Daily Archives: July 26, 2010

I found this on my friend Mark Himmelsbach’s blog–titled, oddly enough, the Himmelsblog.  It shows British comic actor John Cleese from “Monty Python” fame in a clip from the documentary The Art of Football from A to Z.  In this clip, Cleese explains his own theories behind the difference between soccer and football, thus drawing a comparison between British and American culture in general.

This is a great clip to use in high school classrooms, even in upper elementary classes as well.  Some questions for further discussion:

(1) Do you find Cleese comparison of football to “advertising jingles” and soccer to “jazz” accurate?

(2) What is Cleese ultimate assumptions about American culture, based on this clip?

(3) Is he accurate about those assumptions?

(4) What assumptions do we make about British, or even European, society and culture?  Why do we make such assumptions?