#but I will take southern antagonists with accurate accents

[morethanghosts]

Valorie Curry deserves so much credit for her accent as Firecracker.

It’s not exactly an authentic southern accent but it is exactly the accent many southern girls (intentionally or not) put on when we’re trying to come across as likable and sweet.

It’s a blend of the southern belle accent and the more common country accent. The former is soft and sticky sweet but can come across as disingenuous and haughty so you temper it with the country accent which comes across as more relatable but can make you sound unintelligent or harsh if it’s too strong. She mixes the two perfectly for Firecracker’s persona.

She really turned it up in the scene where she confesses to having a sexual relationship with an underage boy and the combination of the accent and the words really made her sound like a hypocritical Southern Baptist preacher or televangelist.

I do wish she had dropped the sweet part a little more in private or at least in her confrontations with Annie, maybe even slipping into a rougher sounding country. But even without that it was still nuanced and made sense for her character.

Anyways, southern accents on tv are often done very poorly and I really appreciated the way she portrayed it.

[killerscartv]

The Californians (SNL Series) 2012 -2018

A soap opera parody featuring Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and others as wealthy blondes with Valley girl accents (Valleyspeak) exaggerated almost to the point of incoherence. Each "episode" opens with the Soapnet logo with Bill Hader's voice-over announcement: "The Californians". Armisen's character, Stuart, owns the house in which the action occurs. His wife Karina (Wiig) is unfaithful (she is said to have died in a car crash when Wiig left the show). Hader plays Devin, a romantic rival and antagonist to and long lost brother of Stuart; a recurring line is Stuart's "Devin? What are you doing here?" Vanessa Bayer appears as a Latina maid, Rosa, the only brunette character. Every installment includes three scenes, generally involving unexpected guests such as a doctor, a private detective, a runaway, or a lost family member. Stuart will invite them to sit down on the furniture, which he describes precisely (e.g., "Mexican country-style chairs", "burlap and cane daybed", or "neutral-toned fruit-wood chairs"). After a shocking revelation typical to soap operas, such as an unexpected pregnancy, the camera zooms in on each character, who displays open-mouthed astonishment. Each scene ends with all of the characters in the room crowded around a single mirror and gazing at their own reflections. Throughout the melodramatic plot developments, much of the dialogue consists of descriptions of routes taken from place to place, with freeways referred to with the definite article, as in "the 10", a usage characteristic of Southern California English. The characters are often seen with white wine or hors d'oeuvres such as nachos and avocado. Armisen writes the sketches for "The Californians" with James Anderson, and says they originated from casual conversations between Armisen, Hader, and castmate Kenan Thompson: "Just for no reason, we would talk about how we were just in L.A. and what roads we were on, and we'd be talking about directions, and, 'Well, yeah, you go on Vermont and you make a left.'" Anderson added the soap opera element. Armisen claims to make a significant effort to ensure the navigation they describe is accurate, relying on both his memory and Google Map. In 2012, LA Weekly reported that a Stanford University research project on Californian accents "suggests that 'The Californians' might be on to something." The story quoted a Stanford grad student describing something called the "California vowel shift": "If you try to think about what you think a surfer or a skater or a valley girl talks like, and do it, you can feel your mouth feels different. And I think that has to do a lot with the way that the vowels are shifting." Josh Brolin plays Greg, Stuart's doctor, who announces that Stuart has cancer. Mick Jagger plays Timothy, Stuart's long-lost father. Steve Martin cameos as a man suffering from amnesia Christina Applegate plays Brie, Stuart's new fiancée, who has a shopping addiction. Cameo appearance by Usain Bolt. Jeremy Renner plays Craig, Stuart's lawyer. Cecily Strong appears as Gia, Stuart's date, who turns out to be Devin's wife. Justin Bieber plays a runaway teen. The 40th Anniversary Special sketch features Bradley Cooper as Craig the pool boy, Betty White as Aunt Lana, Taylor Swift as cousin Allison, Laraine Newman as Karina's mother (Sherry the Valley Girl), Kerry Washington as the doctor, and Kenan Thompson. The sketch was mashed up with David Spade reprising his role from the "Total Bastard Airlines" sketch, with Cecily Strong taking the role of Helen Hunt. In the final episode Devin is showing the new real estate manager, Marie (Kate McKinnon), around and reveals that Rosa had been deported. Stuart holds a party to celebrate his athleisure wear launch, but it is interrupted when a man from Encino (Pete Davidson) reveals himself as Rosa and Devin's long lost son and is confused by their different accents.