I realise, now that I’ve drawn the strip, scanned it in and started to write the post, that it’s a very British strip…

For one, I doubt many of you non-Brits have heard of Fox’s Glacier Mints, so you won’t be all that familiar with their logo either:

Boiled sweets too, very British… we use them in situations where the rest of the world would show some emotion – I’ve seen boiled sweets handed out events as diverse as graduations and funerals. As a nation, boiled sweets are our way expressing a deep affection, pride, or a shared grief.

The truth is, as far as nations go, we fit our stereotype quite snugly. We are pretty reserved. We also have bad teeth too… that’s what you get through expressing your emotions through foodstuffs that are basically pure sugar.

Then there’s the other side too, the football hooliganism – they like to use that in The Simpsons – , the Cockney and the binge drinking. All true, mostly… I’ve never actually met a real Cockney, and the Scottish are far better at the hooliganism.

Seriously, that sort of thing really has to stop…

But I know I fit the stereotype, and I’m not too ashamed to either. I mean, I used to play rugby, which is essentially a form of organised hooliganism, and as a result I have spent the last ten years with a black front tooth*… and as for binge drinking, when I did it, it was still just called ‘drinking’.

But there I reach a problem. I am British, so perhaps my view of my own stereotype is a little skewed. I need to speak to outsiders I need to speak to Johnny Foreigner. In the typical British way I will assume you are all either slow or unable to speak English… so I will shout the next bit slowly and loudly.

SIR, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THE BRITISH?

There, you ought to understand that.

And we can do this the other way round too. How do you perceive your nation or culture’s stereotype, and do you think that it’s relevant to you?