Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 December 29

= December 29 =

Father Ted - Todd Unctious in America?
In the Father Ted Christmas episode, Father Todd Unctious (or whatever his real name was) explained that he knew all about Ted from a drunk priest in a town called Selfridge. Was he refering to the small town in North Dakota? And did the drunk priest sound American? See the episode at Dailymotion - 47:20-49:05. 86.130.114.204 (talk) 21:10, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * It's Celbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland. The drunk priest does indeed sound American to my non-native ears. --Wrongfilter (talk) 21:36, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
 * According to the DVD subtitles, he said Selridge. 86.130.114.204 (talk) 20:34, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Hm, are DVD subtitles more reliable than my admittedly wild guess? There is no real place called Selridge. Actually, I'm pretty sure I hear a b now. As a would-be comedy theorist I'd say it's pretty pointless to use a made-up place here, it's funnier to use a real one, ideally one with certain connotations. Craggy Island is made up, of course (although you wouldn't find it on a map anyway), but Craggy Island has a different function in the show. Btw, the article on the episode is A Christmassy Ted. --Wrongfilter (talk) 21:30, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't many British people think of Selfridges? I did, and I'm American.
 * Sometimes in these situations, the ambiguity and layers of meaning are the object, and creates more of a buzz than clarity would provide. Elizium23 (talk) 02:43, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * So he actually said Celbridge, a town in Co. Kildare, Ireland? And the priest was really American (even though so-called Todd didn't mention that and he was only credited as a Drunk Priest in Bar instead of a Drunk American Priest in Bar)? 86.130.114.204 (talk) 19:11, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
 * If he spoke with a North American English accent, he could have been Canadian. Or perhaps he was British, born in Bristol but growing up in the Bronx, thereby acquiring an American accent. I guess we need to write to the creators of the sitcom and demand a full account of the Drunk Priest in Bar's backstory. I for one should like to know why he was drunk. Was he sad? Did something bad happen to him? Why don't they tell us upfront? Do they have something to hide? --Lambiam 10:16, 1 January 2023 (UTC)


 * I have the book of the scripts, and Todd's line in that is "I was in Cellbridge [sic] a few days ago..". The drunk priest is said to be speaking in a "hokey American accent". AndrewWTaylor (talk) 14:01, 1 January 2023 (UTC)