American Reacts to Things Only Brits Understand 

The “not talking to strangers” thing is mostly related to London / the South. The further away you travel (the North, the Southwest, Wales, Scotland, etc.) the more acceptable / common it is for strangers to speak to each other.

Here in Yorkshire we often strike up a conversation, say, in a queue and always say good morning/afternoon to people you pass on a quiet street, or the canal towpath ...

The not talking to strangers is a London thing, the rest of us are not that weird we will talk to a stranger and make friends with random people.

“I was livid.” is the British way of saying “I don’t care if I’m going to be featured on a true crime podcast.”

Here in Yorkshire we are more friendly than in big cities as you will have come across..also people in Newcastle are friendly people too..a smile and "morning" to an elderly person who may not talk to many people can sometimes lift their day...costs nothing

I'm English from down south, these two are talking rubbish, they're legends in their own minds.

So many times in British restaurants I've heard people at the next table moaning about the food or the service. Then, when a waiter asks them if everything is alright, they all smile and say, "Lovely, thank you!" That is such a British thing to do!

Dog owners will often talk to any other dog walker, but the conversation often revolves around the dogs, breed, age looks, behaviour etc

AKA Things only Londoners understand.

I really don't agree that people in the UK don't talk to strangers. I live on the southeast coast of England and on numerous occasions have had conversations with other passengers on the bus or at a bus stop or waiting room, etc. Whenever walking out in the countryside people always say hello to each other as they walk by. I do agree with a previous comment that people from the north are more friendly though. I've never heard of writing a letter to people you've had an argument with. I don't know anyone who's done that. And, as much as we love David Attenborough, we do watch other nature programmes. I really wouldn't take everything they say too seriously.

I'm a londoner and I chat to people in shop queues and with the staff. Always got a joke or a pleasant word. I love it. But I was born chatty.

Morning Joel, I'm sorry to hear about the bridge collapse overnight, I wish the injured a speedy recovery, and that the dead rest in peace.

I reckon there will be a national week of mourning when David Attenborough passes on. He is such a loved and respected TV personality among the vast majority of Brits. There are a few who don't like him but they are definitely in the minority. I mean he's been on our screens for 70 years now! (I had to look it up, his first show presenting was zoo quest in 1954) 70 years of presenting nature documentaries. He dedicated his whole life to documenting Animals from all over the world and his most current work to raise awareness about the environment. He's a legend.

Not talking to strangers is a London thing. It doesn't apply to the majority of the UK. Don't forget these guys are London centric. Joel should know this as he's been outside London.

I live in the south of England & we do talk to strangers in the queue or on the bus !!

I'm a Brit and I make friends with strangers . I also ask people to move to the right on an escalator and tell off a person if they are rude or try to push in front of me in a queue. I don't let people get away with bad manners.

I'm from Manchester and the escalator thing in London of standing on the left, no one cares up North. It's almost the opposite. If you try to pass someone on the escalator, you'll get looks of 'wait your f***ing turn!' and tuts of 'how rude. No patience these days.'

I'm amazed to say that I have been watching and listening to David Attenborough since 1957 when he presented Zoo Quest.

This couple need to change their channel name to "Views only Middle Class Brits will have" because their views do not hold for the working or upper classes

Take what these pair say with a pinch of salt !

we scousers (from liverpool) are the friendliest people ever, we say hello to absolutley everyone and make everyone welcome, nothing is too much trouble to help anyone out..we would give you our last penny.... were not english we are scouse... were not english we are scouse ........ make sure you visit liverpool on your next uk trip.. see for yourself... ps love your channel ... always make me smile ty :)

The Royle Family is one of my favourites. So nuanced, so funny ❤️

As a Northerner, talking to people on the tube is my favourite London past time, Southerners hate it and fellow Northerners love to watch them squirm!

We have the same rule for escalators in Germany. It makes sense.

back in the 80's, where we had longer as you have seen in 80's videos, it was so true, go get hair cut, wash cut and blow dry, say yeah thats great, straight home wash your and restyle it,

Sorry to hear about the Baltimore bridge collapse this morning. Scary as I've used that beltway a few time in the past. I hope you are safe and well and my thoughts are with the folks caught up in the disaster.

Very London.

Joel this British pair make my teeth itch, she was talking about sitting on a table in a pub garden and they got chatting to another couple she said " I was an organic moment " when they spoke !!!!!

The best letter I've known written to a company A University sports team... while very drunk... decided to ask Irn Bru if they would sponsor them. 1 drunken letter in an envelope addressed simply... Mr Irn Bru. NO stamp A few weeks later they actually got a really sarcasticly silly reply about not being able to along with 2 crates of Irn Bru Best reply Ever ❤ to Irn Bru

I get my haircut twice a year and am heavily bearded. When arriving at the barber's I sometimes announce "I'm turning myself in". If asked "how I would I like it?" I reply "Do your worst!" Oddly they never have! (but it usually raises a laugh)

I talk to strangers regularly- I walk my dog everyday and it’s just normal for walkers to strike up conversations usually regarding each others pet - but also in shops just as a way to show friendly banter- I did find it totally different when I lived in London people seemed much more private than outside of the city .

Hi Joel. Here's something that you'll struggle with. Ever read the British adult comic "Viz"? I'll wager that us Brits will collapse at how funny it is versus you'll not understand most of it. I await your reply.

The barber thing happened to me - I always have it drop down at the front of my ears (like the guy here in the video you're reacting to) and I explained that, but she shaved it straight across. In fact, it tilted upwards! I was livid and before I could engage a filter, I blurted it out: 'what the eff is this'. Censored here but I didn't then. Not a great day - I went home and shaved it all off. Not the end of the world because I also do that from time to time anyway, but to pay for someone to butcher it and have to come home and sort it out myself was infuriating.

Years ago when I still cared about my hair, I had a haircut in a 'unisex' salon, whilst staying with friends for the weekend, in a small Devon town. I was set upon by what I took to be a teenage apprentice. I couldn't help but notice that the owner/manageress glancing in my direction and then walked past for a quick look. A minute later she came over and asked the girl to run an errand for her and she took over to repair whatever had happened to my hair. I wondered what I would have said if the apprentice had completed the cut uninterrupted and asked if it was OK?

I will endorse ‘Very British Problems’. It’s hilarious! P.S. My favourite British problem is discussions on weather.

This is nothing like true British culture. It's basically London culture I live in Wales I moved from the south East of England and yes when I went to London people didn't really speak on the tube or in London's streets mainly because the London culture is rush rush rush everywhere else in the UK people actually give time to others especially the further west one travels as for the rest of the video I don't really understand what the hell they are talking about because my experience of all their gripes are the exact opposite of what these people said they didn't like

Speedily headed towards 100K! Well done! 👏🏽

Talking to strangers. Yep I agree with London. Probably the North of England is like Wales… we talk to anyone and everyone in Wales. ❤

i stopped going to barber over 20 years ago. bought some clippers and shave my head. i am never disappointed with my work 🤣. i did my brothers best man speech and he was 'i didn't expect a character assassination'

Hey Joel have you seen the Harry & Paul box set? There are some great sketches of an elderly couple doing exactly what you're talking about.

I'm an Aussie. I've been to a wedding where the brides best friend made a speech.

I’m a Yorkshire girl, I chat to people I don’t know all the time and visa versa. It’s pleasant to be friendly

There’s an old comedy sketch about a Yorkshireman being arrested for being friendly to Londoners on the underground tube train and scaring them. In the North of England it’s more expected that strangers will strike up a conversation.

I think some of these are London traits. I think you can’t judge all English people by the same things. I’m from Yorkshire, and striking up a conversation on a bench, or waiting for a bus, or on the bus is natural and is how I was raised. I’d probably feel more wierd if it wasn’t another woman admittedly. If I wasn’t feeling chatty, I’d go on my phone or put my ear buds in and pretend to be listening to music lo

The “hair cut” thing 😂. I mean it’s not like the barber could stick it all back on if you don’t like it 😂😂. I just find London too busy and everyone rushing to get somewhere. It’s just too full and busy for me personally.

4:42 No, I mildly protest. I wanted a trim, not a buzz cut but hey, my head feels cooler now.

One of the benefits of being old is that one tends to care less about what other people think and can thus be more spontaneous (unfiltered, some of my friends might say) but I can see what these guys are on about. We English middle class tend to 'freeze out' those who offend. One of my scariest experiences was giving a (gay) father of the bride speech to a predominantly MAGA crowd in the Bronx. Needless to say I fell back on English gratitude for the American input in WWII and early love of John Wayne films which got me through until we were all too inebriated for anyone to worry.

In the Royle Family... Barbara & Jim ( Sue & Ricky the Actors) Also appeared as Husband & Wife in a long running Soap (TV Show) Called Brookside AKA Brookie... which is no longer running the show anymore.... as Shelia & Bobby....started in 1982 x

You're very good and blowing up. Almost 100K subscribers now.

It’s the same for travelators at airports, people stop on them next to their suitcases/cabin cases and completely block the way.

Good choice 👍 I always like listening to those two...really sweet and funny. When I read the book of 'Very British Problems' it did make me laugh out loud...so much was relatable...so I would think the website is worth finding 🤔

I live in E mids. We are friendly. I will chat to anyone and they will chat back. Its just how we are here. ❤

Not talking to strangers might be true for London and the South but definitely not true in the North West. I've had long conversations with people on the bus, in shops, at the library and many other places. Also if you're walking your dog you get to know many people and yes they do sometimes become friends!

In my wedding last year, my best friend was also my maid of honour. She had the balls to break the norm and give a speech after her husband, the best man 😁

I met Sir David Attenborough once. decades ago.. what an attractive man. I wa sin y 20s and he in his early 50s..lol.. those eyes were SO000000 blue and he spoke so nicely to me.

You really enjoy watching their videos and I enjoy watching you reacting to them.

Here in Wales, we take the dog for a half hour or so walk .. over an hour later, we’re still there having chatted to numerous people. Wonderfully friendly and humorous.

The hard stare is exemplified and amplified in the Paddington books. From wiki When he gets annoyed with someone, he often gives them one of his special "hard stares", taught to him by Aunt Lucy, which causes them to become flushed and embarrassed. Paddington's adventures usually arise from him misunderstanding something and trying to right (what he perceives to be) unfair or unjust situations. Most teachers use this technique a lot.

The best man and the maid of honour at mine and my husband's wedding were married to each other, and are our best friends! Obviously, the best man delivered his speech, and the MOH grabbed the mic off him to give her speech 🤣♥️ a very good day filled with love and laughter 😁

Yes, I agree with your reply about "not talking to strangers" There are parts of the country where it's considered rude if you DONT talk to a stranger.

Talking to strangers only relates to London/Greater London/The South. Anywhere Machester and North of there you can talk to strangers on the metro/tube, Newcastle in particular is very well know to be friendly to strangers, almost like we know you as a friend haha 😅 Geordies are very friendly and willing to help ❤

Talking to strangers is the norm in the N East. I was amazed at how southerners are so insular, bordering on rude.

Yeah got to comment because up north we talk to anyone anywhere ,we make friends in a bus stop or even in a shop ,southerners we think are rude ,I went to London and said hello on the tube and they just looked the other way ,up north we smile and chat,very different in different parts of the country

Hairdressers always show me my hair before they give me my glasses back - I am as blind as a bat! Yeah lovely, it's lush thank you!!!!!

Us Brits have a very dry sense of humour, we laugh at jokes that are based on very 'dark' subjects that are learned from current affairs and National news ( ie the football chanting about Adam Johnson being a paedo) we quite commonly say "if you can't laugh about stuff, what can you do?", it's not that we condone the subjects in question, but more that we all know about it, and aren't gonna let whatever it is blow over. Within minutes of some salacious story being featured on the news, somebody will walk in the pub with a joke about it, we'll laugh harder the more cringey it makes us feel, and tbh I think it's that element which we all find funny. If something really is in bad taste and the person telling it is the local weirdo, well that's a whole different ball game. In that instance he'd be KO'd, as jokes attempted by a person that people have their suspicions about, that is not gonna fly but they will on the end of somebody's boot! Another thing that occurs probably more often than we think, is when you pop to your local say on a Weds straight from work and a couple of your mates are doing the same, there's no intention to stay long, you all agree that 7.30pm is when you're all gonna make a move. Well, before you know it they've called "time at the bar, drink up ladies and gents, your glasses please!" Omg! What TF happened? The next minute you're in a cab with some other people from the pub who had actually planned to go, whilst my friends and I (who worked at horse yards and were dressed in muddy riding clobber and welly boots 👢) pissed right up and door staff let us in this night club!! Perhaps they thought we were in fancy dress as farmers? But it's always the weeknights that you're supposed to behave, which is like a red rag to a bull, and those forbidden nights outshine the Fri/Sat planned ones! Cockney comedian Micky Flanagan does a great bit about this too, it's worth googling his skit about milk and slippers!! 😂😂😂😂❤🇬🇧

I had train friends. Morning and evening. We had such fun. In no time we were ar our stop.

Barbers showing the haircut at the back of the head. I always tell them not to show me. We don't do a before so there is comparison. Looking at the back of my haircut would be the only time I look at the back of head. For peace of mind no one has ever come up to me subsequent to a haircut and said " Oh I don't like the back of your head."

The Barber/Hairdresser thing - it was a huge relief to me when I succumbed to the passage of time and accepted that my hair was going away, because it allowed me to use my beard trimmer to do a buzz cut (which was pretty much what I was paying the barber for) and most of the time I do a more even job than the barber tended to manage and the trimmer costs roughly the same as one visit to the barber.

As a 69-year-old London Male,I know many blokes who WILL say something if things are not right . Secondly, after being brought up in a tight Inner London working-class Community,I have spent a lifetime talking to complete strangers with very little negative effect. Last week I chatted to a Guy from Bangla Desh who lived on the estate where I parked my car, ,I spoke to a Sri Lankan in a park and 2 days ago chatted to a 77-year-old Ornithologist in my local park.I have done it endless times on buses and tubes and walking my dogs though, However, as I am now "old" I would not chat with a much younger Woman, as they would not understand that it is a weird concept for them. I do NOT "TUT" but do say something:)

Check out any small town or village and the perspective changes massively! From Cornwall in the south west to Aberdeenshire in the north east.. everyone I’ve ever met has been interesting and interested in me. In quiet simple places things can get boring - a new person with a whole different life experience is so interesting!! A cosmopolitan city like London is an amazing stimulus for different cultures and what that brings, but sometimes people are so overloaded with new experiences is that sometimes you just want to ‘block it all out’

Strangers talking to each other's pretty common up in north England. I see a couple of friendly older people who'll chat with me. Take my next-door neighbour. She got us an outdoor plant for our 1st wedding anniversary. We'll take over the garden wall or through WhatsApp. Take the old man who, one morning when having breakfast at Wetherspoons by myself, asked if I minded him sitting next to me, and from then on we're happy to see each other.

I love the sound of David Attenboroughs voice.

Whenever I make a letter or E mail of complaint I always put at the very bottom cc and random initials so they think a copy has gone to my solicitor , it works.

I would add from my experience in London pubs and clubs that if you hit it off with a Brit who's been drinking, you might get tricked into thinking you're forming an actual lasting connection. I was in a tiny club once in London, and I immediately endeared myself to the people running the night because no one could understand why a Canadian was there and knew about the place. So I showed them the TIME OUT where I read about it and they jumped up and down, because THEY didn't know they were in it. Anyway, we all got bombed together, and by the end they were saying you HAVE to come down to Oxford to visit us! We're best friends, now! So the next day I called them, and I could just hear the flatness in their voice which told me that all that good feeling and comraderie evaporated with the booze, and they definitely did not want to hear from me again.

Sean Pertwee is also an excellent narrator.

Same for me - if I don't like my haircut, then I don't complain, but next time choose any one of the other 17 hairdressers in my small market town here in the UK. Yes, there are 17 hairdressers/barbers to choose from, but not much else as most of the shops are shut down now.

In Germany, each member of the couple has a witness (not called "best man" or "maid/maiden of honor"), and both of them give speeches at the reception/dinner. But the only one I have ever thought was really good was the one I gave when I was the witness for my best friend - IMHO. 🙂

I don’t stand on a particular side on an escalator. I stand on the side which hasn’t got a clear drop next to it usually as i hate heights and looking down lol

The escalator thing is ruled by your right (mostly) hand is stronger, so if you hold on to the rail, your on the R side (wrt user) going up or down, leaving the L clear for those in a hurry!

Hi , i live in the south and make small talk with strangers in queue or bus stops etc , its not common to just go up to a stranger in the street and start a conversation thats just odd to us , yes about the weather but for some random person to come up to me amd talk about random stuff is not the norm 😊

A thing I find funny is, at the docs they will say how are you, and you say fine thanks????

the escalator, the barber and offer looks when something bother you is the same in Spain

The hierarchy literally goes/went.. The Queen (before) David Attenborough

It's only condensers that don't speak. Us up north are very friendly! When my kids were little they'd say "who was that mum?" I'd say no idea, I was just having a chat. Northerners rule! 😂😂

Starting a conversation randomly.... reminds me of your experience in Edinburgh! It's a fab and friendly city, honestly - it's just a mistake to randomly chat to someone! We (generally) don't trust that and go into defence mode, hence the reactions you experienced from some people.

It's mainly in London people don't strike up conversations ..elsewhere in the UK they do

Strangers talking is a London thing. In Scotland and particularly Glasgow strangers will always talk

I did hear that in Singapore (I think it was) that it's actually ILLEGAL to talk to anyone whilst travelling on their tube system.

The last time I was at the barbers, a young lad screamed his head off in the chair.

I'm from London and I don't know anyone who writes letters to people when someone has done them wrong 😂😂😂. Maybe that's a posh people thing.

Hello Joel. So posh. It always reminds me of the comedy sketch "Northern nanny". So much they say they could not do, I would. You made friends in York, which sort of shows what I mean. Remember your night in Newcastle. Were Americans descended from Northerners?

with the left thing, our school had signs saying always walk on the left side 😭

I always strike up conversations with strangers and 90% of the time it turns out well, this happens alot where I'm from in the Midlands

This not talking to strangers is not down to being 'toffee nosed' or snooty, down South in particular it is simply the fact that we value personal space rather more, and are less nosey than our Northern cousins. They usually want to know the ins and outs of a 'ducks quack' and then rudely pick holes in you, your accent, clothes, food/drink choices or opinions. 😂

If you move into a new area and you start to see the same people at the bus stop for a few days in row or pass the same person walking their dog a few times. You might nod your head then the next time say something simple like 'Good morning or 'lovely dog' and smile then keep walking then maybe the next time you pass on the street you might say 'dreadful weather to day' it's take's us time, it's almost as if we are assessing each other a bit first and awaiting on the response for the other person.

There's a new nature series by David Attenborough called 'Mammals' starting this Sunday on BBC One. The camerawork is even more mindblowing, and they have developed special cameras to film in colour in the moonlight.

NO ! standing at the bus stop - on the bus or in a que, you can have a convo with anyone, us brits love to chat ... if we are in a rush or dont want to talk, we will walk and talk or just out right say sorry I'm in a bit of a hurry.

The stern look definitely does not work in Florida 🤣 Not talking to strangers is purely a London thing. In the north, it happens every day.

im from yorkshire ,a quick hello love are you allright,costs nothing and for an elderly person could be all they hear all day

Each time I have been in the US for a longer period I very much enjoyed how easy it is to get to know people and make friends in the US. Itis a great positive thing about your country 😊