Bloody hell. I'm knackered. Fancy a cuppa? I'm chuffed to bits!

In America, many citizens may have once been called out for adopting an obviously fake British accent, but times have changed and copycat theatrics of popular English slang now reign supreme overseas.

TV series to come out of the UK such as Love Island, The Crown, Bridgerton and The Great British Bake Off may be partially responsible for this newfound interest in British dialect, with putting on a British accent offering many adopters an international escape from reality.

As videos relating to ‘fake British accent’ on TikTok have over 1.1 billion views, British pop culture and dynamics are being explored through a renewed focus on linguistics and light-hearted humour.

Three key insights:
- Babbel, the world’s highest-grossing language-learning app, has found that 45% of global survey respondents state that they enjoy hearing their native language spoken with a British accent.
- According to a Time Out Index survey of 37,000 people in 30 countries, the British accent was voted the world's sexiest accent with 25% of the overall vote.
- Out of a survey of 1,000 people, Preply found that 80% feel that accents make someone more attractive and 33% report that liking their partner’s voice is important to them

Extended reading:
🌍 In a bid to keep calm and carry on, Gen Z Americans are leading the charge in adopting fake British accents.
👄 Britons have long been thought of as having a stiff upper lip, but people in the United States aren't rushing to imitate this non-emotional dialect.
📺 On Twitter, some users have admitted to their “inner Brit” coming out after watching Ted Lasso.

This was spotted on The Long Read, our monthly newsletter showcasing bite-sized cultural analysis of the newest (and strangest!) behaviours we’ve been tracking at Canvas8 – sign up here.