How do the nature of British and American best man speeches differ; in which ways and why?

How do the nature of American and British best man speeches differ; in which ways and why?

I decided to investigate best man speeches due to their interesting nature. Best man speeches fall within the genre of speeches. As a prepared speech; they are multimodal and therefore contain features of both spoken and written language. They have the prepared and structured format of written text yet the interactive and conversational form which spoken language has.

As the best man speech is a traditional speech its purpose is known widely by all and certain points which are expected to be hit and must be hit in order for it to be successful;

•  It must be very humorous, commonly mocking the groom
•  It must include thankyou’s and a toast
•  It must honour the bride and groom

The audience at which the speech is targeted is an audience with a wide variety of age, tastes and humour. This is what makes writing a best man speech such a complex procedure.

The aim of my project is to compare and contrast British and American Best man speeches as I am interested in finding how aspects of culture are reflected in a speech. I expect to find that the structural features within the speech and the register to be the same yet the humour to be different as this is an issue which is essentially down to taste which will vary between cultures.

To discover the features within best man speeches I had to take transcripts YouTube clips. I decided to use the first two minutes from when the dialogue begins from four best man speeches. This way I would have enough data to show patterns and similarities in the speeches. Best man speeches tend to be at a length of around ten minutes. I wanted to compare features within different speeches so decided to take only the first two minutes which narrows down my data allowing a more detailed analysis of the first part of the speech.

To ensure that the speeches I looked at were considered to be effective by a wide audience therefore to make my analysis fair. I looked at the number of views and likes a video had; only choosing videos which were widely liked with the most views. I made sure that the speeches were dialogue based as some of the videos which were widely liked and viewed had other reasons other than the dialogue for being liked such as dance sequences.

The root of a Bestman's speech; Houmor

Most speeches show a relationship of language and power were the speeker has power over the audience however I would argue that for a best man's speech this is not the case. I beleive that the relationship of a best man with the audience is more symilar to the dynamic of an audition, for example; if a person auditioning auditions well and successfully entertains his audience then the audience, through their reaction, give power to the speeker and he is then seen as a powerfull figure, yet if he is unsucessfull the audience unconciously create an almost infamous conection with him. This is one of the reasons writing a best mans speech is such a high pressure and high profile task.

The purpose of a best man's speech is split into two; adressing the formalitys and entertaining an audience through houmor. Here I will be looking at houmor as this is the key to entertaining an audience at a wedding; therefore gaining power/success. It had become a tradition at weddings that best man's speech must be comical to the point of stand up comody. Stand up comody has many symilaritys to a best mans speech;

• It has the same audience-speeker relationship
• It has the same pressure to create houmor
• It involves a symilar type of humor which is taylored specificly for the audience
　

Houmor within a British best man speech

Looking at speech one and two both contain elements of self deprecitaion.

reference to the grooms bad behavior. This works as a device which appears to embarass yet the british culture has pride in bad behavior so it is actually giving an image which the groom wants.

very subtle voyerism
　
Houmor within an American best man speech　
　
Comparison

GAP Context

Best man  speeches fall within the genre of speeches. As a prepared speech; they are mulitmodal and therefore contain features of both spoken and written language. They have the prepared and structured format of written text yet the interactive and ..... form which spoken language has.
As the best man speech is a traditional speech its purpose is known widely by all and certain points which are expected to be hit and must be hit in order for it to be successfull;

• it must be very humorous, commonly mocking the groom
• it must include thank yous and a toast
• it must honor the bride and groom

The audience at which the speech is targeted is an audience with a wide variety of age, tastes and humor. This is what makes delivering a best man speech so stressful, it has to be tailored in such a way which is suitable for a wide audience.

American Man at an American Wedding – Speech 4

Views; 396 623 Likes 357

A: The lovely beautiful couple (1) I’d like you guys to sit its really long (7)

((laughter))

A: Alright (1) well first of all I’d like to thank everyone who made this possible uh (.) John’s parents who are also mine (3)

((laughter))

A: Britney’s parents of course everyone in the bridal party everyone here I mean it’s a very special occasion I believe where everyone’s sitting (.) and standing (.) right now (2) um I’d like to say first of all before I get into any of my mushy stuff Britney (.) Gorgeous I mean my god

B: Absolutely beautiful (6)

((laughter))

A: Britney tonight you look so beautiful it’s amazing I think that every guy in this room will agree with me when I say (.) it is a very sad day for us (5)

((laughter))

A: as a beautiful wonderful girl is officially taken off the market (3)

((laughter))

A: and I must say that every girl in the room will agree with me when I say that today (.) is just another day (20)

((laughter))

A: yes I know (5) well I got to admit when I first met Brit um obviously a great looking girl but she’s so much more she’s amazing she’s gorgeous she’s beautiful she’s smart she’s sincere (.) she’s uh intelligent I mean I could go on and on (.) she has this weird fascination with pink (3)

((laughter))

A: ((pulling out pink tie)) I mean come on people (4)

((laughter))

A: but I'm OK with it you know what because my brother chose her and I know how great my brother is so its a great great thing

British Man at a British Wedding – Speech 3

Views; 351 301 Likes; 195

A: Hello everyone (3)

((cheering and clapping))

A: you can hear me at the back can’t you (3)

((cheering))

B: (xxxx)

A: ha HA (2)

((laughter))

A: firstly I’d like to thank john for his kind words on behalf of the bridesmaids (1) um I’m sure they’ll thank you personally later (2)

((laughter))

A: I’m sure you’ll all agree they look absolutely gorgeous (5)

((laughter and clapping))

A: Ladies and gentlemen (1) every now and then we get such a rare opportunity to speak of a man who is witty (.) charming (.) inelegant and good looking (.) but I really shouldn’t talk about myself  this is (xxxx) [OVERLAP]

((laughter)) [OVERLAP]

(3)

A: I’m sure you’ll all agree it’s been a fantastic day so far (1) but unfortunately every silver lining has a cloud and that comes in the form of me (3)

((laughter))

A: for those of you who don’t know me my name is Raj (.) I’ve known john for well over twenty years sin-since we met one fateful day at primary school (.) I approached him in the corridor held out my hand and said hi (.) he took my hand in turn and said (.) hello chocolate man (17)

((lots of laughter))

A: I would firstly like to take this opportunity to thank john for asking me to be his best man today (.) it really is an honour (.) to be asked and a pleasure to fulfil this role and to be honest for him finally admitting after all these years that I actually am (.) the best man (3)

((laughter))

A: I don’t have to tell you today that I am actually rather nervous (.) uh which is very uncharacteristic of me (.) um just to put into perspective of how nervous I am this is actually the fifth time I’ve risen from a warm seat with a piece of paper in my hand (3)

((laughter))

A: that’s a bit graphic

((laughter))

A: should have reserved that for later maybe (.) there’s imagery going on now

American man at an American wedding – Speech 2

Views; 751 566   Likes; 1 916

A: It is great to be the (x) of the table (3) Alright (3) for those of you who may not know (2) I am Rickey’s younger brother Johnson (2) and I’m extremely honoured to be here tonight (.) to be the best man for not just my brother but (.) one of my best friends (.) Rickey (3) you might think it might be hard for us to be so close (2) we’re like nine years apart (2) he’s so old (3)

((laughter))

A: and uh I’m so young and uh handsome (4)

A: but (2) as luck would have it (.) both of us have the maturity level of about a seventh grader (2)

((laughter))

B: PUT TOGETHER

((more laughter))

A: combined (2) so it kinda worked out nicely (3) before I get all sentimental it wasn’t always so great to be Ricky’s brother (2)

C: pizza boxes=

A: = I know it’s shocking (2) but when Rickey was in high school (.) he often babysat for me (.) my sister Josie and my cousin Mike (2) so when the time came for dinner (2) Rickey used to order a pizza (3) take it the whole thing up to his room (1) and leave us (.) with cool aid packets (3) that’s right he didn’t even make the cool aid for us (2)

((Laughter))

A: now that I think about it high school Rickey kinda sucks (3)

((laughter))

A: I can’t hold that against him any more (2) cos he’s really made up for it since then (2) just a show of hands (1) how many people have ever left a conversation with Rickey thinking (3) that guy would really be something if he had a personality (4)

((lots of laughter))

A: ((pointing))we got one guy