New TikTok trend has Gen Z breaking out British accents with regularity
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Do you ever just for the fun of it, put on a British accent?
That's been going on forever, mostly as a joke -- but now Gen Z has taken it to a new level and it's become a TikTok craze.
KDKA's John Shumway is here with the trend and reaction.
If your kids have been doing it and you wondered why, well here it is.
Gen Z, which is anyone from 9 to 24 years old apparently like the calming way the British or Australian accent rolls off of the tongue.
It's not a surprise, as the accent has been comforting them on "Bluey" and "Peppa Pig" for years.
"I think there's a certain charm to a lot of those programs. Certainly, 'Peppa Pig' you know, every child in the U.K. watches 'Peppa Pig,'" said Aaron Gidney, a British dad.
Gidney says he's not surprised that young people in America like to speak Brit.
"I think comes with it a certain sense of humor. Almost a kind of self deprecating humor," Gidney said.
But it's not just the little kids. There are bigger influences too like "Bridgerton" and "Ted Lasso."
"There's a certain cultural crossover, which I think is clearly quite appealing to particularly a lot of young Americans," Gidney said.
And that's not a new crossover, as Ross tried it on "Friends," and there was "Mary Poppins."
"Dick Van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins was was often a source of ridicule," Gidney said.
While Ross didn't convert Millennials and Boomers just laughed at Van Dyke, they didn't have TikTok.
In fact, some Gen Z's have adopted British as their dialect -- but don't ask Aaron to try an American accent.
"I wouldn't want to offend anyone on your side of the pond," Gidney said.
Some say the British accent is soothing or kind, and if often used as a disarming defense mechanism, whatever the attraction, it's a thing.
We expect this from actors, but people changing how they talk seems a little over the top.
Foreign actors for years have mastered American dialects and Johnny Depp, who's from Kentucky, slips into Captain Jack Sparrow often, but American kids going British, at least it's a harmless trend.