Overcooked pasta! aka: Italian stereotypes

[Risottia]

Oh noes!
Wife has overcooked the pasta! Shame has fallen on my family, my ancestors stare down at me in disapproval, my friends will shun me and I will be the laughing stock at the local bar. What should I do?

Do a
1) Roman Kingdom: burn my sword hand over the pan to reaffirm my honour and my determination.
2) Early Roman Republic: throw myself over a gladius. Lacking a gladius, a steak knife will do.
3) Late Roman Republic: go into exile. Ungrateful fatherland, you shan't have my bones.
4) Roman Empire: slit my wrists with the cheese grater.
5) Medieval Italy: lock up my wife in a nunnery, get annulment from the Pope.
6) Renaissance Italy: invade my neighbour's home and steal their pasta, claim they started it by stealing a bucket.
7) 1850 Italy: kill my wife, run away, join the Foreign Legion and eat baguettes.
7) 1930 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was the Bolshevik-Capitalist-Demoplutocracies.
8 ) 1950 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was a honour killing.
9) 2020 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was an immigrant robber.
10) Italian immigrant in Britain: eat it up with a stiff upper lip, then head off to the pub and order curry chicken lasagna.
11) 1950 Italian-American: eat it up and say it's just like nonna used to do.
12) 2020 Italian-American: post it on Instagram and say it's yummy creative cooking, mangia!
13) 2020 Italian-Argentinian: fry it, eat it up, drink Coke-and-Fernet, say that only Argentines know how to cook proper Italian stuff.

More seriously, after this tirade of stereotypes about Italians, pre-Italians, and foreigners of Italian origin, what are the most common stereotypes about Italians in your area? How would you categorise Italians as a whole (yes, that of course makes for stereotypes!)? And are people of Italian descent who have never lived in the country to be considered Italians, or are they something different? What are the stereotypes about them?

Letsa have a laugha! (no, we don't speak like that).

(your most mangiaspaghetti, Risottia)

[Trash fires]

14) Just say 'Mama mia."

[Risottia]

14) Just say 'Mama mia."

That's definitely an option.

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

Also, the Italian mafia stereotype. And that they're all Catholic.

[No State Here]

More seriously, after this tirade of stereotypes about Italians, pre-Italians, and foreigners of Italian origin, what are the most common stereotypes about Italians in your area? How would you categorise Italians as a whole (yes, that of course makes for stereotypes!)? And are people of Italian descent who have never lived in the country to be considered Italians, or are they something different? What are the stereotypes about them?

Hooo boy if I had to list Italian stereotypes in New York City… it would be longer than an essay

[Federal Asia]

Stereotypes about Italians are not really stereotypes, they are truths

[Farnhamia]

The art of the deal in Italian ...

[Farnhamia]

Stereotypes about Italians are not really stereotypes, they are truths

Tread carefully, very carefully.

[Ethel mermania]

Hot womenz who can cook.

[The Archregimancy]

10) Italian immigrant in Britain: eat it up with a stiff upper lip, then head off to the pub and order curry chicken lasagna start an ice cream business.

Corrected that for you; though the specific ice cream business in question did have a member of the family who went on to be famous outside the industry.

More seriously, Italian (and Italian-Swiss) immigrants to the UK are closely associated with ice cream. Even the main national ice cream professional body recognises the link in its histories of the ice cream industry in the UK:

In the early 19th century importation of ice started from Norway, Canada and America, this made ice cream readily available to the general public in the UK. Ice was shipped into London and other major ports and taken in canal barges down the canals, to be stored in ice houses, from where it was sold to ice cream makers. This burgeoning ice cream industry, run mainly by Italians, started the influx of workers from southern Italy and the Ticino area of Switzerland to England.

In London they lived in the most appalling conditions in and around the Holborn area. The huge ice house pits built near Kings Cross by Carlo Gatti in the 1850s, where he stored the ice he shipped to England from Norway, are still there and have recently been opened to the public at The London Canal Museum.

https://www.ice-cream.org/content/history-ice-cream

Note that this means ice cream as consumed in the UK, not Italian-style gelato. Gelato has only relatively recently made inroads into UK ice cream consumption.


Otherwise, I regret to say - and I really am embarrassed about this - most of the Italian stereotypes of my UK youth involved short fat comical men with small twirled moustaches who spent most of their time losing the Second World War; unless the story was set after the summer of 1943, in which case the short fat men provided comic relief for the heroic Allies they were ineptly trying to help.

I really am sorry about that; it makes me cringe as an adult 40 years on.

[Farnhamia]

10) Italian immigrant in Britain: eat it up with a stiff upper lip, then head off to the pub and order curry chicken lasagna start an ice cream business.

Corrected that for you; though the specific ice cream business in question did have a member of the family who went on to be famous outside the industry.

More seriously, Italian (and Italian-Swiss) immigrants to the UK are closely associated with ice cream. Even the main national ice cream professional body recognises the link in its histories of the ice cream industry in the UK:

In the early 19th century importation of ice started from Norway, Canada and America, this made ice cream readily available to the general public in the UK. Ice was shipped into London and other major ports and taken in canal barges down the canals, to be stored in ice houses, from where it was sold to ice cream makers. This burgeoning ice cream industry, run mainly by Italians, started the influx of workers from southern Italy and the Ticino area of Switzerland to England.

In London they lived in the most appalling conditions in and around the Holborn area. The huge ice house pits built near Kings Cross by Carlo Gatti in the 1850s, where he stored the ice he shipped to England from Norway, are still there and have recently been opened to the public at The London Canal Museum.

https://www.ice-cream.org/content/history-ice-cream

Note that this means ice cream as consumed in the UK, not Italian-style gelato. Gelato has only relatively recently made inroads into UK ice cream consumption.


Otherwise, I regret to say - and I really am embarrassed about this - most of the Italian stereotypes of my UK youth involved short fat comical men with small twirled moustaches who spent most of their time losing the Second World War; unless the story was set after the summer of 1943, in which case the short fat men provided comic relief for the heroic Allies they were ineptly trying to help.

I really am sorry about that; it makes me cringe as an adult 40 years on.

Speaking of Ticino ...

[The BlAAtschApen]

14) Just say 'Mama mia."

Here I go again.

Wait, that's a Swedish stereotype.

Italian stereotypes.

Driving a vespa, saying ciao.

https://youtu.be/hxQYE3E8dEY?t=45

Being very passionate about their coffee. And about how the Dutch cut spaghetti. And put ketchup on it.

[Risottia]

10) Italian immigrant in Britain: eat it up with a stiff upper lip, then head off to the pub and order curry chicken lasagna start an ice cream business.

Corrected that for you; though the specific ice cream business in question did have a member of the family who went on to be famous outside the industry.

More seriously, Italian (and Italian-Swiss) immigrants to the UK are closely associated with ice cream. Even the main national ice cream professional body recognises the link in its histories of the ice cream industry in the UK:

In the early 19th century importation of ice started from Norway, Canada and America, this made ice cream readily available to the general public in the UK. Ice was shipped into London and other major ports and taken in canal barges down the canals, to be stored in ice houses, from where it was sold to ice cream makers. This burgeoning ice cream industry, run mainly by Italians, started the influx of workers from southern Italy and the Ticino area of Switzerland to England.

In London they lived in the most appalling conditions in and around the Holborn area. The huge ice house pits built near Kings Cross by Carlo Gatti in the 1850s, where he stored the ice he shipped to England from Norway, are still there and have recently been opened to the public at The London Canal Museum.

https://www.ice-cream.org/content/history-ice-cream

Note that this means ice cream as consumed in the UK, not Italian-style gelato. Gelato has only relatively recently made inroads into UK ice cream consumption.


Otherwise, I regret to say - and I really am embarrassed about this - most of the Italian stereotypes of my UK youth involved short fat comical men with small twirled moustaches who spent most of their time losing the Second World War; unless the story was set after the summer of 1943, in which case the short fat men provided comic relief for the heroic Allies they were ineptly trying to help.

I really am sorry about that; it makes me cringe as an adult 40 years on.

Oh, I thought the gelataio stuff was restricted to tge German area.

[The BlAAtschApen]

Corrected that for you; though the specific ice cream business in question did have a member of the family who went on to be famous outside the industry.

More seriously, Italian (and Italian-Swiss) immigrants to the UK are closely associated with ice cream. Even the main national ice cream professional body recognises the link in its histories of the ice cream industry in the UK:



https://www.ice-cream.org/content/history-ice-cream

Note that this means ice cream as consumed in the UK, not Italian-style gelato. Gelato has only relatively recently made inroads into UK ice cream consumption.


Otherwise, I regret to say - and I really am embarrassed about this - most of the Italian stereotypes of my UK youth involved short fat comical men with small twirled moustaches who spent most of their time losing the Second World War; unless the story was set after the summer of 1943, in which case the short fat men provided comic relief for the heroic Allies they were ineptly trying to help.

I really am sorry about that; it makes me cringe as an adult 40 years on.

Oh, I thought the gelataio stuff was restricted to tge German area.

Nope, Netherlands also has a few of that. At least around Utrecht. Or pretending to be, I don't know. But one did go to Italy every year (okay, not this time) in winter to win prizes in contests.

[Voxija]

When I was younger, I had a teacher who was Italian. When I wrote stories, I sometimes put Italian characters into them, and I would ask the teacher if the Italian characters were portrayed accurately, and behaved like actual Italians. Here are my stereotypes.

-Italians love a challenge.
-Italians like cars, fashion, and cooking.
-Italians often wear sunglasses.
-Italians like cracking jokes at people, in a manner that is sometimes considered bullying by non-Italians.
-Italian men are hot, at least until they marry and get overweight from their wife's cooking.
-Italian women are also pretty, but they sometimes act like bitches.
-Italian mothers haven't perfected the craft of guilt quite yet.
-Italians are very family-oriented.
-Italians are mostly Catholic, but they don't often act Catholic, if you know what I mean.
-Northern Italians dislike Southern Italians, and vice verse.
-Italians think the specific city they come from makes the best pizza.
-Italians talk with their hands, but so does everyone else.
-The Italian accent is melodious, and not necessarily "I eat-a spaghetti-a."
-Italians are proud of their stereotypes.

-Italian Americans are even prouder of their stereotypes than Italians.
-Italian Americans say "eyyyy!"
-Italian Americans often live in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, specifically Jersey, New York City, and Rhode Island.
-Italian Americans have lost touch with their heritage, and think Southern Italian culture is Italian culture in general.
-Italian Americans are lighter in skin and darker than hair than your average Italian, and usually have pale skin and dark hair.
-Nominally Catholic, but never go to church.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Ok, far from the spirit of offending, I’ve never understood the Italian-American stereotype of hand gestures. There’s even a joke I’ve been told several times about “what do you call an Italian without an arm or a hand? A speech impediment.” Can sometimes me explain that? I mean, I’ve met both Italians and Italian-Americans and it’s not like they actually gesticulate excessively. What’s up?

[The Two Jerseys]

They're all in the Mafia.

Where I grew up, there's some truth behind that stereotype...

[Farnhamia]

Ok, far from the spirit of offending, I’ve never understood the Italian-American stereotype of hand gestures. There’s even a joke I’ve been told several times about “what do you call an Italian without an arm or a hand? A speech impediment.” Can sometimes me explain that? I mean, I’ve met both Italians and Italian-Americans and it’s not like they actually gesticulate excessively. What’s up?

Define "excessively." Italians are famed for augmenting their speech with gestures, though why ... I don't know. It's not a new thing, though. May I call your attention to the work of Andrea de Jorio, La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano, translated as Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity by Adam Kendon. De Jorio, an early archaeologist and investigator of the frescoes of Pompeii, saw a continuity between the gestures depicted on the buried walls of that unlucky town and the gestures he saw on the streets of Naples. His work has been criticized in recent years but still provides insight.

[Free Ravensburg]

>be me
>finished Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind
>see this thread
>doesn’t respond to the stereotypes
>also me

[Katganistan]

Hot womenz who can cook.

Hot men who can cook, too.

[Ethel mermania]

Hot womenz who can cook.

Hot men who can cook, too.

Tbf, yes. Sexy people who can cook, what is not to like

[Vetalia]

Here in the heart of the Rust Belt, NE Ohio...Mafia, union racketeering and county corruption. There's an Italian family around here with a curious combination of business ventures that are a perfect combination for suspicious money laundering...car washes, restaurants and, oddly unsurprisingly, a tax preparation firm. And of course never forget the infamous Jimmy DiMora of relatively recent Cuyahoga County fame. That dude was dirtier than a shithouse rat, although his accomplices in crime were decidedly non-Italian.

I will say that even if they are laundering money through these operations the food is very good, nothing beats their chicken parm, Alfredo or stuffed hot peppers.

Of course, being the descendant of relatively recent Polish Catholic immigrants in Pennsylvania coal mining country and having to deal with both them and the Irish, it might impact my perspective.

[The Three Palins]

Oh noes!
Wife has overcooked the pasta! Shame has fallen on my family, my ancestors stare down at me in disapproval, my friends will shun me and I will be the laughing stock at the local bar. What should I do?

Do a
1) Roman Kingdom: burn my sword hand over the pan to reaffirm my honour and my determination.
2) Early Roman Republic: throw myself over a gladius. Lacking a gladius, a steak knife will do.
3) Late Roman Republic: go into exile. Ungrateful fatherland, you shan't have my bones.
4) Roman Empire: slit my wrists with the cheese grater.
5) Medieval Italy: lock up my wife in a nunnery, get annulment from the Pope.
6) Renaissance Italy: invade my neighbour's home and steal their pasta, claim they started it by stealing a bucket.
7) 1850 Italy: kill my wife, run away, join the Foreign Legion and eat baguettes.
7) 1930 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was the Bolshevik-Capitalist-Demoplutocracies.
8 ) 1950 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was a honour killing.
9) 2020 Italy: kill my wife, claim it was an immigrant robber.
10) Italian immigrant in Britain: eat it up with a stiff upper lip, then head off to the pub and order curry chicken lasagna.
11) 1950 Italian-American: eat it up and say it's just like nonna used to do.
12) 2020 Italian-American: post it on Instagram and say it's yummy creative cooking, mangia!
13) 2020 Italian-Argentinian: fry it, eat it up, drink Coke-and-Fernet, say that only Argentines know how to cook proper Italian stuff.

More seriously, after this tirade of stereotypes about Italians, pre-Italians, and foreigners of Italian origin, what are the most common stereotypes about Italians in your area? How would you categorise Italians as a whole (yes, that of course makes for stereotypes!)? And are people of Italian descent who have never lived in the country to be considered Italians, or are they something different? What are the stereotypes about them?

Letsa have a laugha! (no, we don't speak like that).

(your most mangiaspaghetti, Risottia)

That's the funniest damn post I've read in the short life of my "nation". Thankyou!

I don't know nearly as much about Italy as yourself. I'm not ready to disclose my own place of origin, mocking US stereotypes is risky since some American will surely defend them as the real deal, Switzerland is too easy, and so on ...

I will however say that I cook my spaghetti until a typical strand has just a tiny dry spot in the middle, drain it, and let it finish cooking in the service bowl (or on the plates). Some consider this a little over-cooked. Anyway I know that's not the subject.

[The Three Palins]

Hot men who can cook, too.

Tbf, yes. Sexy people who can cook, what is not to like

They tend to marry each other?

[Jabberwocky]

Aye, my wife fails to grasp al dente too. But in the interest of marital harmony and domestic equilibrium, I eat it with a smile.