Nope, those came from four years of figure skating.

Sort of on topic: It was widely noticed when they had Giles pronounce the word scone as rhyming with bone, instead of what would have been the correct British way. Have ME made any other such blatant mistakes with unAmerican characters?

Um, where to begin? Pronouncing "arse" as "ass" is probably the most common. Also, English people never (in my experience), use the term "a tad..." only Americans who want to sound posh do that.

And of course proper scones shouldn't have blueberries in them.

I can't think of any other instances at the moment, but I did notice scone when I heard it. I am not so sure it was a mistake as much as a decision to pronounce it that way so that American audiences could understand it because ASH would not have pronounced scone that way naturally.

Hum... I pronouce 'scone' to rhyme with 'bone' most of the time; I only use the phrase 'a tad' when I want to sound posher than I am; I say 'arse' to rhyme with 'farce', but I know people who are as English as I am by upbringing who say 'ass', probably because they learnt to swear by watching television. (ETA: I have a long standing interest in comparing accents. Forgive me.)

Spike's accent is not as genuine as Giles', for obvious reasons, especially when he's singing. JM has a lovely singing voice, but somehow he didn't carry Spike's accent all the way through 'Let Me Rest In Peace'. The business of using the word 'bloody' is perhaps more about historical inacuracy than an accent thing, but it's the worst one.

No other obvious things stick out in my mind, at least not on-screen ones. The fic writers who think that Spike is a Cockney are far, far worse.

It was widely noticed when they had Giles pronounce the word scone as rhyming with bone, instead of what would have been the correct British way. Have ME made any other such blatant mistakes with unAmerican characters?

In the UK some people pronounce Scone to rhyme with bone, and some people pronounce it to rhyme with gone. I'm not sure whether it's a North/South divide thing - that would be my first thought, though, with the gone pronunciation being a southern (and hence RP) thing, and the bone pronunciation being a northern thing. My family tend to rhyme it with bone, I tend to rhyme it with gone. Not sure why.

Blueberry scones, however, are a mindboggler on a par with fish icecream. Cheese scone, scones studded with raisins or scones studded with cherries - yes. Also plain scones. All other scones are newfangled American things, and based on my one encounter with blueberry scones whilst in LA, they aren't scones. Nice, yes. Scones, no. (Although not as far removed from muffins as American muffins are. Mind you, the American definition of muffin has so thoroughly overwhelmed the English definition of muffin, that I'm fairly sure Am-Chau doesn't know what an English muffin is.)

Spike's accent is not as genuine as Giles', for obvious reasons

ngah! Oh, lord, I love School Hard, but Spike's accent was initially as bad as Dru's. Dire, both of 'em. The fact that they've since retconned it so that the whole Mockney thing really is the character doing an accent not his own cheered me up no end - alas, we're obliged to provide our own fanwankage for Dru and for Kendra.

shudders.

Still, it's a thing. English shows do it all the time to American accents, so it's not like we have any moral highground. Plus - Denisof! Bloody hell fire. He had me fooled -- I was gobsmacked he wasn't English. And, sure, 7 years in the UK blahblahblah - props to him. Really good accent.

(as to vocabulary - my own vocabulary is, to coin a phrase, too much the bastard child of a Bill'n'Ted'n'Jane Austen gangbang. My English professor, who's himself a professional poet as well as an academic, objected to my use of the word "somewhat" in an essay on stylistic grounds, pointing out that it wasn't the sort of word people really used in conversation. But I do. My vocab is fucked. So I do use "a tad" and a lot of the English Cliche phrases that they give to the Watchers, because my affectations are bone-deep. Or possibly scone-deep.)

I'm not sure whether it's a North/South divide thing - that would be my first thought, though, with the gone pronunciation being a southern (and hence RP) thing, and the bone pronunciation being a northern thing. My family tend to rhyme it with bone, I tend to rhyme it with gone. Not sure why.

That would fit, actually-- I learnt the word from my grandma, who was born 'in the north', so it's a northern pronuciation that's slipped into my normal near-RP accent.

Mind you, the American definition of muffin has so thoroughly overwhelmed the English definition of muffin, that I'm fairly sure Am-Chau doesn't know what an English muffin is.

I know of many kinds of muffin, both English and American. (And when I'm not sure, I Google. This is my way.)

Plus - Denisof! Bloody hell fire. He had me fooled -- I was gobsmacked he wasn't English. And, sure, 7 years in the UK blahblahblah - props to him. Really good accent.

Wrod. Wesley's accent is amazingly authentic.

And um,ignorant colonial as I am, I know "Buggering hell!" is not a real expression. In my head, it helps to have "bugger" translate to...screw.(No, I can't believe I said that either.) But nobody says "Screwing Hell!" either.

"Buggering hell!" is not a real expression

Indeed. "Bugger", "bloody hell" and "fucking hell", yes, but not "buggering hell", for some reason.

Hmm...although people do say "fucking hell" so I'm not sure that translation thing entirely works!

(But you're right that no-one says "buggering hell", or "buggering" anything much really, it's more likely to be "bugger me sideways" or if you're Australian just "bugger!")

(BTW "bugger" doesn't just mean "screw" it specifically refers to, um, back-door screwing.)

I'm almost curious enough to go web/OED searching on scone pronunciation. I've always known it as scone/gone and my relatives, even the Inverness crowd pronounce it that way, in spite of the Throne/Scone association. Puzzling, because I always assumed the bone/scone was an English thing.