Is it just me, or do more & more US programmes have speech that is delivered too fast?!

e.g. the new US sitcom (a co-broadcast - UK & US - from October2018+) "Happy Together" (stars: Damon Wayans Jr; Harry Styles).

Both I & my OH have found that the speed of the lines spoken is literally too fast to even hear the words, and definitely we can't follow one joke before the next joke is delivered.

Which means that overall there are 2 ways the script of "Happy Together" is too fast:
(i) the lines are spoken too fast, almost as if the filmreel has been speeded up!
(ii) the space between the jokes is not paced well

UK shows don't seem to have this problem. And a few UK shows ARE quite 'wordy' & have lots of punchlines, so the same problem as in "Happy Together" might well have occurred in that prog . . . but it doesn't. The great "Not Going Out" is an example. Lee Mack is a superb wordsmith & the script style in his sitcom follows suit. But the lines are spoken at a measured pace that the viewer can hear, and the delivery of each gag/punchline is measured too, rather than rushed.

This flaw in the timing in "Happy Together" seems to be becoming a pattern in US programmes. I have found that certain OTHER programmes from the US also move too fast, & it becomes difficult to follow. This chartacteristic has got worse over the years, & "Bones" is the latest example. "Bones" almost jumps! between scenes, with an over-speedy "Oh we know who did it / what to do next" theory by the characters that is expoundeed over just 3 sentences! - then a rush to the next scene. A bizarre & unrealistic speed of deduction!
The speed of the speech in "Bones" is also too fast (though not as bad as "Happy Together).
Rewind?! I do nothing but!!

Maybe the problem is that the target market for some programmes is people (the young?!) who don't want, or have time, to concentrate on the script. "Bones" may well fall into this, possibly appealing a lot to the people who used to watch David Boreanaz in "Buffy the Vamprire Slayer". But I DO want to follow the script! - particularly in comedies.

To compare - in case the problem was with the US accent or something - I re-watched a few episodes of an older US sitcom, "The King of Queens". But I DID find that I could easily follow that. "TKOQ" has well-paced gags, plus lines spoken at a comprehensible speed. So it's NOT my hearing! that is the problem.

"Bones" has beeen added to my list of programmes that I no longer watch, despite the forensic science & psychology aspects being of such interest. What a shame.

And after watching just 2 episodes of "Happy Together", I really think I a going to have to leave this. Which is a shame as I like the simple & fun comedy of Wayans (Sr AND Jr).

Anybody else find these over-speedy scripts an issue??

The speech in "Happy Together" is, for the most part, the fastest I've ever heard in my life.

Some of the dialogue is delivered at a swift yet reasonable speed but a lot of it is lightning fast and I wouldn't be surprised if a great many people found it far too fast to understand.

Funny you should say this, but I once read a report that stated CNN was preferred to the BBC in some countries, because (in part) they felt the British spoke too quickly. So we timed CNN vs BBC and found they were right. If you note Americans tend to stretch out their vowels, especially in the Southern states and British News readers tend to enunciate more distinctly. Allowing us to speak faster. But clearly too fast for some countries. So I can see why you're concerned about fast talking Americans.

I've never seen the program, but the clips I saw on YouTube didn't seem ridiculously fast to my American ears. Perhaps the clips aren't representative of the show as a whole.

Have a look at this clip.

Five seconds in, Jake says "They didn't even tell us who murdered the queen."

He completes the sentence in one second flat: that's pretty fast talking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHuooiY_Azw

Quote: Rood Eye @ 12th December 2018, 12:14 AM

Have a look at this clip.

Five seconds in, Jake says "They didn't even tell us who murdered the queen."

He completes the sentence in one second flat: that's pretty fast talking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHuooiY_Azw

View original

Yeah, that was pretty fast. It would annoy me if that's how most of the dialog was delivered.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 12th December 2018, 12:14 AM

Have a look at this clip.

Five seconds in, Jake says "They didn't even tell us who murdered the queen."

He completes the sentence in one second flat: that's pretty fast talking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHuooiY_Azw

View original

Sorry! Just not my type of comedy. Nothing remotely natural and full of cliches.

Glad to hear I'm not the only person who thinks the speed is too fast.

And thanks for the YouTube clip. Of course that particular line where Jake says "They didn't even tell us who murdered the queen" was clearly said OVER-fast just for comedic effect. But I too am amazed Wayans could even MANAGE to speak that fast!

And that trailer DIDN'T have as many fast lines as the actual series' episodes i.e. the quantity that I have since heard in just 1 episode. Maybe they deliberately(?) edited the selected scenes for the trailer so that the trailer was less "frantic" in pace?!

Tip: And if you switch on the subtitles in that YouTube video, it's even better! (Try listening to the "who murdered the queen" line WITHOUT it, & it's just garbled words! ) If I had the inclination, maybe I'd carry on watching the series with subtitles switched on all the time while it's playing on the TV, as it might help!

P.S. Did anyone notice how the 2 voices on the "TV" in the scene - our great James Corden & a "British newsreader" - both spoke at an understandable pace! Now THAT'S how the lines in the characters' scenes should be spoken.

I too have noticed how the Americans (or at least those I have met in person) have a clear & rather drawled out delivery (rounded vowels too). And they tend to speak more formally than we do, which is ironic when we think of the British normally being portrayed as over-straitlaced, NOT the Americans! So British enunciation can in comparison seem clipped & thus shorter in delivery. Which is another reason why the speed of this US drama is so surprising!