Significance abt saying Guvnor in British Accent

A trivial qn: I have seen as a comedy in few movies: Just Go with It (2011), Easy A (2010) where the characters speak in or fake a British accent and quote some statement ending with 'Guvnor'.

eg) in Easy A, the quote goes like this: 'To say that one was freely adapted
is a bit of an understatement, guvnor'

What i want to know is: Are these lines from a famous British movie or a TV Sitcom that they make fun of and why is it so funny especially their statement addressing governor?! I am just curious.

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SJ.
Wait and Hope

They are referring to a Cockney accent, probably Mary Poppins or My Fair Lady. The humor, for me, is the bad fake over-the-top Cockney accent. Well at least from my American point of view.

Here's an example.



But me trying to explain humor takes the humor out of it.

So here's a clip from the show Dinner for Five. These talented people do a much better job at stating it than l do. They discuss bad accents right off the bat.

"Guvnor" is often used by someone who considers himself of a lower class as a form of address to someone who appears richer or higher-born in Great Britain or its "Empire". The person using the term may feel threatened (by the other person or by the law) and want to show the other person some kind of respect or in some cases, it could signify a way to make fun of someone considered an upper-class twit. It all depends on the context. I suppose when it's done in a modern movie not set in Britain that it's a sort of "Aren't we smart?" kind-of pat on the back.

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now i get it..
thanks for the replies.

I lost my internet connection last night while trying to reply to this. Apparently, there was an outage.

It is a funny line. you gotta say it like this.

a-lo, guv-nu!

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"Guvnor" has never actually been used in any real life situation as far as I know.

I've heard the terms "Boss" "Bloke" "Kid" "Pal" "Matey" even the term "Mucker" and many other terms of acknowledgement at the end of a sentence, but I've never ever heard "Guvnor".
Well, apart from in badly written movies of course.


It's just one of those misconceptions, usually by really bad writers who have no idea of what goes on outside of their local area... it's like saying that every single American says "Dude" after every sentence, or every single Irishman says "To be sure" whenever they reach the end of saying anything.

It's all stereotyping.

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You may not say it now, but it shows up a lot in old movies.

George Bernard Shaw used it and he never claimed to have invented it.

You mean those old movies that were based in Britain but were written by Americans Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi and had American actors doing English accents??

No, I meant Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw written in the early 1900s.

Eliza says it to Col. Pickering in the opening scene.

Oh... those ones.

Lol! As I said, it's just a stereotype these days. The kind of thing Emmerich lays on thick in his movies.