site banner

Friday Fun Thread for June 14, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Why are British and American heads so different? I looked up a song on YouTube yesterday and as soon as I saw the singer I made an easy bet with myself he was British. He's got the same turnip-shaped head as, say, Simon Pegg or Anthony Hopkins.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney is a Mormon and thus should be quite close to the insular British genetically, and yet he has this All-American elongated head with a solid-looking jaw. Or if we're talking about singers, Brandon Flowers from The Killers is a Mormon and he has the same head shape as well.

Is it childhood nutrition? My own bias? Different beauty standards in the US and the UK? Have all people of mandible left the UK for the colonies in the eighteenth century?

There's a lot of interesting ethnic variation in England. The meme explanation is that small round heads and beady eyes are the 'indigenous' britons whilst other physical characteristics, like a longer face and more prominent jaw are primarily due to the Norman conquest. How the Germanic admixture fits in I don't know, but there's certainly a noticeable trend in phenotype.

I wouldn't be surprised if the round headed beady eyed hobbits of England who managed to weather every storm history has thrown at them would be less inclined to move to a far away land, whilst the long faced Normans who had already sailed and conquered would be more predisposed to doing so again.

So, this would mean that Richard Hammond is the indigenous Brit, and Jeremy Clarkson is the Norman usurper? By process of elimination, that leaves James May as the Germanic admixtures, which seems plausible.

I have literally seen this phenotype analysis of them before