A Letter to America from John Cleese

Got this in my email this morning thought I would share

A message from John Cleese...

To the citizens of The United States of America:
In
light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates
for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give
notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

Her
Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties
over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which
she does not fancy).
Your
new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America
without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be
disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you actually noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect.

You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford 'English' Dictionary.

1.
Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be
amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2.
The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour'
and 'neighbour'. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without
skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by
the suffix '-ise'.

Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

3.
Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such
as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of
communication.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS US ENGLISH.

We
will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker
will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the
elimination of –ize.

4. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

5.
You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers,
or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists
shows that you're not adult enough to be independent.

Guns
should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort
things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're
not grown up enough to handle a gun.

6.
Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more
dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if you
wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

7. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts and you will start driving on the left with immediate effect.

At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.

Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

8. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline)-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.

9.
You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries
are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips
are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal
fat, and dressed not with ketchup but with vinegar.

10.
The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually
beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to
as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be
referred to as Lager. Australian beer is also acceptable as they are
pound for pound the greatest sporting Nation on earth and it can only
be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth - see
what it did for them.

American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

11.
Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good
guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play
English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue
in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's
ears removed with a cheese grater.

12. You will cease playing American football.

There
is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you
brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some
similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a
rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a
bunch of nancies).

Don't try Rugby - the Australians and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.

13.
Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host
an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside
of America.

Since
only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,
your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let
you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their
deliveries.

14. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

15.
An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's
Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all
monies due (backdated to 1776).

16.
Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers,
and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus
strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God save the Queen.