Wednesday 28th April 2010, 11:51

Help with Edinburgh show research please...

Right. My Edinburgh show this year is one with a stupidly large amount of research attached to it, and while I've done a fair amount, I've hit a wall. Which made me so frustrated, that I hit a wall.

So can you help proffer any information on the following...?

Silly neighbourly stereotypes & prejudices from country to country. That's it, simply put. Especially what any African, South American or Asian country thinks of their neighbours. I've done Europe, North America and Australasia (although opinions on these welcome too if you know any). But anyone with insider knowledge of what Sudanese think of Egyptians or Peruvians think of Bolivians, or anywhere else, please email me - paul at paulkerensa.com.

I'm hearing lots of 'x hates y', normally due to a war many years ago that few of us have actually heard of, but the good uns are the little stereotypes that we wouldn't normally know about, eg:

- Austrians think Hungarians are scary drivers in small cars

- Latvians swear by speaking Russian

- The Swiss think Italian men scream for their mothers while having sex

- Swedes say Finns are knife-wielding introverts who sit in saunas all day. Swedes also insist this isn't a stereotype - this is actually true.

Any other contributions? There are a lot of countries on the planet, and I'm finding it very hard to find out what any African nation thinks of their neighbours. No one wants to tell me. Also South America and Asia are proving tricky.

Do tell any unusual prejudices you've picked up on your world travels. paul at paulkerensa.com. Ta much.

And remember: it's not being racist, it's being xenophobic, and in any case, we're all equally rubbish, just in different ways...

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