What is it the Americans really love about the British?

It’s the accent!

The accent! The Beatles.

What’s not to love about the Brits?

gun control

Seemingly clueless demeanor and fetish for tea

Well, I drink coffee but the fetish is right :-/

the accents. Anyone ever hear Fiona Ritchie? Love at first hear!

Margaret Thatcher. ;)

Their stoicism—their cuisine is a step below coprophagia, yet they persevere.

The extensive history
The excellent public transportation
National Health Services
Gun control (good call @YoKoolAid )
The many celebrities and what they have contributed to the world be it literature, acting, intellectual, medical, inventions, etc.
Their sense of humor (fellow Jelly ucme is a good example)
The BBC
That people can be openly gay
Their cheese, crumpets, PG Tips tea, Marmite, Coleman’s mustard, HP sauce
Their Wellingtons

Amazing actors.

The humor, the tea, and the intellectual culture.

Their being polite.

Yes, the intellectual culture.

The RAF and Earl Grey Tea.

The stereotypes

Doctor Who, and, more specifically, David Tennant!

Monty Python

The stoicism.

The clothes

Having “cousins” across the sea who are kind of foreign and kind of just like us.

The wedding.

Black Sabbath, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Maiden, Motorhead, Diamond Head, Napalm Death (Haters gonna fucking hate), Electric Wizard and other shit.

And Judas priest, too. I forgot about them.
ETA: Saxon, Venom, Girlschool, Angel Witch, Satan, Grim Reaper, Witchfinder General, Raven. I’ll stop now

Love the British? I don’t know that Americans at large do, but we are somewhat conditioned to assume people with English accents are smart. I blame all those documentaries that use an English accent to secure their academic credibility.

@yankeetooter The Doctor ought to replace Saint George as Britain’s patron saint. British people, make it happen!

That veddy, veddy droll sense of humor! : D

People say the love their accent. But they forget that the Scotts and Welsh (they are bilingual) are Brits too and they have very distinctive accents compared to the English. The Cockneys accent is also English. So when people say the like the English accent they are referring to the media, actors, and probably the royal family.

I know they love tea but, at least in London, you will find a lot of Starbucks & Costas, coffee is very popular there.

I love everything Brit.: My fave actors & musicians are Brits.
TV shows.
Range Rovers & Mini Morris
PG Tips, clotted cream, roast and dumplings, English muffins, Stilton cheese.
Sense of humor.
Agatha Christie.
The Remains of the Day.

@Porifera lurve for mentioning the non English Brits.

@fundevogel Fiona Ritchie is not English, neither.

@wundayatta oops, I don’t know her at all so I didn’t realize.

They’re like our cultural older brother…it’s a brotherly love!

We’re practically siblings.

I think their sense of humour for me is number one. It permeates everything. Just about all my favourite bands are from the UK, save for 5 or so.

Yes, I know there’s chavs and council estates. Yes, I know it’s not perfect; yes, I know their history is not perfect (far from it), but the UK is the basis and home of so many of the things, ideas and people that have enriched my life, and I do love it.

@aprilsimnel I feel you april likewise

I have to say the humor and the real actors (Sir Ian McKellen, and Sir Patrick Stewart to name a couple) and writers that can actually make a plot and some truly intelligent dialog as opposed to just some drivel punctuated with boobs and/or explosions. Yeah, us Americans have a special effects budget that can cover up for bad writing and stiff acting, but the BBC requires actual talent. And we like to laugh too, but it takes more than some kid wailing his dad in the pelotas with a whiffle-ball bat to make me laugh, though the majority of Americans seem to feel otherwise.

It’s their national treasure, Stephen Fry.

Their fabulous accents, from Liverpudlian, to Cockney, to Cornwallian, to Scottish, to Yorkeshire moors, to Devonshire to oh-so- posh Royal accents. It’s all good!

Then there’s Charles Shaugnessy from the Nanny and Patrick Stewart and Alan Rickman and Anthony Hopkins and James McAvoy

Then there’s The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Davy Jones, The Dave Clark Five, Petula Clark, Lulu, Herman’s Hermits, Oasis, The Cure, Duffy and Amy Winehouse (great voice, douche-nik attitude).

Universal Health Care.

Comedies such as Monty Python, Are You Being Served, The Goodies, Waiting For God, Keeping Up Appearances, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe.

BBC Specials and mini-series such as Cranford, The Barchester Chronicles, Bleak House, and Upstairs Downstairs.

Royal Watching, especially royal weddings. Ladies we love: The Queen Mum, Elizabeth the 1st, Queen Victoria, Princess Diana.

Beatrix Potter

British Cinema such as Sense and Sensibility (Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant) Star Wars (which had a lot of British actors and the gorgeous Anthony Daniels as C3PO, and wonderful Peter Cushing. The movie 39 Steps especially (and every other movie by) director Alfred Hitchcock. Actors Michael Caine, Judi Densch, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Christopher Plummer, Peter Sellers, Roddy McDowell,

Sherlock Holmes

Food: bangers and mash, bubble and squeak, fish and chips, a plowman’s lunch, an English breakfast, Yorkshire pudding, tea, clotted cream, crumpets, British Cheeses, malt vinegar, shortbread cookies, shepherd’s pie, watercress sandwiches, high tea, Fortnum and Mason’s, The food court at Herrod’s.

Beer.

Architecture: The Tower of London, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, Westmister Abbey, The Old Globe Theater, Stonehenge.

Writers: William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, John Keats, Thomas Hardy, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, James Herriott, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Elliot, Agatha Christie, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowlings, Rosamunde Pilcher.

Sebastian Cabot

The fact that they call campers: caravans, and bathrooms: the loo, and French fries: chips, and underwear: nickers, and elevators: the lift, and subways: the tube, and a late afternoon snack: tea, and going to the movies: going to the cinema, and lunch: dinner, and fancy pretentious people: posh, and drunks: gits, and douche-bags: wankers, and mothers: mum, and cellphones: mobiles, and Americans: Yanks.

And the men are not afraid to wear kilts!

Calling cigarettes Fags