Could the Dude be feasible in other cultural context, or is the Dude a uniquely American cultural artifact?

The dude could be a Frenchman from the south, from Provence…switch up the caucasiens for nips of Calvados…drives a beat up Citroen 2CV, smokes exclusively Moroccan Hashish. His name is spelled Geoffrois LeBeausquis….. and he lives in a run down 600 year old stone hut, once built for the goat shepherd, that he rents for 200 francs a month.

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phalanxausage@reddit

I was imagining him in Wallonia.

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

You know I originally came on this thought when envisioning that stereotype of the cigarette smoking nihilistic Frenchman.

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Capn_Grammar@reddit

Nihilistic? Fuck me...

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thai-stik-admin@reddit

Say what you want about the tenants of beatnik society, at least it’s an ethos.

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DigitalBoy05@reddit

I just think we are the only ones who pride ourselves on laziness and convenience

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

That was kinda my thought, and he's like the ultimate uberAmerican. I was thinking MAYBE Korea or Japan have some of the same almost zen culture as the Dude represents.

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glfranco@reddit

Is that some kind of Eastern thing?

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CommonSensei-_@reddit

Dudeism is…. Eastern, by way of Los Angeles. They call it the “city of angels”

Of course I can’t say I’ve seen London, and I’ve never been to France.

… aw I lost my train of thought there…

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anditcounts@reddit

I didn’t find it to be that, exactly.

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CommonSensei-_@reddit

Have you ever seen the Queen in her damn dundees?

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DigitalBoy05@reddit

Its also at the end of the daily show with John stewart

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DigitalBoy05@reddit

Yeah but they zen in a classy way.

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CommonSensei-_@reddit

Is Zen… some sort of eastern thing?

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

What about, like, Parasite? And they've got the like drunken samurai concept.

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DigitalBoy05@reddit

The dude would have just said fuck it and walked around the house in his bathrobe.

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

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lDtiyOrwleaqeDhTtm1i@reddit

What in God’s holy name are you blathering about?

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

New shit has come to light!

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Electronic_Heat_1581@reddit

I could see the Dude living in Austrailia. The driving would be an adjustment but otherwise he'd fit right in.

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Pitiful-North-2781@reddit

Dude is very American. I think you at least have to have grown up or lived for a long time in a western society to appreciate him more deeply than as a weird curiosity. The movie does not land the same at all in Japanese, I can tell you. American cussin’ is a whole language unto itself.

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Capn_Grammar@reddit

A pox on't, Kvave; let us play at ninepins.

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AdamBertocci-Writer@reddit

Hey, thanks for the plug, man. ;)

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Capn_Grammar@reddit

I dig your style too, man

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

🤌💀 Alas, poor Donnie... I knew him well, Dude.

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TrollerCoasterWoo@reddit

It’s like Lenin said

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

I am the walrus?

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freetherhinoz@reddit

Stfu Donnie

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thai-stik-admin@reddit

I am the walrus.

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Moose_on_the_Looz@reddit

Vladimir Illych Ulianov! VI Lenin!

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ThePythiaofApollo@reddit

I think a Greek Dude could totally work. Drinking endless tiny cups of coffee, tossing back ouzo like lemonade, chain smoking, talking to his koumbara (special Lady friend)

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thrownalee@reddit

They call him Zorba.

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H_E_Pennypacker@reddit

You’re a Zorba, I’m a Zorba, that’s terrific

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ThePythiaofApollo@reddit

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Like, Opa, man. It’s my name’s day. Let’s roll a j.

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2wheelsThx@reddit

He could write the Port Athens Statement. We'll, him and six other guys.

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therealtwomartinis@reddit

seven greeks, the story is ludicrous

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ThePythiaofApollo@reddit

gif

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Fert_Reynolds@reddit

The original Port Athens Statement, not the compromised second draft

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geese_moe_howard@reddit

Moz from the sitcom 'Ideal' might be the closest British equivalent. As he's British, his hobbies tend more towards going down the pub than bowling.

Does Moz abide? He would if people weren't knocking his door at all hours.

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Astro_gamer_caver@reddit

Sometimes there's a man who, well, he's the man for his time'n place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles.

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TaekDePlej@reddit

And that’s the Bloke, in Brisbane.

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DesperateMechanic305@reddit

Well there is also de Gozer, uit Eindhoven. Driving his beat-up 2015 Hyundai Tucson, drinking milk and coffee, eating drop, sla-vinken and a lot of boterhammen met kaas, making an occasional trip to Amsterdam.

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Substantial-Sector60@reddit

I wouldn’t say a hero… Because what’s a hero?

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OneTwoThreePooAndPee@reddit (OP)

I dig your vibe, man.

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Super_Region_2054@reddit

Is that some kind of eastern thing?

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Musubi0420@reddit

He could potentially be Australian, I will swear by it

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PabstBlueBourbon@reddit

In another universe, The Dude would have made a great whale.

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Rizos28@reddit

Godo Ledesma, student activist during Spanish transition to democracy, support artist to Mago de Oz, but loves to drive around playing his cassettes of Triana, Smash, etc. in his beat-up Seat 131 (supposing it's still 1991). Strongly into hash and crema catalana, with a occasional mushroom trip.

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MoeraBirds@reddit

He couldn’t be a dick, man, anywhere other than LA. The Philip Marlowe echoes wouldn’t work.

But he could be a slacker lots of places.

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jose_elan@reddit

The weather is a big part of the the dude being able to be the dude so it would need to be a pretty nice climate.

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Competitive_Ant_472@reddit

I can see the dude as a witty lazy middle easterner type or even an aloof frenchman

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sp0rkah0lic@reddit

Of course he is feasible in other cultures or contexts. He isn't uniquely American at all.

The Dude is very Zen.

Literally and intentionally. So very much of his schtick is an American slacker take on Zen Buddhism. In exactly the same way that Yoda is just a sci-fi Buddhist warrior monk.

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