AMERICAN REACTS TO 6 American Things That Are Actually British

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Good. This is your boy Educ >> and Gigi.

[00:00:02]>> You already know what it is.

[00:00:06]>> Hey, today we got six American things that are actually British. So >> interesting.

[00:00:12]>> We're going to learn something new today.

[00:00:13]>> We're passing them off as our own.

[00:00:16]>> Okay, >> I'm ready. I'm ready to check this out, man. Let's just check it out. Yeah, >> that guy's got Let's go for >> the memos that Britain and America lost in the pond. And one of those memos pertains to things and stuff.

[00:00:30]Let's go. Sh.

[00:00:31]>> Specifically, things and stuff you always thought were American, but were in fact conceived in Britain. To all of the good people out there, plus my wife's cousin Chad, who think I suddenly have an agenda against America, that is because in my next YouTube long, I'll be shocking the world again with six British things that are actually American. See, I don't like >> We might have to watch that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

[00:00:55]>> Any of you, that's not true. Please don't unsubscribe. So often in life, we encounter things and stuff without ever contemplating what their origin story is. But because I didn't grow up in the United States, I've developed a certain curiosity for American things and stuff since moving here 15 years ago. To the extent that since I started this channel, I probably learned more facts about America than I have Britain. But also that those American facts are sometimes British ones in disguise. And so if you're intrigued by this and somehow haven't yet subscribed, that now.

[00:01:29]>> So yeah, make sure you subscribe.

[00:01:30]>> Well, then a quick word about today's sponsors on this channel.

[00:01:33]>> Hey man, get your money big.

[00:01:36]>> Get your money.

[00:01:37]>> Me time. Here are six American people that are actually British.

[00:01:41]>> They want steak sauce >> here in the Midwest. I quickly learned that the single most popular food after corn is meat and potatoes, which I've just realized is two separate things.

[00:01:51]For something else, >> A1 steak sauce.

[00:01:53]>> I know. I love some steak sauce. I feel like that's such a like >> Texas >> thing. I got to tell my dad cuz he cannot eat steak without steak sauce. He can't do it. Like when I bring a pogo, yeah, but I ain't got no A1.

[00:02:05]>> I'm like, yeah, he cannot do it.

[00:02:07]>> I don't need A1 to eat a steak.

[00:02:09]>> A1 is good, but I don't need it for steak. I usually >> Honestly, I don't even think it's that good, you guys.

[00:02:13]>> I grew up with it. So, I like that's that was like a staple in my house.

[00:02:16]>> That good.

[00:02:17]>> You ever had A1 steak sauce?

[00:02:18]>> Yes. And I don't think it's good. We used to make our own steak sauce.

[00:02:21]>> I mean, now the steaks that we eat, you know what I'm saying? Not that steak you eat don't need no steak sauce. Well, you wouldn't get a fog with it. Don't need no steak sauce there. You know what I'm saying? I don't really Yeah, I don't really use steak sauce as much as I I thought I would.

[00:02:32]>> It's popular on this side of the pond is sauce to go with your meat. In addition to ketchup and barbecue, I often encounter one bottle that initially appeared the very definition of American patriotism. It was red, white, and blue.

[00:02:44]The letter A obviously stood for America, and number one must have been shortorthhand for greatest country in the world. Quite honestly, few things more visibly screamed, "Welcome to America," than A1 steak sauce burst out. But here's the thing. Any bald eagle worth its salt would know that A1 steak sauce actually originated in England. But wait, Lawrence, did you just say that A1 originated in England?

[00:03:09]Yes, Lawrence. And that's very much an addition to the road of the same name.

[00:03:13]Its origins can be traced precisely to a small, modest home in London called Buckingham Palace.

[00:03:19]>> That's right. It was a building recognized the world over in which a chef by the name of Henderson William Brand unveiled the original sauce to none other than King George IV >> side in Ireland last year. I personally bore witness to that monarch's footprints. They were quite small on commercial sale in 1831 under the ownership of Brand's company Brandon Co.

[00:03:42]However, by 1871 the brand Brand was under different ownership and at this time it acquired the name A1. Contrary to popular belief, the name has nothing to do with the king exclaiming A1, as in magnificent. Instead, it was inspired by an insurance standard at Lloyds of London that denoted a good ship. As its popularity grew, so did its distribution. By 1906, it was sold in the United States, where it would later acquire the name A1 steak sauce and become a mainstay of the nation's condiments. By the late 1970s, in overwhelming competition from HP Source and Daddy's Brown Source, A1 all but disappeared from UK shelves.

[00:04:22]>> Oh, so we took a graduation march.

[00:04:25]>> Wait, what's the graduation march?

[00:04:26]>> The song. The song. Um, >> no, that's I'm working on the railroad.

[00:04:34]Um, >> it's been a minute since I graduated, man. Yeah. moved to the United States.

[00:04:42]It just happened to be at a time when my wife's sister was graduating from what Americans refer to as college. As a new immigrant, I had way less agency back then, and I was forced to attend her graduation. I was happy to be there. In addition to chucking their graduate caps in the air and seemingly having no limitation on the number of family they could invite, Americans procession to a very familiar piece of music, often known here as either Pomp and Circumstance or the Graduation March. Its melody was identical to what we in Britain know as Land of Hope and Glory.

[00:05:18]>> Side note, I was personally at all until Edward the >> I missed it. That's crazy. We stole that >> was identical to what we in Britain know as open glory.

[00:05:33]On a side note, I was personally gutted that the music did not herald the arrival of Randy Macho Man Savage himself synonymous with the tune. But even the greatest of American wrestlers couldn't change the fact that this music is very very very very very very English.

[00:05:49]>> It was completely of his pomp and circumstance marches.

[00:05:54]Hence why Americans call it pomp and circumstance.

[00:05:56]>> But it wasn't written with graduations in mind or Wrestlemania 7. In fact, >> comment down below what Yeah. In circumstance.

[00:06:06]>> I think I learned one time what it meant, but I can't remember.

[00:06:09]>> That's crazy though.

[00:06:10]>> But the song does I can hear.

[00:06:12]>> Yeah. Now, like once he played it one time, I'm like, "Yeah, I can see how that's British." Like I just You don't think about it now at all until Edward 7th, who had medium-sized feet, suggested it be part of his coronation ode with words and everything.

[00:06:24]>> So, you like that song first? It generally became a patriotic English tune to the extent that people often consider it a stronger candidate for our national anthem than God King itself repackaged in America is of thee.

[00:06:37]>> So how did a perceived symbol of English exceptionalism become America's deacto graduation march?

[00:06:43]>> Well that too was the work of Mr. Mustache himself Edward Elgar in 1905 after receiving an honorary doctorate from Yale University. Elgar performed a selection of his own works at the ceremony, including Pomp and Circumstance March. Okay.

[00:06:58]>> It was so well received that the music reached other universities and a tradition was born.

[00:07:04]>> Halloween.

[00:07:05]>> Well, it's always >> I think I've heard this >> that Halloween is not America.

[00:07:09]>> Yeah, I think I've heard of this.

[00:07:11]>> I thought we can come up with a ridiculous holiday like that.

[00:07:15]>> But I think they celebrate it differently and we changed it.

[00:07:18]>> We changed it. Okay. Okay. Halloween.

[00:07:21]time of year again. In fact, on nearby porches, I've been seeing plastic dead people for the better part of a month.

[00:07:27]So, I figured I might as well get in on the act.

[00:07:29]>> You see, in the United States, Halloween has long felt like a much larger deal than it did in Britain. It is America's enthusiasm for the occasion, in fact, that leads many of us to think of it as American. This year, strengthened further by the fact that many modern US Halloween traditions have spread to other countries. But it was two of those other countries that brought Halloween to the United States in the first place, Ireland and Scotland. You see, the origins of Halloween are very often linked to the Gaelic festival, Sarwin, which is not pronounced Sam Hayne, but knowing my look probably isn't pronounced Sarwin either. Starting in the 9th century, it would be observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the aisle of man from October 31st to November 1st, with sarwin also the Irish language name for November. The holiday has seen all sorts of twists and turns since then. But in the interest of time, let's skip forward by a thousand years. For it was during the 18th and 19th centuries that something happened to bring Halloween to a young United States. Mass Irish and Scottish immigration. Number four, Toby chimes in with, "Didn't English colonists recognize All Hallow's Eve before then?" Yes, to some degree, but any such celebrations were likely muted owing to puritanical opposition. The Scots and the Irish brought with them several traditions that would eventually catch on in the United States, including jack-o- lanterns. Historically, these would have been made with turnips.

[00:08:53]However, immigrants to America soon realized that native pumpkin presented a softer and larger surface on which to carve a face. And speaking of large things with cracks in them, that brings us on to this >> Liberty Bill.

[00:09:07]>> When you think of the United States, you think of three words: freedom. Freedom.

[00:09:12]and freedom and often in that exact order. And you don't have to live here to realize the extent to which freedom is precisely the rallying cry of so many of its symbols. You've got the Statue of Liberty, the Freedom Tower, Independence Hall. A short walk from that last one, you'll find the Liberty Bell. And just as Lady Liberty was constructed across the pond, the same is true of this.

[00:09:33]>> Yeah. Which is crazy. The Lady of Liberty wasn't even made here. That's crazy. That's crazy. Dang.

[00:09:40]2,000 instrument, something I discovered before visiting it. Now, granted, the idea of navigating tight security just to see a slightly damaged symbol of America's independence from the British might not sound like every Brit's cup of tea, but I had an obscurely sentimental reason for doing so. You see, in the irony to end all ironies, the Liberty Bell was cast not in Philadelphia, but London, specifically at the White Chapel Bell Foundry, now White Chapel was also the setting of my last English address before moving to America. In fact, I lived half a mile from where both Big Ben and the Liberty Bell were made.

[00:10:18]>> So, that just leaves one question. Why wasn't it cast in the United States?

[00:10:21]Surely having it commissioned to the country from which you've just is completely and utterly a little bit weird. And that would be true.

[00:10:29]>> That's crazy. Even our national monuments, we don't even make this stuff. We we we import it. We pay we pay for it. Like >> we gain independence from them. So we >> And then we made them >> made them make us like, "Hey, y'all make us something real quick." Like >> that's crazy.

[00:10:44]>> It not for one thing. The Liberty Bell was delivered a good 24 years before the Revolutionary War. In fact, it was ordered by the city to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Charter of Privileges, a constitution that granted powers to the British colonists in Pennsylvania. The charter's chief architect was William Penn, himself, an Englishman who founded the province of Pennsylvania. But not all would go smoothly. Famously, of course, the bell cracked during its first test in Philadelphia, making us, the British, look like idiots. And after the revolution, it completed its heel turn by ringing during the reading of the Declaration of Independence. Allegedly, which makes you wonder, is that when somebody first uttered the phrase, "Let freedom ring."

[00:11:26]>> No, that phrase is first attributed to the song, "My country is of thee."

[00:11:32]>> Apple pie uniquely American. You might hear the phrase, "It's as American as apple pie."

[00:11:40]But >> yeah, apple pie American, man. That's crazy.

[00:11:43]>> We love pies.

[00:11:44]>> That's what I'm saying. She loves some pies over here.

[00:11:46]>> Pumpkin pie.

[00:11:47]>> She loves some pumpkin pie. I'm like, >> I'm going to get one today.

[00:11:50]>> Pumpkin pie. Got to be American.

[00:11:52]>> Look deeper into this. I can't help but feel that such a proclamation might come as a shock to apple pies. And that's because they graced several European countries before arriving in the new world. Chief among these was the place of their origin, England. In fact, a recipe for apple pies can be found in an English cookbook all the way back in the 1300s when our language was still complete gibberish. As you've probably guessed, they were brought to North America by colonists in the 17th century. What you might not know is that that same sentence can also be applied to apple trees, which did not exist in America before that time. But it wouldn't be till the 18th century that apple pie's popularity began to surge in a newly independent.

[00:12:34]So, some like >> apple trees didn't even exist here until they >> came over here and planted them probably >> so that they could make apple pie.

[00:12:43]>> Dang, that's crazy. They were making apple pie back like they were making pie back then.

[00:12:48]>> Okay, but I'm just stuck on the apple tree.

[00:12:50]>> Yeah, apple trees didn't exist here at all. They just they brought seeds over here.

[00:12:54]>> So, are apple trees native to the UK?

[00:12:58]>> Maybe. Go. Like, how would they know how to make apple trees?

[00:13:03]They got to be. Yeah, they got to be.

[00:13:04]And then they brought them over here.

[00:13:05]>> They're not native to the United States.

[00:13:07]>> No.

[00:13:07]>> But what about like all those because in other states >> I know that they have apple farms like for apple tree picking and people go Yeah.

[00:13:17]>> and fill their baskets.

[00:13:19]>> Yeah.

[00:13:20]>> So, but it's like So that's not native to the United States. Like someone planted a whole bunch of apple trees there >> or just taught us how to do it. Brought some seeds over like >> It probably sounds stupid. I'm sorry guys.

[00:13:31]>> I know. But they probably just taught us how to do it and then we just start importing the apple seeds, plant them.

[00:13:38]>> Let us know if we're wrong.

[00:13:40]>> I don't think I don't know.

[00:13:41]>> United States. In 1796, a recipe for apple pie was featured in America's first cookbook, American cookery by Amelia Simmons. Thereafter, it would become a symbol of American prosperity.

[00:13:53]In fact, to this day, it is famously eaten on the 4th of July when Americans come together to celebrate their independence from the very gave them apple pie in the first place. And you begin to wonder whether this might have been by design, especially since they repeated the trick with another pie on another holiday.

[00:14:11]>> Oh, they just snatched your wig.

[00:14:15]>> Pumpkin pie. I did not expect that this >> dang pumpkin pie, too. We I literally just said pumpkin pie is American as it gets >> and we eat this on Thanksgiving.

[00:14:27]>> Pumpkin pie. Yeah, we do.

[00:14:29]>> So, I'm celebrating you guys every single day when I eat my slice of pumpkin pie.

[00:14:34]>> She has one in the refrigerator right now. Pumpkin pie.

[00:14:37]>> That's right. Pumpkin pie, a dessert associated with America's Thanksgiving, was first conceived in England. And I know what you're thinking. Lawrence, you told us that Britain didn't even have pumpkins until receiving them from North America. Yes, I did. But just as America sent a jazzed up version of Halloween back to Europe, we did the same to you with sort of. You see, if you give my >> So, we sent them pumpkins and then they they just turned it into pie before we >> they said we'll give you one better.

[00:15:04]>> Yeah.

[00:15:05]>> Pumpkin.

[00:15:06]>> Pie.

[00:15:07]>> Damn.

[00:15:08]>> Y'all did your big one with that.

[00:15:09]>> That What were we doing with the pumpkin?

[00:15:13]>> Nothing.

[00:15:13]>> Nothing. Nothing good.

[00:15:14]>> Homeland. anything that might conceivably fit inside a pie.

[00:15:19]>> Way to make that happen.

[00:15:20]>> And so it was with pumpkin or as it was known in 17th century England, Pompion, as recorded in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.

[00:15:28]>> And yes, I did just mentally rename the graduation march Pompon circumstance.

[00:15:33]Leave me alone.

[00:15:34]>> One of the earliest known recipes for Pompon pie can be found in the English cookbook, The Gentle Woman's Companion by Hannah Woolly. Published in 1675, it called for alternating layers of pumpkin and apple, spiced rosemary, sweet margarm, and a handful of thyme. So, a bit different from the custard based pumpkin filling of today. Nonetheless, variations on this pie were enjoyed by English colonists after arriving in North America in the 50 years prior.

[00:16:01]According to historical record, it would evolve into what we know.

[00:16:04]>> Let me tell you something. Gigi loves some some pumpkin pie. Man, >> that crust looks perfect. She loves the pumpkin.

[00:16:11]>> So, and the scalloped that's a scalloped crest. I think it looks great.

[00:16:16]>> Yeah, she loves the pumpkin pie. Man, this is great.

[00:16:19]>> A day during the 18th century when it too was featured in Amelia Simmons American cookery. Of course, even though each entry on this list had its origins in Britain and Ireland, it doesn't mean they're not a valued part of my American experience. That spot is reserved for peeps. Next week, I'll be enriching your lives even more with six British things that are >> Peeps.

[00:16:41]>> That is really American.

[00:16:42]>> Yeah, you can't tell me peeps ain't American.

[00:16:45]>> It has to be American.

[00:16:46]>> Nasty bunnies >> just filled with sugar.

[00:16:49]>> Sugar and >> it don't get no more American than that.

[00:16:51]Just with some sugar.

[00:16:53]>> Put two eyeballs on it. Peeps.

[00:16:56]>> You can only eat one to two peeps. I can't eat more than one one.

[00:17:00]>> They're not good, guys.

[00:17:01]>> Peeps. If you've never had a Peep, I don't recommend it. You're not missing out on anything.

[00:17:06]>> It's just too sugary. You can literally eat one and >> Yeah, >> that's all you can eat. We might have to check this out. Six spreaders think they're actually American.

[00:17:13]>> Yeah, that seems like fun >> cuz he got a tea bag. If we came up with tea bags, we probably came up with tea bags. I don't know. We came up with tea, though.

[00:17:19]>> I think we came up with tea. I think that's >> Yeah, that's I think that's our pay grade >> literally. Y'all got to let us know what to check out next, man. your waitress >> and peace.