Actors love to master a thick, regional accent, but you know which one almost never gets any love? The Philly ‘burb accent. It’s more distinct than the Boston, not as insane as the Baltimore, and yet not even native Bradley Cooper dared replicate it when he made the Southeast Pennsylvania-set Silver Linings Playbook. In fact, about the only place you hear performers trying to work their way around it is on SNL.
A few years ago, James McAvoy — star of two films by proud Philly local M. Night Shyamalan — did a phenomenal Philly accent while hosting the show. The accent’s back in the news now, thanks to HBO’s Mare of Easttown, which finds another UK native, Kate Winslet, doing her best stab at it. Now SNL is getting back in on the game, with a hilarious parody that leans in thick on the tricky accent.
Kate McKinnon stands in for Winslet, playing a working class detective with a ratty ponytail investigating some miserable murder. But never mind that: What’s important is they all have incredibly specific accents that are so thick a non-resident, played by Mikey Day, has trouble deciphering their content. Indeed, the fake show is called Murder Durdur, “durdur” being roughly how one from just outside the City of Brotherly Love pronounces the word “daughter.”
The parody has more in its arsenal than the Philly ‘burb accent. There’s very easy cheesteak jokes, yes, but there’s also nods to Yuengling Lager and Conshohocken and Delco and the Schuylkill River, as well as Winslet’s favorite PA grocery chain, Wawa.
Had so much fun reconnecting with my Delaware/PA roots this week on Murdur Durdur. Shoutout to Hockessin (even though I am a Newark girl but that pronunciation is up for debate.) Written with the one and only Fran Gillespie!!! https://t.co/cP0qDGcqGo
— Sudi Green (@Sudi_Green) May 9, 2021
You can watch the sketch in the video above.