"Why is he making that funny noise?". The RP speaker as an outcast

Received Pronunciation (RP) has always been considered as the most prestigious accent, to be taken as a reference in order to ‘talk proper’. It is not by chance, then, that it was still the dominant accent that could be heard on television until a few decades ago. However, regional accents have gradually obtained more space in TV fictional dialogue, and they have gained popularity and very positive attitudes from the audience thanks to memorable characters. This is what has recently happened with the popular comedy series Derry Girls (McGee 2018-present), where the only main character speaking with an English accent is frequently mocked for his making ‘funny noises’. This paper will offer a qualitative linguistic analysis of some scenes from Derry Girls, which will show how the RP speaker can be seen, paradoxically and contrarily to its traditional status, as an outcast. This study will thus shed light on the view that RP, in spite of being usually labelled as ‘regionless’, can be perceived as an actual foreign accent in some parts of the UK, such as Ulster.