Understanding how American Culture Looks to Outsiders

Hugh Laurie's song for America - A bit of Fry and Laurie - BBC sketch comedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHSjv9gxlE

I didn’t find this clip funny especially the ending part. I think even though Americans are very patriotic and very proud of their country but still there is much less racism in America than Europe.
Some other cultures and countries might have a not very positive look at American politics, but America’s music, literature, style of life, Movies, and technology has had very positive influence in other cultures over the years. American music especially has been very popular across the world. “American contemporary music can be heard all over the world, such as through Channel V, VH1 and by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley” [1] America in its literary history has had “eleven U.S. citizens that have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.”[2]
I believe all cultures make fun of each other because of misunderstanding and prejudice. I think that is the human subconscious that everybody wants to be the best but unfortunately a lot of time to achieve that wrong concept, the shallowest and easiest way is making a bad view of others by humiliating them through jokes.

**1 & 2 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_culture#Music

A Very thorough research about culture

http://www.zianet.com/NMIRI/am_culture.htm

Introduction to Sociology, 7: W. W. Norton StudySpace

Introduction to Sociology, 7: W. W. Norton StudySpace

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The Stanford Prison Experiment

I was absolutely unethical. They should have searched more in design phase about human reaction before executing the plan. They had to stop it after 6 days when they saw that it is hurting people seriously and people (guards) are stepping out of the boundaries.
As a result, as Zimbardo mentions in one of his interviews, good people cannot be brutal even under bad situation but evil can go through good people and make their life miserable. The “Power of Authority” can make an Evil of good people (who have readiness to become evil).
I found these websites informative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
http://www.prisonexp.org/

“Week One Blog Entry"

I am 37 years old. I work for a company as a Program Analyst, but Sociology has always been my favorite subject. I am from Middle East and since I left my country when I was 30 years old, I have a lot of experience with that culture. I have participated in activities about women’s and children’s right in my home country. I really enjoy the opportunity of freedom of thinking and speech here in the Unites States. Since I have a passion about sociology and the opportunity of great schools and references here in the U.S., I felt I should start studying it academically, possibly pursuing sociology as a career goal. I would like to continue my education in sociology and become a helpful sociologist. That is like a dream to me and would make me feel very useful. That does not mean I don’t like my current job. My background and education helps me understand systems and interrelationships of systems, statistics and probability, and management theories. I hope my background helps me to achieve this goal. The Sociology class structure is very interesting and I like the fact that all students are in touch with each other and can read each other’s ideas. This is very encouraging!!!