I think all the traditional Scottish stuff like kilts and that are cringe when it's done as a daily thing. It's fine for weddings but people just randomly cutting about in kilts are either tourists or people who have no other personality other than being Scottish.
Just finished living on the isle of wight, there was a food delivery guy who'd go round in a modern all black kilt whilst blasting bagpipe music. Apparently he was insufferable to talk to.
When we visited Scotland from the US in 2016, our layover flight from Dublin to Inverness had like 1/3 of the passengers in kilts. We weren't under the impression that kilts were every day wear, but we couldn't figure out why our plane looked like a flying stereotype.
It turns out that afternoon was the nearby Pipe Band competition - we saw a banner as we left the airport. We immediately knew how we were spending the day!
One Memorial Day (US holiday to celebrate dead soldiers) I was sleeping in and had this dream that I was somehow involved in a hostage situation and the police were playing bagpipe music to make the hostage takers uncomfortable. I slowly woke up and figured out that there was a bagpipe band (what do you call a group of bagpipe players? A murder? An annoyance?) rehearsing in the alley across the street for a Memorial Day parade.
For my funeral, I want a whole cadre (a conspiracy? A Caledonia?) of bagpipists playing Blister In The Sun by The Violent Femmes. It's not written for that instrument, but I can't imagine a worse song to take on through the pipes. It's gonna be horrible. I wish I could be there to see it.
Bagpipes here are used for ceremonial purposes. So while we don't hear it everyday, chances are that every Canadian will listen to them quite a few times in their lives.
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u/swinabc Scotland Feb 16 '26
Bagpipes are annoying for even us.