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Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:51 am
by edinstven
well, i used the wrong word.
with humour i meant the aboved mentioned things from daniel.

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:33 pm
by Dr. Shoe
admin wrote: But some phrases hat to be changed completely.
E.g. Pumpkin. This makes no sense in german nor is it funny in any way.
So in german Kelly is called "Dumpfbacke". With is spoken not longer or shorter than pumpkin. It also matches the mouth-gestures of the actor.
That's not so good. I looked up "Dumpfbacke" on that dictionary and it translates to English as "nimrod" or "dumbass." This is certainly not in the spirit of Pumpkin. I call my wife pumpkin. Its a term of endearment. It would be downright abusive for him to call his daughter a dumbass. I know this is the Bundys but it just doesn't fit. Of course the translation could be off.

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:50 am
by Daniel
Dr. Trumaine wrote:
admin wrote: But some phrases hat to be changed completely.
E.g. Pumpkin. This makes no sense in german nor is it funny in any way.
So in german Kelly is called "Dumpfbacke". With is spoken not longer or shorter than pumpkin. It also matches the mouth-gestures of the actor.
That's not so good. I looked up "Dumpfbacke" on that dictionary and it translates to English as "nimrod" or "dumbass." This is certainly not in the spirit of Pumpkin. I call my wife pumpkin. Its a term of endearment. It would be downright abusive for him to call his daughter a dumbass. I know this is the Bundys but it just doesn't fit. Of course the translation could be off.
"Dumbass" is too harsh. I wouldn't call my wife so too, but for Kelly it's ok :) . It's for me between a lovely term of endearment and "well, you are not the sharpest knife in the box" :)

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:07 am
by Dr. Shoe
Don't you guys have a similar expression? I know my Mexican amigos call thier women gordas or gorditas (little fat girl). Kinda like a pumpkin I guess.

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:22 pm
by Dr. Shoe
Okay I was watching the German version of I Want My Psycho Dad part II yesterday and When Al enters the U.S. Senate chamber he says something that sounded very obscene. It was German so I couldn't say for sure. The subtitle in German did not match what I heard. I think it was a German word that is also an English word but if said in English would be pretty bad for broadcast TV. Does this happen much?

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:20 am
by Daniel
Dr. Trumaine wrote:Okay I was watching the German version of I Want My Psycho Dad part II yesterday and When Al enters the U.S. Senate chamber he says something that sounded very obscene. It was German so I couldn't say for sure. The subtitle in German did not match what I heard. I think it was a German word that is also an English word but if said in English would be pretty bad for broadcast TV. Does this happen much?
I'll have a look after my holidays and tell you what he said.
But I can tell you that we have no "beeeps" in german tv *lol*.
But as far as I can say at the moment I don't remember any bad bad words (but I'll have a look for you)

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:28 pm
by Glenn
For me the english versions are still better than the germans because you get all the jokes. But having watched the german versions before on TV (and taped most of it) I must say that they did a great job dubbing it. Sometimes jokes have to be changed since the exact translations would make no sense.

Case in point: In the episode "The hood the Bud and the Kelly", when all the guys are on the roof there is a dialog:

Jefferson: "Hey Dan, hand me screw U"
Dan: "What?"
Jefferson: "I said screw U"

Since Screw U can be a tool or an insult, in german it wouldn't be a joke if Jefferson would say "Gib mir Schraube U".

In german they made something like (free translation): "Shove you cock in here". In this case cock was meant to be something like a piston or plunger (a tool) and it ended with Dan taking his gun and yeölling at Jeff "You gay rat"

As for myself I used the english versions of Married with Children and Friends to improve my knowledge of the english language. I learned a lot at school thanks to an enthusiastic teacher but you never get the hang of speaking a language fluently just by learning it at school. Watching MWC made me use my knowledge and it improved by a large margin.

And since I went on to watch most movies and read books in english I sadly have sometimes problems to find the proper german words for something I talk about with friends :-(

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:00 pm
by Panek
Glenn wrote:In german they made something like (free translation): "Shove you cock in here". In this case cock was meant to be something like a piston or plunger (a tool) and it ended with Dan taking his gun and yeölling at Jeff "You gay rat"
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:33 pm
by Dr. Shoe
Hmm.... Yea I don't know why but I suspect the German version is a bit more vulgar than the English version. I guess its because we're really still a bunch of Puritans over here.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:05 pm
by Panek
Probably because the Germans are a little bit more 'laid back' than Americans. I myself don't mind bad language or sexual innuendos in daytime TV (makes it even more interesting to watch, though).

But the problem is, if somebody on American TV would say stuff like the mentioned "Shove your cock in there", 95% of the population would be like "Wow", and wouldn't really care, but 5% (the Terry Rakoltas of today's television; press, religious organisations etc.) would say "Oh my God!!! Swearing on television!! Quick! Pull it off the air!".

But in Germany, they don't really care, and are far more tolerant towards jokes like these.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:02 pm
by Dr. Shoe
We may have stumbled upon something here. Perhaps some of the extrodinary creativity behind MWC was born out of America's very particular attitudes about what is and is not acceptable on public TV. Think about it. Its easy for a writer to just be crude. Its more difficult to brush against that fine line of acceptability and make something funny. MWC had to try harder. I think that accounts for some of the greatness of the show.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:28 pm
by Shoe Dick
Of course that was a major part of the show, they pushed the boundaries like no other show has before, they set the standard. If it weren't for MWC there would be no Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park etc.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:05 pm
by Daniel
Dr. Trumaine wrote:Hmm.... Yea I don't know why but I suspect the German version is a bit more vulgar than the English version. I guess its because we're really still a bunch of Puritans over here.
Today I read an article in the newspaper - it was about gaming - that in Europe we care more about violence and much less about sexual things.
In US it's exactly the other way round.

Another example are the "beeps" in American TV Show.
It's realy funny to watch Maury or Springer in holidays. Bad gestures are pixeled out and bad words are beeped out. You can't even hear a word.

In Europe we don't beep out things but usualy the use of bad words is not so heavily used like in US-Shows.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:40 pm
by Glenn
Yeah, it's funny in the USA. You have graphic violence all over TV and no one says something but once you say "shit" or "%@*!" or show a bare breast, all hell breaks loose.

It's like being in a room full of computer nerds. You can talk about raping children or shooting someone and nobody cares. But once you say a Macintosh is better than a Microsoft PC, they are ready to lynch you.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:53 pm
by Panek
admin wrote:In Europe we don't beep out things but usualy the use of bad words is not so heavily used like in US-Shows.
Particularily because Europe doesn't have so many fu*ked up people, and no shows like Springer (with topics like "My girlfriend is cheating on me with my father").

Also, on Polish shows, sometimes a few swears go by, but because of the nature of the show, like police-themed action, and such. Sometimes you can hear "kurwa" (bitch, when applied to a woman; fu*k, when used as an expression, like "Oh, fu*k!!!"), jebać, pierdolić, pieprzyć (verb - to fu*k), and so on. But nobody cares about it, as these are only a few understandable slips.

And also, there are no shows like the mentioned Springer where there is heavy use of bad language.

The only beeping that I have heard on Polish TV so far was a re-run of an old Springer show.