Los Telelocos
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2003 9:26 am
I decided to watch UHF in Spanish tonight ("UHF, the crazy, crazy channel", starring "Strange" Al Yankovic), and got a few surprises. Let's see....
"Blueberry daiquiri" apparently doesn't translate; instead, George asks for "the strongest thing you've got." Which still makes it pretty funny when a drink full of umbrellas is served.
The first poodle that gets a flying lesson from Raul is named "Satan," and he explains that sometimes it takes them up to five generations to learn to fly.
When Raul shakes up the ant farm and observes the result, he says, literally, "They remembered about my mom," which is a euphemistic way of referring to the best-known, and most likely to start a bar fight, of all Mexican obscenities. I was a little taken aback by that one.
Not surprisingly, "we don't need no stinkin' badgers" doesn't work in Spanish. Instead, Raul gets a delivery of three skunks and says, "Skunks? Skunks? Don't you think my mother-in-law is enough?"
"Strip Solitaire" got translated as "Naked But Not Alone." Go figure.
In "Town Talk," the hookers forced into weight-loss programs are no longer lesbians or Nazis, and "sex with furniture" becomes "sex in the kitchen... what's your opinion?"
Raul sounds very Mexican (the rest of the movie tries to use less country-specific language, except for the "red snapper," which is also definitely the Mexican word-- but then the names of fish change every hundred miles or so as you go down the coast anyway) and Kuni just sounds very strange. Spanish with a joke-Japanese accent is kind of indescribable.
"Blueberry daiquiri" apparently doesn't translate; instead, George asks for "the strongest thing you've got." Which still makes it pretty funny when a drink full of umbrellas is served.
The first poodle that gets a flying lesson from Raul is named "Satan," and he explains that sometimes it takes them up to five generations to learn to fly.
When Raul shakes up the ant farm and observes the result, he says, literally, "They remembered about my mom," which is a euphemistic way of referring to the best-known, and most likely to start a bar fight, of all Mexican obscenities. I was a little taken aback by that one.
Not surprisingly, "we don't need no stinkin' badgers" doesn't work in Spanish. Instead, Raul gets a delivery of three skunks and says, "Skunks? Skunks? Don't you think my mother-in-law is enough?"
"Strip Solitaire" got translated as "Naked But Not Alone." Go figure.
In "Town Talk," the hookers forced into weight-loss programs are no longer lesbians or Nazis, and "sex with furniture" becomes "sex in the kitchen... what's your opinion?"
Raul sounds very Mexican (the rest of the movie tries to use less country-specific language, except for the "red snapper," which is also definitely the Mexican word-- but then the names of fish change every hundred miles or so as you go down the coast anyway) and Kuni just sounds very strange. Spanish with a joke-Japanese accent is kind of indescribable.
