美 Ｂ 伊 ｉ 知 ｔｃｈ
In speaking with students, we've had a bit of fun with language. Language is, in general, a very fun thing; it infuriates me, certainly, in the case of carelessness and misuse. Dubs, for example, short of parodies. Don't be so frivilious with language unless your frivilouty between mediums is the purpose; a bad translation, even of comedy, is a shame. That said, I have found comedy in tragedy.
I have found a Japanese dub so poor it is in par with the many dubs I bitch about bimonthly. Not in a personal sense of frustration, as I'm far removed enough from it and any fanbase it may have in any language to only know that it's poor on a basic level, the level of failure of this partiuclar dub is one that is perhaps due to insurmountable cultural odds. There are certain things that are worse off dubbed than others. Haunted Junction, Keroro Gunsou, anything involving DaCider, cultural-ethnic things or those rampart with linguistic puns. On Sundays at midnight, the Japanese dub of a series of rather stock black stereotype comedy animation called Boondocks airs. I'd seen it once and did the appropriate facepalm reaction. I was ambiguous about watching it again, but, when nothing else was on when GiTS2 came on, and when I didn't want to suffer through that even while just trying to sleep (what, you think I'm going to turn the TV OFF to sleep, when the cable and electric bill are already paid as part of my overpriced plan?), I resigned myself to my once a month bathing ritual. As I step out and wonder what's next, on comes Boondocks.
I think I have a secret masochistic fetish going or something. For the worst possible episode to dub, it was probably the best thing I had seen all night. Given that Atobe was in that evening's Prince of Tennis, that's saying something. In this week's episode, the main character of the story is taught the importance of how to properly call a woman 'bitch' and demand her obedience and subservenience when his wife becomes enthralled with and is supposedly cheating on him with famous American rap star Usher. I know nothing of Usher, thus, I can say nothing at all on his dubbing. However, the character decides to randomly break into song about breakup later, which they decided to leave in English with subtitles. Sadly, I understood the subtitles more clearly than the actual English rap lyrics, which unfortunately makes for a sign of a failure to carry the obscure if not creative language use in the original... At any rate, that it cuts to a phone call with the Japanese voices mid scene, then continues, is a riot. The best is yet to come, however. As he sulks about the house, the willey old grandpa takes it upon himself to educate the young man in the ways of love. What better method than to call upon A Pimp Named Slickback?
For those of you not in on the joke, the character's full name is A Pimp Named Slickback. He is not to be called Slickback, etc., etc.
"Watashi wa A Pimp Named Slickback" doesn't work.
"A Pimp Named Slickback-san?" doesn't really do it, either...
Even more hilariously, however, is how much trying to make a Japanese voice use bitch with anything sounding remotely authoratative. Even if it's a joke in English, the difference in the laughter is that in this case, you're laughing at the teller of the joke not getting the very joke they're telling; it's an awkward, pained laughter had only by the sickest, most sadistic of men. As he practices saying 'bitch', I have flashbacks of trying to explain the nuances of saying something 'sucks' in English (by the way, teachers, how does anyone get to third year English without knowing the phrase/conjugation this/it/that/ sucks?).
In the end, he gets into a fist fight with Usher, after calling his wife a bitch, and his daughter cries. Typical American cartoon happy ending.
I have found a Japanese dub so poor it is in par with the many dubs I bitch about bimonthly. Not in a personal sense of frustration, as I'm far removed enough from it and any fanbase it may have in any language to only know that it's poor on a basic level, the level of failure of this partiuclar dub is one that is perhaps due to insurmountable cultural odds. There are certain things that are worse off dubbed than others. Haunted Junction, Keroro Gunsou, anything involving DaCider, cultural-ethnic things or those rampart with linguistic puns. On Sundays at midnight, the Japanese dub of a series of rather stock black stereotype comedy animation called Boondocks airs. I'd seen it once and did the appropriate facepalm reaction. I was ambiguous about watching it again, but, when nothing else was on when GiTS2 came on, and when I didn't want to suffer through that even while just trying to sleep (what, you think I'm going to turn the TV OFF to sleep, when the cable and electric bill are already paid as part of my overpriced plan?), I resigned myself to my once a month bathing ritual. As I step out and wonder what's next, on comes Boondocks.
I think I have a secret masochistic fetish going or something. For the worst possible episode to dub, it was probably the best thing I had seen all night. Given that Atobe was in that evening's Prince of Tennis, that's saying something. In this week's episode, the main character of the story is taught the importance of how to properly call a woman 'bitch' and demand her obedience and subservenience when his wife becomes enthralled with and is supposedly cheating on him with famous American rap star Usher. I know nothing of Usher, thus, I can say nothing at all on his dubbing. However, the character decides to randomly break into song about breakup later, which they decided to leave in English with subtitles. Sadly, I understood the subtitles more clearly than the actual English rap lyrics, which unfortunately makes for a sign of a failure to carry the obscure if not creative language use in the original... At any rate, that it cuts to a phone call with the Japanese voices mid scene, then continues, is a riot. The best is yet to come, however. As he sulks about the house, the willey old grandpa takes it upon himself to educate the young man in the ways of love. What better method than to call upon A Pimp Named Slickback?
For those of you not in on the joke, the character's full name is A Pimp Named Slickback. He is not to be called Slickback, etc., etc.
"Watashi wa A Pimp Named Slickback" doesn't work.
"A Pimp Named Slickback-san?" doesn't really do it, either...
Even more hilariously, however, is how much trying to make a Japanese voice use bitch with anything sounding remotely authoratative. Even if it's a joke in English, the difference in the laughter is that in this case, you're laughing at the teller of the joke not getting the very joke they're telling; it's an awkward, pained laughter had only by the sickest, most sadistic of men. As he practices saying 'bitch', I have flashbacks of trying to explain the nuances of saying something 'sucks' in English (by the way, teachers, how does anyone get to third year English without knowing the phrase/conjugation this/it/that/ sucks?).
In the end, he gets into a fist fight with Usher, after calling his wife a bitch, and his daughter cries. Typical American cartoon happy ending.