{"id":67,"date":"2013-05-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yule-tide.generalsemiotics.net\/index.php\/2013\/05\/21\/post-60-thats-not-even-mexico\/"},"modified":"2013-05-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T00:00:00","slug":"post-60-thats-not-even-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/2013\/05\/21\/post-60-thats-not-even-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-60: “That’s Not Even Mexico!” -Homer Simpson"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’ve been watching “The Simpsons” with Spanish audio a bit, lately. I don’t know why.\n<\/div>\n

<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a>Homer during his campaign speech.
(Episode: “Trash of the Titans<\/a>“)<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

In one episode I watched in Spanish, Homer gets in a fight with the local garbage-men and then runs for sanitation commissioner. Homer develops the campaign slogan “Can’t Someone Else Do It?” and proposes that garbage-men pick up trash directly from waste baskets in people’s homes. <\/p>\n

Now, “The Simpsons” is a smarter show than most people realize, and a lot of the lines are awkward to translate. <\/span>The Spanish translators (who I presume to be Mexicans) quite often change lines for this reason.
<\/span>
<\/span>Here is Homer’s campaign speech, in English (found here<\/a>):<\/div>\n

\n

\nHomer: <\/strong>Fellow citizens! How would you rate the trash service in this town?
Man #1: <\/span><\/strong>I would deem it excellent.
Homer:<\/strong> Uh, okay. It’s excellent. But aren’t you tired of waking up early and dragging the garbage to the curb? [Crowd Murmuring]
<\/span>Man #2:<\/strong> That’s so annoying in the morning.
Homer: <\/strong>Aren’t you tired of having to peel that last snotty Kleenex from the bottom of your wastebasket?
Man #3 [with a huge nose]:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 I’ll say.
Homer:<\/strong> Well, then — Can’t someone ELSE do it?
Crowd:<\/strong> Yeah! — Yeah!
Homer:<\/strong> <\/span>And can’t someone else scoop out that nasty kitty litter?
<\/span>[Crowd All Shouting In Agreement] Yeah!
Homer:<\/strong> <\/span>Well, Ray Patterson thinks YOU should do it. Animals are crapping in our houses, and we’re picking it up.
Did we lose a war? That’s not America. <\/span>That’s not even Mexico!
<\/span>[Crowd Shouting Excitedly]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The line “That’s not America. That’s not even Mexico!” would be a case calling for a….tactful translation, or perhaps a subtle line change for the Mexican\/Latin-American audience. Instead, this is what the translators went for:\n<\/div>\n

\nHomer:<\/strong> Hemos perdido la guerra?\u00a0 Asi no es mi pais. Asi es el vecino del sur!\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Translation:\u00a0 “That’s not the way my country is. That’s the way the neighbor to the south is!“<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span> This a big change in meaning. The new line is much more (and directly) insulting to Mexico! <\/span>What a strange choice.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been watching “The Simpsons” with Spanish audio a bit, lately. I don’t know why. Homer during his campaign speech. (Episode: “Trash of the Titans“) In one episode I watched in Spanish, Homer gets in a fight with the local garbage-men and then runs for sanitation commissioner. Homer develops the campaign slogan “Can’t Someone Else […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}