Top Ten Pop Culture References From Spoof Movies That Have Been Altered For The German Dub
Judging by the overly harsh criticism including death threats towards the writer-directors, I am pretty sure I am the only person on this planet who finds spoof movies amusing (to my defense: I also love the 50s and art movies). Sure, they are immature, crude and vulgar… but so am I, so why wouldn’t I like it? But even I have to say that they aren’t really good, but they entertain on a very dumb level, and land in my DVD player every once a while. The first “Scary Movie” and “Not Another Teen Movie” are the only ones that I’d actually call good comedy movies, not just dumbly entertaining.I am also pretty sure I am the only person who watched these movies in two languages. As you might know, Germany is one of the few nations that dubs almost all movies, and I’d say that German dubs are fairly advanced. They use distinctive and professional voice actors who put the right feelings and emotions into the vocal delivery, and usually, an actor / an actress has one voice actor they are immediately associated with. Dubbing serious movies like dramas or thrillers or art movies, etc. is easy, as you can translate everything the way it is without the need to alter anything for better understanding. But with comedy movies, it’s a bit trickier, because often they get humor out of everyday situations that everybody in the country of origin can relate to but aren’t common in German speaking territory. Often, puns on idioms and phrases don’t work out because they simply don’t exist over here, or food, shops, social issues, laws, etc. are mentioned that we aren’t familiar with. The same happened the other way around: “Der Schuh des Manitu” is a classic German comedy movie from 2001 that happens to be the commercially most successful movie of all time in Germany. It’s also a parody of the adaptations of Karl May novels, which have been highly popular over here for decades. There’s also tons of word play and references to German pop culture, as well as the protagonists (a Native American and a Southern American who are blood brothers) constantly speaking with a Bavarian accent. Nothing of all of this can be translated, but still there was an English dub.
Now, the American spoof movies live very much from pop culture references. More often than not, they can be accurately translated. Everybody knows who Britney Spears or what Alice in Wonderland is, and so the jokes work out. After all, America is the biggest trendsetter to German language territory. But every once in a while, something very popular in the USA doesn’t get any attention over here, and so dubbers have to decide whether they’d rather leave the joke as it is but won’t get a laugh out of German speaking audiences or alter the verbal references to something that Germans are also familiar with. This list shows some examples of the occasions where the latter was the case.
Oh, and I forgot: in "Vampires Suck" Becca says "American Idol would totally suck without Simon" in the original English version. In German she says: "Popstars definitely needs new judges." Which is weird, as "Popstars" had different judges each season. They could have as well said: "Das Supertalent would totally suck without Dieter Bohlen."
Fun fact: the vast of voice actors for the German dub of "Vampires Suck" is the same as that for the original "Twilight" movies, bringing the impostors even closer to the original.
In the original English language version, protagonist Becca, who is new to her school, asks her new friend “who that is”, referring to Edward. However, she mistakes that question and starts saying the name of the cast of "Jersey Shore", who stands next to him, but she is cut off by Becca with the line in the title of this item. However, while “Jersey Shore” did air for some time in Germany, it wasn’t a hit at all and barely anybody knew it. So instead of that, she says different names: those of the cast of “Beverly Hills, 90210”, which was more popular at that time. You only see the cast for a brief moment, and they have approximately the same looks.
In “Superhero Movie”, the villain says that people who do three kinds of things are crazy: hearing voices, talking to cats and dating Paula Abdul. Here we have the same problem as with Simon Cowell, because she isn’t well known over here. The solution is pretty much the same as for Cowell. In the German dub, people who do these things are crazy: hearing voices, talking to cats and singing for Dieter Bohlen.
When Edward explains to Becca what a vegetarian vampire is, he states that they only feed off animals and the Real Housewives of Atlanta. Like with most items on the list, the show was far more popular in the USA than in Germany, and so the German vegetarian vampires only drink the blood of animals and humans that can be found in containers. For whatever reason.
I also just realized that around 2010, American and German pop culture was most different.
While running away from a beast (which turns out to be Amy Winehouse later on), Will runs into American Gladiator Wolf. The entire scene plays out weird if you live in a country where nobody knows this show or is familiar with the concept, but since it’s a visual reference they couldn’t alter it. However, they changed a line of dialogue. Wolf states he wanted to get the catchphrase “Bam! ”, but Emeril Lagasse already used that. This guy isn’t known over here as well, so he simply says that a not specifically named T.V. cook used it. We have many famous T.V. cooks, but nobody uses a catchphrase. It was probably easiest to leave this entire sequence bizarre and unfunny to German language audiences.
Before Edward leaves, Becca has to promise him not to anything risky. She responds with "I promise I won't date Chris Brown". Since Rihanna is a superstar with lots of hit songs over here as well, the Chris Brown incident also received much media coverage over here, so I don't get why this joke was altered, but in German, she says "I promise I won't date Charlie Sheen".
Silas, a parody of the monk in "The Da Vinci Code", only speaks pseudo-Latin, but there are subtitles in both English and German. Short before he seemingly fatally shoots Mr. Tumnus, he says "I'm Rick James, bitch! ". This phrase is from "Chappelle's Show" and refers to the singer Rick James. In the USA, this phrase became popular and made it into everyday language. As you might have guessed, neither Dave Chappelle nor Rick James are famous in German speaking territory (fun fact: I witnessed middle-aged men who thought that "Super Freak" sampled "U Can't Touch This" instead of the other way around, because the first song is virtually unknown), so the line wouldn't have made sense to Germans. Instead, the German subtitles read a very famous movie quote: "Hasta la vista, baby! "
For whatever reason, they kept the Rick James line in "Dance Flick".
In one of the earliest jokes in the movie, Kantmiss Evershot tells her boyfriend that she doesn't want to get children because they'd be born into a world in which people's misery is turned into a T.V. show. Her boyfriend nods and mumbles "The Hunger Games...". However, she reveals she actually talked about "16 and Pregnant". In the German dub, this was changed because in 2013, "16 and Pregnant" didn't air anymore on any popular channel and was never as popular to begin with. Instead, Kantmiss mentions one of the most popular reality shows in Germany: "Das Dschungelcamp", literally "The Jungle Camp". This is an inofficial nickname for the German edition of "I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Outta Here! " that's more commonly used than the actual title. In Germany, this show is more popular than in any other country (except for maybe the UK, which had even more seasons produced), and always receives huge media coverage long before the new season even started, when everyone is guessing the new ...more