As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Difference between revisions

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'''CMOT Dibbler''': It's [[Qurac|Klatchian]], isn't it?<br />

'''Sol Dibbler''': Well technically, but I think it's [[Darkest Africa|the wrong part of Klatch]] and maybe "effendies" or something...<br />

'''CMOT Dibbler''': Just so long as it's foreign.|'''''[[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'''''}}

'''CMOT Dibbler''': Just so long as it's foreign.|'''''[[Discworld/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'''''}}

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* Partially averted by [[Hayao Miyazaki]] in maybe a full half of his productions. Those which don't take place specifically in Japan have a sort of Not-Quite-Japanese, Not-Quite-European flavor that leaves the viewer to wonder where, exactly, he's supposed to be. But in the end we rarely care, because the storytelling works for us.

** [[Word of God]] says that most of his films are set in an alternate version of Europe, one in which [[World War II]] never happened.

* ''[[Excel Saga (~~Anime~~)|Excel Saga]]'' : Although the English used by the paramilitaries in the action movie episode is grammatically perfect, it's apparently delivered by actors who haven't a clue what the words are intended to mean (and only the vaguest grasp of English pronunciation). This is deliberate parody of the trope - the Japanese subtitles (which the English subs of the scene follow) are far more eloquent, often to the point where they have very little to do with what is spoken. It's also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the English dub. Originally when the soldier asks her "What is your purpose?" in a really strong Japanese accent Excel just responds "I don't know." In the dub she says [[A Worldwide Punomenon|"A big fish?"]]

* ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' : Although the English used by the paramilitaries in the action movie episode is grammatically perfect, it's apparently delivered by actors who haven't a clue what the words are intended to mean (and only the vaguest grasp of English pronunciation). This is deliberate parody of the trope - the Japanese subtitles (which the English subs of the scene follow) are far more eloquent, often to the point where they have very little to do with what is spoken. It's also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the English dub. Originally when the soldier asks her "What is your purpose?" in a really strong Japanese accent Excel just responds "I don't know." In the dub she says [[A Worldwide Punomenon|"A big fish?"]]

* ''[[~~Aria (Manga)|~~Aria]]'': Singer Eri Kawai admitted that a lot of songs have totally nonsensical lyrics, in an attempt to make them sound vaguely Italian. One song, a canzone sung by Alice during her graduation ceremony, has some verses in [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]], likely to achieve the same effect without becoming too silly.

* ''[[Aria]]'': Singer Eri Kawai admitted that a lot of songs have totally nonsensical lyrics, in an attempt to make them sound vaguely Italian. One song, a canzone sung by Alice during her graduation ceremony, has some verses in [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]], likely to achieve the same effect without becoming too silly.

* The ''[[~~Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|~~Tales of Symphonia]]'' OVA has the song "Almateria", and while it has some significant words thrown in here and there, it's mostly pleasant-sounding gibberish.

* The ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' OVA has the song "Almateria", and while it has some significant words thrown in here and there, it's mostly pleasant-sounding gibberish.

* Done to a ridiculous degree in episode 52 of ''[[~~Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|~~Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' where "Italian" ranges from reciting Italian foods to saying anime/manga related references with bad pseudo-Italian accents. Considering the [[Gag Series|nature of the show]], this trope was almost certainly done deliberately.

* Done to a ridiculous degree in episode 52 of ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' where "Italian" ranges from reciting Italian foods to saying anime/manga related references with bad pseudo-Italian accents. Considering the [[Gag Series|nature of the show]], this trope was almost certainly done deliberately.

* There are panels from ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' of Lum's mom speaking in Mah-Jong tiles that combined with her Chinese-style dress (implies "As Long As It Looks Chinese") and a French lady speaking in... ''interesting'' picture combinations in ''Lupin III''. And early in the manga, where French and Chinese commentators on Ataru's game of tag with Lum spoke in, respectively, inane phrasebook style questions and Chinese food names.

* In the manga ''Peace Maker'', which is set in the American Southwest during the late 1800s (you know, a Western), a lot of the character names are... unlikely. The main character (who is male) is called Hope, and his [[Disappeared Dad]]'s name is Peace. At one point they encounter an elderly woman named ''Joshua''. The series is otherwise enjoyable, but it's apparent that the mangaka didn't know what names were for what.

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** The character "Atomsk". [[Word of God]] says the director chose that name because he saw it in English on a book cover (presumably [[wikipedia:Atomsk (novel)|this one]]) and thought it looked cool.

* ''[[Hellsing]]'''s Walter Dollneas has a surname consisting of two Welsh words that don't often appear together, let alone appear in a surname. Hirano has all but admitted that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing with the foreign names.

* ''[[~~Death Note (Manga)|~~Death Note]]'':

* ''[[Death Note]]'':

** Light's name is not a translation of ''hikari'' (光), the Japanese word for "light". The kanji for "Moon" (月) has the English word "light" as a possible pronunciation for it when used as a name.

*** "Possible pronunciation for a name" in Japan is basically "whatever the heck you want to call your child", but using "月" to be pronounced "Light" is... unusual, to say the least. Apparently the author chose that name so that it wouldn't cause bullying of someone with the same name as the character.

** Most of the victims' names are examples of this trope, as was L, whose real name is {{spoiler|L Lawliet}}. In ''Death Note 13: How to Read'', the writer of the manga admits that he made up the names of the victims randomly, so that no real names would show up as having been written down in the Death Note.

** The bizarre {{spoiler|Quillsh Wammy}}, which is {{spoiler|Watari's}} true name. No wonder he used an alias...

* Piccolo from the ''[[~~Dragonball~~]]'' series. His name means "small/little" in Italian. In the Italian version of the manga and the movies his name remained unvaried, but in the TV series his name, along with that of many other characters, was adapted. His first incarnation was given the name... "Al-Satan" (the same name they had already given to Chichi's father earlier in the series!), while his second one received the name "Junior". Oh, and the God of Earth was called "The Supreme".

* Piccolo from the ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' series. His name means "small/little" in Italian. In the Italian version of the manga and the movies his name remained unvaried, but in the TV series his name, along with that of many other characters, was adapted. His first incarnation was given the name... "Al-Satan" (the same name they had already given to Chichi's father earlier in the series!), while his second one received the name "Junior". Oh, and the God of Earth was called "The Supreme".

* Freesia Yagyu from ''[[Jubei-chan]] 2'' is half-Japanese, half-Russian. Her first name, however, does not exist in either culture.

* Train Heartnet from ''[[Black Cat (~~Manga~~)|Black Cat]]'' is one of the goofier examples of this trope.

* Train Heartnet from ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' is one of the goofier examples of this trope.

* Rally Vincent from ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'', although Rally is her nickname (her real name is Irene). It's a secondary joke based on the R=L stereotype/confusion of Japanese speakers. Switch the letters around and see what name you get.

** Ditto [[Yu-Gi-Oh ~~5 Ds~~|Rally Dawson]].

** Ditto [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|Rally Dawson]].

* ''[[~~Baccano (Light Novel)|~~Baccano]]'' - Expect characters to be given names like Jacuzzi Splott and board a train graciously named the ''Flying Pussyfoot.''

* ''[[Baccano]]'' - Expect characters to be given names like Jacuzzi Splott and board a train graciously named the ''Flying Pussyfoot.''

** "Claire Stanfield" is a perfectly normal woman's name. The problem is, Claire Stanfield is a ''[[Gender Blender Name|man]]''. This one got lampshaded in the dub during an episode preview. In the thirties, when the series took place, that could be a man's name. The problem is that the masculine version of the name was spelled Clare.

** ''[[Durarara]]'' from the same author has Semyon Brezhnev, a [[Husky Russkie|Russian]] [[Gentle Giant]] of a [[Scary Black Man]], who speaks in [[Eloquent in My Native Tongue|a broken and heavily accented]] Japanese. There's also a brief conversation in Russian between him and Izaya, but his Russian is, actually, not pronounced with any greater degree of accuracy...

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*** It makes more sense if you know that the term for a "Whole" - a normal, non-Hollow ghost - is actually "Plus" in the original Japanese. "Menos" doesn't just mean "less"; it means "Minus." So "Menos Grande" is likely meant to be interpreted as "Giant Minus (Hollow)".

*** This is also the case with the enemy of the final arc, {{spoiler|the Vandenreich - the pronunciation is listed besides kanji meaning "invisible country," and while "reich" is German, Vanden doesn't appear to be an actual word - possibly a misreading of Vonden, meaning "of the". It might also be an example of Kubo's musical fanboyism as a nod to German metal band Vanden Plas (who themselves were car fanboys who named their group after the famous Flemish coachbuilders that eventually gave their name to a brand of Jaguar).}}

* All of the ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' series are positively rife with foreign-ish names, some more successful than others. Might be justified because most of the series take place at an undetermined point in the future where Earth has become a One World Government and half of humanity lives in orbital colony superstructures. [[Gundam 00|The one series]] with a date solidly pinned down in relation to modern day does fairly well with the names.

* All of the ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' series are positively rife with foreign-ish names, some more successful than others. Might be justified because most of the series take place at an undetermined point in the future where Earth has become a One World Government and half of humanity lives in orbital colony superstructures. [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|The one series]] with a date solidly pinned down in relation to modern day does fairly well with the names.

* In one episode of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Ami gives a student a printout of what she says is a NASA website. The printout is not gibberish. What it ''is'', however, is the lyrics to "Danger Zone" from the movie ''[[Top Gun]]''.

** There are English-spoken phrases being a combination of English and Japanese or simply very grammatically incorrect. "Let's dancing" is actually rather common in Japan.

* ''[[Fafner in ~~The~~ Azure]]'' has a supposedly Irish character named "Kanon Memphis", which doesn't sound like the sort of name ''anyone'' would have, let alone an Irish person.

* ''[[Fafner in the Azure]]'' has a supposedly Irish character named "Kanon Memphis", which doesn't sound like the sort of name ''anyone'' would have, let alone an Irish person.

** Might've been meant to be Conan, which IS the name of an Irish Anti-hero (Conan MacMorna).

* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ~~Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Ni~~]]'' actually does a pretty good job of having Western names. There's Eva, Maria, Rosa, Rudolf, George, Battler, Jessica--wait a minute...

* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' actually does a pretty good job of having Western names. There's Eva, Maria, Rosa, Rudolf, George, Battler, Jessica--wait a minute...

** Battler's name is [[Lampshaded]] by him in the sound novels, due to him complaining how odd it is.

* Somewhat subverted in episode 10 of ''[[Ghost in ~~The~~ Shell Stand Alone Complex]]'', where in-show foreigners Suzuki Sato and Tanaka Watanabe, both CIA agents, don't bother to check their Japanese aliases for simple things like using two surnames as a full name before entering the country. The Japanese officials with whom they interact are understandably befuddled upon seeing their calling cards. They're [[Acceptable Targets|obnoxious Americans]] with their own sinister agenda and we're supposed to dislike them anyway. To add insult to injury, they look and act very much like some like racist stereotypes of the Japanese, which is probably supposed to reflect their opinions of the country they've been assigned to.

* Somewhat subverted in episode 10 of ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'', where in-show foreigners Suzuki Sato and Tanaka Watanabe, both CIA agents, don't bother to check their Japanese aliases for simple things like using two surnames as a full name before entering the country. The Japanese officials with whom they interact are understandably befuddled upon seeing their calling cards. They're [[Acceptable Targets|obnoxious Americans]] with their own sinister agenda and we're supposed to dislike them anyway. To add insult to injury, they look and act very much like some like racist stereotypes of the Japanese, which is probably supposed to reflect their opinions of the country they've been assigned to.

* ''[[D Gray ~~Man~~]]'', spectacularly so with the "Portuguese" Tyki Mikk's name. There are at least 4 blatant errors in this name alone.

* ''[[D.Gray-man]]'', spectacularly so with the "Portuguese" Tyki Mikk's name. There are at least 4 blatant errors in this name alone.

** "Arystar Krory" was named after a real person called "Aleister Crowley", but the author deliberately went with a different spelling. There is also a Mexican man with the name "Winters Socalo", a German woman named "Miranda Lotto", two Chinese siblings named "Lenalee" and "Komui", and an American man named "Tup Dop". "Marie" is a man, and it seems that's his last name, meaning his first name is "''Noise''". Of note is that a woman who's name was spelled "Crea" in the series itself has her name more correctly spelled "Claire" in a [[All There in the Manual|data book]].

* ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' has most of its characters with obviously Japanese given names, but because they all come from [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy Counterpart Cultures]], a lot of their surnames are non-Japanese.

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* ''[[Batman]]'' example: Ra's Al-Ghul's daughter, Talia, uses the "surname" Al-Ghul, despite the Arabic patronymic [[Did Not Do the Research|not working that way]], but kind of makes sense as her name would thus be "Talia, of the Demon". The trouble is that she then uses the "Anglicized" variant, "Talia ''Head''", which [[Did Not Do the Research|translates the wrong word]]. Maybe "Talia Demon" wasn't subtle enough.

* The time displaced DC character Manitou Raven is said to be from the native American tribe that eventually became the Apache. Manitou (meaning "spirit") is actually an Algonquin word. For Europeans and others who may not know where the Apaches and Algonquins live relative to each other, [[Critical Research Failure|this is about the equivalent of assuming a Norwegian word or myth can equate to a Georgian one]].

** [[It Gets Worse]]: Manitou Raven's power word for becoming a giant is the same as the [[~~Super Friends~~]] character he's an [[Expy]] for, Apache Chief: "Inukchuk". There ''is'' a word that is very similar to this, "inukshuk", which in its language means "something that substitutes for a human", and is applied to giant stone columns and statues. So it would ''almost'' be viable as a symbolic magic word, in the vein of "make me as big as an inukshuk", if it weren't for the fact the language in question is Inuktitut, an Inuit language. To carry on the example above, this would be like taking that Norwegian-Georgian mythological mix and throwing in a dash of Swahili. Then there's the fact that Inuit did not build giant stone columns or statues: inukshuks are only a few feet high. "Becoming as big as an inukshuk" would cause the average human to ''shrink''.

** [[It Gets Worse]]: Manitou Raven's power word for becoming a giant is the same as the [[Superfriends]] character he's an [[Expy]] for, Apache Chief: "Inukchuk". There ''is'' a word that is very similar to this, "inukshuk", which in its language means "something that substitutes for a human", and is applied to giant stone columns and statues. So it would ''almost'' be viable as a symbolic magic word, in the vein of "make me as big as an inukshuk", if it weren't for the fact the language in question is Inuktitut, an Inuit language. To carry on the example above, this would be like taking that Norwegian-Georgian mythological mix and throwing in a dash of Swahili. Then there's the fact that Inuit did not build giant stone columns or statues: inukshuks are only a few feet high. "Becoming as big as an inukshuk" would cause the average human to ''shrink''.

* Hendy of the [[Blackhawk]] squadron is a nice example too, Hans is OK, Hendrickson is slightly un-Dutch, fitting a Dutch-American better than an unhyphenated Dutchman, "Hendricksen" is genuinely Dutch, but "Ritter" is the German word for "Knight", Dutch would be "Ridder", a title, not a name.

* Marvel Comic's character Silver Samurai's real name is Kenuichio Harada. You won't find a single person in Japan called Kenuichio.

** In Japanese translations, his name is Kenichiro, at least according to [[The Other Wiki]].

* The [[~~X Men|~~X-Men]]'s Cajun mutant, Gambit, likes to toss some French into his dialogue. He sometimes calls Rogue ''"chéri"'' (dear)... which would be nice if he weren't using the masculine form of the word. Luckily for our grammatically-challenged hero, there is no ''audible'' difference between ''"chéri"'' and ''"chérie"''.

* The [[X-Men]]'s Cajun mutant, Gambit, likes to toss some French into his dialogue. He sometimes calls Rogue ''"chéri"'' (dear)... which would be nice if he weren't using the masculine form of the word. Luckily for our grammatically-challenged hero, there is no ''audible'' difference between ''"chéri"'' and ''"chérie"''.

** He's not the only one that gets this, unfortunately: Kurt (aka Nightcrawler)'s [[Gratuitous German]] often gets misspelled so that he ends up calling girls "camisole" instead of the intended "sweetheart" or "darling" (''"'''Lieb'''chen"'').

*** [[It Got Worse|Could be worse]], Hudlin [[What an Idiot!|had him utter]] [[Critical Research Failure|"Lieberstesh"]].

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== Fan Fiction ==

* In [[~~Naruto Veangance Revelaitons (Fanfic)|~~Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]], the only vaguely Japanese name is a character based off the author's best friend Danny. The character's name, Tadashiharakumaie, clearly falls into this trope.

* In [[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]], the only vaguely Japanese name is a character based off the author's best friend Danny. The character's name, Tadashiharakumaie, clearly falls into this trope.

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** In the classic [[Suddenly Voiced|semi]]-silent comedy, ''[[Modern Times]]'', Charlie is expected to sing a song, but loses his cuffs that have the lyrics written on them. Desperate, Charlie improvises a song using gibberish that sounds like a mix of French and Italian and pantomimes a story as he sings. That product of his quick thinking brings the house down. Chaplin did this to keep his Tramp character international and not limited to a specific language.

** Chaplin's Hitler-like role in ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' delivers a foaming-at-the-mouth speech in Tomanian, one of the funniest fake foreign languages ever: a pastiche mixture of English, German and Yiddish nonsense in which such words as "Sauerkraut" and "Katzenjammer" recur.

* In ''[[Team America World Police]]'', anything that wasn't English was nonsensical gibberish, apart from random French that amounted to the same thing. The terrorists, for example, only use 3 words: 'Durkadurka', 'Muhammed', and 'Jihad!' Except for the cries of "NO ME GUSTAAAA!" at the Panama canal and a North Korean pilot shouting "KAMSAHAMNIDA!".

* In ''[[Team America: World Police]]'', anything that wasn't English was nonsensical gibberish, apart from random French that amounted to the same thing. The terrorists, for example, only use 3 words: 'Durkadurka', 'Muhammed', and 'Jihad!' Except for the cries of "NO ME GUSTAAAA!" at the Panama canal and a North Korean pilot shouting "KAMSAHAMNIDA!".

* Sacha Baron Cohen takes full advantage of this trope in his ''[[Borat]]'' sketches and movie; his spoken "Kazakh" is actually a (sometimes, but not always, nonsensical) mix of Yiddish, Polish, Gangstafied Hebrew, and other languages in an overdone Slavic accent. His written notes are in straight Hebrew. Also his sidekick in the film, Azamat, is actually speaking real Armenian. Almost all the Cyrillic writing used in the film and marketing materials is gibberish created by typing English words into a keyboard set for Cyrillic letters.

** For example, the title on the DVD case sorta LOOKS like 'Borat' but in cyrillic it's closer to saying something like 'Voyadt'

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{{quote| '''Du Quois''' (introducing the american to the men) : ''This is Chevalier, Montage, Détente, Avant-Garde and Déjà-Vu [...] Over there, Croissant, Soufflet, Escargot and Chocolate Mousse''}}

* In ''[[The Bourne Identity]]'', the name on Bourne's Russian passport is written "Foma Kiniaev" in Latin letters and "Aschf Lshtshfum" (Ащьф Лштшфум) in Cyrillic letters. Apparently, the designers of the prop just typed the name in the Russian keyboard layout without actually translating it. The name was corrected in ''The Bourne Supremacy''.

* Certainly true of the sort-of Indian cult in ''[[The Beatles (~~Music~~)|Help!]]'' Made funnier by the fact that the British actors make essentially no attempt to conceal their...[[Buffy-Speak|Britishness]].

* Certainly true of the sort-of Indian cult in ''[[The Beatles (band)|Help!]]'' Made funnier by the fact that the British actors make essentially no attempt to conceal their...[[Buffy-Speak|Britishness]].

* ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'' and ''[[The Princess Diaries]] 2: Royal Engagement'' play this trope straight over a cliff by [[Ruritania|inventing a European country]], "Genovia," in which the queen (Julie Andrews) is English, the peasants speak either French or English with French, English, and American accents, and the [[Beautiful All Along|princess's]] name is Princess Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi.

** The books do give some explanation -- for some reason it's a Francophone country which used to be part of Italy. And the Amelia and Thermopolis parts come from her (American) mother. And no accents, obviously.

*** Mignonette is a flower.

*** Queen Clarisse (Julie Andrews) could very well have been an English princess who married the Genovian King. The fact that she is styled "Dowager" would usually mean that she was a queen consort (married into the royal family) rather than queen regnant (ruling in her own right).

* The execrable ''[[Wild World of Batwoman]]'' (given a sound thrashing by the guys on ''[[~~MST3K~~]]'') had the main characters' seance frequently interrupted by a Chinese spirit. Keep in mind, the spirit's Chinese mainly consisted of saying "ching", "chang" and "chong" over and over again in random combination, causing Tom Servo to deadpan "You know, that ''may'' not be real Chinese." As Mike says, "To every Asian and every ''human being'', we apologize for that last scene."

* The execrable ''[[Wild World of Batwoman]]'' (given a sound thrashing by the guys on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'') had the main characters' seance frequently interrupted by a Chinese spirit. Keep in mind, the spirit's Chinese mainly consisted of saying "ching", "chang" and "chong" over and over again in random combination, causing Tom Servo to deadpan "You know, that ''may'' not be real Chinese." As Mike says, "To every Asian and every ''human being'', we apologize for that last scene."

* In ''[[Blazing Saddles]],'' the Indian Chief (played by [[Mel Brooks]]) speaks Yiddish. This was done on purpose, as the movie is a parody.

* Alien language examples abound in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Return of the Jedi]]''. The Ewok speak Tagalog, a Philippine dialect. Huttese spoken by Greedo, Jabba and others is basically bad Quechua, spoken in a variety of dialects. Lando's copilot Nien Nunb speaks the African language of Haya.

* Apparently those Westerns which cast Native Americans in speaking roles told them to speak their own language to add some authenticity, which would either be subtitled or translated by another character. The actors complied, but said whatever they felt like, often saying obscene or insulting things about the director, the other actors, etc. There are apocryphal stories of Native American audiences (in)explicably cracking up laughing during scenes that were meant to be dramatic.

* Trey Parker's college film ''[[Cannibal ~~the~~ Musical]]'' is a film set in Colorado in 1883. At one point, they come across some "Nihonjin" Indians who are clearly Japanese people masquerading as Indians. "Nihonjin" literally means "Japanese person/people." At one point, the chief tries to assure the dubious main characters that they are, indeed, legitimate Indians by pointing out their teepees, one of which is made out of a Japanese flag.

* Trey Parker's college film ''[[Cannibal! The Musical]]'' is a film set in Colorado in 1883. At one point, they come across some "Nihonjin" Indians who are clearly Japanese people masquerading as Indians. "Nihonjin" literally means "Japanese person/people." At one point, the chief tries to assure the dubious main characters that they are, indeed, legitimate Indians by pointing out their teepees, one of which is made out of a Japanese flag.

* Movies made during [[World War Two]] that took place in the Pacific Theater usually had Koreans and Chinese as stand-ins for the Japanese. They were told to say phrases like 'I tie your shoe, you tie my shoe' faster than normal to sound like they were speaking Japanese. Note that this was much more common during the war, when actual Japanese people were <s>in internment camps</s> unavailable.

** Parodied by [[~~Terry Pratchett (Creator)|~~Terry Pratchett]] in ''[[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' with the Agatean battle cry: "Orrrrr! Itiyorshu! Yutimishu!"

** Parodied by [[Terry Pratchett]] in ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' with the Agatean battle cry: "Orrrrr! Itiyorshu! Yutimishu!"

* In the ''[[Blade (~~Film~~)|Blade]]'' films, [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]] is used for the street signs and posters in "foreign" cities to make the locale seem "generically European". Kris Kristofferson seriously studied speaking Esperanto for his brief scene buying a newspaper. In another scene, Hannibal King rests in a hospital watching ''Incubus'', starring [[William Shatner]], one of only two Esperanto feature films in existence.

* In the ''[[Blade (film)|Blade]]'' films, [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]] is used for the street signs and posters in "foreign" cities to make the locale seem "generically European". Kris Kristofferson seriously studied speaking Esperanto for his brief scene buying a newspaper. In another scene, Hannibal King rests in a hospital watching ''Incubus'', starring [[William Shatner]], one of only two Esperanto feature films in existence.

* The Libyan terrorists from ''[[Back to ~~The~~ Future (~~Film~~)|Back to The Future]]'' speak some vaguely Arabic-sounding nonsense language.

* The Libyan terrorists from ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' speak some vaguely Arabic-sounding nonsense language.

** In ''[[Back to ~~The~~ Future (~~Film~~)|Back to The Future]] II,'' the older Marty's Japanese boss has a name equivalent to "Mr. General Motors." Also, the Japanese street signs in the town square were found hilarious by Japanese tourists during filming.

** In ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] II,'' the older Marty's Japanese boss has a name equivalent to "Mr. General Motors." Also, the Japanese street signs in the town square were found hilarious by Japanese tourists during filming.

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and ~~The Temple of Doom (Film)|Indiana Jones and The~~ Temple of Doom]]'', Willie Scott sings Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" in what is apparently some made-up version of Chinese.

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'', Willie Scott sings Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" in what is apparently some made-up version of Chinese.

** This trope is averted for Mola Ram, who speaks flawless Hindi and whose lines make perfect sense in the context of the plot. On the other hand, he is played by a Bollywood actor who did his own translation.

** However, whenever an extra speaks it's Sinhalese. This is because the Indian government didn't allow them to shoot such an [[Did Not Do the Research|inaccurate portrayal of Indian culture]] in the country, so the production moved to Sri Lanka.

* The [[Yellow Peril|"Japanese" villain]] in the 1940s ''[[Batman]]'' serial is named Tito Daka. Except the ''ti'' sound does not exist in Japanese phonetics (the closest is "ち/チ", usually romanized as ''chi'').

* Skewered in ''[[Maverick (~~Film~~)|Maverick]]'', as, when the heroes are set upon by a band of Indians, Bret Maverick "translates" the chief's words, informing the rest of the party that they have trespassed on sacred ground, and the Indians' gods demand a blood sacrifice. As Maverick well knows (and the subtitles tell the audience), however, the chief just wants to know if Maverick has come for the money he owes him.

* Skewered in ''[[Maverick (film)|Maverick]]'', as, when the heroes are set upon by a band of Indians, Bret Maverick "translates" the chief's words, informing the rest of the party that they have trespassed on sacred ground, and the Indians' gods demand a blood sacrifice. As Maverick well knows (and the subtitles tell the audience), however, the chief just wants to know if Maverick has come for the money he owes him.

* In one children's movie, the young English protagonists found themselves in New Zealand watching Maori 'savages' dancing around a fire whilst chanting "Tahi! Rua! Toru! Wha!" repeatedly. As any New Zealand schoolchild should be able to tell you this actually is genuine te reo Maori (Maori language). It translates to "One! Two! Three! Four!".

* Parodied in ''[[Scary Movie]] 4'' with two characters having a subtitled conversation consisting of random Japanese words ("Karate judo sumo samurai!") and trademarks.

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* In ''[[The Terminal]]'', Viktor Navorski ([[Tom Hanks]]) is from Krakhozia, a made-up Warsaw Pact country . He speaks passable Bulgarian, adequate to the situation. The [[Ruritania]] he comes from is a minor [[Genius Bonus]] : several Slavic languages have similar sounding words for "collapse", usualy written as some variation of "krach" (spelled vaguely like "krakh"). "[[Bilingual Bonus|Collapsia]]" would be [[Rule of Funny|a pretty apt name]] for the protagonist's home country, given the movie it is the collapse of communism that strands the protagonist.

* ''[[Zulu]]'': According to legend the Zulu messenger was instructed to simply 'say something' in his native language as he collapsed as King Cetewayo's feet. This was a mistake as what he chose to say was 'kiss my behind' or words to that effect. The Zulu actor playing the king managed to keep a straight face. But audiences of their compatriots didn't.

* In ''[[~~Charlies~~ Angels]]'', there's a scene where the angels speak Finnish to each other. They discuss what a bad idea it would be to sleep with a client, but this is not what it says in the subtitles. I'm guessing the scene was rewritten after it was shot. Things get increasingly weird if you watch the movie with Finnish subtitles, which also don't match what's said.

* In ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'', there's a scene where the angels speak Finnish to each other. They discuss what a bad idea it would be to sleep with a client, but this is not what it says in the subtitles. I'm guessing the scene was rewritten after it was shot. Things get increasingly weird if you watch the movie with Finnish subtitles, which also don't match what's said.

* Kal Penn has said that when filming the scene where Taj loses his virginity in ''Van Wilder'', the filmmakers told him to "say something in Hindoo [sic] -- something religious." Instead, he said in Gujurati: "There's a white bitch under me."

* ''[[The Producers]]'': While Uma Thurman certainly tries to speak Swedish -- it fails to the point of her lines having to be subtitled on Swedish releases. The whole thing is a bit odd since they managed to get some stuff right and some stuff plain odd. Like her "catchphrase", "''God dag min vännen''", which translates into "hello my the friend". Probably it's a mistake for "''vänner''", which would make it "hello my friends." But her accent is no way Swedish, just generically North European, and apart from baby grammar she indicates foreignness by refering to herself in the third person. Why this should sound "foreign" is anyone's guess, since pronouns are the first thing one learns.

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** Really, every Brazilian not played by a Brazilian actor (there are quite a few) speaks in a barely understandable accent. Bruce Banner's emergency Portuguese actually sounded better than most of them.

* In ''[[Stripes]]'', the Soviet soldiers of Czechoslovakia all speak with vaguely Russian-sounding grunts.

* A [[Lzherusskie]] flavoured example would be "general Radek", a minor antagonist from the movie ''[[Air Force One (~~Film~~)|Air Force One]]''. Radek sounds like an awfully Russian name, da? Well... nyet! "Radek" is not a Russian name - in fact, it's not even a (usual) surname in any Slavic language. It's a given name, specifically a typical Czech diminutive of the male name Radoslav (as a certain [[Stargate Atlantis|Dr. Radek Zelenka]] will tell you).

* A [[Lzherusskie]] flavoured example would be "general Radek", a minor antagonist from the movie ''[[Air Force One (film)|Air Force One]]''. Radek sounds like an awfully Russian name, da? Well... nyet! "Radek" is not a Russian name - in fact, it's not even a (usual) surname in any Slavic language. It's a given name, specifically a typical Czech diminutive of the male name Radoslav (as a certain [[Stargate Atlantis|Dr. Radek Zelenka]] will tell you).

** On the other hand, there was an actual person named [[wikipedia:Karl Radek|Karl Radek]], who was a genuine Communist at the time of [[Red October]]. On the other hand, it was a self-selected name; he was born Karol Sobelsohn.

** Of course, had Radek actually spoken a word in the film, he would've sounded more German than Russian, given that he was played by Jürgen Prochnow, although the actor's English is pretty good.

* In [[Transformers Dark of the Moon]], Agent Simmons' "German" is simply a string of meaningless consonants and vowel sounds that sounds closer to Geonosian than German. So bad it was probably intentional. If not...

* In [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]], Agent Simmons' "German" is simply a string of meaningless consonants and vowel sounds that sounds closer to Geonosian than German. So bad it was probably intentional. If not...

{{quote| '''Rifftrax''': The Swedish chef did a better job of faking a foreign language.}}

* Victor Spinetti had the possibly unique ability to do this with English in English language films. In ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' and ''[[~~Magical Mystery Tour (Film)|~~Magical Mystery Tour]]'' he plays drill sergeants who bellow incomprehensible gibberish at high speed (although in ''Magical Mystery Tour'', the phrase "And get your bloody hair cut!" is very audible). Spinetti was also able to do this with Italian.

* Victor Spinetti had the possibly unique ability to do this with English in English language films. In ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' and ''[[Magical Mystery Tour]]'' he plays drill sergeants who bellow incomprehensible gibberish at high speed (although in ''Magical Mystery Tour'', the phrase "And get your bloody hair cut!" is very audible). Spinetti was also able to do this with Italian.

* In ''[[Muppet Treasure Island]]'', during the [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|"Cabin Fever" number]], a group of German sailors sings a bit that goes "Ach du lieber, Volkswagen car; Sauerbraten wienerschnitzel und wunderbar!", a word salad of German words well known to Anglophones.

* ''[[You Don't Mess With the Zohan]]''. The hero is called "Zohan Dvir". While "Dvir" is a real Israeli surname, "Zohan" is... well, not. The closest first name to Zohan Hebrew has is "Zohar".

* In ''[[King Ralph]]'', John Goodman's titular character is introduced to King Gustav and Princess Anna of Finland. Neither name is Finnish in origin, though Anna is still fairly common, and there is a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. The fact that Finland has no royalty was an intentional break from reality.

* In [[Joss Whedon]]'s ''[[Firefly]]'' and movie ''[[~~Serenity (Film)|~~Serenity]]'', the major languages are English and Chinese, and do indeed have gratuitous Chinese that is more or less grammatically correct, though not pronounced correctly, as it is supposed to be a patoid or sland. However, Japanese katakana is used instead of Chinese characters because Whedon thought it looked cool.

* In [[Joss Whedon]]'s ''[[Firefly]]'' and movie ''[[Serenity]]'', the major languages are English and Chinese, and do indeed have gratuitous Chinese that is more or less grammatically correct, though not pronounced correctly, as it is supposed to be a patoid or sland. However, Japanese katakana is used instead of Chinese characters because Whedon thought it looked cool.

* Parts of Eli Roth's horror movie ''[[Hostel]]'' take place in Amsterdam, capitol of The Netherlands. But the scenery doesn't look like Amsterdam at all and the people talk German instead of Dutch. In the German translation, it is supposed to be somewhere in eastern Europe.

* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' parodies the trope by [[Inverted Trope|inverting it]]. The native speakers to be fooled into thinking they're hearing something properly foreign are ''Germans''. The American heroes are pretending to be Italians, only they can't speak Italian at all. They're assured that Germans have no ear for Italian accents, so they can fake it and it'll be okay.

{{quote| '''Lt. Aldo Raine''', in the flattest Tennesseean accent imaginable: ''Bon jorno [Buon giorno]!''}}

** ...and on some Southerners for its fakiness.

* In ''[[~~The Mummy Trilogy (Film)|~~The Mummy Trilogy]]'', Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velásquez), and pretty much anyone else who speaks Egyptian during the movie is in actual fact just making up Arabic-sounding words right on screen, as they go along. And so they're more accurately speaking not ''Egyptian'' but ''Gibberiptian''. (In one dramatic scene, Imhotep uses poorly pronounced German as "Egyptian".)

* In ''[[The Mummy Trilogy]]'', Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velásquez), and pretty much anyone else who speaks Egyptian during the movie is in actual fact just making up Arabic-sounding words right on screen, as they go along. And so they're more accurately speaking not ''Egyptian'' but ''Gibberiptian''. (In one dramatic scene, Imhotep uses poorly pronounced German as "Egyptian".)

** In the case of Imhotep himself, he'd be speaking ancient Egyptian, a language that we can read but have no idea how to speak given that things like pronunciation guides and vowel sounds were not recorded on the writing examples that still exist. He'd be speaking gibberish no matter what. Now, the fact that people seem to be able to understand him is either [[Did Not Do the Research]] or [[They Just Didn't Care]]. Or possibly [[A Wizard Did It]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTTVRpGoPVo This video] reveals that Ardeth Bay may have said the same Arabic line on three separate occasions to mean three different things.

* ''[[~~Star Trek (Franchise)|~~Star Trek]] IV: [[Star Trek IV ~~the~~ Voyage Home ~~(Film)~~|The Voyage Home]]'' had the whalers speak (bad) Finnish, even though Finland is landlocked to north and has absolutely no whaling waters.

* ''[[Star Trek]] IV: [[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home|The Voyage Home]]'' had the whalers speak (bad) Finnish, even though Finland is landlocked to north and has absolutely no whaling waters.

* Both an in-universe and media example from ''[[The ~~Forty~~ Year Old Virgin]]'': Paula, the store manager, while in a conversation with Andy, reminisces about the time when she lost her virginity to a Hispanic boy. She remembers he used to sing her a song, which is in entirely correct Spanish, but the lyrics are ''nowhere'' as romantic as she actually thinks they are. It translates to: "When I get to my room, I can't find anything. Where are you going in such a rush? To the soccer game." She thought it was a beautiful lullaby, while Andy just didn't get it.

* Both an in-universe and media example from ''[[The 40-Year-Old Virgin]]'': Paula, the store manager, while in a conversation with Andy, reminisces about the time when she lost her virginity to a Hispanic boy. She remembers he used to sing her a song, which is in entirely correct Spanish, but the lyrics are ''nowhere'' as romantic as she actually thinks they are. It translates to: "When I get to my room, I can't find anything. Where are you going in such a rush? To the soccer game." She thought it was a beautiful lullaby, while Andy just didn't get it.

* The bad guys in ''[[~~Die Hard (Film)|~~Die Hard]]'' speak in pseudogerman gibberish.

* The bad guys in ''[[Die Hard]]'' speak in pseudogerman gibberish.

* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', all of the Asian characters in Hong Kong speak flawless Chinese...in the wrong dialect. The standard dialect used in Hong Kong is Cantonese, whereas the characters all speak Mandarin. This could be [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by the recent push in Hong Kong to learn Mandarin, but surely you would revert to your native language if the Batman had come to kidnap you?

** As a white-collar businessman, it wouldn't be surprising for him to be a native (or at least co-native) Mandarin speaker. The security forces should probably be speaking Cantonese, though, although it's not inconceivable to think the same would apply to them - or that the characters would simply be from Mainland China, where the dominant language is Mandarin.

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* In the [[Asterix]] movie ''Asterix Conquers America'', the Native Americans are saying a random mix of North American place names that were taken from words in the languages of the Native American tribes that lived in those regions. Leading the medicine man to say such things as "Minnesota Manitoba. '''MIAMI!'''"

* In ''[[Congo]]'', [[Tim Curry]] plays an ex-Romanian philanthroper named Herkemer Homolka. However, Herkemer Homolka is so not a Romanian name. Homolka is actually a Czech surname.

* Invoked by Jackie Chan's character Passportu in ''[[Around the World In Eighty Days]]'', who pretends to speak French. Most of what he ends up saying is mere gibberish.

* Invoked by Jackie Chan's character Passportu in ''[[Around the World in Eighty Days]]'', who pretends to speak French. Most of what he ends up saying is mere gibberish.

* Whatever the translator is using for Rocky's speech from the ring at the end of ''[[Rocky|Rocky IV]]'', it sure doesn't sound like Russian.

== Literature ==

* Subverted in the Russian translation of ''[[Dune]]''. The original novel contains a Fremen funerary hymn, which is actually a real-world Serbian song. The translator mistook it for garbled Russian, and, in the preface, he chastised Frank Herbert for "picking up the most pleasant-sounding words out of a Russian dictionary"; to convey the purported [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]] effect, he translated the song into (gramatically-correct) Hindustani.

* Subverted in the Russian translation of ''[[Dune]]''. The original novel contains a Fremen funerary hymn, which is actually a real-world Serbian song. The translator mistook it for garbled Russian, and, in the preface, he chastised Frank Herbert for "picking up the most pleasant-sounding words out of a Russian dictionary"; to convey the purported [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]] effect, he translated the song into (gramatically-correct) Hindustani.

* Nanny Ogg of the ''[[Discworld]]'' novels usually manages to make herself understood no matter where she goes, although her linguistic approach is described as "gabbling away in her own personal [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]]". "Excuse me, young homme! Trois beers avec us, silver plate", or 'Mein herr! Mucho vino avec zei grassy ass'

** A straight example in ''[[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/The Colour of Magic|The Colour of Magic]]'', where Rincewind's identity in our world is a Swedish scientist named "Dr. Rjinswand", which is nothing like a Swedish name. (In the Swedish translation, his nationality is changed to Dutch; though, confusingly, they left in the bit about his language sounding "Hublandish", the Discworld's equivalent of "northern".) Twoflower becomes a German tourist with the last name "Zweiblumen", which is correct, but translates to "Twoflower''s''" (a straight translation of his name would be "Zweiblume").

** A straight example in ''[[Discworld/The Colour of Magic|The Colour of Magic]]'', where Rincewind's identity in our world is a Swedish scientist named "Dr. Rjinswand", which is nothing like a Swedish name. (In the Swedish translation, his nationality is changed to Dutch; though, confusingly, they left in the bit about his language sounding "Hublandish", the Discworld's equivalent of "northern".) Twoflower becomes a German tourist with the last name "Zweiblumen", which is correct, but translates to "Twoflower''s''" (a straight translation of his name would be "Zweiblume").

*** In the Dutch version, he is named Tweebloesem (Twoblossom) the literal translation of Twoflower would be 'Tweebloem'.

*** Possibly the "Rjinswand" discrepancy is justified, as he's also said to have been raised in New Jersey. Ethnic naming conventions are so intermingled in the United States, he could've had a Dutch-American dad and a Swedish immigrant mom, who happened to give birth to him while visiting her family.

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*** In Arabic, " 'abd" ("عبد") means "servant". "El" is "the" or "of the" depending on context, and "Hazred", obviously, looks just like the English word "hazard", which means "danger". So, "servant of the danger"... amazing [[Fridge Brilliance]] on Lovecraft's part, if intentional, and spooky if not.

**** Not that surprising since "Alhazred" was coined after "Hazzard", Lovecraft mother's maiden name. (Oh, and by the way, the english word "hazard" come from the arabic "az-zar" : "dice game".)

* In ''[[Twilight (~~Literature~~)|Twilight]]'', the name of the Quileute chief in the legend about "the cold ones" is Kahela. Kahela was the name of a semi-legendary ''Hawaiian'' chief.

* In ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'', the name of the Quileute chief in the legend about "the cold ones" is Kahela. Kahela was the name of a semi-legendary ''Hawaiian'' chief.

** Twilight fails foreign languages in general throughout the series. There are scenes that feature characters speaking, say, Spanish or Portuguese (which they are supposedly fluent in) that feature text that was clearly written in English and then run through an online translator.

* In ''Lazarillo de Tormes'', the seller of indulgences speaks in faux-Latin around people who won't know better, in order to win their trust.

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**** His Italian (or Italian-American) mafia characters speak a language which is not Scillian dialect and not much like Italian. It does have a bit of Spanish in it, though.

* In the short story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto, a boy is in his first French class on the first day of school and tries to impress the girl he likes by pretending he already knows some French. The teacher tries to start a conversation with him, and he mumbles, "La me vava me con le grandma" and "Frenchie oh wewe gee in September." The teacher is nice enough not to rat him out, and the girl is fooled.

* In [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[~~Terry Pratchett (Creator)|~~Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[~~Good Omens (Literature)|~~Good Omens]]'', a character shouts confusedly in a number of languages. While "Sprechen Sie Deutsch" and "Parlez-vous Francais" are German and French for "Do you speak German/French?", the following "Wo bu hui shuo zhongwen" is Chinese for "I can't speak Chinese". The fact that it's followed by a question mark makes it all the funnier.

* In [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Good Omens]]'', a character shouts confusedly in a number of languages. While "Sprechen Sie Deutsch" and "Parlez-vous Francais" are German and French for "Do you speak German/French?", the following "Wo bu hui shuo zhongwen" is Chinese for "I can't speak Chinese". The fact that it's followed by a question mark makes it all the funnier.

* In the parody travel guide ''Molvania'', travellers are advised to add random j's and z's to words if they get stuck. For example, the Molvanian for 'hotel' is 'hotjl'.

** It's almost ''alarming'' how many things you [[Truth in Television|actually can say]] in the Romance languages by just applying certain (largely regular) changes to whichever one you know. Knowing French and a few rules can frequently let you get your point across in Spanish, Italian, and to a lesser extent Romanian.

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== Live Action TV ==

* In ''[[Don't Trust the B In Apartment 23|Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23]]'', the first season's final episode title "Shitagi Nashsi ...", supposedly means 'tall girl no panties' but in reality it's a made up word designed to sound Japanese. It's something like Senotakai on'nanoko inai pantī in real life.

* Parodied, like so many other things, in [[Whose Line Is It Anyway? ~~(TV)~~|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]? during their subtitle games. Two players are given a language to speak while the other two repeat their lines in English. It's always just gibberish that sounds barely like the language in question.

* Parodied, like so many other things, in [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]? during their subtitle games. Two players are given a language to speak while the other two repeat their lines in English. It's always just gibberish that sounds barely like the language in question.

** Subverted when [[Stephen Colbert]] was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-K47xCUc7E actually speaking German.]

** Even more hilarious if they take a well-known word or phrase in that language and completely mistranslate it on purpose.

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** Also, the apparently offensive Hungarian phrase mistranslating "This will cost you six shillings" in the phrasebook sketch is "Yandelvayasna grldenwi stravenka," which doesn't even ''sound'' like Hungarian.

** The French scientists in the French Lecture on Sheep-Aircraft sketch intersperse real French with French-sounding mumbling and lots of sheep noises, and again, minus sheep noises, at the end of The Ministry of Silly Walks ("La Marche Futile?!").

* In an episode of ''[[~~Friends (TV)|~~Friends]]'', Phoebe dates a prince from an [[Ruritania|unidentified (although presumably European) nation]]. Throughout the episode, the prince and his translator converse in total nonsense.

* In an episode of ''[[Friends]]'', Phoebe dates a prince from an [[Ruritania|unidentified (although presumably European) nation]]. Throughout the episode, the prince and his translator converse in total nonsense.

** Played with in another episode when Phoebe tries to teach Joey French. While Phoebe can and does speak French (Lisa Kudrow's husband is French, which is probably where the plot idea started), Joey speaks gibberish like "Je de plee bloom"; he can't tell the difference between the gibberish and real French. [[Irony As She Is Cast|Ironically]], Matt LeBlanc is himself a fluent French speaker (the clue is in the name).

** Played with in another episode when Phoebe tries to teach Joey French. While Phoebe can and does speak French (Lisa Kudrow's husband is French, which is probably where the plot idea started), Joey speaks gibberish like "Je de plee bloom"; he can't tell the difference between the gibberish and real French. [[Irony as She Is Cast|Ironically]], Matt LeBlanc is himself a fluent French speaker (the clue is in the name).

* Ranjit, a recurring character on ''[[~~How I Met Your Mother (TV)|~~How I Met Your Mother]]'', is supposed to be from Bangladesh, and should therefore speak either Bengali or at worst Hindi. however since the actor is of Iranian origin, the rant he performs in the episode Rabbit or Duck is in Persian

* Ranjit, a recurring character on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', is supposed to be from Bangladesh, and should therefore speak either Bengali or at worst Hindi. however since the actor is of Iranian origin, the rant he performs in the episode Rabbit or Duck is in Persian

* The Swedish Chef of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' and other Muppet-based features speaks gibberish (peppered with the occasional English word to let the audience in on what he's doing) in an atrocious faux-Swedish 'accent' that mirrors vocal inflection in Swedish but little else. The crowning example is his [[Catch Phrase]], "bork bork bork", which means absolutely nothing in either language. (Jim Henson got himself in the right frame of mind for the Chef's accent by listening to Berlitz tapes in Swedish.)

** In one episode, Jean Stapleton (of ''[[All in The Family]]'') and the Chef conversed fluently in what she explicitly identified as "mock Swedish." The abashed Swedish Chef reverts to his "native tongue," at which point Stapleton throws her hands up and admits she doesn't speak 'mock Japanese.'

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*** In one sketch, Danny Kaye (see above) played the Chef's uncle.

** ''The Muppet Show'' also featured occasional appearances by the Flying Zucchini Brothers, an acrobat troupe that spoke Italian-sounding gibberish with the occasional broken English inserted. ("Ay, Fettucini alfredo! Light-a da booma-booma!")

* Lt. Hikaru Sulu from ''[[Star Trek ~~the~~ Original Series ~~(TV)~~|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' combines a Japanese given name with a completely made-up surname that kind of sounds Japanese (the fact that it's ''got an L in it'' notwithstanding).

* Lt. Hikaru Sulu from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' combines a Japanese given name with a completely made-up surname that kind of sounds Japanese (the fact that it's ''got an L in it'' notwithstanding).

** The Sulu Strait is in the Philippine archipelago. The Japanese dub of the original series considered Sulu to be Filipino.

** [[Gene Roddenberry]] mentioned it being an affectionate rendering of Solow, as in Herb Solow, the executive who helped get Star Trek off the ground, "without the W."

** [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sulu The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' wiki says that the name "Sulu" comes from the Sulu Sea]; a making-of special said the same, elaborating that Sulu was chosen because of the sea's proximity to many Asian regions, and only after they had finalized the name did the production team find out that it wasn't a real name.

** On the other hand, in the Japanese dubbing of Star Trek, Sulu was renamed [[The Green Hornet|Kato]], a common Japanese surname.

*** And then they cast a Korean-American actor to play him for the [[Star Trek (~~Film~~)|film]].

*** And then they cast a Korean-American actor to play him for the [[Star Trek (film)|film]].

** Although [[Fictionary|Klingon is a language unto itself]], writers of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' or ''[[Star Trek Voyager ~~(TV)~~|Star Trek Voyager]]'' often didn't have the time or inclination to work out the proper Klingon translation, simply looking up the words and using them in a grammatically incorrect manner.<br />Marc Okrand put a lot of effort into creating a coherent language given the preexisting words, yet the TV show still mangles the language, forcing [[Retcon]] after retcon and Holy Wars between sects of Klingon language speakers.

** Although [[Fictionary|Klingon is a language unto itself]], writers of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' or ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'' often didn't have the time or inclination to work out the proper Klingon translation, simply looking up the words and using them in a grammatically incorrect manner.<br />Marc Okrand put a lot of effort into creating a coherent language given the preexisting words, yet the TV show still mangles the language, forcing [[Retcon]] after retcon and Holy Wars between sects of Klingon language speakers.

* Parodied in ''[[~~Angel (TV)|~~Angel]]''. A Mexican wrestler, who goes by the name of Numero Cinco, explains that he got that name from an earlier time in his life, when he and his brothers called themselves "Los Hermanos Numeros." Angel's reaction to this name: "The Number Brothers? Huh?"

* Parodied in ''[[Angel]]''. A Mexican wrestler, who goes by the name of Numero Cinco, explains that he got that name from an earlier time in his life, when he and his brothers called themselves "Los Hermanos Numeros." Angel's reaction to this name: "The Number Brothers? Huh?"

** Another episode has Angel talking to two Koreans. One of them speaks Korean fluently, but the other has lines that are technically correct but very simplistic and childish. When Angel speaks to them, his lines are complete nonsense that sort of sounds like an Asian language.

* Averted in many series broadcast by Australia's SBS like ''[[~~Pizza (TV)|~~Pizza]]'', thanks to the massive translation facilities that network has. It's funny knowing that ''Pizza'' puts more effort into its foreign dialogue than its (tongue-in-cheek [[Special Effect Failure|low quality]]) special effects.

* Averted in many series broadcast by Australia's SBS like ''[[Pizza]]'', thanks to the massive translation facilities that network has. It's funny knowing that ''Pizza'' puts more effort into its foreign dialogue than its (tongue-in-cheek [[Special Effect Failure|low quality]]) special effects.

* An odd version appeared on ''[[Emergency]]!'' from time to time. Firefighter Marco Lopez ([[The Danza|played by Marco Lopez]]) would sometimes be called upon to translate for a Spanish-speaking victim or witness. However, for some inexplicable reason, some of these conversations consisted of nothing but meaningless babbling between Lopez and the extra, even if the extra obviously ''could'' speak Spanish.

* The American ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? ~~(TV)~~|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' featured a game called "Foreign Film Dub", in which the language was specified by the audience. Two of the actors would pretend to be in a movie made in a language other than English (French, Japanese, etc.), speaking nonsense words meant to sound like that language, while the other two actors would improvise humorous English "translations" of their gibberish. On at least one occasion the language was Klingon. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDfSBdKUC8 On another occasion, the language was Canadian].

* The American ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' featured a game called "Foreign Film Dub", in which the language was specified by the audience. Two of the actors would pretend to be in a movie made in a language other than English (French, Japanese, etc.), speaking nonsense words meant to sound like that language, while the other two actors would improvise humorous English "translations" of their gibberish. On at least one occasion the language was Klingon. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDfSBdKUC8 On another occasion, the language was Canadian].

** There was also a [[Bilingual Bonus]] playing where the foreign language was Spanish and Jeff Davis spoke real (if somewhat silly) Spanish.

** They would often use well-known words and intentionally mistranslate them.

* ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'': On this topical news quiz Paul Merton felt that the trick to speaking French was 'all in the shoulders', probably referring to a French stereotype of shrugging while speaking.

* ''[[M*A*S*H ~~(TV)~~|Mash]]'': Whenever Korean was meant to be spoken, Japanese was used instead. Apparently it was easier to find actors who knew Japanese than Korean. Not that surprising, considering that three of the most often recurring characters were played by Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (Japanese-American), Mako (Japanese) and Rosalind Chao (Chinese-American).

* ''[[M*A*S*H|Mash]]'': Whenever Korean was meant to be spoken, Japanese was used instead. Apparently it was easier to find actors who knew Japanese than Korean. Not that surprising, considering that three of the most often recurring characters were played by Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (Japanese-American), Mako (Japanese) and Rosalind Chao (Chinese-American).

*** The character of Nurse Kellye was self-described in one episode as "part Hawaiian and part Chinese," but in a later episode she mocks Charles (who is wearing a kimono) in Japanese.

**** However, given that before WWII, there were many Japanese immigrants in Hawaii, it's conceivable that she might have picked up a Japanese insult or two...

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* ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'': Gustavo, a smug European elitist who makes occasional appearances, is a shining example of this trope ("They're not shoes! They're flexifussen!"). This is played with by having him continuously refuse to name which country he's from.

* Subverted in ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', where Catalina occasionally speaks in Spanish, implying to the non-Spanish-speaking characters that she is insulting them. She is actually saying things like [[Bilingual Bonus|"Thank you to our Spanish speaking audience, as I understand how difficult it is to learn a foreign language like English, and we appreciate your loyalty to our show".]]

* The ''[[~~The X-Files (TV)|~~The X-Files]]'' clearly ''tried'' with the episode "Død Kalm". The Norwegian spoken is atrocious when it comes to pronunciation, and filled with grammatical errors and archaic words, but the general meaning can be identified with patience. For the title, however, they failed twice, first by attempting to translate an idiom directly, and then failing to do that by using a word that doesn't actually exist.

* The ''[[The X-Files]]'' clearly ''tried'' with the episode "Død Kalm". The Norwegian spoken is atrocious when it comes to pronunciation, and filled with grammatical errors and archaic words, but the general meaning can be identified with patience. For the title, however, they failed twice, first by attempting to translate an idiom directly, and then failing to do that by using a word that doesn't actually exist.

** They rendered "Go to Hell!" as "Walk to Hell!", and used painfully stilted school-Oslo Norwegian... in the far North. Giving it much the same effect as seeing two "Texans" converse in broken British English. The fact that they placed the mysterious evil spot ''in the middle of Norway's most heavily trafficked tourist sea lane'', though...

* In the episode "Selfless" of ''[[~~Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|~~Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' there is a sequence that takes place in Viking-age Scandinavia somewhere, with the extras speaking gibberish and the two main characters speaking completely incomprehensible Swedish. According to the behind the scenes on the DVD they had been told not to worry, and just say Norse-sounding things, but then the actors went and actually learned their lines in Swedish, so they used it. The pronounciation is, however, so terrible that a Swedish person doesn't even recognise they are speaking Swedish, and can't understand it even if they try. (Of course, ''real'' 9th century Swedish would probably sound comical, or worse, to moderns.)

* In the episode "Selfless" of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' there is a sequence that takes place in Viking-age Scandinavia somewhere, with the extras speaking gibberish and the two main characters speaking completely incomprehensible Swedish. According to the behind the scenes on the DVD they had been told not to worry, and just say Norse-sounding things, but then the actors went and actually learned their lines in Swedish, so they used it. The pronounciation is, however, so terrible that a Swedish person doesn't even recognise they are speaking Swedish, and can't understand it even if they try. (Of course, ''real'' 9th century Swedish would probably sound comical, or worse, to moderns.)

** The episode "Passion" also gives the psuedo Latin phrase "Formatia trans sicere educatorum" as the school motto. Most other samples of Latin in the series are accurate.

*** And yet one episode has a spell in real Sumerian. ''Sumerian!'' A 3-millennia-dead linguistic isolate!

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* The ''[[Flight of the Conchords]]'' play a song "Foux Du Fafa" that consist only of beginner French phrases in the "Girlfriends" episode.

* The ''[[Kids in The Hall]]'' had [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JinJ7NY5_E a game show called Feelyat!] presented entirely in ludicrous fake Dutch, complete with Der Nederlander Footchoir (a bunch of people hiding behind a curtain except for their hands, which were dressed with socks and wooden shoes, clomping rhythmically).

* ''[[~~CSI (TV)|~~CSI]]'' is guilty of that in all incarnations. All too often, the Chinese people spoke Korean, the Japanese Korean, and when finally Korean people came up they spoke Chinese!

* ''[[CSI]]'' is guilty of that in all incarnations. All too often, the Chinese people spoke Korean, the Japanese Korean, and when finally Korean people came up they spoke Chinese!

** On the other side, most TV-crime shows have often Korean characters (especially concerning gang wars with black gangs) but aren't capable of getting people who actually know some Korean.

** Averted, though, in the Season 1 episode of ''[[The Shield]]'' called "Carnivores" which featured Korean-American actors actually speaking Korean.

** Subverted in the episode "Suckers". The victim of an apparent art theft identifies himself as a Japanese businessman named [[Girls Love|Yuri]] [[Famous-Named Foreigner|Yamamoto]]. He is eventually revealed as a [[Con Man~~|con man~~]].

** Subverted in the episode "Suckers". The victim of an apparent art theft identifies himself as a Japanese businessman named [[Girls Love|Yuri]] [[Famous-Named Foreigner|Yamamoto]]. He is eventually revealed as a [[Con Man]].

** There is a rare English Language occurence of this in the ''CSI:Miami'' episode "Dishonour". A woman's father, who is a Hindu, says that she has 'dishonoured the sacrament', which, if you know Catholicism, is wrong, seeing as a sacrament is a Catholic ritual.

*** That's the most common usage, but the word itself can be used more generically for sacred rituals of any sort. Even the Christian usage isn't limited to Catholicism, for that matter.

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** Boutros-Boutros-Ghali!

* A visual example of this appears on Korean television on variety programs when a foreign person is speaking in their native language and the network doesn't think the words are important enough to translate. The foreign speakers are usually subtitled with something like "!@%$$#@%* &

* In the original ''[[Land of the Lost (TV)|Land of the Lost]]'', the Kroffts were actually ordered by the network not to do this for the Pakuni. So they hired Victoria Fromkin, a Ph.D. linguist out of UCLA, to create the Pakuni language: A grammar, a syntax, and a two hundred word vocabulary. The language is fully detailed in the DVD extras for season 1.

* In the original ''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'', the Kroffts were actually ordered by the network not to do this for the Pakuni. So they hired Victoria Fromkin, a Ph.D. linguist out of UCLA, to create the Pakuni language: A grammar, a syntax, and a two hundred word vocabulary. The language is fully detailed in the DVD extras for season 1.

* ''[[Allo Allo ~~(TV)~~|Allo Allo]]'': Totally parodied on the (British) comedy. A German spy, attempting to infiltrate Britain, is asked to demonstrate his supposedly realistic English accent. It comes out as something to the effect of "Fafafafafa, fafafafafafa, [[Britain Is Only London|Big Ben]]".

* ''[['Allo 'Allo!|Allo Allo]]'': Totally parodied on the (British) comedy. A German spy, attempting to infiltrate Britain, is asked to demonstrate his supposedly realistic English accent. It comes out as something to the effect of "Fafafafafa, fafafafafafa, [[Britain Is Only London|Big Ben]]".

* ''[[The Prisoner]]'' episode "The Chimes of Big Ben" introduces an allegedly Estonian Soviet Agent called Nadia Rakowski. Rakowski is a [[Gender Blender Name|(masculine)]] Polish name, Nadia a name used by many cultures, but neither by Estonians nor by Russians - the Russian version of this name is "Nadezhda".

** The actress also speaks with a thick, Slavic accent. Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language, closely related to Finnish, but not related to Russian at all.

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**** That does not preclude Estonians from learning Russian (the country did belong to Russia for a long time) or giving their children Russian names. Estonia also has an ethnic Russian minority.

***** A 1960s Russian living in Estonia would *never* self-identify as Estonian. The prevalence of Russian first names in the character's generation is so minimal that it makes it very unlikely for this to have been an intentional consideration on the makers' behalf.

* ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV)|The Wild Wild West]]''. A director once asked some Native American extras to use their own language for a scene, but decided not to use it as they [[Reality Is Unrealistic|didn't sound 'Indian' enough]].

* ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]''. A director once asked some Native American extras to use their own language for a scene, but decided not to use it as they [[Reality Is Unrealistic|didn't sound 'Indian' enough]].

* Both played straight and averted in the 1990s ''[[~~Get Smart (TV)|~~Get Smart]]'' [[Revival]] series. Agent 66 disguises herself as a Swede named Dr. Heynadeggjadeggi - not a remotely Swedish last name. Then averted as both she and another doctor speak grammatically correct Swedish.

* Both played straight and averted in the 1990s ''[[Get Smart]]'' [[Revival]] series. Agent 66 disguises herself as a Swede named Dr. Heynadeggjadeggi - not a remotely Swedish last name. Then averted as both she and another doctor speak grammatically correct Swedish.

** That name sounds like a bunch of Icelandic mountains mushed together.

* Sid Caesar, Howard Morris, and Carl Reiner frequently did sketches for ''Your Show of Shows'' in a fake European-sounding gibberish.

** Caesar's ersatz German, in particular, was said to be so convincing as regards inflection, cadence, and sound that, even though it was mostly gibberish, some German-speaking viewers reportedly had the uncomfortable and disconcerting feeling that they ''should'' be able to understand him.

* On ''[[~~The Colbert Report (TV)|~~The Colbert Report]]'', Colbert parodies this with his K-pop hit single [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/182950/may-10-2007/he-s-singing-in-korean He's Singing in Korean].

* On ''[[The Colbert Report]]'', Colbert parodies this with his K-pop hit single [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/182950/may-10-2007/he-s-singing-in-korean He's Singing in Korean].

{{quote| So get into my Hyundai. We can eat some Kim Chi. What else is Korean?}}

* Occasionally used on ''[[~~The Daily Show (TV)|~~The Daily Show]]'', when unpopular foreign news-makers (particularly dictators) are shown making speeches, coupled with an obviously incorrect voice-over translation. Usually in a silly voice.

* Occasionally used on ''[[The Daily Show]]'', when unpopular foreign news-makers (particularly dictators) are shown making speeches, coupled with an obviously incorrect voice-over translation. Usually in a silly voice.

* ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' is full of it when our heroes choose "German" names for themselves, and simply stick "-burg", "-meier", "-berg" or "-muller" after their own surnames. And the Germans never see through that? The "real" Germans all seem to have properly researched surnames, though.

* In the ''[[Eureka]]'' episode "Show me the Mummy", the purported hieroglyphs on the tomb aren't. At least, not Egyptian ones. The name of the queen, '''Nyota''' would have been in a cartouche, and would have ended in two glyphs not part of the name, that would indicate, that it was a female name.

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* ''[[Dollhouse]]'': When Echo tried to speak Russian, you'd be hard-pressed to find a native speaker who could understand half of what she's saying. Particularly [[Egregious]] because she was supposed to infiltrate [[The Mafiya|the Russian mafia]].

** Actually, the words are mostly correct. The accent is pretty bad though.

* The rare moments of comic relief in ''[[Mission Impossible (TV)|Mission Impossible]]'' frequently came from the ''intentionally'' incorrect pseudo-Slavic (called "Gellerese" after creator/showrunner Bruce Geller) that features in almost every episode taking place behind the [[Iron Curtain]]; it sounds -- and more importantly ''looks'' -- just English enough to be followed accurately by an English-speaking audience. The writers had a ''lot'' of fun coming up with gibberish like "machinawerke" for "machine shop", "zona restrik" for "restricted area", "entrat verbaten" for "no admittance", and (one of the perennial favorites) "gaz".

* The rare moments of comic relief in ''[[Mission Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' frequently came from the ''intentionally'' incorrect pseudo-Slavic (called "Gellerese" after creator/showrunner Bruce Geller) that features in almost every episode taking place behind the [[Iron Curtain]]; it sounds -- and more importantly ''looks'' -- just English enough to be followed accurately by an English-speaking audience. The writers had a ''lot'' of fun coming up with gibberish like "machinawerke" for "machine shop", "zona restrik" for "restricted area", "entrat verbaten" for "no admittance", and (one of the perennial favorites) "gaz".

* ''[[Heroes]]'' is pretty accurate considering it's an entirely American production, but there are a few name-related items that you'd think someone would have brought up when being translated into Japanese:

** Yamagato (Industries) is not a Japanese name. This was likely taken from "Arigato." The writing in the show is 山形 which is "Yamagata": a surname, and city and prefecture in Japan, which would have been more accurate.

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** "Hiro" is usually part of a given name in Japanese (like "Masa"). When the character is by itself, it is usually "Hiroshi." In Japan, "Hiro" would be used as a nickname, very informally. Typically, Japanese people do not introduce themselves with a nickname. Of course, his name is used [[Captain Obvious|because "Hiro" sounds like "Hero."]]

* ''[[Castle]]'' features a female Czech victim called Eliska Sokel. While both names are legitimate Czech names - lacking diacritics and misspelled, respectively - the latter one is male. The female verson of the Czech surname Sokol is Sokolová.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbw9YMHUiI This skid]] about an international radio show co-moderated by several european radio hosts. Except for the first German sentences, everything is pure gibberish. Hape Kerleking used a lot of fake accents and [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]] in all his shows.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbw9YMHUiI This skid]] about an international radio show co-moderated by several european radio hosts. Except for the first German sentences, everything is pure gibberish. Hape Kerleking used a lot of fake accents and [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]] in all his shows.

== Music ==

* [[The Beatles (~~Music~~)|The Beatles]] song "Sun King" contains three lines of Italian/Spanish-sounding nonsense (which people will nevertheless insist is actual Italian or Spanish). It includes a fair number of kind-of-in-jokes; for instance, what sounds like Italian is in fact "chicka ferdy," which is playground [[British Accents|Scouse]] for "na na na na-na!"

* [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] song "Sun King" contains three lines of Italian/Spanish-sounding nonsense (which people will nevertheless insist is actual Italian or Spanish). It includes a fair number of kind-of-in-jokes; for instance, what sounds like Italian is in fact "chicka ferdy," which is playground [[British Accents|Scouse]] for "na na na na-na!"

** A parody of this song uses the line, "Wonder if I should start singing gibberish to complete this silly song..." They do.

** John Lennon continued this years later in his solo work, with "No. 9 Dream", which has a chorus in a completely made-up language (the words supposedly really did come to Lennon in a dream).

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* "Spanish Bombs" by The Clash has a refrain which is supposed to be Spanish but is not actually a complete, comprehensible phrase.

** To a casual listener, in fact, the background lyrics of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" barely even qualify as gibberish as sung.

* Lemon Demon's "Hyakugojyuuichi 2003" has a whole verse of Mark "Toxic" Hughes talking pseudo-Japanese gibberish in the style of the announcer from ''[[Pokémon (~~Anime~~)|Pokémon]]'' [[Image Song]] "Pokemon Ieru Ka Na?" (also known as "the Japanese Poke-Rap"). This was so the gibberish could be [[Mondegreen|Mondegreened]] into dadaist lyrics in the [[Animutation]] style for the flash cartoon made of the song.

* Lemon Demon's "Hyakugojyuuichi 2003" has a whole verse of Mark "Toxic" Hughes talking pseudo-Japanese gibberish in the style of the announcer from ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' [[Image Song]] "Pokemon Ieru Ka Na?" (also known as "the Japanese Poke-Rap"). This was so the gibberish could be [[Mondegreen|Mondegreened]] into dadaist lyrics in the [[Animutation]] style for the flash cartoon made of the song.

* ''[[Coraline (~~Film~~)|Coraline]]'''s soundtrack has some random made up language for at least one song.

* ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'''s soundtrack has some random made up language for at least one song.

* [[Madonna]]'s ''Greatest Hits Volume 2'' album has "モヂジラミミヂ" written on the packaging. Those katakana spell "mojijiramimiji". This means nothing in Japanese; however, it ''is'' what one gets when one types "Madonna" on a Japanese keyboard set to kana mode...

* [[Billy Birmingham|The Twelfth Man]]'s comedy albums are practically built on this trope with the foreign players names.

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* Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" features some African-sounding gibberish in its breakdown section. Richie originally wanted an authentic translation, but after learning there were literally thousands of languages spoken in Africa, he decided it was easier to just make something up.

* As part of the satire, the "Inuit" chanting in [[The Residents]]' ''Eskimo'' is actually strangely enunciated English: Most famously the track "Festival Of Death" includes a garbled chant that is actually "Coca-cola adds life!".

* [[Lady Gaga ~~(Music)~~|"I don't speak German,]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sNi9nIXxVo but I can if you want."]

* [[Lady Gaga|"I don't speak German,]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sNi9nIXxVo but I can if you want."]

* Sophie B. Hawkins' "As I Lay Me Down" has the exotic-sounding but nonsensical syllables "ooh la kah koh" as backing vocals. She once claimed it meant "wash your feet before you sleep" in "an indigenous language of the Ballantine tribe", and this joke tends to get taken at face value.

* Stephen Stills (who attended a school in Costa Rica during his youth) has [[wikipedia:Suite: Judy Blue Eyes#Final section|supposedly claimed]] the "Spanish" at the end of "Suite:Judy Blue Eyes" is meant to be incomprehensible even to Spanish speakers, and that he arranged the "doo doo doo doo doo, dat doot doo doo doo dit"s over them to obscure it and make it even more difficult to decipher.

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** They are the first, to this troper's knowledge, to correctly use the phrase" do svidania", which is normally used in movies to mean "good bye". To be fair, that is what it means, but in the context of "see you later". Literally it means "until (our) meeting". Which means you wouldn't say it to a guy you're about to shoot (unless you're very religious). The proper word in this case would be "proshchai" (a final goodbye). [[Tim Curry|Premier Cherdenko]] uses it correctly.

{{quote| '''Cherdenko''': I will not say "do svidania", commander, for I can assure you... we will never meet... again! }}

* ''[[Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney|Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'' features a case with a defendant and witness who speak Borginese, a "language" which consists of [[wikipedia:Dingbat|dingbats]].

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'' features a case with a defendant and witness who speak Borginese, a "language" which consists of [[wikipedia:Dingbat|dingbats]].

** Netopian in ''[[~~Megaman~~ Battle Network]]'' is also written in dingbats, as is Melnics in [[~~Tales of Eternia (Video Game)|~~Tales of Eternia]].

** Netopian in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' is also written in dingbats, as is Melnics in [[Tales of Eternia]].

*** Melnics is actually a cipher language with the font based very loosely on the latin alphabet and [http://tales.namco.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47985 can be translated].

* The creators of ''[[~~ICO (Video Game)|ICO~~]]'', to facilitate the important gameplay/plot point of the two main characters being unable to verbally communicate or (in Yorda's case) be understood by the player, came up with not one, but two fictional languages for their protagonists. Yorda speaks something vaguely reminiscent of French, and Ico's language sounds a bit like Korean. {{spoiler|The Queen speaks both tongues fluently, a talent she [[Evil Gloating|puts to good use]] in her little chats with Ico.}}

* The creators of ''[[Ico]]'', to facilitate the important gameplay/plot point of the two main characters being unable to verbally communicate or (in Yorda's case) be understood by the player, came up with not one, but two fictional languages for their protagonists. Yorda speaks something vaguely reminiscent of French, and Ico's language sounds a bit like Korean. {{spoiler|The Queen speaks both tongues fluently, a talent she [[Evil Gloating|puts to good use]] in her little chats with Ico.}}

* ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' is a notable exception. The demo has characters Gasket (a moron), and Ivan (a Russian with little patience). When Gasket displays his stupidity, Ivan finally says "I've never worked with such an idiot before" in perfect Russian, AND the game correctly displays what he said in text as well. Considering that excluding Ivan is the only exception to a game fully in English, it's impressive they took the effort to get it right.

** He speaks plenty of Russian during the entire (full) version of the game as well, with occasional "bouts" of broken English. Amusingly, whenever Russian is used, the English subtitles are followed by Russian subtitles which don't always match Ivan's speech.

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* The entire soundtrack of the game ''[[Loco Roco]]'' is composed of happy singing in complete and utter nonsense that nonetheless sounds very much like a real language. If, you know, you don't listen to closely. This was done intentionally, so the lyrics "wouldn't have to be translated" for foreign audiences.

** The songs specific to each variation of [[Loco Roco]] tend to also pull from specific langauges. For example, Pink sounds vaguely French.

* ''[[Beyond Good ~~and~~ Evil (~~Video~~ ~~Game~~)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' also features numerous songs in very convincing-sounding nonsense. Specifically, the nonsense is meant to sound "Belgian, with a little Spanish and English mixed in." [[Critical Research Failure|Even though "Belgian" isn't a language]]. However, there are songs with ''real'' Spanish and English words mixed in with the gibberish, as well as the game's pseudo-[[Arc Words|arc word]], "Shauni."

* ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' also features numerous songs in very convincing-sounding nonsense. Specifically, the nonsense is meant to sound "Belgian, with a little Spanish and English mixed in." [[Critical Research Failure|Even though "Belgian" isn't a language]]. However, there are songs with ''real'' Spanish and English words mixed in with the gibberish, as well as the game's pseudo-[[Arc Words|arc word]], "Shauni."

* "Simlish", the language of the characters in ''[[The Sims]]'' and its sequels is meant to be ''English'' foreign-sounding gibberish. Apparently the company that makes the games frequently receives calls from customers who think they've gotten the game in the wrong language. ''[[Simcopter]]'' was the first game to feature it.

** In ''Sims 3'' Simlish includes (correct, but irrelevant) phrases in French, Spanish and German. It also features licensed music from various bands... "translated" to Simlish. The cadance and intonation of the nonsense words follows the actual lyrics, and sometimes, the gibberish sounds ''almost'' like actual words.

* Every Civ leader in ''Sid Meier's [[Civilization]] Revolution'' speaks in themed foreign sounding gibberish... Intentionally.

** The same thing happens for every governor in "[[Sid Meiers Pirates]]". Notably, it's the '''''same nonsense phrases''''', just inflected differently for the various nationalities.

** On the other hand, the only main-line ''Civ'' game to incorporate talking units, ''[[Civilization]] IV'', has each of the units respond in the appropriate language. There was a little bit of [[Blind Idiot Translation]], but the fact that they bothered to come up with good translations--and find native speakers where applicable--is rather touching. On the other hand, it also reinforces--to some degree--[[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]]: for instance, the Egyptians, who are very clearly based on the ''[[Ancient Egypt|Ancient]]'' Egyptians, speak ''[[Modern Egypt|modern]]'' Egyptian Arabic. Similar situations are found with the Greeks (whose units speak modern Greek) and Persians (whose units speak modern Persian). The Vikings one-up these: modern Norwegian instead of Old Norse -- and the faction leader, Sveyn Forkbeard, was ''Danish'' (so not only do they speak a modern version of the language, they don't even speak the ''right'' modern version). The Roman units, however, speak actual Latin--and remarkably well-rendered, with all the "c"s and "g"s pronounced hard, the vowel lengths and qualities properly distinguished, and a voice actor who really gave his all to creating a ''living''-sounding Latin (the end result sounded--surprise, surprise--like a particularly energetic Italian).

** On the other hand, the only main-line ''Civ'' game to incorporate talking units, ''[[Civilization]] IV'', has each of the units respond in the appropriate language. There was a little bit of [[Blind Idiot Translation]], but the fact that they bothered to come up with good translations--and find native speakers where applicable--is rather touching. On the other hand, it also reinforces--to some degree--[[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: for instance, the Egyptians, who are very clearly based on the ''[[Ancient Egypt|Ancient]]'' Egyptians, speak ''[[Modern Egypt|modern]]'' Egyptian Arabic. Similar situations are found with the Greeks (whose units speak modern Greek) and Persians (whose units speak modern Persian). The Vikings one-up these: modern Norwegian instead of Old Norse -- and the faction leader, Sveyn Forkbeard, was ''Danish'' (so not only do they speak a modern version of the language, they don't even speak the ''right'' modern version). The Roman units, however, speak actual Latin--and remarkably well-rendered, with all the "c"s and "g"s pronounced hard, the vowel lengths and qualities properly distinguished, and a voice actor who really gave his all to creating a ''living''-sounding Latin (the end result sounded--surprise, surprise--like a particularly energetic Italian).

** ''Civilization V'' did away with the talking units. They just grunt now. Instead, they introduced talking leaders. Of course, the phrases the leaders say and the subtitles are completely different, even for leaders like [[George Washington]] and Queen Elizabeth I. There is still the problem of Rameses II not using proper Ancient Egyptian (this is justified by ''no one'' knowing what it's supposed to like) and other historical characters using modern-day versions of the languages. For example, [[Catherine the Great]] sounds like a modern Russian woman despite being born in a 18th century German principality (her subjects often complained at not being able to understand her heavily-accented Russian). Washington also sounds like he could be living in the 21st century. This troper can't speak for any others.

* Events of ''[[Half ~~Life|Half-~~Life]] 2'' take place in an unspecified Eastern European location, so the game features quite a few inscriptions in Bulgarian.

* Events of ''[[Half Life]] 2'' take place in an unspecified Eastern European location, so the game features quite a few inscriptions in Bulgarian.

** More specifically, one of lead designers was Bulgarian and modelled most of City 17 over Bulgaria's capital city. The square leaving the train station is an almost exact duplicate of a major plaza... Minus the Combine checkpoints. For a Bulgarian, it's actually a little creepy.

** Nevertheless, most in-game posters and signs featuring cyrillic letters are in fact in (sometimes mangled) Russian. Bulgarian usage of vowels is drastically different.

** Bizarelly, though, despite the otherwise Eastern European theme, City 17's gas pumps are labeled in ''Swedish''. As long as the texture reference photos look foreign...

* In the 1996 adventure game ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]: Prisoner of Ice'' a Norwegian character is introduced early in the game, but his lines are just barely comprehensible to Norwegian, Danish or Swedish speakers. In one scene he screams "I have never loved anybody" in horribly mispronounced Swedish (even though he is supposed to be Norwegian).

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius ~~(Video Game)~~|Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance]]'' and ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius ~~(Video Game)~~|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' have the Ancient Language, which the Herons use to sing their galdr. The language is just Japanese being reversed.

* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance]]'' and ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' have the Ancient Language, which the Herons use to sing their galdr. The language is just Japanese being reversed.

** The written version of that in the game is also a [[Cypher Language|cipher of English]], and is [http://serenesforest.net/fe9/galldr.html translatable].

* Maybe this is a common theme in [[Tom Clancy]] games, but in the air combat game ''HAWX'', the game opens with the squad facing a set of Bolivarian insurgents named "Las Trinidad" attacking Brazil. The problem with that is that Las Trinidad does not mean "the trinity" (that's la trinidad), but Trinidad. As in Trinidad and Tobago.

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* The [[But Not Too Foreign|Half-Japanese, Half-Russian]] male lead of the first two ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' games had the Foreign Sounding Gibberish name "Urnmaf" or "Urmnaf"--depending on who you ask--in the original JP releases. For the US and EU releases, it was changed to Yuri, which is genuinely a name in both languages--although usually a girl's name in Japanese.

** It could be meant as "Yuuri" in Japanese (as well as "Yuri" in Russian)- which ''is'' a legitimate male name. English speakers don't necessarily pay attention to Japanese-style short versus long vowels.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ~~(Video Game)~~|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]''. Midna's spoken language sounds like some strange merge of Asian accent with French, while employing neither the grammar rules nor words of either language. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfoBWjUNYQw We think it's gibberish, anyway].

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]''. Midna's spoken language sounds like some strange merge of Asian accent with French, while employing neither the grammar rules nor words of either language. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfoBWjUNYQw We think it's gibberish, anyway].

** Although, it's gibberish to us, in-universe she could easily be speaking speaking perfect Hylian.

* ''[[Age of Empires I (Video Game)|Age of Empires I]]'' villager: "Roggan? Homus!", and the priest: "Ayohyoyoo... Wololo!"

* The ''[[Star Ocean]]'' games have some terrible names (including 'Fayt' Leingod, romanized with a Y to save us from laughing out loud) but nothing, nothing beats the protagonist of [[Star Ocean 4]], 'Edge Maverick'. Really.

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' game ''Masters Of Teräs Käsi'' features the martial art "Teräs Käsi" that's inexplicably and ungrammatically Finnish. It means something like "steel, hand". If you must have a Finnish title, try "Teräskäsi" for "hand of steel".

* The ''[[~~Mario and Luigi (Video Game)|~~Mario and Luigi]]'' series often has the eponymous brothers speak to each other in Italian-sounding gibberish.

* The ''[[Mario and Luigi]]'' series often has the eponymous brothers speak to each other in Italian-sounding gibberish.

* ''[[~~Daikatana (Video Game)|~~Daikatana]]'' has this before you even install the game. The front cover features two prominent Japanese characters. They do, in fact, translate to "large sword", the same as Daikatana would. The problem? It spells "Daito", a much different style of sword. This gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the game.

* ''[[Daikatana]]'' has this before you even install the game. The front cover features two prominent Japanese characters. They do, in fact, translate to "large sword", the same as Daikatana would. The problem? It spells "Daito", a much different style of sword. This gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the game.

* ''[[~~Assassin's Creed (Video Game)|~~Assassin's Creed]]'' has perfectly well spoken modern Turkish... for the decidedly European and Christian Templars.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' has perfectly well spoken modern Turkish... for the decidedly European and Christian Templars.

* ''[[Indiana Jones and ~~The Fate of Atlantis (Video Game)|Indiana Jones and The~~ Fate of Atlantis]]'' features a sequence on a German submarine. The controls on the boat are labeled with terms like "Flugeldufel", "Krauskefarben" und "Ausgeschnitzel". All these 'words' are actually gibberish that sounds like German.

* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis]]'' features a sequence on a German submarine. The controls on the boat are labeled with terms like "Flugeldufel", "Krauskefarben" und "Ausgeschnitzel". All these 'words' are actually gibberish that sounds like German.

* ''[[Grandia II]]'''s ending theme, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhruIbjXSI "Canção do Povo"]. This goes beyond merely singing with a Japanese accent, the singer doesn't even try to sound Portuguese, it's as if the lyrics had been converted to kana for her to read.

* ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'' has a handful of very short songs sung by Ryfia and another Diva, which they use for various purposes, including as their attacks in battle. Each one of these is in a significant-sound and very pleasant, but completely gibberish "language."

* Originally Kim Kaphwan from ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and ''[[~~The King of Fighters (Video Game)|~~The King of Fighters]]'' was going to be called Kim Haifon, which admittedly sounds cool but is not a possible Korean name.

* Originally Kim Kaphwan from ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' was going to be called Kim Haifon, which admittedly sounds cool but is not a possible Korean name.

* ''[[Nie R]]'': The soundtrack has lots of indeterminantly-foreign sounding gibberish, most prominently in the recurring theme "Song of the Ancients". Devola, who sings it around the village, says that it's in a language that has been long forgotten otherwise and no one knows what the lyrics actually mean, since the song is so old.

** The residents of Facade also speak in a language that was apparently created by shuffling hiragana around, which sometimes makes it sound like actual Japanese.

* ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'' has characters whose names go from just slightly off normal names to a random string of letters.

* [[~~Rance (Franchise)|~~Rance]] is a perfectly good if somewhat uncommon name. However, other names like Crook (who is a healer by the way), Ragnaroarch Super Gandhi, Reset, and Pastel show how [[Alice Soft]] [[They Just Didn't Care|just didn't care.]]

* [[Rance]] is a perfectly good if somewhat uncommon name. However, other names like Crook (who is a healer by the way), Ragnaroarch Super Gandhi, Reset, and Pastel show how [[Alice Soft]] [[They Just Didn't Care|just didn't care.]]

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' has goofed on foreign languages a few times (such as in [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/30.html strip 30] where a German talks about his "bad plans for world domination" and uses the non-German phrase "with extreme prejudice"), to the point that David Morgan-Mar has started asking for help when he's doing them. To give him credit, he does admit it when he's goofed and he's stated his use of German articles is purely dictated by humour purposes.

* ''[[Order of the Stick ~~(Webcomic)~~|Order of the Stick]]'' features this trope as author Rich Burlew grabbed for Azure City characters Japanese-sounding words [[They Just Didn't Care|without really caring]] about what they meant, which is how we got a Daimyo named Lord Shojo (Lord [[Shojo|Girly]], in effect.) Not to mention a paladin(/samurai?) named ''O-Chul'', which doesn't even ''sound'' Japanese (though may be Korean).

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' features this trope as author Rich Burlew grabbed for Azure City characters Japanese-sounding words [[They Just Didn't Care|without really caring]] about what they meant, which is how we got a Daimyo named Lord Shojo (Lord [[Shojo|Girly]], in effect.) Not to mention a paladin(/samurai?) named ''O-Chul'', which doesn't even ''sound'' Japanese (though may be Korean).

** A ''Chinese'' translation of Shojo's name might make perfect sense.

*** Or it could just mean orangutan (like the ''[[~~One Piece (Manga)|~~One Piece]]'' character).

*** Or it could just mean orangutan (like the ''[[One Piece]]'' character).

** This gets a [[Lampshade Hanging]] and a [[Hand Wave]] pretty early on after meeting Miko. Roy asks about whether she should call her "Miko" or "Miyazaki", and she replies that she's never heard of Japan. It's the writer's way of saying, [[MST3K Mantra|"This isn't the real world, so don't pick at the languages, culture, or names of the Azurites."]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0209.html See for yourself]

*** There's also a [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0428.html Sangwaan]. He's may be just making fun of the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] nature of D&D's old "Oriental Adventures" setting.

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* ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]'': What Denmark does when asked to speak Swedish.

* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' pokes fun at this when two French waiters converse in [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090822.html mock French.]

* The title character of ''[[~~Princess Pi (Webcomic)|~~Princess Pi]]'' is an Egyptian princess named after a Greek letter. It didn't take long for the creator to realize it didn't make sense to name an Egyptian princess after a Greek letter, so he decided the entire comic shouldn't make sense either.

* The title character of ''[[Princess Pi]]'' is an Egyptian princess named after a Greek letter. It didn't take long for the creator to realize it didn't make sense to name an Egyptian princess after a Greek letter, so he decided the entire comic shouldn't make sense either.

== Web Original ==

* While ''[[Ilivais X]]'' has this in abundance. Iriana and Seyne Estchell are supposed to come from Serbia, but their names are vaguely French if anything, and Estchell doesn't come from anything. Essen Dywell isn't an English/Chinese name at all, Sura Verandis is more nonsense than Scandinavian or Arabic, and plenty other examples that come from vague backgrounds. Mille Chanteau, while a bit archaic in French, is perfectly valid though.

* Similarly to ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', in ''[[Avatar ~~the~~ Abridged Series]]" Spanish is rendered mostly as English with "El" tacked on. "El Gasp!" Sometimes they also add "-o" to the end of words and maybe put in a real Spanish word in there.

* Similarly to ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', in ''[[Avatar: The Abridged Series]]" Spanish is rendered mostly as English with "El" tacked on. "El Gasp!" Sometimes they also add "-o" to the end of words and maybe put in a real Spanish word in there.

** "I challenge you to an Agni Kai!" "Don't you mean a duel?" "No, an Agni Kai!" "Why don't you just call it that then?" "Because it sounds Asian... ish?" (FYI, Agni is the Hindu god of fire, and Kai means meeting in ''Japanese'').

*** That's because the Fire Nation basically [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|is Japan with Indian names]].

* As Long As It Looks Elvish... [[~~JRR~~ ~~Tolkien~~ ~~(Creator)~~|JRR Tolkien]] invented the tengwar script as a writing system for Middle-earth. The rules for writing in tengwar are complicated, and vary depending on where you are, when you are, and what language you're writing; one sign could stand for different sounds depending on the writing mode. So when people started making fonts to let them write tengwar on the computer, they usually mapped them to the keys in the tengwar's "grid"-formation. This is relatively easy to use, if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately, there are still people who ''don't'' know what they're doing who make fanart/fansites/whatever with little decorative bits of tengwar floating around, and who get the tengwar just by grabbing a font and typing things in literally. This leads to drawings of Elwe Singollo that are labeled, in beautiful and elegant Elvish lettering, "Febw Gywnghweehw".

* As Long As It Looks Elvish... [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] invented the tengwar script as a writing system for Middle-earth. The rules for writing in tengwar are complicated, and vary depending on where you are, when you are, and what language you're writing; one sign could stand for different sounds depending on the writing mode. So when people started making fonts to let them write tengwar on the computer, they usually mapped them to the keys in the tengwar's "grid"-formation. This is relatively easy to use, if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately, there are still people who ''don't'' know what they're doing who make fanart/fansites/whatever with little decorative bits of tengwar floating around, and who get the tengwar just by grabbing a font and typing things in literally. This leads to drawings of Elwe Singollo that are labeled, in beautiful and elegant Elvish lettering, "Febw Gywnghweehw".

** Approximately the same thing happens to Hebrew, Cyrillic, and katakana/hirigana fonts. Some characters represent sounds that require more than one character in the Latin alphabet, and some sounds simply don't exist in the other language. Complicating things further is that in some modes the Elvish languages use accent marks to represent vowels rather than having separate characters for them... something that looks like an m with a dot over it could be intended to be read as the equivslent of in, en, ni or ne depending on mode.

* Does de [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqWXO87TlH4 Puffincat] count? [[Adventures of the Puffincat]]

** "Puffincat have clever-smart-mind-concept!"

* There was (and possibly still is) a fad on [[YouTube]] for taking a scene from ''[[Downfall (~~Film~~)|Downfall]]'' and subtitling the German to make [[Those Wacky Nazis|Hitler]] appear to be ranting about ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', his [[X Box|Xbox]], shoes, Fords or whatever the author feels like laying into. It's a sort of inverse [[Godwin's Law]], in that you start with Hitler, ''then'' begin the discussion.

* There was (and possibly still is) a fad on [[YouTube]] for taking a scene from ''[[Downfall (film)|Downfall]]'' and subtitling the German to make [[Those Wacky Nazis|Hitler]] appear to be ranting about ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', his [[X Box|Xbox]], shoes, Fords or whatever the author feels like laying into. It's a sort of inverse [[Godwin's Law]], in that you start with Hitler, ''then'' begin the discussion.

* ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'' is extremely rife with this in ''almost everything''. As in case of character names, the only normal sounding name is ''Kenny'' Fanal from ''The Secret Programs'' and ''Clair'' Tyranof in ''Route of Land''. It doesn't help that those oddly sounded names are ''completely made up by mixing syllables''. But considering that they were all set in foreign planets, this may be justified.

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* In [[Metalocalypse]], Toki and Swiskgaar speak gibberish Norwegian/Swedish at several occasions, even if they are supposed to be Scandinavian. Neither of their names are usual Scandinavian names.

* [[Tex Avery]]'s ''Flea Circus'' also uses undisguised English for "French" words by tacking "Le" in front. However, this sounds wrong for french speaking people, as french has two articles, "Le" for masculine and "La" for feminine words. This is especially noticeable as one of the main characters named "Fifi '''le''' Flea" is a girl and "puce", french for "flea" is a feminine word. The same applies to other written "French" like '''Le''' Church, '''Le''' Maternity and even '''Le''' End, which are all feminine in french. Had the writer [[Did Not Do the Research|done the research]], Fifi '''la''' Flea would been to '''la''' Church, then '''la''' Maternity before the happy '''la''' End.

* Bloo in ''[[~~Fosters~~ Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' takes it to an extreme of sorts in the misleadingly titled episode "Foster's Goes to Europe". {{spoiler|(For one thing... they don't actually get to go!)}}

* Bloo in ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' takes it to an extreme of sorts in the misleadingly titled episode "Foster's Goes to Europe". {{spoiler|(For one thing... they don't actually get to go!)}}

* Ling Ling in ''[[Drawn Together]]'' speaks vaguely Asian gibberish, called "Japorean" by the show's creators. According to "Drawn Together Babies", in-world he speaks a language he made up with his dead twin. In another episode, Ling Ling undergoes an operation to speak English.

* In the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 ~~(Animation)~~|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, Splinter often uses random Japanese words (and sometimes even obviously non-Japanese words, like "Sacajawea") in his battle cries.

* In the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, Splinter often uses random Japanese words (and sometimes even obviously non-Japanese words, like "Sacajawea") in his battle cries.

* One of ''[[South Park]]'''s creators is fluent in Japanese, so all speech in Japanese is accurate (albet on occasion slightly off, such as "sore no" instead of "sono" or "sonna"). Other languages are just gibberish, though. Lampshaded in "Good Times With Weapons", where the lyrics of the Japanese theme song are a [[Bilingual Bonus]] and a [[Take That]] to anyone who thinks that it's cool [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign]].

* One of ''[[South Park]]'''s creators is fluent in Japanese, so all speech in Japanese is accurate (albet on occasion slightly off, such as "sore no" instead of "sono" or "sonna"). Other languages are just gibberish, though. Lampshaded in "Good Times With Weapons", where the lyrics of the Japanese theme song are a [[Bilingual Bonus]] and a [[Take That]] to anyone who thinks that it's cool [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]].

** 'Broflovski' is not a real Polish or Pole-Jewish surname, though this is probably intentional.

** The episode ''Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants'' features Afghan children and Taliban who speak fluent, accurate Persian, (albeit with Iranian accents), while Bin Laden speaks random Koranic words, such as "jihad," "Ramadan," "Mohammad," "fatwa," mixed with gibberish.

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** "Endut! Hoch Hech!"

** "Die Bart Die."

* In ''[[King ~~Arthurs~~ Disasters]]'', when thanking Sir Martyn in his "language," King Arthur makes random Japanese-sounding noises.

* In ''[[King Arthur's Disasters]]'', when thanking Sir Martyn in his "language," King Arthur makes random Japanese-sounding noises.

* The ''[[Daria]]'' episode ''Of Human Bonding'' features a Danish baloonist, Arno, who sports a heavy German accent. The Danish language - accent included - is actually very different from German, but is similar to both Swedish and Norwegian, as these countries belong to the Scandinavian part of Northern Europe.

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'': The Souphanousinphone family often shouts what is supposed to be Laotian, however, it is actually just foreign sounding gibberish.

** Used in-universe in the earlier Khan episodes to show how little the guys knew very little about asian cultures, which is in contrast to Cotton, who can tell Khan's nationality just by looking at him due to having fought asians in the war.

* Any signage shown in ''[[Aladdin (Disney)|Aladdin]]'' is either English in a [[Foreign Looking Font]] or meaningless scribbles that resemble Arabic. (There's a possible exception in a sign above Jafar's door that ''might'' possibly have his name and the word ''wazir'' on it, which leads to a bit of [[Fridge Logic]]; why would he need a sign that nobody else sees to just have his name and title on it?)

* Any signage shown in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' is either English in a [[Foreign Looking Font]] or meaningless scribbles that resemble Arabic. (There's a possible exception in a sign above Jafar's door that ''might'' possibly have his name and the word ''wazir'' on it, which leads to a bit of [[Fridge Logic]]; why would he need a sign that nobody else sees to just have his name and title on it?)

* There is an ethnically Hawaiian character in ''[[Rocket Power]]'' named Tito. [[Did Not Do the Research|there is no letter "T" in the Hawaiian alphabet!]]) And while "Tito" is an actual name, [[wikipedia:Josip Broz Tito|it is a Serbo-Croatian one]], [[They Just Didn't Care|not a Hawaiian one.]]

* There is an African character in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ~~(Animation)~~|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', a zebra named Zecora. In her first episode, she speaks a few lines of what is supposed to sound like Swahili. [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]] explained that they were originally going to find someone who actually knew Swahili, but due to time constraints, Zecora's voice actor was told to just say some Swahili-sounding jibberish instead. Points for trying.

* There is an African character in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', a zebra named Zecora. In her first episode, she speaks a few lines of what is supposed to sound like Swahili. [[Word of God|Lauren Faust]] explained that they were originally going to find someone who actually knew Swahili, but due to time constraints, Zecora's voice actor was told to just say some Swahili-sounding jibberish instead. Points for trying.

* [[Played for Laughs]] on ''[[South Park]]'' when Chef joins the Nation of Islam.

* The alien [[Bounty Hunter]] Embo from ''[[Star Wars ~~the~~ Clone Wars]]'' speaks the fictional Kyuzo language, which is really just Dave Filoni speaking intentionally bad French. Interviews say that he mostly just read it out of some French ''[[Smurfs]]'' books, but at least once (in the episode "Crisis on Naboo"), Embo actually says an intelligible French word that fits the situation he's in ("Allez", when telling the other bounty hunters to move).

* The alien [[Bounty Hunter]] Embo from ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' speaks the fictional Kyuzo language, which is really just Dave Filoni speaking intentionally bad French. Interviews say that he mostly just read it out of some French ''[[Smurfs]]'' books, but at least once (in the episode "Crisis on Naboo"), Embo actually says an intelligible French word that fits the situation he's in ("Allez", when telling the other bounty hunters to move).

* Given an interesting spin in the previous [[Star Wars Clone Wars|Clone Wars]] series. The Nelvaan language is a mix of Russian and Hungarian, read phonetically by voice actors who don't speak the language, to give it a non-natural "alien" sound.

* Given an interesting spin in the previous [[Star Wars: Clone Wars|Clone Wars]] series. The Nelvaan language is a mix of Russian and Hungarian, read phonetically by voice actors who don't speak the language, to give it a non-natural "alien" sound.

* [[Viva ~~Pinata~~ (~~Animation~~)|Viva Piñata]] had a scene with sumo hippos who are implied to be japanese. The words they spoke were japanese alright, but they spoke it completely out of context, especially since the words were like "Sushi" and "Sashimi" that most western audiences would know anyways. It's a funny steath pun considering what comes out of a pinata, but given that they speak perfect english, it's a bit of a [[Mood Whiplash]].

* [[Viva Piñata (animation)|Viva Piñata]] had a scene with sumo hippos who are implied to be japanese. The words they spoke were japanese alright, but they spoke it completely out of context, especially since the words were like "Sushi" and "Sashimi" that most western audiences would know anyways. It's a funny steath pun considering what comes out of a pinata, but given that they speak perfect english, it's a bit of a [[Mood Whiplash]].

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* In ''[[Dave Barry]] Does Japan'', Barry notices that many signs and t-shirts in Japan feature English text. However, this text is usually completely meaningless, and people apparently just like the way it looks. He also notices that Japanese rock bands seem prone to choosing bizarre English names, with some very interesting results.

** ''[[Dave Barry]]'s Money Secrets'' includes a series of allegedly useful phrases ("Where is the Internet?") for people who want to appear fluent in foreign languages to memorize. While the European phrases are [[Poirot Speak]] translations, all the Japanese phrases are represented by the same three kanji of the kind that could be someone's name, and the Chinese phrases are actually random Japanese characters put together (the kanji meaning "[[Japanese Language]]" occurs twice).

* Despite what hundreds of books, movies and comics might tell you, Brazilians do not speak Spanish, they speak Portuguese (being originally a colony of Portugal). This is such a widespread belief that it's become a standard trick question in many kinds of trivia games, including televised ones such as ''[[Jeopardy ~~(TV)|Jeopardy~~]]''.

* Despite what hundreds of books, movies and comics might tell you, Brazilians do not speak Spanish, they speak Portuguese (being originally a colony of Portugal). This is such a widespread belief that it's become a standard trick question in many kinds of trivia games, including televised ones such as ''[[Jeopardy!]]''.

** Inverted in the Afrikaans commentary for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Afrikaans-speaking announcers consistently pronounced Mexican players' names to sound Portuguese ("Marquez" became "Markesh", "Dos Santos" (which is actually a portuguese last name, as his father is brazilian) became "Doosh'antoosh"). Makes sense: Mozambique is right next door to South Africa, and Mozambicans speak Portuguese. So Portuguese pronunciations come naturally to Afrikaans-speakers, especially near the border.

*** [[Did Not Do the Research|Neither final S nor final Z is pronounced as "Sh" in Brazilian Portuguese.]] X is, though.

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* One of the biggest reasons that some people have a backlash against anime and manga fans is due to the fact that, a good percentage of them, think adding "-umi" or "-aki" or "-oni" at the end of a bunch of garbled letters equals a Japanese name. Leading to character names like ''Tsashi Chizuru'', ''Aeashi Tomeoko'' and ''Heashmi Concaro''. Because if it's got a lot of colliding vowels in it, it ''must'' be Japanese! Also, while "-san" is an actual Japanese term, there are rules for using it.

** Even when the names are made up of real kanji, they're often used wrong. Japanese names follow ''[[wikipedia:Japanese name|rules]]'', and they're not actually hard to use.

* Comedian Sid Caesar has gotten much mileage out of this technique. He shows it off on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlr8fj4Y00 this guest appearance] on the American ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? ~~(TV)~~|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]?''

* Comedian Sid Caesar has gotten much mileage out of this technique. He shows it off on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlr8fj4Y00 this guest appearance] on the American ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]?''

* Many "Spanish" place names in the American Southwest were actually invented by English speakers who wanted them to ''sound'' Spanish. In some cases, because these folks didn't actually know Spanish well at all, they turn out to be gibberish. For example, [[wikipedia:Isla Vista|Isla Vista, California]], [[wikipedia:Mar Vista, Los Angeles|Mar Vista, Los Angeles]] and [[wikipedia:Sierra Vista, Arizona|Sierra Vista, Arizona]] are [[Blind Idiot Translation]]s of "Island View", "Sea View" and "Mountain View" respectively that [[As Long As It Sounds Foreign|sounded foreign enough]] to their English-speaking christeners. So for example, in Spanish "Isla Vista" literally means the little-sensical "Seen Island" (i.e., "island that somebody has seen at some point in history"). Same goes for basically any American placename with "Vista" in it; the idiomatic way of naming places like that in Spanish would be [[wikipedia:Miramar|''Miramar'']] for "Sea View" or [[wikipedia:Miramonte|''Miramonte'']] for "Mountain View."

* Many "Spanish" place names in the American Southwest were actually invented by English speakers who wanted them to ''sound'' Spanish. In some cases, because these folks didn't actually know Spanish well at all, they turn out to be gibberish. For example, [[wikipedia:Isla Vista|Isla Vista, California]], [[wikipedia:Mar Vista, Los Angeles|Mar Vista, Los Angeles]] and [[wikipedia:Sierra Vista, Arizona|Sierra Vista, Arizona]] are [[Blind Idiot Translation]]s of "Island View", "Sea View" and "Mountain View" respectively that [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign|sounded foreign enough]] to their English-speaking christeners. So for example, in Spanish "Isla Vista" literally means the little-sensical "Seen Island" (i.e., "island that somebody has seen at some point in history"). Same goes for basically any American placename with "Vista" in it; the idiomatic way of naming places like that in Spanish would be [[wikipedia:Miramar|''Miramar'']] for "Sea View" or [[wikipedia:Miramonte|''Miramonte'']] for "Mountain View."

** Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is guilty of this. Before marrying Corina Raigosa he was just Tony Villar. He added his name to his wife's name to come up with the far more ethnic-sounding (but utterly meaningless) "Villaraigosa" when he went into politics (and re-adopted his ethnic birthname "Antonio" rather than the anglicized diminutive "Tony"), to appeal to the large Hispanic population in Los Angeles.

*** It gets worse. The correct way of mixing both last names is Villarraigosa (with two r's), not Villaraigosa.