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{{trope}}
[[File:cultural-translation 9361.jpg|link=Nerf Now|
When a show is [[Redubbing|redubbed]] for release in another country, the dubbers often will replace the cultural references with others more easily recognized by the foreign audience.
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[[Dub Name Change]] is a subtrope.
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* In a Multigrain Cheerios commercial that ends with "The box says 'Shut up, Steve'"—the British-accented voices of the two actors are dubbed over into American English for American audiences (both versions are aired in Canada, which is surprising the first time you see whichever you haven't seen before).
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** This is quite common in advertising. The same thing happens in Ireland with British ads.
** The same in Switzerland, where advertisements originally from Germany (and in Standard German) are often redubbed to Alemannic German.
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[My Hero Academia]]'':
** Tsuyu
** Characters' first and last names are swapped so they are consistent with English conventions. (In japan the surname is first, and the given name is last. In English it's the other way around (unless there is a comma in between)). This change wasn't really necessary (or possible) with Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. When only the surname or only the given name is used, that is left basically unchanged (except in the Tsuyu cases above).
* Done slightly in the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' dub. When tracking down a hacker, Faye remarks that their target is probably a smelly nerd, rather than using the term [[Otaku]]. This was changed back to its original comment in later runs.
* Probably both the archetypal and ironically least obvious example: In the North American dub of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' produced by Viz Video, ''all'' of the classical Japanese poetry quoted by Tatewaki Kuno has been skillfully replaced with near-perfect equivalents from [[Shakespeare]]. This has been done so meticulously that for many years [[Fanon]] held Kuno to be a devotee of the Bard.
** Another is referring to Shampoo and Cologne's village as "The Village of Chinese Amazons", which aside from being noted for its "female warriors" (literal translation) has very few tropes related to the usual depiction of Greek Amazons.
** The name of Ryōga's dog, Shirokuro, refers to the dog's fur colors ("shiro" means white and "kuro" means black). Viz's translation of the manga changed the dog's name to Checkers, which sounds similar to Shirokuro, retains the meaning about fur colors, and also sounds like a [[wikipedia:Checkers speech|dog's name]]. Viz's subtitles translated the name more literally, as Black'n'White.
* In the various versions of ''[[Tenchi Muyo!
* Mexican dubbing of anime and cartoons has been very guilty of this, inserting as many references to Mexican culture as they can have, which often results in borderline [[Gag Dub]]s; the more (in)famous examples are ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' and ''[[The Simpsons]]''. However, the public rarely protest, maybe because of the Mexican dominance in the Latin American pop culture since the 1930s until today, via films and soap operas. Some immortal examples of this: at one point during the Saiyans saga in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Yamcha says "We'll turn them into guacamole!"; in the ''Pokémon'' dub, James sometimes starts speaking in a heavy accent from either Veracruz, Nuevo León, or the Yucatán peninsula; and in one chapter of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' a reference to Richard Simms was replaced for a more known (for Latin Americans) Lorenzo Lamas, without replacing the visual representation.
** ''[[Inuyasha]]'' also had a Japanese gag replaced with Shippo calling Inuyasha a "two-legged rat" in allusion to a song by famous Mexican ranchera singer Paquita la del Barrio.
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** Similarly, the English manga ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'' changes references to Enma-daioh (the ruler of the underworld in Buddhism) to The King of Hades.
* [[Geneon]]'s dub of the ''[[Lupin III]]'' TV series - originally created in the 1970s but dubbed in the 2000s - replaced dated Japanese pop-culture references with American equivalents, which was good, but also used ''modern'' references [[Anachronism Stew|in a show that was obviously not set in the modern day]], which was bad. [[Rule of Funny|It was still pretty funny though]].
** Similarly, [[ADV Films|ADV]]'s 2005 dub of 1982's ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' uses the word "metrosexual" in episode 33.
*** However, one must realize that the show takes place in the years 2009-2012.
* In ''[[The Slayers]]'', Lina Inverse is known as the "Dragon Spooker", where "spooker" is a [[Fun with Acronyms|contrived acronym]] "Dragon Steps Past Out Of Clear Revulsion". In the original, it's "Dra-mata", meaning "dragon mo mata ide tooru" (even a dragon would step over it), a play on words on the Japanese phrase "neko mo mata ide tooru" (even a cat would step over it), which means a nasty person. The acronym was needed because to finish the play on words, a dragon really does step over Lina.
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** In Part II, when Sai reads a book that suggests that using honorifics on friends is polite but not helpful to becoming closer, he notices that Sakura never uses any with Naruto (when he had previously used "-san" on her and "-kun" on Naruto), and decides to no longer use honorifics on them. The book in the Viz manga advises against using "mister" or "miss" on friends, which Sai had not been doing before.
* In ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'' episode 73, Godai has locked himself in his room after missing a job interview. Kyōko asks Akemi what he's doing, to which Akemi answers, "[[Japanese Mythology|Amaterasu-omikami]]". Viz changed Akemi's reply in the subtitles and the dub script to "He's playing hide-and-seek".
* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' the famous "[[Odango]]
* In the Norwegian translation of the ''[[Samurai Deeper Kyo]]'' manga, Benitora's kansai accent was changed to a Bergen accent, with a note explaining this was a common way of rendering this accent in Norwegian translations. While this was hardly true, not having been done anywhere else but here, it worked so perfectly no one complained.
* ''[[Star Blazers]]'', [[Frothy Mugs of Water]] aside, there's also a scene where sushi is referred to in the dub as "chocolate cake".
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* Japanese Beetles are said to be irresistibly attracted to fruit, especially watermelons, which is why it's sort of a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Medabots]]'' that the beetle-themed main robot Medabee goes crazy for them. Most westerners aren't very familiar with this, so his voice actor plays him as a member of [[Angry Black Man|another group stereotypically fond of watermelons...]]
* These sort of notations appear all over ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'', because much of the humor that isn't [[Slapstick]] revolves around wordplay (which would, of course, otherwise go right over the heads of a non-Japanese-speaking audience.)
* In ''[[Domu: A Child's Dream]]
* Thanks to Jim Terry Productions, ''SF Saiyuki Starzinger'', a sci-fi adaptation of the Chinese fairy tale ''[[Journey to the West]]'', becomes ''Space-keeters''...or should we say ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]]''...[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE]]!!!
* All over the place in the English dub of ''[[Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo]]''.
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** Spain's dub suffers from that sometimes, like two episodes that call the [[Japanese Holidays|O-Hanami]] a "Pic-nic", with no explanation it's supposed to be a holiday. The weirdest part? [[Inconsistent Dub|Other episodes do explain it's a holiday, and even call it by name]].
* ''[[Detective Conan]]'' underwent Americanization, but this was specifically at the request of creator Gosho Aoyama, who thought foreign fans would better identify with local characters than Japanese ones. The name change to ''Case Closed'', however, was purely a legal issue. This however still doesn't explain why only the American release had to be changed and all the other releases in over 15 Countries were left completely intact.
* The ''[[Bang Zoom]]'' dub of ''[[K-On!
* Following in the footsteps of ''[[Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z]]'' is ''[[Stitch!]]'', a Japanese version of ''[[Lilo & Stitch: The Series]]''. Most notably, the original's Hawaiian setting is transplanted over to Okinawa, and Lilo is replaced by a new girl named Yuna. (Interesting in that a significant portion of the people who live in Hawai'i are ethnically Japanese.) Extra points go to it for replacing ''[[Bleach]]'' in its time slot.
* Early examples of the Dutch ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' dub introduced the euro system to the currency world. Mind you this was
** This is true for the German dub as well.
* The Hebrew dub of the anime ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' was on par with, or even better than, the Japanese original.
* In one episode of ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'', Il Palazzo's [[Once an Episode|speech outlining the current strategy for world domination]] is peppered with random bits of what may or may not be real Italian and other bits which are English spoken with a heavy fake Italian accent; as the trivia pop-ups point out, this is because in the original Japanese the speech was interspersed with random ''English'' and a bad American accent, and they needed to retain the same feel. By and large, though, the series averts the trope; jokes will be translated more or less as they are, and instead you can turn on the aforementioned tooltip feature which will explain why something which is just an insane non-sequitur in English is actually an elaborate joke in Japanese.
* The Tagalog dub of ''[[Doraemon]]'', which aired on [[GMA Network]] in the Philippines, changed ''dorayaki'' into ''hopia'' (though there are some hopia that resemble dorayaki), and in one episode, the Tokyo Tower was referred to as the "[[wikipedia:Tower of Power (transmitter)|GMA Tower]]" of all places.
== Comic Books ==
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** In most of French translations, "Nightcrawler" is "Diablo". The exact translation of "wolverine" is "glouton", but it also means "big eater", not really appropriate for a super-hero. Wolverine retains his original name in most current French-language versions.
** Although the Teen Titans were published at the same time, the mag that featured it was titled "Les jeunes T." (Young T.), presumably to avoid using a similar title.
** In the early 80s, the
** In the late 80s and early 90s, DC comics were not edited in France, so the name of the magazine was not a problem anymore.
*** Mind you Titans started in 1976, but the first three issues show no famous Marvel characters, #4 has Doc Savage on the cover, and #5 has the (in)famous Champions of Los Angeles, followed by #6 with the Guardians of the Galaxy. So Titans has certainly been published at the same time as French DC comics, though I cannot say whether Teen Titan stories were included in those comics. Mind you it was the name of the magazine, not of a comic in it. Concerning Wolverine, the French name is rooted in a sort of mistranslation of a Scandinavian word meaning something like "rock cat" and yes, it means glutton. Except for the little fact that Servals are not native to Canada, the name fits a character with retractable claws and that rather feline looking original costume much better than Wolverine.
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*** The main reason why the first three issues had no Marvel characters was because it featured characters from Atlas/Seaboard.
** In Italy, old traslation of Marvel comics renamed Nightclawers as "Lombrico" (Worm). Note that it's just the most offensive, but hardly the only one. Namor the Sub-Mariner lost his nickname for years, because no traslation was fitting.
* ''[[Asterix]] In Switzerland'' featured Asterix and Obelix having their cart repaired by [https://web.archive.org/web/20120209074505/http://www.ianbyrne.free-online.co.uk/totalmap/an66f.jpg the mascot of French oil company Antar]. The English translation replaced him with the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130918133527/http://www.brandchannel.com/images/FeaturesProfile/212_profile_img1_michelin.gif Michelin Man], which kept the "mascot" gag as something Brits would recognise, but was totally bizarre in context, as instead of a short Gaulish warrior, Asterix is confronted with a man made out of tires.
* One ''[[Punisher]]'' story has Frank describe a gunman as "shoots faster than greased lightning". The French translation used "[[Lucky Luke|shoots faster than his own shadow]]".
* Early English translations of the ''[[Tintin]]'' comics tried to rehome the heroes away from their native Belgium. There are references to British currency, and Captain Haddock's mansion (Marlinspike Hall in English, originally Château de Moulinsart in French) is located in the fictional English county of "Marlinshire". The artwork betrays the non-English setting—cars drive on the right-hand side of the road, and police officers are seen wearing the uniforms of the Belgian Gendarmerie.
== Film ==
* The [[Neil Gaiman]] novel ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'', in its adaption to [[Coraline (animation)|film]], has been remodeled from an England-based storyline to one based in the United States.
* In ''[[Fantastic Mr. Fox]]'' the animal characters are all played by Americans - but the setting is still in the English countryside. Presumably this is a form of [[Translation Convention]] for [[Talking Animal]]s. Interestingly, [[Evil Brit|the human villains are English accented]].
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** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxROnKlbAro The Canadian French translation] of the same song from the same movie:
{{quote|- On peint son profil sur tout les vases...|Sur tout les VASES!}}
::It's difficult to get it for a foreigner, but it plays with the differences between Canadian and French pronunciation of the "a" sound.
* In the Japanese version of
* In one ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', Buzz has the American flag behind him during one of his speech, while in the international it’s the planet Earth.
* The American sub of ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'' replaced an offhand reference to two beautiful lovers Chinese mythology with Paris and Helen of Troy. The sub script is Woolseyed in other areas as well, while the dub is more straightforward, including keeping the reference to Xiaolongnu. The French dub preferred the less subtle Romeo and Juliet.
* A rare example in which only cultural references were changed. In the European versions of ''[[Demolition Man]]'', all references to Taco Bell were re-dubbed as Pizza Hut, due to Taco Bell's relatively small foreign penetration.
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* In the German dub of ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'', the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] calls Leonard "Private Paula" (to go with the privates = "ladies" theme, one may guess), since Gomer Pyle is almost unknown in Germany.
* François Truffaut's [[The Film of the Book|film version]] of ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' is set, surprisingly, in England, whereas the novel is set in the United States. It's never stated, but everyone has [[British Accents]] (except the German star actor), the post boxes and houses are very [[The Sixties|period]] British, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071117062527/http://www.retrosellers.com/images/F451.jpg the clothes] are as well, and the children in the school (one of the last survivors after [[The Good Old British Comp]] was created the previous year) chant "Twice two is four, twice three is six..." Americans generally say "two times two", not "twice", when doing math.
*
* ''[[Indian in The Cupboard]]'''s movie adaptation did this with a British work, changing the setting from England to New York and making the main characters all American. The American cowboy and Native-American action figures from the book remain American in the film.
* The American comedy ''[[Jungle 2 Jungle]]'' starring Tim Allen was a remake of the less slapstick-y French comedy ''Un Indien dans la ville'' (which was billed variously as ''Little Indian, Big City'' or ''An Indian in Paris'' for international release), but the American remake actually eventually [[Recursive Import|found its way back into French theatres]] under the title ''Un Indien à New York''.
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* The [[Live Action Adaptation|live-action film version]] of ''[[Street Fighter (film)|Street Fighter]]'' made the All-American soldier Guile into the protagonist instead of Japanese warrior Ryu, the franchise's usual lead character. Somewhat justified since Guile was one of the few characters in the ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' series who was motivated by his grudge against the [[Big Bad]] M. Bison, whereas Ryu's rivalry was primarily with Sagat at the time. Ironically enough, [[Jean-Claude Van Damme]], the actor who played Guile, couldn't [[Fake American|fake a convincing American accent]] if his life depended on it.
** The fact that the [[Big Bad]] is called "M.Bison" is this trope plain and true.
* The [[Hilary Swank]] film ''
* ''[[Fever Pitch]]'' was originally a autobiography about a fan's obsession with the Arsenal Football Club in England (in fact, Nick Hornby's, who also wrote ''[[High Fidelity]]'' below). It was adapted into a American movie about a fictional person's obsession with baseball's Boston Red Sox. Conveniently, the word "pitch" applies to both football/soccer and baseball, so the title remained the same. The ending had to be changed [[Real Life Writes the Plot|at the last minute]] due to the Sox actually ''winning'' the World Series. The ending actually mirrors that of the British-made first film adaptation, in which Arsenal wins the First Division for the first time in 18 years. Unlike the Sox win, the Arsenal win was, at that time, historical fact.
* The 2007 film ''[[The Seeker]]'', based on Susan Cooper's ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' series of books, stayed in Britain but made the main character and his family Americans.
* ''[[Constantine]]'' changes the nationality and location of the UK-set (American-owned) comic ''[[Hellblazer]]'' to Los Angeles. Since the release of the movie, the comic book character of Constantine has stated that there's another guy with his name and a similar job in the US.
* The film version of Nick Hornby's novel ''[[High Fidelity]]'' moves the setting from London to Chicago (and changes the central character's name) while otherwise remaining fairly faithful. The Broadway musical shifts the location to Brooklyn.
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* When ''[[Godzilla|Godzilla, King of the Monsters]]'' was brought to the United States, [[Importation Expansion|scenes with an American reporter played by Raymond Burr were added]] into the film, with dialogue changes and edits used to make it seem like he was interacting with the Japanese cast. Interestingly, this version was later dubbed back into Japanese and shown in Japan under the name ''Monster King Gojira,'' and it was a hit, with future kaiju films including reporter characters inspired by Burr. The makers of ''Godzilla'' were suspicious of the poor dubbing of the time and thought American audiences wouldn't watch a subtitled version. Plus, they probably felt that more Americans would get the message about atomic weapons if it was in English.
* ''[[Great Expectations]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]] was adapted into a film in the early 2000s, changing the location from 19th century England to 20th-century Southern California.
* ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' by [[H. G. Wells]] is set in Victorian England with the narrator traveling to London. In [[The War of the Worlds (2005 film)
** The earlier 1953 film adaptation similarly moved the story to southern California, while the famous 1938 radio version by [[Orson Welles]] took place in New Jersey.
* ''Insomnia'' is a 2002 remake of a 1997 Norwegian film with substantially [[Lighter and Softer|altered plot and characters]] from the harder, more cynical ''[[Film Noir]]'' original. The constant daylight of the
* ''[[The Birdcage]]'', a 1996 remake of the French film ''[[La Cage aux Folles]]'' (the American a direct translation of the original French). Unlike most American remakes of foreign films, it is not set in New York, but rather in Miami, Florida. The contrast between the [[LGBT]]-friendly South Beach and highly conservative (and religious) politics more closely reproduces the contrast between the Saint-Tropez nightclub scene and ultraconservative politics of the original.
* ''Point of No Return'' was a relatively faithful remake of Luc Besson's ''[[La Femme Nikita]]''. The original featured locations in both France and Italy; while the American version remained entirely within the continental US, albeit moving from Washington D.C. to southern California (a shift arguably as great or greater, both geographically and culturally).
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* ''[[The Eye]]'' (2008 film) starring [[Jessica Alba]] is an American remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film by the same name. The setting is moved to the United States and the characters are given Western-sounding names.
* ''[[Matilda (film)|Matilda]]'' has its setting transferred to the United States, and all the characters are Americans—except the evil headmistress, making her an [[Evil Brit]] by default.
* This may be a borderline case since the cartoon series based on the original book was crammed with ethnically and racially ambiguous characters, but it's quite remarkable how populated [[the
* The American film, ''[[Three Men
* The French comedy ''[[The Tall Blond Man
** French actor Pierre Richard could well be considered the patron saint of this trope: He starred in ''The Tall Blond Man
* An odd case with ''[[Straw Dogs]]'' and its 2011 remake. The original was directed by [[Sam Peckinpah]] and starred [[Dustin Hoffman]], both Americans, but took place in the UK. The remake will take place in the Deep South, swapping the negative portrayals of rural Englishmen for negative portrayals of American rednecks.
== Gamebooks ==▼
* Most of the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' gamebooks were trimmed for US release. The implication was that most of the page trimming was more for purposes of cost-cutting to maximize profit (even if that meant creating an inferior product), not because of cultural editing. Later books in the series suffered from this far worse than earlier ones, because by that point, the series wasn't selling as well.▼
== Literature ==
* After [http://nesztelencsiga.hu/archives/2009/07/15/megint_konyv_sot_Pratchett/ some deliberation on her blog], one of the Hungarian translators of [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels decided to translate the name of the character Susan to Hungarian ''Zsuzsa''. This hasn't met with universal approval among fans, some of whom pointed out that Sto Helit (where Susan is from) was so obviously unlike Hungary that giving her a Hungarian name was jarring. To be fair, the translator really made a heroic effort to get most of the puns translated, and leaving Susan's name alone would have displeased the other half of the fandom.
** Replacing many of the cultural references in ''[[
* The Spanish language versions of Lee Iacocca's books ''Iacocca: An Autobiography'' and ''Talking Straight'' also
** Not to mention the translation of those books are the Spanish-language version of [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]], despise the books ''not being fiction literature and not taking taking place in the Middle Ages or Ancient Times.''
* As it is mentioned on [[Woolseyism]]'s entry, Polish translation of ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' cycle replaced [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Haven's]] [[State Sec]] with the name of the local [[State Sec]] from the time when Poland was a [[Real Life]] [[People's Republic of Tyranny]].
* In the Spanish translation of a ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' book, [[Cher]] is replaced with [[Julio Iglesias]].
* The first ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' book had Americanization in addition to its [[Market-Based Title|title change]], and despite selling well (to say the least) the publishers bore the criticism they received about it in mind when releasing the later books.
** Ron still calls his mother 'Mum' however. [[J. K. Rowling]] put her foot down for that one, saying in an interview "Mrs Weasley is
* The USA version of [[Terry Pratchett]] and [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Good Omens]]'' had, on request by an editor in the New York publishing house, an extra 700-word section included near the end assuaging the readers about [[What Happened to the Mouse?|the fate of the American character]] Warlock.
** The original version had Crowley as a fan of the American show ''[[Cheers]]''. In the American version, this was changed to another American show, ''[[Golden Girls]]'', which is just silly.
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* In 1991, Norwegian author [[Jostein Gaarder]] published a highly successful juvenile novel called ''Sofies verden'' (''[[Sophie's World]]''), which has been translated into 54 languages. It contains references to the geography of the Norwegian capital, Norwegian authors, and a Norwegian poem, which is quoted in the text. Most foreign-language editions kept these references and translated the poem as directly as possible, but the U.S. edition substituted American geography and references to English-speaking authors.
* The English edition of P. J. O'Rourke's ''Modern Manners'' turned all the US-specific references into English ones. And rather clumsily at that: "the Democratic Party" became "the Social Democratic Party" (the Labour Party would have been a much better equivalent) while a series of jokes about US regional accents got mapped onto various regions of the UK seemingly at random.
== Live-Action TV ==
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** In the Latin American dub he just talked in a heavy Cuban accent but at least once it was changed in the episode "Cuban Pals" to "Italian Pals"
* An extreme case happened in Germany with ''[[Cheers]]'', which became "Prost Helmut!". Yes, the translation was set in a German bar, and all characters became Germans. Norm was the Helmut from the title, Cliff became Uwe, and so on. Thankfully, this version lasted only 13 episodes, and the entire series received a translation that was true to the original later on.
* In the German dub of ''[[Scrubs]]'' this is sometimes done. One example is the time the janitor poses as Dr. Jan Itor. It's dubbed as Dr. Haus Meister (Hausmeister
** The German dub also turned the [[Australian English|Australian]] girl Maya from the [[Post Script Season]] into a [[German Dialects|Swiss]] girl, in order to salvage the [[Separated by a Common Language]] jokes.
* On an episode of a Japanese game show, part of an American contestant's introduction described her as being from the "prefecture" Missouri.
* Likewise, the Swedish Chef from the [[Muppets]] became Danish in their dub.
* On the Swedish release of ''[[Jeff Dunham
{{quote|'''English!Walter:''' Welcome to Wal-Mart. [[Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!|Get your shit and get out]]!
'''Swedish!Walter:''' Välkommen till ICA Maxi. Köp er skit och [[Rhymes on a Dime|dunsta strax-i]]! (Welcome to ICA Maxi. Buy your shit and beat it soon-i!)
'''English!Walter:''' New from the colonel! [[It Makes Sense in Context|Chicken and tits!]]
'''Swedish!Walter:''' Nytt från Kronfågel! Kyckling och pattar! }}
* The Slovak dub of ''[[ALF]]'' - where Alf was voiced by actor Stano Dančiak - used this in a surrealy funny, [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] way. Since Alf often referenced various obscure American movie actors while watching films on TV, Dančiak decided to overdub the most obscure references by Alf simply making remarks like "[[Self-Referential Humor|Starring Stano Danciak]]".
* The German dub of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had some of that. In the musical episode Yma Sumac became Britney Spears. In the episode in which Xander was split, the "Kill us both!" ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' reference was dropped, and they answered "Then there'll be group sex!" instead.
* A ''[[Mad TV]]'' sketch spoofed this, with [[Phil LaMarr]] as a wrestling agent who helps ''[[Masked Luchador|luchadores]]'' get into American wrestling organizations. He spends most of the sketch trying to convince his client that, regardless of how much it speaks of his strength and honor in Spanish, "El Asso Wiper" is ''not'' going to be a successful name in the US. [[Here We Go Again|The sketch ends with him asking his secretary to send in "Senor Bag-O-Crap"]].
* Several [[Britcom
* The British series ''[[Men Behaving Badly]]'' ran for six series. A US version was created, to mixed reviews, running for 35 episodes. To avoid a naming conflict, the British version was marketed in the US as [[British Men Behaving Badly]].
* Similarly, many popular [[Reality Show|reality shows]] began abroad, such as ''[[Survivor]]'' (Sweden), ''[[Big Brother]]'' (The Netherlands), and ''[[American Idol]]'' (UK again, as ''[[Pop Idol]]''). There are now national Idol versions in over fifty countries, from Argentina to Kazakhstan. After some arguments involving Simon Cowell the UK Pop Idol was re-invented as 'X Factor' - interestingly the same shift is now happening in the USA with Simon Cowell jumping ship to the new show. Same thing with other [[Game Shows]] such as Junkyard Wars/Scrapyard Challenge.
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* The classic Japanese cooking competition ''[[Iron Chef]]'', successfully Americanized to ''[[Iron Chef America]]'' (featuring Alton Brown's running commentary along with Japanese Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, and former competitor Bobby Flay) which is showing on [[Food Network]].
** The Food Network seems to get that a lot of people watched the show for the cooking and the dramatic competition, with a dash of camp, rather than the other way around.
** ''Iron Chef America'' is unusual as it's more of a spin-off: the original "chairman" is mentioned, as the new "chairman" is supposedly his nephew. Fuji Television, the network that
* When they imported ''[[Tales of the Unexpected]]'' to the United States, they changed the opening narration, replacing the author with John Houseman.
* ''[[Hope Island]]'' was an Americanization of the BBC dramady ''Ballykissangel''. The setting for the American version was a Pacific Northwest resort village, that the male lead was switched from a Catholic priest to a Protestant pastor. Had the show lasted longer than a season (it didn't), that would have changed the main dynamic (the original series' main plot for the first three seasons was a Catholic priest slowly falling in love with an agnostic pub-owner), because Protestant ministers are allowed to marry.
* Before he became a big-name film director, Lars von Trier made a fantasy/horror TV series in Denmark about a haunted hospital called ''[[Riget]]'' that was one of the best shows of the genre. A US TV adaptation was made by von Trier in collaboration with Stephen King, ''[[Kingdom Hospital]]''.
* There is an American version of the UK [[Reality TV]] genealogy show ''[[Who Do You Think You Are?|Who Do You Think You Are]]''. The major difference between the two version is that all the Americans featured have Incredibly inspirational and history-altering ancestors. Whereas the British celebrities take what they're given.
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* Korean and Chinese dramas in the Philippines are usually aired with the characters' names changed to Western names like "Jenny" and "Johnny", presumably so that it's easier for the dubbers to pronounce and for the audience to identify the characters. If the title contains the name of a character (e.g. "My Name is Kim Sam Soon"), however, the name of that character is retained. It is jarring, though, to hear one character going by a Korean name while the rest of the characters have Western names.
** Averted with the Philippine airing of the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango ("Boys Over Flowers"), where the ALL the characters were stuck with their original Korean names.
* The Aforementioned ''[[wikipedia:BeTipul|BeTipul]]'' aside from the US version (''[[In Treatment]]''), also got various European versions—Netherlands' ''In therapie'', Romania's ''In Deriva''', Serbia's ''Na terapiji'', and more are rumoured.
* The German version of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' added a whole new character (Colonel Klink's housekeeper...and maybe mistress), added different German accents - all of the important Germans have a different one: Klink's is from Saxony, Schultz's is Bavarian, General Burkhalter's is Austrian...the only ones speaking standard German are the Americans. Newkirk, instead of having another English accent, stutters. Also, because certain Nazi phrases are illegal in Germany, they work around that "Heil" thing a lot.
== Newspaper Comics ==
* One of Gary Larson's '''[[The Far Side]]'' comics was a whale singing into a microphone underwater (Referencing Whale Song). The caption originally read "A Louie, Louie...wowoooo...We gotta go now...", but was changed for the Danish book version into "I'm singing in the rain..." Because that was more of an international hit. In the collection ''Prehistory of the Far Side'', Larson noted that he found the Danish version funnier in retrospect.
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Gamebooks ===
▲* Most of the ''[[Lone Wolf]]'' gamebooks were trimmed for US release. The implication was that most of the page trimming was more for purposes of cost-cutting to maximize profit (even if that meant creating an inferior product), not because of cultural editing. Later books in the series suffered from this far worse than earlier ones, because by that point, the series wasn't selling as well.
=== Tabletop
* A strange semi-example: ''[[Traveller]]: The New Era'' is peppered with references to 20th-century pop culture, which caused many people to wonder why people in the 50th-something century were so fixated on pre-spaceflight Earth. [[Word of God]] has it that this is supposed to be a Cultural Translation along with [[Translation Convention|rendering 50th-century English as modern English]].
== Theatre ==
* ''[[The Miser]]'' features a scene where numerous worthless kitschy objects are listed, including "tapestry hangings representing the loves of Gombaud and Macée"; these were apparently characters from "an old comic pastoral" sometimes depicted on tapestries at that time. The Polish translation of the play (by Tadeusz Boy-Zelenski) replaces this with "...the courtings of [[Classical Mythology|Jupiter]]", which is much less hopelessly obscure.
== Video Games ==
* In the Japanese version of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', Zell's [[Trademark Favorite Food]] that he keeps [[Failure Is the Only Option|trying to]] get from the cafeteria is a particular type of bread. In the English version it's hot dogs, and in French it's pretzels. This causes a minor [[Dub-Induced Plot Hole]] in the [[Dance Party Ending]], where Zell is seen stuffing his face with what look like dinner rolls. This is actually the punchline to a [[Brick Joke]] -- he ''finally'' got some of that damn bread! Fortunately, at least, the shape of the rolls resembles
* Marie Antoinette [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|supposedly]] said "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" meaning "They should eat Brioche". This is normally translated in English for some reason to "Then let then eat cake". In ''[[Total War: Warhammer]] II'', a Dilemma comes up where the halflings request help. The option where you (flavor-wise) deny helping them says "Let them eat [[Big Eater|lots of]] cake". In the French version it translates to that they should eat lots of brioche. Both English speaking and French speaking players would likely get the same reference despite the literal translation being incorrect.
* The original ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' was heavily influenced by Japanese culture. Much had to be replaced to something the Western market can relate to, like a Japanese fireplace being replaced by a barbecue grill, during localization. However, the Japanese team liked the changes so much they released the game as ''Dōbutsu no Mori e-Plus'' in Japan as well.
* In ''[[God Hand]]'', the Tension Gauge-increasing
* Subversion: The NES game ''[[Chubby Cherub]]'', a localized version of a Q-taro Famicom title. The title character's sprite and the title screen were the ONLY graphical alterations. This runs contrary to other localized licenced games of the era, when all references to the show it was based on were removed.
* [[Hammerin' Harry|The two ''Daiku No Gensan'' games]] to arrive in the US before ''Hammerin' Hero'' received a particularly half-assed version of the "poorly-done pandering" version, renaming the main character from Genzo to Harry, and a few other minor touches, such as renaming the ramen stands in the first level to different things. (Kuromoku-gumi to Rusty Nailers is justified, as without translation notes, Kuromoku-Gumi is nothing more than gibberish to English speakers). Please note, however, that Harry '''still''' dresses
* The [[Cute'Em Up]] game ''[[KiKi KaiKai]] ~ Nazo no Kuro Manto'' for the [[Super Famicom]] contained many references to Japanese mythology; the two player characters are a [[Miko]] and a [[Youkai|tanuki]], the former's weapons are [[Paper Talisman|ofuda]] and an ō[[Zigzag Paper Tassel|nusa]], and the enemies are various types of [[Obake]]. The official English version went by the title of ''Pocky & Rocky'' instead of attempting to translate the original title, and correspondingly renamed the aforementioned player characters to Pocky and Rocky. (The [[Theme Naming]] was not present in their original names, Sayo-chan and Manuke.) The ofuda and ōnusa were referred to as "cards" and "magic stick". Finally, Manuke / Rocky was referred to as a raccoon, rather than a raccoon-dog (the correct English name for tanuki).
** Could it be a contrived reference to [[The Beatles]]' song "Rocky Raccoon"? Also, the ''obake'' were called "Gorgonzola Goblins".
* At the beginning of ''[[Grim Fandango]]'' there is a clown who can make balloons shaped like [[Robert Frost]]. As Robert Frost is not well known in France, the balloon is said to be shaped like Captain Haddock (from ''[[Tintin]]'') in the French version. When Manny Calavera examines the balloon he says: "That doesn't look like Captain Haddock at all."
* ''[[EarthBound]]'' has the statues shaped like a pencil and an eraser. In the original Japanese version, they are shaped like an octopus and a type of Japanese wooden doll.
* The English translations of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games change the setting from Tokyo to [[City with No Name|an unnamed metropolis]] in [[SoCalization|southern California]], albeit one which looks a lot like Tokyo.
** Well, Gumshoe does say outright that he lives in "Compton Castles" in 3-3, which would put it in LA.
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** The German version of ''Secret of Mana'' has many German pop-culture references including an NPC called Heino, a musician often parodied for his look, looking for his sunglasses.
* ''Saiyuki World'' was based on ''[[Journey to the West]]'', but most Americans didn't understand that, so it became a generic American Indian theme.
* ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'' did quite a bit in changes also; removing the dialogue which cuts out a lot of the story is one such example.
* The few ''[[Kunio-Kun
** The first game in the series, ''Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun'', was released overseas as ''Renegade''. Kunio was renamed Mr.K and his white school uniform was replaced with a matching brown vest and pants getup obviously inspired by ''[[The Warriors (film)|The Warriors]]''. The outdoor train station from the first stage was replaced by an underground subway and all the enemy characters were redrawn as well with the exception of the final gang (although the Yakuza hitmen were oddly enough [[Race Lift|recolored black]]).
** ''[[Super Dodge Ball]]'' (the American version of ''Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu'') had the simplest change in the series. Since the game already had an international theme, the nationality of the main team and their first rivals was simply changed from Japanese to American and the CPU-controlled American team became Japanese. In the NES version, the Russian team, originally the penultimate team, become the final team in the American localization.
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* ''Police 911'': In the Japanese version, you start in Tokyo, then travel to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. In the US version, it's the other way around, in addition to the stages being in a slightly different order.
* Tecmo's 1st [[Captain Tsubasa]] is translated into ''Tecmo Cup Soccer Game'' upon exporting. It features blondes and non-Japaneses who represent a strangely named national team instead of Japan.
* Most [[Rhythm
* ''[[The House of the Dead (series)|House of the Dead
* The Japanese version of ''[[Police Quest]]'' [http://ca.kotaku.com/5812431/japan-what-the-hell-did-you-do-to-this-classic-pc-adventure-game redraws the game to make everyone look like Anime characters.]
* [[Fan Translation]]s of the ''[[Touhou]]'' series often run into this problem due to ZUN's (in)famous fascination with obscure elements of Japanese mythology and mind-bending wordplay (''Japanese'', natch). Cultural translations have occasionally resulted in local [[Fanon]] differing between countries, though the internet has been helpful in getting everyone on the same track.
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* ''[[Alex Kidd]] in Miracle World'' had rice balls replaced with hamburgers in the version included as a built-in game with some models of the [[Sega Master System]].
== Web Comics ==
* A strange version almost happened with ''[[Least I Could Do]]''. When the comic's creators looked into turning it into a [[Animated Adaptation|cartoon]], Teletoon mandated that the comic had to be changed to remind the viewers<ref>Read: Beat them over the head with the fact</ref> that it takes place in Canada; this would have included slapping a hockey jersey on one character, [[Race Lift|making the only girl an Inuit]], and turning the protagonist's [[Walk and Talk]] into ice fishing. Creator Ryan Sohmer said no way and began [[Start My Own|working on his own cartoon]] while Teletoon produced a knock-off.
** Why is this strange? ''LICD'' is already a Canadian comic; it just focuses on the characters and plot rather than saying "Have I Mentioned I'm Canadian Today?".
== Western Animation ==
* Early Brazilian redubbing of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' included several local references so that things would sound more familiar (some of them are infamously remarkable). It seems they stopped by the sixth season.
** The Italian
** By the way, it seems to be pretty common in Brazilian dubs, especially in Adult Swim cartoons, like ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' and ''[[Sealab 2021]]''
** More common in dubs placed in Rio de Janeiro studios than in São Paulo studios, but yet, both apply this trope in an awesome fashion, making people consider Brazilian dub one of the best of the world. It's a common denominator even to foreign people who learn Portuguese, or people from other countries that speak this language.
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** But to be fair, the stereotypes the character is based on are not very German but rather [[Yodel Land|Swiss or Austrian]].
* The Russian dub of ''[[Drawn Together]]'' had references to Russian commercials and reality shows inserted into it, replacing some of the more obscure references to American culture.
* The Polish dub of ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' replaces
** Something similar happened to the episode "Johnny Meets Adam West", which was re-titled to "Johnny Saves Mom", also likely due to West's obscurity in Poland (though in that case only the title was changed, West remained West in the episode itself).
* One Mexican Spanish-dubbed ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode had Jenna Jameson referred to in dialogue as Pam Anderson, as well.
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** In "Super Nanny," Captain Hero's line "Auf Wiedersehen, Frenchie!" is dubbed over with "Vaya con dios, darling!"
** ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' is mentioned in place of Jose "Daddy Long Legs" Martinez in "The Lemon-AIDS Walk."
** In "Wooldoor Sockbat's Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable!," Wooldoor asks Clara, "[[David Copperfield (novel)
*** Also, in the same episode, the [[wikipedia:Ku Klux Klan|Ku Klux Klan]] is mentioned in place of [[wikipedia:Denny's|Denny's]].
** In "Mexican't Buy Me Love," [[wikipedia:Bell Biv DeVoe|Bell Biv DeVoe]] is once again replaced, but this time with [[wikipedia:Pussycat Dolls|The Pussycat Dolls]].
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** In the episode "Mexican't Buy Me Love" in the same dubbed version, one reference to ''[[Jennifer Lopez]]'' replaces the mentioning of [[wikipedia:Edward James Olmos|Edward James Olmos]].
* In the Hungarian version of "Little Orphan Hero" on ''[[Drawn Together]]'', Captain Hero sings Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge," whereas in the original he sings Five for Fighting's "Superman (It's Not Easy)."
== Real Life ==
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** The Kansai dialect of Japanese was often dubbed in English as a Brooklyn accent, due to similar stereotypes about the people who speak with them.
** In French, the Kansai-equivalent is usually the Marseilles accent.
** Though the convention seems to have changed to a coastal Texan accent, which still often works due to different nuances in the stereotype.
** People with German accents usually get Bavarian accents in German dubs while British people have English German accents.
*** Unless they are the stiff Prussian kind, in which case they usually get...vaguely Northernish accents.
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