Fun with Subtitles: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Swedish_Chef_-_Popcorn.jpg|link=The Muppets|frame]]
Subtitles are a wonderful tool for translating foreign languages on screen. Sòmetîms, hòwévër, sømëønê wïll gët thë brítê idëa tø mêss wîth thém. Wì not treì a hòlidäy in Swëdën this yër? Seé the lôvelí lakes, the wônderfûl telephøne system, and maní íntèresting fúrrÿ ánîmåls, ínclüding the mãjestík møøse.
'''[[Monty Python and
Mÿ sïster wás bîttèn bÿ å møøse õnce.
'''We apologise again for the fault in this entry. Those responsible for sacking the troper who [[Monty Python and
Mÿnd ÿou, møøse bïtes Kan be prettï nâstí.
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'''The troper hired to continue this entry after the other troper had been sacked, [[Overly Long Gag|wishes it to be known that they have just been sacked]]. This entry has now been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute'''
{{color|
{{color|white|Llamas!}}
[[And Now for Something Completely Different|Supertrope of]] [[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped]]. Also see [[Spice Up the Subtitles]] and (if the character says one thing while the subtitles say another) perhaps a hidden [[Bilingual Bonus]].▼
▲[[Running Gag|(åÿnd zë mãjestík møøse.)]]
▲[[And Now for Something Completely Different|Supertrope of]] [[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped]]. Also see [[Spice Up the Subtitles]].
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* Dairy Queen gives us a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06QskA1wJZY variation in a literal sense]:
{{quote|
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''Katekyo Hitman Reborn''! gives us [http://www.mangareader.net/284-34437-13/katekyo-hitman-reborn/chapter-260.html this] hilarious translator's note.
* ''[[
* The second episode of ''Zoku [[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100220113107/http://azureflame.dasaku.net/2007/04/22/seirei-no-moribito-parody-episode-1/ These] screenshots of ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]'' make the subtitles seem full of innuendo.
* ''[[Excel Saga (
** How to best explain it... The episode starts with the flying words in space, ala [[Star Wars]]. The words are in English, but it's a Japanese series so they provide a Japanese translation at the side, and the narrator also speaks out the Japanese translation. If you watch it in the original Japanese or the English dub, that's it. But watch it with English subs, and you'll get not only the original English text, but also a translation of the Japanese translation written on the side of the screen, and a translation of the narrator's reading of the translation. All of this results in the screen being full of text, with three different English versions, each with subtle differences.
** And there's Sumiyoshi, who only speaks in subtitles that everyone can read.
* In the first ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' movie, Lum's mother's speech has ''two'' sets of subtitles. One, in English and with parentheses, explains that Lum's mom is speaking not Japanese but an alien language which no human understands. The other set reads "Ιφ ψου χαν ρεαδ τηισ⊃" followed by "⊃ψου∍ρε α σεριουσ Οτακυ." In case you're wondering, {{spoiler|that is the result of writing "If you can read this…" / "…you're a serious Otaku" in the Symbol font from classic Mac OS (using the Mac OS Roman character set).}}
* Funimation's [[Gag Dub]] of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' has matching [[Gag Sub
* One fansub of the second season of ''[[Darker
* Someone did a jokesub of the [http://www.animeavenue.net/pokemon-best-wishes-episode-1/ first episode of Pokémon Best Wishes]. Needless to say, it's not exactly accurate. Warning: [[Refuge in Audacity|Very inappropriate.]]
* How could we forget [http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/2190/4677550x1215165627860.jpg this]{{dead link}} gem from [[Code Geass]]?
* One of the [[
* An episode of [[Lost Universe]] involved a political figure from some foreign country and a rebel leader (in a chicken costume) arguing in complete gibberish. One fansubber decided to subtitle their conversation anyway, having them arguing over [[Hypocritical Humor|the ethics of releasing fansubs.]]
* The ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' movie features a [[Show Within a Show]] that has the cast in an utterly ridiculous [[Super Robot]] show. The fansubs (which for the rest of the movie were of high quality) decided to be silly during this scene and deliberately made [[Stylistic Suck|terrible subtitles]] for that sequence. They're written in awkward [[Useful Notes/Fonts|fonts]], leave a bunch of terms untranslated, and use translator's notes gratuitously. It fit in well with the tone of the scene and was generally agreed to be [[Funny Moments|utterly hilarious]] by the fans.
== Film ==
* Following the tradition of the comic book ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' plays with subtitles all over the movie, including introducing characters, giving backstory,and even [[Painting the Fourth Wall]].
* ''[[Monty Python and
** The dvd of the movie also has a feature called "Subtitles for People Who Don't Like The Movie", which subtitles the whole movie with lines from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]].
* ''[[Austin Powers]] in Goldmember'' has a scene in which Austin converses with a Japanese CEO. The subtitles are in white, and happen to be obscured by objects that are ''also'' white...
{{quote|
"Your ass{{spoiler|ignment}} is {{spoiler|an un}}happy {{spoiler|one}}"
"[[Bigger Is Better in Bed|I have a huge rod]]{{spoiler|ent problem}}" }}
** ... Even though "shiitake" [[Rule of Funny|is actually spelt with two i's]]...
** There was another scene where Austin has a conversation with his dad using Cockney rhyming slang which is subtitled in American English that Americans can understand. Eventually, though, the subtitles [[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|start getting confused]] (replacing long stretches of the conversation with "??????"), only catching up to the final phrase: "...and shat on a turtle!".
*** Or with "tea kettle".
* ''[[Snatch]]'' had Mikey the Pikey, who spoke English with a very thick accent. An extra on the DVD has Mikey subtitled; the subtitles once read "[[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|?????????]]".
** The reason that the subtitles can't translate Mikey's words at that point is because [[Brad Pitt]] went completely off the rails and just made up a whole bunch of gibberish. He's not actually saying ''anything''.
* In the parody movie ''[[Fatal Instinct]]'', a woman is plotting in the middle of a park with her lover to kill her husband, and the two of them speak subtitled Yiddish. At one point, the man sitting in the bench answers a question the lover asked her. When she asked if he understood Yiddish, he replied that he was simply reading the subtitles, at which point, the two of them look down at the words, as if just noticing them.
* ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]'' jokes goes [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0MXU3J6Qbs like this]: The character is arrested, and the policeman addresses him in subtitled German. When he is answered in English, he exclaims "Oh, you speak English!" before telling his associate to drop the subtitles.
* ''[[George of the Jungle]]'': when George is speaking "gorilla" to his ape friends. Normally George has about as basic a vocabulary and grammar rules as anybody, but apparently he speaks gorilla like a [[Shakespeare
** In addition to the above, they also keep the subtitles for the German(ic) mercenaries: "Thank you, sir!" and "Oh, see the monkey." [[Rule of Funny|Predictably, they're speaking perfect English....]]
** Taken up to 11 in the sequel. The animals are translated into English, ''but the subtitles are animal sounds.''
* In ''[[
** To clarify, the implication is that the four word Cantonese phrase Wayne uses is worth a couple of paragraphs in English, taking considerably more time to get all the text on the screen than it is to say. [[Don't Explain the Joke|This is a play on foreign films]] where long streams of speech are accompanied by ridiculously minute, concise subtitles. It's also a reference to the [[Looney Tunes]] cartoon ''Wackiki Wabbit'', cited below.
** In the sequel, when he inadvertently insults his girlfriend's father, provoking an immenent fight, Wayne asks if they can switch from subtitles to dubbing (since it's going to be a martial arts fight scene).
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* A very rare non-comedic example: in ''Man on Fire'', the subtitles start out behaving normally, appearing at the bottom of the screen whenever character speaks in a non-English language. As the film goes on, however, they get...weird. They start popping up one word at a time. They turn up when a character is speaking English anyway. They appear in unorthodox parts of the screen. Finally they've all but taken over the film, with such instances as a large grainy word appearing right out of a character's mouth and floating creepily across the screen before dissolving becoming not uncommon.
** Which follows Creasy's increasing descent into madness quite well. Only when {{spoiler|he finds that Pita is still alive}} do the subtitles go back to normal, more or less.
* Barfly Jack in ''[[Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]]'' recounts a story involving one of the film's antagonists in an almost impenetrable block of Cockney rhyming slang, with English subtitles.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Airplane!]]!'', the two black guys speak "[[Jive Turkey|Jive]]" to everybody. While they're speaking to each other, their conversation is subtitled, but later on the subtitles end, and an elderly lady who happens to "speak jive" volunteers to translate.
** And the translator was June Cleaver, no less.
* The Bilingual (French/English) movie ''[[Bon Cop, Bad Cop]]'' the two main characters switch back and forth between French and English. In the "English" version, only when they're speaking French do subtitles appear, translating the dialog into English (and the reverse happens in the so-called french version of the movie). It is also possible to display the entire movie with English or French subtitles, or to have each language subtitled only in itself. David, the Quebecois cop, assuming that his Ontario counterpart, Martin, only understands English, makes snarky remarks about him in French.
{{quote|
'''Martin:''' Non, je ne parle pas français. Je me suis fait installer un petit gadget au cerveau and I see subtitles under people when they speak. (No, I don't speak French. I had a little gadget installed in my brain et je vois des sous-titres sous les gens quand ils parlent.) }}
* ''Not Another Teen Movie'' features a character who speaks in a series of light foreign accents but receives subtitles despite being perfectly intelligible. Also, she spends the entire movie naked and, when necessary, there large spaces are left in the subtitles to keep her nipples visible.
* [[Woody Allen]]'s film ''[[
* In ''Major League III'', when Gus Cantrell speaks with Tanaka to coax him to play for the Buzz, Tanaka's very heavily accented English words are subtitled in English, while Cantrell's English is subtitled in Japanese.
** Later on, a nigh-incomprehensible shout is subtitled as:
{{quote|
* The closed captioning in at least one VHS edition of Disney's ''Pete's Dragon'' slightly colorized some of the lyrics to the song "Every Little Piece"
** It didn't stop there -- ''everything'' Elliot uttered was [[Rainbow Speak|captioned in bright green]].
* ''[[
** The character in question, Chev Chelios, has been taking drugs all day and committing innumerable acts of violence in an effort to keep his adrenaline up. Near the end of the movie, he's in an elevator with a Chinese businessman, when he begins hallucinating that the man is talking to him in various people's voices (his mother's, his enemy's, and others). Then Chev begins to hallucinate that the man is speaking to him in Chinese, and [[Painting the Fourth Wall|he sees subtitles in the air.]] Throughout the movie there are other instances of subtitles being used in creative ways.
* In ''[[The Master of Disguise]]'', after a lengthy plotting session in Italian, someone sneezes; the subtitles translate "Gesundheit" to "God bless you" and "God bless you" to "Gesundheit".
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* In the Adam Sandler remake of [[The Longest Yard]], the prisoner Turley (played by Dalip "The Great Khali" Singh, who has gigantism) speaks English, but his words come out garbled enough that subtitles are given for everything he says, even if you can understand him. "I'm glad you're back. Now I don't have to stab you."
* In ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', Tarantino sometimes subtitles well-known foreign words (like "merci") as themselves, rather than as their English translations, when translation subtitles are shown. Most lkely, the decision was because he presumed that everyone, whether or not they knew the languages being translated, would know these small words.
* There's a German truck driver in ''[[
* A Japanese character in ''[[Another Gay Movie]]'' speaks English, but her lines are subtitled in Japanese.
* One of the major appeals of the subtitled version of ''[[Night Watch]]'' is the use of subtitles. The subtitles for a vampire's psychic lure turn red and dissipate like blood in water, text read off a computer is typed out (complete with cursor), a woman's shout takes up a good bottom sixth of the screen.
* Subtitle tracks for [[Disney Animated Canon]] on DVD usually wind up on one of three levels:
{{quote|
2: Singing, but not speaking, subtitles match the audio. By far the most common.
3: Neither singing nor speaking subtitles match the audio. Rare, but it happens. }}
** The Swedish subtitle track for ''[[Hercules (
*** Wait, don't they always do that? [[Go Mad
* In ''[[Death Race]]'', the character 14K speaks the majority of his lines in Mandarin Chinese, with English subtitles to translate. The one line he says in English is given an appropriate subtitle in Mandarin.
** The line is {{spoiler|"Fuck me!"}}.
* The raccoons from [[Film/The Great Outdoors|The Great Outdoors]] every time they show up their chattering produces subtitles about how they will find ways to outsmart John Candy's character to get at his garbage.
* [[Older Than Television]] example: From the silent film [[Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]], The Woman From The City suggests that the Man drown his wife. The intertitle text melts and runs down to the bottom of the screen.
* In ''[[
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* The Australian comedy series ''[[The Late Show]]'' had a skit showing a look-a-sound-alike [[Australian Crawl]] band performing, with the lyrics of the lead singer (notoriously hard to decipher) subtitled. Eventually the subtitles end up showing "????" and "something about hairspray?"
* In ''[[The Middleman]]'' episode "The Sino-Mexican Revelation," when Wendy Watson switches from Spanish to English, the subtitles switch from English to Spanish. This gag would have been repeated, though with different players, in the never-filmed final episode.
* The episode of ''[[
** He jock it made of steel. Eat sushi from a pail. Jet Jaguar? Jet Jaguar. He mother never really love him.
* A sketch on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' with Elle MacPherson had the subtitle guy saying things like, "Man this chick is HOT!" and "I'm going to have a better look." and several seconds later a random guy with a headset walks behind her checking her out. All the while MacPherson is delivering a generic monologue.
** The old ''SNL'' sketch with Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat advertising his music album. Because of his ... idiosyncratic pronunciation, every song is pretty much unintelligible. But when he starts singing "Bette Davis Eyes," the subtitles which have up to that point been giving the names of the songs default to "?[[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|?????????]]"
*** Do you blame them? It's been over twenty years, and I didn't know what the heck he was singing until I read it right here!
**** For those still looking for the answer, it's "Bette Davis Eyes".
* DVDs of ''[[
** In the UK series two DVD each episode's extra subtitle track contained a file in Base64; [[Serial Escalalion|each file was a clue to a competition where the first winner got a laptop]]. Unfortunately [[Gone Horribly Right|by the deadline, no one had figured it out yet.]] [[Shown Their Work|This was so impressive that the series three DVD had a mini documentary about it.]]
* The ''[[Look Around You]]'' DVD subtitles are designed to look like classic Ceefax ones. In the extras, one of the special features has deliberately corrupted subtitles, similar to what you would see if your TV reception was poor.
* A ''Bull Island'' sketch had an Irish guy land in Afghanistan. The Arabic dialogue was subtitled in English, but all the English dialogue got the same line of Arabic for the subtitle.
* CNX once did an ad for some sort of contest in which what the narrator said was subtitled, with one
* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' announces each character as they first appear with their name and relationship to
** Another episode has a Miami's 2nd biggest heroin dealer have the subtitle saying "Carmelo -- Heroin Dealer" the second part is swiftly replaced by "(Second Biggest)".
** And in yet another episode, Michael greets a Czech assassin with a DIY knuckle-duster to the face (a bent butter knife) and "[something in Czech], comrade," which the subtitles translate as "Welcome to Miami, ass**** ." (Asterisks.)
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*** In his second appearance, he extorts Mike into helping him steal some [[Applied Phlebotinum]] from a lab, and tells Mike to think of him as "your new boss". The subtitles promptly supplied "Brennan -- Michael's New Boss".
* Then, there's the comedy clip involving why you don't subtitle insurgents... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvy6MjiNgl0\]
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' had Lupe refer to Buster as the "retardo". The subtitle read Buster.
* In the last season of ''[[Boston Legal]]'', from a group of Chinese lawyers and their translator:
{{quote|
'''Subtitle''': ''Bitch.''
'''Translator''': Bitch.
'''Subtitle''': ''[untranslated Chinese]'' }}
* Frequently on ''[[Viva La Bam]]'', Don Vito's near-unintelligible speech is subtitled exactly how it's pronounced, which possibly makes how he talks even more confusing.
* Used in a [[Mad TV]] sketch parodying K-Dramas (Korean soap opera); at one point, Cathy Shim simply says "Sarang" (Love) and the subtitles fill the screen entirely.
* On ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': A minor example. The subtitles are placed near the character's mouths to represent word bubbles in a comic book. This makes them ''much'' easier to read.
** Also, subtitles subtitling different languages (Japanese for Ando and Hiro and Spanish for the <s>Mexican</s> <s>Brazilian</s> <s>[[Rule of Three|Peruvian]]</s> South American siblings) get different colours. Also something minor, but interesting.
** Then when Hiro winds up in [[Time Travel|medieval Japan]], his reaction is subtitled [[Symbol Swearing|"@#$%!"]]
* A sketch in ''Alexei Sayle's Stuff'' mocking Japanese car companies involved a Japanese businessman being subtitled during an interview. When the subtitles translate his words as "Basically, this is because my colleagues and I are complete and utter bastards", he begins shouting angrily, then runs up to the camera and peels off the subtitles, which are stuck to the 'inside' of the TV screen.
* ''[[
* ''[[Top Gear]]'' had this when the presenters made their electric car a hybrid by bolting in an extremely noisy diesel generator.
* A neat example from Finnish television: an episode of ''[[
* In the ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' TV movie, Alex ends up lost in a Latin American jungle and, not being fluent in Spanish, uses a subtitling spell to let her (and, of course, the audience) understand what the women she meets are saying about her. It's mostly insults.
* ''[[Leverage]]'' has an example similar to Burn Notice's in the pilot episode. The subtitles describe Parker as "Security Circum--" then are deleted and replaced with "Infiltration and Alter--" which is also deleted and replaced with "Thief."
** The season three opener, "The Jailhouse Job," subtitles the apartment above McRory's as "Nate's Apartment" but quickly deletes it and replaces it with "Leverage HQ."
* The dutch comdy duo Kees Van Kooten and Wim the Bie once made a short music clip called "I Wanna Fuck You" performed by a very [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|obvious parody]] of the Queen's (back then Heir Apparant) brothser in law. The subtitles were provided in Dutch, translating "I wanna fuck you" as "I like you" and the remainder of the translation was equally innocent... the text, not so much. The clip can be found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6umgjdGSd-4 here]. Needless to say, it's NSFW.
* ''[[I Love Lucy]]''. Twice.
** Lucy ends another argument with Ricky using her ususal screwball logic. He goes into one of his Spanish tirades, and the subtitles read simply, "She's nuts."
** When the Ricardos and the Mertzes are in Italy, Lucy tries her hardest to get a part in an Italian movie, and of course fails miserably. Ethel gets the part instead, and Lucy mutters something which the subtitles translate as "CENSORED".
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' has a game called film dub in which two of the actors fake a foreign language conversation and the other two actors off screen 'translate' their lines after each person speaks, [[Hilarity Ensues
** The all-time greatest playing of this game, with guest [[Sid Caesar]], featured Caesar switching languages during every exchange. Mind you, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he was in his 90s.]]
* On ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'', a Native American convinces the superstitious townspeople that a curse will happen due to them having the Harvest Festival on [[Indian Burial Ground]]. Leslie finally convinces him to undo it by performing a lifting-the-curse ceremony for the cameras. As he performs the "sacred ceremony", the subtitles read, "I am not saying anything. No one can understand me anyway. Doobee, doobee, do."
* In ''[[Survivor]]'', they had fun with Phillip where he said he was a former federal agent, but nobody really believed him. For the entire season, his occupation was "Former Federal Agent?"
* In ''[[Big Brother]]'', they had a couple fun with these:
** When Ivette told everyone she was gay, they cut to her in the diary room and instead of her usual occupation, they simply put "She's Gay" in the subtitle.
** When Britney was tethered to Brendon, they were both sitting in the diary room while Brendon described another punishment he took, wherein he was taking a bath in chum. Britney looks at the camera and mouths the words, "Help me" and they subtitled her.
== Music ==
* And [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] can't resist joining in. The video for ''Smells Like Nirvana'' features subtitles on a stanza regarding Kurt Cobain's singing. 'It's unintelligible/ I just can't get it through my skull/ It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss ([[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|???]])/ With all these marbles in my mouth.' The DVD video collection has the lyrics as subtitles; they step aside in favour of these for this stanza.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090830121840/http://www.elwp.com/Joe%20Cocker.html This] video features footage from Woodstock "captioned for the clear-headed". Though clearly not the lyrics to the song being sung, the audio sounds a lot closer to what's in the captions than it does to the real lyrics.
* [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g Benny Lava] is an Indian music video with English subtitles, which don't actually translate the Indian lyrics, but read [[Mondegreen|what they sound like]] instead.
* The lyrics to the [[GWAR]] song ''Morality Squad'' render a character's roar as "(inarticulate bellowing)."
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== Radio ==
* ''[[The Goon Show]]'': a Nazi officer says "Speak English, you fool! Zere are no subtitles in zis scene!" Um, well of course not, it's [[Radio]]...
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] 4'' there is a group of inn patrons whose voice actors improv much of their dialogue, despite what the text reads. At one point, the written dialogue says "No one goes out at night", and the voiceover adds "except my girlfriend, but she's working."
** Or on Elephants, one of the men claimed [[Crowning Moment of Funny|that his wife was one of the elephants that ran away]]
* The character Suzie from ''killer7'' [[Say It
* In the sequel of ''[[
* Following the tradition of the comic books, ''[[Scott Pilgrim (
{{quote|
'''Lucas Lee''': Ramona's ''SECOND'' ex-boyfriend! '''Powers''': Just look him up online...
'''Todd Ingram''': Ramona's ''THIRD'' ex-boyfriend! '''Currently Dating''': Envy Adams! Cheating on her too!
'''Roxanne "Roxie" Richter''': Ramona's ''FOURTH'' ex-boyfriend?! '''Gender''': Female!
'''ROBOT-01''': ''Invented'' by the Twins! '''Size''': Small
'''Super Fighting Robot''': ''Invented'' by the Twins! '''Size''': Maximum!!!
'''Kyle K. and Ken K.''': Ramona's ''FIFTH'' and ''SIXTH'' ex-boyfriends! '''Powers''': Being Japanese...
{{spoiler|'''Negascott''': Scott Pilgrim's ''EVIL TWIN''! '''Rating''': Negative Awesome!}}
{{spoiler|'''Super Gideon Graves''': Ramona's ''SEVENTH'' ex-boyfriend! '''Powers''': Just LOOK at him!}}
{{spoiler|'''Gigagideon Graves''': Ramona ''dated'' this guy?! '''Powers''': Undefeatable!}}
{{spoiler|'''Gideon Gordon Graves''': Is this the ''real'' Gideon?! '''Powers''': Unknown...}} }}
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* Played with, like everything else, in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
** Episode 10 uses [[Neon Genesis Evangelion
** Another ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
** Similarly, nearly everything Pikachu says in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4lKBJbkDi4&feature=related this] specific ''[[Pokémon (
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'':
** One of the trailers uses this to hilarious effect. What starts out as a seemingly normal promotional trailer degrades into an argument between the voice over guy and the subtitler. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKXrIuTpHHM And here is the aforementioned trailer.]
** Possessed!Lopez's subtitles somehow translate <ref>"Mother of God"</ref> into "Son of a bitch." You can't get much farther from the truth than that.
* One episode of ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Megatokyo]]'' does this with L33t D00d whenever he shows up. He speaks in nearly incomprehensible l33tsp34k, with the subtitles being [[Woolseyism|extra-formal and even occasionally poetic]]:
{{quote| '''L33t D00d:''' 5\/\/33t. Pl4ya 2 <|-|ixor m4|<3 u w45t3 r|<3tz b4i bo|_||\|5i|n Bo|\/|z at j00.
'''Direct translation:''' Sweet. Player 2 chick make you waste rockets by bouncing bombs at you.
'''Actual subtitle:''' Like a butterfly blowing kisses of death, isn't she? }}
** More recent strips involved Ping the [[Robot Girl]] being equipped by Largo with a "TR4NZL33T" live translation module, which renders English as Japanese subtitles in Ping's eyes. Only problem is, the translation engine [http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/1144 was loaded with text from Japanese porn sites]...
** It also does it with the zombies. They speak in typical zombie grunts and groans, which are handily translated for our convenience:
{{quote| '''Zombie 1:''' Rwwrwr. Rawr ura rawru.
'''Subtitles:''' Commander, we have a situation.
'''Zombie 2:''' Rehr rwuck.
'''Subtitles:''' t3h suck. Just when everything was going so well. }}
* ''[[Real Life Comics]]'' occasionally [
* ''[[
* ''[[Concession]]'' showed this once; Artie's cousin worked in the closed-caption department and had handed in her notice, so she took the time to mess with the subtitles. She'd just had an unhappy affair with one of the newsreaders, so that person's speech got subtitled as "I'm a lying whore who likes to beat up the homeless".
** Were you referring to [http://concessioncomic.com/index.php?pid=20061215 this]?
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== Web Original ==
* Okay, so there's this video of Dschinghis Khan singing "Moskau" in German at the 1979 Eurovision contest. [http://www.youtube.com/v/jH8gtrD4_C4&hl=en This video] gives obviously nonsensical subtitles... But thanks to cognitive dissonance, and the similarity to the ''sounds'' of what they're saying, it's all too easy to believe that's what they really are singing!
* [[Deadpool]] from the ''[[I'm a Marvel And
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcKVCJ-zOLc This] [[Bionicle]] video with [[Translation Train Wreck]] subtitles.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE The Swedish Chef makes popcorn shrimp.] (Click the CC button if you don't see subtitles.)
* During the joint [[The Spoony Experiment
* The Subtitles are their own ([[Deadpan Snarker|very, very snarky]]) character in the toy reviews of [[Internet Personality Vangelus]]. At one point, they even jumped to another reviewer's videos (and nearly caused him to take his own life).
* ''[[Dr.
* [[Bloge Salming]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnh2Jl-KxtY Jacques Martin Press Conference], as a part of a [http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Eulogy-Remembering-the-2009-10-Montreal-Canadie?urn=nhl-243595 2010 Montreal Canadiens season eulogy], which documents Martin's French press conference with subtitles that are a little...off. The problem is even lampshaded:
{{quote| '''Martin:''' Um, sorry, is anyone double-checking these subtitles? They don't seem to match what I am saying!
'''Translator:''' [[Blatant Lies|Yeah, they seem fine, Jacques.]]
'''Martin:''' Are you sure?
'''Translator:''' [[Blatant Lies|I'm positive.]]
'''Martin:''' Okay. Je trust en vous! ''(French: "[[Idiot Ball|I trust you.]]")'' }}
* Whoever writes the closed captioning for [[Rooster Teeth]]'s ''[[RWBY Chibi]]'' (and sometimes even its parent series, ''[[RWBY]]'') occasionally indulges in snarky commentary and [[Unsound Effect]]s. Then again, ''RWBY Chibi'' is an occasionally self-aware wacky comedy [[Spin-Off]], so it's probably to be expected.
* ''[[Technology Connections]]'' includes closed captions in every episode. Besides being extensive enough to describe sounds an object makes, they're often uses them to includes extra gags. Among these are describing the theme song a different way every episode.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Ling-Ling in ''[[Drawn Together]]'' is a ''Pokémon'' parody who speaks in incomprehensible "Japorean," gibberish that is supposed to be Japanese and Engrish. His subtitles also often contain Engrish as well. Once, when a Comedy Central banner for ''[[The Daily Show]]'' blocked his subtitles, Captain Hero started talking about Jon Stewart, implying they only understood him through his subtitles.
** It became a running gag in one episode where ''numerous'' banners would block his subtitles. This made everyone he talked to, ''including Ling-Ling's own father'', stare at the bottom of the screen in utter confusion since they could no longer understand what he was talking about.
** In a non-banner-related gag, Ling-Ling said something that ended with the phrase "who we really are." The subtitle said "who we really L", while the audio said "something something are."
* One episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' had Peter finding his real father is Irish. At one point, they get involved in a drinking contest, and they end up incoherently slurring, with subtitles telling up what they are talking about. At one point, the subtitles read "[[Even the Subtitler Is Stumped|?????????]]".
** Another episode has two Brazilian men jumping out of a crashing plane and cursing at each other as they parachute to the ground. The subtitles are in Korean.
*** ''Accurate'' Korean, mind you. [[Bilingual Bonus|The men were discussing whether or not they had closed their garage door]].
** When Quagmire first sees Joan (Peter's maid-for-a-week), he has a quick fantasy of himself and Joan in a ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' forest setting, including the use of Elvish. Quagmire's [[Overly Long Gag|really long line]] translates simply to "[[Translation: "Yes"|Giggity]]".
* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Wackiki Wabbit", Bugs Bunny greets two castaways with a long line of faux-Polynesian gibberish, which the subtitles translate as [[Catch Phrase|"What's up, Doc?"]] He follows that with a short phrase, with the subtitles reading "Now is the time for every good man to come to the aid of his party." When one of the castaways says, "Gee, thanks", faux-Polynesian subtitles appear beneath, causing his friend to comment, "Did you say that?"
* ''Disneyland: the First 50 Years,'' a short film showing at the titular theme park and starring Steven Martin and [[Donald Duck]], at one point uses subtitles to translate the latter's barely-intelligible speech. Donald notices the subtitles and begins arguing with them and the accompanying narrator voice-over. Finally, he grabs a giant mallet, stalks off-screen, and thrashes the interloper, with randomly flying letters and punctuation indicating the severity of the beating.
* ''[[
** They once sat around and MSTed ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7262bUF4jiU their own end credits]''.
* Used in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
{{quote| '''Mandy:''' Ugh, this isn't working.
'''Grim:''' He said, 'If you're talking about the new interns, you can find them in the cafeteria.'
'''Mandy:''' You understood him?
'''Grim:''' No, but I'm pretty good at reading subtitles backwards. }}
* In an episode of ''[[Chowder]]'', the titular character speaks Spanish-sounding gibberish, which is subtitled as: Spanish-sounding gibberish.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* A common, universal running gag is [[Translation: "Yes"|to say something incredibly long only to have the subtitles be a single word or vice-versa]].
* BBC News tends to add subtitles to thickly-accented or dialectic English speakers, even if they are otherwise intelligible.
** Unfortunately, this patronizing trend has spread to some documentaries and other factual programmes when they feature a foreign interviewee who speaks perfect English but with a faint overseas accent.
** Chinese TV stations tend to do the same to speakers of non-local dialect or who have a really heavy accent.
** Quite often it is done on films made using concealed cameras to make sure people understand what is being said.
** This was used as a gag in a comedy skit where a female British reporter was interviewing a terrorist who stopped mid-interview when he saw subtitles and became angry that he was being subtitled. It gets funnier when his partner talks with just as much accent, doesn't get subtitles and he storms off...still being subtitled.
** Common on Dutch and Flemish TV, where broadcasts from the other side of the border, most often TV series, tend to be subtitled despite being perfectly intelligible. As elsewhere, people speaking with a thick regional accent get are often subtitled, which, as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKxMS4UMwU4 this parody] shows, is usually justified.
* [[YouTube]]'s recent "Transcribe Audio" feature, based on a Google translator, can produce some hilariously inaccurate subtitles. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu8R14d_8jc Case in point.]
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Paratext]]
[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Self
▲[[Category:Fun With Subtitles]]
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