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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[
** Earlier in the same scene, Tomo asks, "who's always banging up cars?" The answer is "the dentist", because the Japanese word for "dentist" is phonetically the same as the word for a scrapped car ("haisha"). But in English, "DENTist" works just as well. The anime could get this across through Osaka's diction; the manga didn't have this option, but also didn't have [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=kXb0hNMI_B0 pictures] to worry about, so they just replaced it with another joke.
* The ''[[Pokémon (
** In ''[[
** Dawn had a nickname that was based on her past and was constantly known as Dee Dee from Kenny (or in Japan, Pikari). We learn that it was because she hugged a Plusle and Minun a bit too much and thus did an electric attack on her and made her hair stand on end thus gaining the nickname Pikari (with 'Pika' the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparks). The dub went for Dee Dee (which can be read DD) and the nickname became Diamond Dandruff.
** Since Ash was called like that in the anime, in ''[[Pokémon:
* The most common translation of Kamina's/Team Gurren's [[Catch Phrase]] in ''[[
* In the original ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Konata Izumi's favourite anime icon is ''[[
* ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'': Nobue's name sounds close enough to "no boobies" that Miu was able to spin an insult out of it.
* ''[[School Rumble]]'' - Reading Sun Tzu, Tenma misreads a word as 'to remove clothes' and 'hare'. The real problem was that she actually vizualised this strange image of someone stepping out of a bunny costume, so it would be hard to ignore. It was translated as 'to take off like a rabbit', a phrase which Sun Tzu did use.
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** Another Greed one. Ed calls the second Greed "Greedling" because he possesses the body of a guy named Ling. However, ling as a suffix in English means little (e.g. fingerling potatoes), which works quite well in two respects. It makes sense that the second version would sort of be "little Greed", and it's completely in character for [[The Napoleon|Ed]] to call someone else little, which makes the nickname funnier in English.
*** In the manga, though, Viz translated {{spoiler|Ling's name as ''Lin,'' so a variation on his Junior Greed title had to be given. Ed ended up calling him "Grin" as a contraction of "Greed" and "Lin," which, while not as true to the original intent of the joke - i.e. a play on being a mini Greed - the joke still works in its own way.}}
* The title of ''[[
** Also in Russian ''Bakemonogatari'' is wonderfully translated as Монстрассказы (Monstrasskazy)
* In ''[[
* Sebastian's catchphrase in ''[[
* At one point in the [[Lady Land|Amazon Lily]] arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', Luffy is being stared at completely naked by a group of amazons who don't know anything about men. When one of them asks what's in the 'bag' attached between his legs, Luffy replies with 'kintama', which is a Japanese slang term for testicles that also means 'balls of gold', so of course the amazons think he's saying that he has actual balls of gold between his legs. The English translation uses 'family jewels', which fits the joke perfectly.
* In ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* The translated title of [[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has a couple, usually in the way of puns. One more prevelant example is the "De-Malevo-Lance" a spear of Erza's that, in Japanese, was named using a word that doesn't have an English counterpart which more or less means "destruction of evil." In English, it's a nice play on words.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' episode 87, the principal makes a pun on "'nikui" (hatred) and "niku" (meat). AnimEigo's subtitles rendered it as "I've got a beef with you, seeing you hide that meat in your pocket."
** Also, the chapter / episode introducing Kotatsu-Neko (manga chapter 111, anime episode 51) is titled "Kaidan ni Neko ga Onnen", which literally means "There's a Cat on the Stairs", but "kaidan" written as 怪談 means "ghost story" (as mentioned above), and "onnen" written as 怨念 can mean something like "a grudge that persists after someone's death, turning them into a ghost". Viz translated it as "Two-Story Ghost Story", whereas AnimEigo didn't try to translate the puns.
* In ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]'', Kuroyanagi - known for his punny reactions to really good breads - tries a sample of chicken yakisoba bread and has to be restrained from taking off his pants. The double meaning of "cock" works the same in Japanese as it does in English.
* In [[
* In ''[[Bunny Drop]],'' there's a scene where a little boy is having a laughing fit because of a news report on TV. He thinks that the report is about [[Toilet Humor|trains pooping]] (''unko''), when it's actually about trains being on time (''unkou''). The joke still works in English, due to the multiple meanings of the word "regular" (in addition to its normal meaning of "at frequent intervals," it's also commonly used euphemistically to mean "has normal bowel movements").
* A nice bonus in polish translation of [[
* In Bleach, there's a scene where Yumichika refers to himself as "beautiful" and Ganju pretends to mishear it as "pathetic", or something along that line. This works well in English where Yumichika refers to himself as "pretty" and Ganju agrees by saying, "Yeah, you're quite a pity."
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** The Latin American title ''Irene, yo y mi otro yo'' ("Me, my other me and Irene"), though not as clever, still manages to retain the original English wordplay.
*** The Spaniard title would be ''Yo, yo mismo e Irene'', which is a literal translation and the wordplay is practically intact.
* [[
* In the Post-Credits Scene of "[[Daredevil]]", Bullseye is recuperating on a hospital bed after a fight with Daredevil when a fly suddenly comes and annoys him, and when the fly goes to the wall, he struggles to get a surgical syringe and manages to throw it right at it. He then shouts "Bullseye". The closest translation to this expression in Portuguese would be "Na mosca" which means "In the fly". Guess what he says...
* The "Surely you can't be serious" gag from [[Airplane!]] works arguably even better in Finnish as "''Et kai ole tosissasi''". ''Kai'' means ''surely'' or ''supposedly'' and is also a first name.
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* In Japanese poetry, it's common to use the pine tree (''matsu'') as a symbol of longing, because ''matsu'' also means "to wait". It's easy to remember, because English has an almost identical double-meaning for the word "pine".
* A French poem in ''[[House of Leaves]]'' gains a completely different rhyme scheme when translated into English. (One is ABAB and the other is AABB.)
* Non-language example: In ''[[The
* One of the dwarfs in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld
** Another [[Discworld]] example: in dutch, 'seamstress' is translated as 'naaister'. 'naaien' does not only mean 'sewing', but 'fucking' as well.
** Another [[Discworld]] example, this time from the Hebrew language. The Luggage is said to be made (originally) from "Sapient Pearwood". In the Hebrew version of the books, the Luggage is said to be made from "עץ הדעת" ("Etz Ha'Da'at"), which means "Tree of Sentience/Knowing/''Knowledge''". Yes, that [[The Bible|Tree of Knowledge]]. Makes the Luggage all that much more awesome.
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* In Scots, the word "heehaw", as well as being onomatopoeia for a donkey's bray, is also a slang term for "nothing". So in James Robertson's Scots translation of ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', the line "Eeyore still said nothing at all" becomes "Heehaw wis still sayin heehaw".
* Lewis Caroll not wanting to ridicule clergy did not feature Bishops in [[Alice in Wonderland]]. However, it still featured two Messengers of the White King - and in some languages (German, Polish) chess bishops are called runners or messengers. In French they're called ''fou'' - fools, which triples the lucky translation, as the messengers are March Hare and Mad Hatter.
* In [[
* The name "Once-ler" from ''[[
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* In the Polish version of Warcraft, Grom Hellscream gets a [[Meaningful Name]] - "grom" in Polish is either "thunder" or "bolt" (as in "bolt out of the blue").
* At the end of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'', the computerised Rose tells Raiden to trust her, with kanji which read 'lies'. This translated nicely into English, with the way 'beLIEve me' is spelt.
* The name of [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario's]] [[Evil Twin]], "Wario," is originally a [[Portmanteau]] of the Japanese word "warui" (bad) and Mario. Thanks to the negative connotations of the word "war" in the English language, and the fact that "W" can be read as an upside-down "M", Mario fans the world over are treated to a wordplay that translates exceptionally well.
** Luigi's rival, "Waluigi", still works but a little less well. In Japan, it's an even better pun on "warui" than "Wario" is. Anywhere else, it hinges on the fact that there's already an established [[Evil Twin]] whose name starts with "Wa". [[Stuck in Their Shadow|Seems that Luigi doesn't even get his own nemesis without Mario overshadowing him.]]
*** In Japanese, "Waluigi" (or rather the more literal "waruiji") is also an anagram for "ijiwaru", which more or less translates as "mean", which Waluigi (and Wario for that matter) are.
** Polish language has "wariować" which means "to go insane" and "wariat" for a crazy person. It's like the lottery grand prize of lucky translations.
* In the Japanese version of ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]]'', the hero enters a secret underground kingdom whose inhabitants were called Uura ("hidden"), and gets involved with an Uura girl named Urara ("beauty", and a pun on Uura). In the English version, the people are called Subrosians (referring to ''sub rosa'', an old tradition of using a rose to indicate a secret meeting place), and the girl Link dates is called Rosa, preserving the pun of a secret place and a pretty girl.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* [[
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** We find some cases in the European Spanish translations of the [[Disney Animated Canon]]. "''Bajo el mar''" ("''Under the Sea''") from "''[[The Little Mermaid]]''" (100% literal, and it even has the exact same amount of syllables!), "''Ahí fuera''" ("''Out There''") from ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' (literal, although the song plays with that translation and the word "allí"), or "''¿Cuándo va mi vida a comenzar?''" ("''When Will My Life Begin?''") from ''[[Tangled]]'' (literal, although with a kinda twisted grammar construction) are good examples.
* Basil ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', a Sherlock Holmes [[Expy]], is called "Basil Holmuis" (hole-mouse) in Dutch. Yes, it's an actual word.
* In the Dutch ''[[
* In Flemish, the word for "to saw" can also be used as slang for "to whine". So in ''[[Atlantis:
* In [[South Park]], Mr. Garrisson once refers to Mr. Slave as his Teacher's Assistant, or Teacher's Ass for short. In Hungarian, Tanársegéd and Tanársegg mean exactly the same.
* The Brazilian translation of ''[[Wacky Races]]'' saw the Slag Brothers being translated as "Irmãos Rocha". Irmãos = Brothers, and Rocha, which happens to be a common surname in Portuguese, means Rock. The net result is their name being more 'plausible' in Portuguese than in English.
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