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My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Difference between revisions
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* Done twice on ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]'', once with Russian (Henry introduces himself as a pregnant cabbage to a Soviet official on a factfinding exchange) and once with Japanese (Damien tells a group of Japanese businessmen to go and have sex with a porcupine).
* ''[[Kenan and Kel]]'' had this with the date with Brianna, while Kel was trying to translate his order, the waiter got mad because Kel wanted "to park his truck on his mother's face".
* On ''[[Naturally, Sadie]]'', Magaret runs a Greek newspaper story about Rain through an internet translator. The page she gets back is enitirely [[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels]].
* In the first ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch, a professor (played by Michael O'Donoghue) teaches a European immigrant (played by John Belushi) several useful English phrases, including "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines."
* The old Skit show [[All That]] used to have a skit, "Everyday French with Pierre Escargot", where they taught the viewer how to say nonsensical French phrases:
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== Video Games ==
* Infamously done in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''.
{{quote|'''Colonel:''' I hear it's ''amazing'' when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork-- does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri rock. I need ''scissors''! '''''SIXTY-ONE!'''''}}
* The plot of ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]] II'' kicks off when Larry tries to hit on a Spanish-speaking woman with rather poor Spanish resulting in nonsensical phrases... that just happen to be the [[Spy Speak]] sign/countersign his [[Identical Stranger]] was supposed to use, leaving him with a microfilm containing state secrets and KGB agents on his tail.
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=== German ===
* "Ich bin ein Berliner!" This famous line was spoken by [[John F. Kennedy]] to express solidarity with the people of Berlin during the [[Cold War]]. A common urban legend states that the real phrase should be "Ich bin Berliner," but with the indefinite article ''ein'' added, it became "I am a jelly donut" (''Berliner'' being a type of donut originating in Berlin).<ref>The supposed error is similar to the English phrases, "I am Danish" vs. "I am a Danish".</ref>
** Which shows less than perfect understanding of German grammar since in this context the presence or absence of the indefinite article doesn't actually ''make'' that sort of difference.<ref>"Ich bin ein Berliner" ''could'' be read as a reference to jelly donuts (but only if you wanted to deliberately misconstrue it). Saying "Ich bin Berliner" could not.</ref> "Ich bin Berliner" translates to "I am a 100% genuine, bona fide Berliner." "Ich bin ein Berliner" means "I am a particular Berliner" or "I am one of many Berliners."
** It's also worth noting that the kind of jelly donut known as 'Berliner' in other parts of Germany is usually called 'Pfannkuchen' (literally pancake, and used in that sense elsewhere for extra confusion) in and around Berlin itself. For more detail, see [[wikipedia:Ich bin ein Berliner|this page]] on the Other Wiki.
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