Sunday, April 16, 2006

Help! My lips are moving and nothing is coming out...

Yes, the joys of dubbed television are many.

In the beginning it's extremely annoying. But after a while you get used to it. Or at least you deal with it without complaining constantly to your spouse or trying to read lips (to your spouse's great relief). Then you start to observe the effects it has. Like that Seinfeld reruns are not funny dubbed in French. Seriously, we'd rather watch a blank screen than Seinfeld in French and we both like that show. Or how regional and even some foreign accents are completely lost. They're all just speaking standard French most of the time. So a southern accent or a Jersey accent is completely lost - we can just hope it doesn't have too much to do with the essence of the film. And the strangest of all - the people who do the dubbing have other gigs too. So the guy who does George Clooney in movies and ER reruns is the voice over in a hand cream commercial. Now I'm thinking that should count as a celebrity endorsement.

Since January we have a dsl computer tv thing deal that allows us to watch some channels in v. o. (version originale) - but without subtitles. Now it's the spouse's turn to have to concentrate while watching tv.

3 comments:

Lorraine said...

"Seinfeld" not funny in French? I'm wondering if this explains, in some way, the Jerry Lewis phenomenon...better dubbing...

Nicole said...

Lorraine - I'm convinced that regardless of how long I live here I will never get the Jerry Lewis phenomenon...

Christi - I can think of worse vices, don't forget our deal poop princess.

Anonymous said...

I hope the good boy who listened to his uncle had plenty of candy after our talk- what a good boy!!!