History Main / FunwithForeignLanguages

* ''Series/AlloAllo'' is a bit of a strange one. While, from the viewers' perspective, there aren't any foreign languages in play, its WW2-era France setting means that there are characters who, logically speaking, would be speaking French, German and English. In order to keep the jokes intact, the actors simply use accents to denote which language that character would be speaking. The British airmen on the run from the Germans (who don't speak French at all) speak in the stereotypical RP/upper-class English accents known the world over, while the French and German characters speak in respective accents. Better yet, the frequently-appearing Officer Crabtree is in fact British but, unlike the escaped airmen, he ''does'' speak French. However, he speaks it ''badly'', which is reflected in him mispronouncing words for comedic effect, such as his greeting of ''[[CatchPhrase "Good moaning."]]''

** Then again, said Minister is well known for his otherworldly turns of speech, [[TheOtherWiki The Other Wiki]] even has a name for that: [[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffarinade The Raffarinades!]]

* ''Series/AlloAllo'' is a bit of a strange one. While, from the viewers' perspective, there aren't any foreign languages in play, its WW2-era France setting means that there are characters who, logically speaking, would be speaking French, German and English. In order to keep the jokes intact, the actors simply use accents to denote which language that character would be speaking. The British airmen on the run from the Germans (who don't speak French at all) speak in the stereotypical RP/upper-class English accents known the world over, The French and German characters speak in respective accents. Better yet, the frequently-appearing Officer Crabtree is in fact British but, unlike the escaped airmen, he ''does'' speak French. However, he speaks it ''badly'', which is reflected in him mispronouncing words for comedic effect, such as his greeting of ''[[CatchPhrase "Good moaning."]]''

* In ''Series/AlloAllo'', characters "speak" French, German, and English. To viewers, it's actually ''all'' English, but they speak in different accents to simulate speaking the other languages. Among the characters are a pair of British airmen who "don't speak a word of the lingo", and a policeman (actually a Brit in disguise) who speaks bad French, frequently saying "Good moaning," when he comes in, often to deliver a "massage from Michelle."

* ''Film/{{Meteor}}'' (1979). A Russian scientist is meeting with a U.S. GeneralRipper to begin politically sensitive negotiations to aim nuclear missiles at the oncoming DeathFromAbove. Each side has their "English voice" and "Russian voice", both speaking at the same time to avoid accusations of duplicity. Eventually SeanConnery gets tired of the babble and just has them speaking English with the pretty female Russian translating -- at the end the general turns to his Russian voice and demands, "Is that what I said?" The translator just says, "[[TranslationYes Yes]]."

-->'''Neville''' [Harry] told me a proper greeting was 'Je suis un très vilain petit garçon'[[labelnote:note]]I'm a very naughty boy.[[/labelnote]]. I said it for about a week with people giving me funny looks before someone kindly told me what it meant.

--> '''O'Malley:''' *''In subtitled Spanish''* Hey everyone! I am a purple jerk and I love to drink motor oil. [...] My butt is very big. And I like to rub my own butt. And I like to sniff my own butt and kiss my own butt.

* In the 2011 film ''Courageous'', the main character Adam has his friend Javier in the back seat of his patrol car. While Javier is still in the back seat, a call goes out for a warrant of a drug trafficker. As Adam arrests the trafficker, he tells Javier to act like a crazed man to freak out the trafficker. The trafficker is disturbed by the behavior of Javier, as Adam has told the trafficker they have the leader of the gang "The Snake Kings" in the patrol car and he is not to make eye contact if he values his life. When Javier starts speaking Spanish in a sinister tone, the trafficker starts freaking out. The translation captions shows us Javier's only listing his lunch plans.

* Somewhat similar to the ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' example, in ''WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' the movie Alex can't understand the locals, but uses a spell to create a literal caption floating in the air that translates for her, but while she is right about them talking about the cave, they also talk about how she's a strange girl and maybe if they just smile and nod she'll go away.

* In ''Nadja'', after Nadja is injured but gets away, Edgar tries to figure out her location using TwinTelepathy, which causes him to revert to his native Romanian as he describes what he's picking up; Van Helsing provides a running translation for the others. Part of it goes like this:

* In ''Film/TheRundown'', Travis exploits this to convince the natives to kick [[DwayneJohnson Beck]]'s ass, as Beck doesn't speak Portuguese, telling Beck to keep a "fierce gaze" and maintain eye-contact, (knowing that to the natives, this is a major sign of disrespect) going while he tries to convince the natives to let them go. The natives also don't speak English, so when Beck starts suspecting that Travis "really sucks at Portuguese," Travis has to "translate" what Beck said.

** Incidentally, [[Spexico using latin american sexual jargon in Spain]] usually flags something or somebody as {narm} to locals.

* ''Film/RushHour 2'': Detective Carter tries to speak to a crowd in Chinese, but Inspector Lee tells Carter:

-->'''Robo:''' \\
'''Mailman:''' \\
'''Robo:'''

--> The game starts now. You have to score one thousand points. If you do that, you take home a tank with a big gun. Each day we will announce the scores from that loudspeaker. The one who has the fewest points will have to wear a sign that says "Jackass" on his back. There are three ways to lose points. One, turning into a big crybaby. Two, telling us you want to see your mommy. Three, saying you�re hungry and want something to eat.

** Recently, it's revealed that Donovan has not only been providing Fun With Languages, he's been [[spoiler:having his own fun with languages. He speaks perfectly fluent Orcish, coming out with a profound "I believe it goes, '']] [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2010-01-12 Cue WTF faces from all present.]]

-->'''Donovan [[spoiler:(Orcish)]]:''' [[spoiler:]]

-->'''Hukthak:'''

** Although in many dialects of English, the first vowel of both those words is reduced to ə, making them barely distinguishable from each other � especially in fast and/or casual speech.

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-->'''Robo:''' <Thank you on voyage. My hope for the weight was not too many.>\\
'''Mailman:''' <Your accent is atrocious.>\\
'''Robo:''' <Apologizing. I am foreign robot man.>

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* Considering that it's a French film set in the Catalan-speaking part of Spain with most of the characters [[GratuitousEnglish using English all the time]], ''Film/TheSpanishApartment'' a.k.a. ''L'auberge espagnole'' (double entendre: it's literally about a Spanish apartment, but the title is an expression that means "mess" in French, which is also appropriate) occasionally delves into this territory. One particularly memorable moment is when the English girl misunderstands the French slang word "fac". It's short for ''faculté.''

* In ''La Vita è Bella'' (''Film/LifeIsBeautiful''), Roberto Benigni's character, Guido, translates the Nazi officer's brutal instructions into Italian for his fellow prisoners, among whom is Guido's young son. To spare his kid's innocence, the version he offers in Italian is not exactly a literal translation.
--> The game starts now. You have to score one thousand points. If you do that, you take home a tank with a big gun. Each day we will announce the scores from that loudspeaker. The one who has the fewest points will have to wear a sign that says "Jackass" on his back. There are three ways to lose points. One, turning into a big crybaby. Two, telling us you want to see your mommy. Three, saying you’re hungry and want something to eat.

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* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'', "Tony the Nanny": Tony Danza theorizes that Italian-speaking uncle Vito Scotti thinks that he's to blame for Scotti's daughter standing up to him regarding her fiancé, and he's right (according to Scotti's daughter's interpretation).

** The road panel is labeled in french with "chaussée déformée" (uneven road surface) and "interdit aux nomades et campeurs" (forbidden for gypsies and campers).

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* One time Essa Ríos and Lita were making fun of Kai En Tai in Spanish, when the two Japanese wrestlers turned around and berated them in Spanish; they then left complaining about them in Japanese, to which the Mexican wrestlers responded to in Japanese.

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** Recently, it's revealed that Donovan has not only been providing Fun With Languages, he's been [[spoiler:having his own fun with languages. He speaks perfectly fluent Orcish, coming out with a profound "I believe it goes, '<It is not the language of the clans but the language of nature to which one has to listen.>']] [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2010-01-12 Cue WTF faces from all present.]]

-->'''Donovan [[spoiler:(Orcish)]]:''' [[spoiler:<Only for the past twenty years or so.>]]

-->'''Hukthak:''' <I knew it!>

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** Although in many dialects of English, the first vowel of both those words is reduced to ə, making them barely distinguishable from each other – especially in fast and/or casual speech.

* ''TheTwoRonnies'' flipped this around with the sketch "Swedish for Beginners" (AKA "F U N E X?") - in which the "Swedish" is just English (roughly) rendered with spoken letters.

* ''DropTheDeadDonkey''. JerkAss reporter Damien is taught an "ancient greeting" by Japanese journalists which actually means "Go have sex with a hedgehog". After their initial shock the Japanese executives he greets find it a lot more funny than he does. Henry repeats this situation with a Russian dignitary, introducing himself as a pregnant cabbage. On another occasion Damien pretends that a tearful witness in Nagorno-Karabakh is talking about how his family were shot by drunken soldiers. Unfortunately the cleaning lady is from that region and reveals he's actually thanking Damien for giving him money so he can visit Elvis Presley's home in Memphis.
* One of the funnier gags on ''TheJamieKennedyExperiment'' involved Jamie posing as a clueless Maitre D' in a Japanese restaurant while the employees insulted him in Japanese. Jamie couldn't understand a word, but the customer knew exactly what they were saying. HilarityEnsues.

** In ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', it's mentioned that "Argh!" translates in one Discworld language as "Your mother is a big hippo", "Hello, thinks Mr. Purple Cat", or "I would like to eat your foot" depending on inflection. This becomes a running gag, where Rincewind's screams are literally translated into these phrases; at one point, Rincewind screams "Argh!" and another character responds "What's that about a hippo?"

* In ''La Vita e Bella'' (''Film/LifeIsBeautiful''), Roberto Benigni's character, Guido, translates the Nazi officer's brutal instructions into Italian for his fellow prisoners, among whom is Guido's young son. To spare his kid's innocence, the version he offers in Italian is not exactly a literal translation.

** There's even a double payoff from this seemingly random speech: not only does the son retain his innocence, but he "wins" the tank!

* Played with in {{Duckman}}, usually by Cornfed. "Either you're babbling, or you just told me in Cherokee 'my scrotum is many colored'."

* In one {{Darkover}} novel it's mentioned that a particular Darkovan phrase, which translates literally as "friend and brother", is forbidden to diplomats from the Terran Empire. The everyday inflection would be acceptable, but it's too easy to say it with the inflection that makes it mean "brother" in the familial sense -- or the one that makes it mean "same-sex lover".

* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/5703754 A Problem of Phonetics]]'', the Series/DeepSpaceNine Translators start flicking on and off, and because Cardassians can memorize better than humans, Garak accidentally gets himself stuck being the translator for everyone. It explores Kardasi vs Arabic, tonal Ferengi, that there is no one "Bajoran" any more than there is one "Earth", and what happens when Molly's dad speaks Irish Gaelic and her mom speaks Japanese and she speaks Molly Gibberish.

* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/5703754 A Problem of Phonetics]]'', the Deep Space Nine Star Trek Translators start flicking on and off, and because Cardassians can memorize better than humans, Garak accidentally gets himself stuck being the translator for everyone. It explores Kardasi vs Arabic, that there is no one "Bajoran" any more than there is one "Earth", and what happens when Molly's dad speaks Irish Gaelic and her mom speaks Japanese and she speaks Molly Gibberish.

* In the ''RockosModernLife'' episode "I See London, I See France," Rocko is on the plane, dreaming about romancing a French wallaby girl [[DreamingOfThingsToCome whom he actually meets later]]. He leans in as she's saying something [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench undoubtedly romantic]], and Heffer's voice is heard as he practices phrases from his phrase book: [[ToiletHumor "Je besoin de papier toilette!"]]

* In ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Premium'' most of the characters slowly lose the ability to speak anything other than "Octopusese". Two key phrases are "Flat chested" and "I love you", both said by [[IdiotHero Gourry]] to [[PersonOfMassDestruction Lina]]. Needless to say, HilarityEnsues.

* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', "Got Your Goat": When Dexter realizes the chupacabra is really one of his escaped experiments, he rushes to pick up "Charlie", with Dee-Dee tagging along to act as an interpreter. Once they arrive in Central America, they run into some surly locals who accuse them of being poachers. Dee-Dee, whose grasp of Spanish is really rather lacking, thinks they're asking them if they're thirsty, and in trying to tell them "yes we are", says "I enjoy hamburgers and trousers, but I really like green balloons!"

* In the original anime ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds'', they figured the best way to get an announcer that would breathlessly broadcast the outcome of children's card games is to get a guy who doesn't know Japanese and get him to phonetically shout his lines at the top of his lungs. ''''. What's more, they got a body builder and tae kwon do fighter, Bernard Ackah, to do it.