History Main / ReadingForeignSignsOutLoud

* Spanish dubs of WesternAnimation/SouthPark have a narrator explaining ''almost everything'', including ''voicing over the disclaimer.''

* A RunningGag in ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' (a little guy who likes to read, so whenever a sign appears on-screen he pops up and reads it out loud) many times funnier.

* A peculiar case is present in the Italian dubs of multiple Cartoon Network shows: Until early 2016 they translated all the title cards in Italian, but then they changed and left them in English with a character reading the Italian title out loud (examples: Jake in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Bellybag in ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'', Grizzly in ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears''), with two weird examples standing out: ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', where they reverted the title cards for every Season 1-2 episode in English with Gumball's voice reading them aloud - and it's Gumball's voice from late season 2/early season 3, when his voice actor's voice cracked and then [[TheOtherDarrin he was replaced]] so it isn't even the voice you hear in most of the episodes with the english title cards; and ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', where there is no voiceover reading the Italian titles in Season 3+ episodes. You can still find them in the TV guide descriptions.

* Several scenes in ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' are affected in certain dubs, while others were originally translated on-screen for theatrical/VHS releases (as well as some international editions of the 2001 DVD release) but were replaced with the original English panels on future DVD/Blu-Ray releases, thus invoking this trope.

** The German dub of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' mostly leaves foreign signs untranslated. However, when there's something in English that German audiences wouldn't understand, instead of getting a narrator to read the signs out loud, they'd have the voices of the ''characters'' translate for us. For example, in "Dying for Pie", Squidward reading the bumper sticker on his car (which originally read "Don't Ask Me About My Day") aloud as "Frag mich nicht wie's mir geht" ("Don't ask me how I'm doing"). Later in the same episode Mr. Krabs puts up a 'Help Wanted' sign and literally translates it as "Aushilfe gesucht!"

** The German dub of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' mostly leaves foreign signs untranslated. However, when there's something in English that the German audiences don't understand, instead of getting a narrator to read the signs out loud, they'd have the voices of the ''characters'' translate for us. For example, in "Dying for Pie", Squidward reading aloud the bumper sticker on his car, (which originally read "Do Not Ask Me About My Day") as "Frag mich nicht wie's mir geht ("Do not ask me how I am"). Later in the same episode Mr. Krabs puts up the 'Help Wanted' sign and literally and despairingly translates, "Aushilfe gesucht!"

* Thanks to LuckyTranslation, this made a RunningGag in ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' (a little guy who likes to read, so whenever a sign appears on-screen he pops up and reads it out loud) many times funnier.

* The Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' has the Narrator read most of the written text that appears. This works very naturally, since the Narrator is already a prominent character in the show.

* In the French dub of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', when future Marty is fired and every fax around his house begin printing "You are fired" messages, this is accompanied by a digitised female voice cheerfully reading the translation for each of them.

More often than not, the actor reading the "Insertos" also provides the voice of one of the main characters, reading the "Insertos" in his normal voice, or in-character if interacting with said object fits with the plot (reading a letter, holding a product, etc.). As you can imagine, this can be a bit annoying to people not familiar with it, but not in countries where it's common.

* In the French dub of ''Series/RobocopTheSeries'', all [[RoboCam HUD text]] is read aloud in Robocop's voice.

* Spanish dubs of WesternAnimation/SouthPark have a narrator explaining ''almost everything'', including ''voicing over the disclaimer.''

** The Spain dub of ''The Simpsons'' has the signs subtitled, but inexplicably, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', while dubbed by the same voice actors and having the same translator and dub director, had them read out loud by different characters. It got really annoying pretty quickly.

* The French-Canadian dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' zig-zags between having characters read English signs out loud (making it sound like part of the dialogue) and displaying subtitles for them.
** Same for the Hungarian version: most often, the narrator talks over the character dialogue, killing a lot of jokes, even if other signs in the ''same'' episode are subtitled. Mind, if the translators don't actually understand what the signs say, or if the gags are too difficult to translate, they simply leave it untranslated, rendering even more gags moot.

* A non-dub example in ''Film/JojoRabbit'', which takes place in Nazi Germany and makes use of TranslationConvention (most characters speak German which is rendered as German-accented English). All writing and signs are in German, but are read aloud in English by the characters if the information is plot-relevant.

** The Italian dub of the ''Adventure Time'' episode "Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension" does something akin in the most weird way: Most of the episode features Rainicorns speaking Korean, with English subtitles underneath. Instead of translating the subtitles in Italian, they just redubbed the Rainicorn dialogue in Italian... with English subtitles still underneath that now have no reason to be there.

* A non-dub example in ''Film/JojoRabbit'', which takes place in Nazi Germany and makes use of TranslationConvention. All writing and signs are in German, but are read aloud by the characters if the information is plot-relevant.

Since the arrival of new technology, making subtitles is something far easier. Nonetheless, this still goes on, either from force of habit or, perhaps, the assumption that ViewersAreMorons who can't read and listen at the same time.

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Another Studio Ghibli example. The end of the very first scene of ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' contains a large block of kanji briefly explaining the CrapsackWorld while the camera pans over a dead town in silence (save for the music). Due to the film's age, no "clean" version of the scene existed for Disney to replace text in for their dub[[labelnote:†]] (the one change they're allowed to make under Ghibli's strict "no cuts" policy)[[/labelnote]], so they had a narrator read a translation.

* Also from Mexico, Jorge Arvizu, considered the Mexican MelBlanc, would usually read these on old ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoons, more often than not adding some Gag Dub.

** A very unique aversion happens in the dub of ''WowWowWubbzy'', which predates the use of subtitles: ''the text on the sign itself is rewritten'', making it seem like it was originally written in Portuguese. (In fact, most of the text has been translated and rewritten, including the opening lyrics and the title card.)

** The German dub of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' mostly leaves foreign signs untranslated. However, when there's something in English that the German audiences don't understand, instead of getting a narrator to read the signs out loud, they'd have the voices of the ''characters'' translate for us. For example, in "Dying for Pie", Squidward reading aloud the bumper sticker on his car, (which originally read "Do Not Ask Me About My Day") as "Frag mich nicht wie's mir geht ("Do not ask me how I am"). Later in the same episode Mr. Krabs puts up the 'Help Wanted' sign and literally and despairingly translates, "Aushilfe gesucht!"