History Woolseyism / WesternAnimation

** Squidward's name is a humorous {{portmanteau}} of "squid" and "Edward", which is somewhat tricky to translate into other languages. Some of the international translations don't even bother to preserve the wordplay, which is why Squidward is called "Carlo" in French and "Thaddäus" in German. But the Latin American Spanish translation cleverly renames him "Calamardo", a portmanteau of ''"calamar"'' ("squid") and "Eduardo". Similarly: his name in the Japanese translation is "Ikarudo", a portmanteau of ''"ika"'' ("squid") and the Japanese pronunciation of "Edward" ("Eh-da-wa-ru-do"); as a bonus, it also rhymes with the Japanese pronunciation of "Ricardo" ("Ri-ka-ru-do")

** In the Brazilian Portuguese dub for "Frankendoodle", SpongeBob's line about how he was voted "most artistic" in High School, only to correct himself as "most clumsy" after he accidentally loses his half of the pencil was turned into a clever wordplay. "Artistic" was translated as "artista" (lit. artist), whereas "clumsy" was translated to "''arteiro'" (mischievous), thus making SpongeBob's confusion of the two words much funnier (and reasonable) in the dub.

* In the Brazilian-Portuguese dub, they translated "Princess Bubblegum" as "Princesa Jujuba" (Princess Jellybean), rather than using the more straightforward translation: "Princesa Chiclete". This is potentially just due to the translators thinking "Jujuba" sounded better than "Chiclete".

* The Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has replaced most English swear words not with their direct Italian equivalent, but with words which have a similar sound and whose meaning can be linked to the character who uttered it. For example, in one episode Zoidberg's "the hell" is rendered in Italian with "cozza" (Italian for "mussel"), which is extremely similar to "cazzo" (Italian for "dick", and general go-to swearword). The acronym F.A.R.T. (Fathers Against Rude Television) was rendered as P.U.Z.Z.A., or Padri Uniti Zittiscono Zotici Attori (United Fathers Hush Coarse Actors). "Puzza" translates literally as "bad smell".

*** The Latin American Spanish dub changes the famous "22 Short Films About Springfield" "Steamed Hams" line into "hamburgejas al vapor". The catch here is that Skinner first tells Chalmers that he is cooking "almejas al vapor" (steamed clams), and when he comes back with Krusty burgers he tells him that he misheard "almejas" for "hamburgejas", a {{Portmanteau}} of "almejas" and "hamburgesas". The European Spanish dub keeps things more similar to the original English version, with the only change being that Skinner first tells Chalmers that he is cooking "gambones al vapor" (steamed prawns). Not only are prawns seafood like clams, but it also ryhmes with "jamones al vapor" (steamed hams).

--->'''Squidward:''' Why don't [[AcceptableTargets the Chinese]] like pirate movies?[[note]]Original joke: Why couldn't the 11-year old get into the pirate movie?[[/note]]\\

*** The Sprawl-Mart (a parody of Wal-Mart) seen in some episode has been translated as "C'pas-d'la-Mart" in the French-Canadian dub, which sounds like the Québec French expression for "it's not shit" (it's an insult, not a compliment, as in "it's not even worth shit").

** All of the central cast has name changes. Anne is named Anna (a common Romanian girl name), Sprig is named Broschi (a Romanian pun on the words for "frog" and "jump"), Polly is named Paula (same reason as Anne), and Hop Pop is named Mos Hop (Mos meaning forefather, or ancestor, which makes his name rather literal in relation to his grand-kids).

** Several line changes are made throughout some episodes to keep character lip sync relatively intact while working around language differences. For example, Hop Pop saying "I don't feel safe." in Anne Theft Auto is changed to "Mă cam sperie." which means "She kind of scares me." instead. A literal translation of the English line to Romanian would be "Nu mă simt în siguranță." and would be too long.

** The Irish dub is peppered with Woolseyisms. Of particular note is Katara's speech to the Earthbenders trapped on the iron prison ship. The entire speech stole bits out of Irish Colonial poetry (mostly Mo Ghile Mear) about how the Irish had hope of fighting back against the English because Bonny Prince Charlie is coming (if you're not that well up on Irish history, Charlie never did come), but the names were changed around to we have hope of defeating the Fire Nation because the Avatar is coming. Some nearly cried, and as a result found the original to be quite narmish. The actors all speak a different dialect of Irish depending on where in Ireland they came from. The Fire Nation have Connacht accents (western Ireland). Katara and Sokka have southern tendencies, and the Earth Kingdom has more standardised, academic Irish. Aang, representing all nations, seems to have a bit of everything;.

** The dubbing of ''Darkwing Duck'' for Latin America kept more or less the same English names, but one of the more interesting exceptions was changing Quakerjack's name for "Cuackguasón" Quack[[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker]].

* The Dutch dub of WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 splendidly pulled one of these of in the episode "The Beagle Birthday Massacre". In the original episode, Webby and Lena pretend to be British in front of the Ugly Failures, in order to convince them that they're their relatives from across the pond. After Webby pulls off a rather convincing British accent, she explains to Lena that she picked up the accent from her grandmother, Ms. Beakly, and Scrooge [=McDuck=], who both speak with a British accent. As neither Ms. Beakly nor Scrooge speak with an accent in the Dutch dub, this explanation could not be used and the scene was re-written. Instead, Webby and Lena spoke Limburgian (a Dutch dialect spoken across the rivers in the southern part of the Netherlands), as it sounded similar to the British spoken in the English dub and kept the "across the pond" bit intact. Furthermore, Webby's explanation for speaking proper Limburgian became that she picked up the accent from a Limburgian baker, who occasionally delivered pie to the [=McDuck=] residence, until Scrooge found out and dismissed him for being too expensive. This explanation not only integrated seamlessly into the scene (the same amount of dialogue in the same timespace), but also sounded plausible enough to not raise any eyebrows with the Dutch audience.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' in Brazil had, along with the LargeHam of Creator/GuilhermeBriggs as the title character, at least two jokes well adapted: "Better than a Thighmaster!" became "I'm stronger than Creator/Mike Tyson!", and the TakeThat in "the scariest thing in the world would be if they gave Sinbad another TV show" was instead the SelfDeprecation "if they kept airing reruns of my cartoon".

* The Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' did a small change in Brain's CatchPhrase: ''Rat? I'm A MOUSE!'': In Japanese, the phrase was changed to ねすみ？俺はマウスだ！[[note]]Nezumi? Ore wa MOUSE da![[/note]] The ''Mouse'' part was [[GratuitousEnglish left as it in English]] rather than using ''nezumi'' because in Japanese, both mice and rats are named ''nezumi'' for both species, rather than having a specific word for ''rat''.

** In the episode "Sold!", [=SpongeBob=] speaks German to Squidward, who is wearing lederhosen and tries a few times to speak German. In the German dub, they instead speak the Bavarian dialect of German, which is sometimes considered a different language. This actually makes more sense, because Bavaria is the part of Germany where lederhosen originated.

** In the episode "Sold!", SpongeBob speaks German to Squidward, who is wearing lederhosen and tries a few times to speak German. In the German dub, they instead speak the Bavarian dialect of German, which is sometimes considered a different language. This actually makes more sense, because Bavaria is the part of Germany where lederhosen originated.

** The Mexican dub had the title translated as ''Los Reyes de la Colina'' ("The Kings of the Hill"), changing the family's name to Reyes, a real Hispanic name, while still preserving the pun on the phrase "king of the hill." For example, Hank Hill's name was changed to Hector Reyes.

** Quebec’s french dub was adapted to the local culture, right down to the Joual, which is Quebec’s slang. King of the Hill became Henri pis sa gang (Henry and his gang), Peggy became Paulette, Dale Gribble decame Dan Grenier, Bill became Boule (Pudgy), Boomhauer was Papineau, John Red Corn was John Sept Grains (A reference to Anacin, which was once presented as a “seven grains analgesic” in the French-Canadian ads) and the town of Arlen became Sainte-Irène, since most villages and small towns in Quebec are named after saints. When the episodes are specifically themed around the fact that they are texans, or when Mexico is just an hour’s drive away, no explanation is given, the Quebec setting is simply ignored.

* The Dutch dub of WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 splendidly pulled one of these of in the episode "The Beagle Birthday Massacre". In the original episode, Webby and Lena pretend to be British in front of the Ugly Failures, in order to convince them that they're their relatives from across the pond. After Webby pulls off a rather convincing British accent, she explains to Lena that she picked up the accent from her grandmother, Ms. Beakly, and Scrooge McDuck, who both speak with a British accent. As neither Ms. Beakly nor Scrooge speak with an accent in the Dutch dub, this explanation could not be used and the scene was re-written. Instead, Webby and Lena spoke Limburgian (a Dutch dialect spoken across the rivers in the southern part of the Netherlands), as it sounded similar to the British spoken in the English dub and kept the "across the pond" bit intact. Furthermore, Webby's explanation for speaking proper Limburgian became that she picked up the accent from a Limburgian baker, who occasionally delivered pie to the McDuck residence, until Scrooge found out and dismissed him for being too expensive. This explanation not only integrated seamlessly into the scene (the same amount of dialogue in the same timespace), but also sounded plausible enough to not raise any eyebrows with the Dutch audience.