[[RevengeOfTheSith http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_do_not_want.jpg]]
[[caption-width:250:[-This can even [[EpicFail screw up]] [[BigNo the word "no"]].-] ]]

When something is translated to another language, and then translated back to its native language (sometimes with further translations in between).

Even when this isn't a BlindIdiotTranslation, it will still lose something when translated back.

This often happens with bootleg movies from other countries (although it's a mystery why they didn't just use the original language track). A big cause of TranslationTrainWreck.

Free on-line computer translators do this a lot, especially Babelfish.

But this can also happen with running phrases through an automated translator and back again, which is a popular internet game, and a way to invoke ZeroWingrish.

Compare TheVodkaIsGoodButTheMeatIsRotten, which is just badly translating foreign phrases to your own language.

Want some fun trying this out? Check [[http://tashian.com/multibabel/ this site]] (it use Babelfish).
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!!Examples:
* The above-pictured scene from a Chinese bootleg of ''StarWars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'' (rendered as ''[[http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html Backstroke of the West]]''), which, when translated from English to Chinese and back to English again, rendered Darth Vader's BigNo as "Do not want". In comparison to the same sub rendering "Jedi Council" as "Presbyterian Church", this is downright tame.
* A [[TropesAreNotBad positive version of this]]: in {{Bleach}}, the term {{Shinigami}} was translated as "soul reaper" in America. The creator of the franchise said this is actually a much more applicable term, and it is actually what is used now.
* Although not in terms of language, for a while there were Japanese dubs of PowerRangers.
* ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' (the American version of ''{{Gojira}}'' with added Raymond Burr footage) was dubbed back into Japanese and released as ''Kaiju-o Gojira''.
* A computer in a lab was running a beta of some translation software package and translated "Out of sight, out of mind", a famous expression meaning "If you hide something, sometimes people forget that it existed in the first place." into Chinese and back to English, and the printout read "[[BlindIdiotTranslation Invisible idiot]]".
** In another variant, the phrase "The spirit is strong but the flesh is weak" got translated as "[[TheVodkaIsGoodButTheMeatIsRotten The alcohol is strong but the meat is rotten]]".
* The book ''English As She Is Spoke''. The author took a Portuguese-French phrasebook and a French-English dictionary and produced his Portuguese-English phrasebook, which is incomprehensible to English speakers and is only read for comedy value.
** I have mind to vomit.
* Parodied in an episode of ''NewsRadio''; Jimmy James notes that while his new autobiography, ''Jimmy James - Capitalist Lion Tamer'', is selling poorly domestically, the Japanese version is doing extremely well. He decides to have it translated back into English, but finds himself at a loss when he hosts a reading, sight unseen, of the new ''Jimmy James - Macho Business Donkey Wrestler''.
* Pretty much the whole point of the website [[http://www.translationparty.com/ Translation Party.]] It translates phrases from Japanese back to English until it reaches equilibrium, or translates the same from Japanese to English.
* A lot of {{anime}} is available as Hong Kong bootlegs, and is notorious for this.
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