History Main / TranslationTrainwreck

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5cAHrA8Qiw This]] version of ''{{WesternAnimation/Foodfight}}'' found by Website/YouTube personality {{LetsPlay/Critikal}} is embedded with some extremely misinterpreted and inaccurate subtitles, that can only be occasionally deciphered as having first been translated into Finnish then back into English by someone with a very poor grasp on the English language.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest Before you ask: there's no actual elephant, sorry.]][[note]]For some idea of how mangled this is: the original line is "He is like my brother."[[/note]]]]

* A Hong Kong bootleg of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' struggled quite a bit with phonetic translations. Perhaps not catching the [[SevenDeadlySins theme naming]] of the homunculi, the English subtitles gave them rough phonetic approximations like "Rasuto" for "Lust," at one point resulting in Wrath crying, "Call me Lassie!" Winry's name proved to be less explicably difficult, usually rendered as an ever-evolving mash of nearly unpronounceable consonants. In a desperate attempt at taking a shortcut, the translator(s) tried to crib the translation of Edward Elric's title from the show's title card — a gamble that failed with him introducing himself as "the Creator/SquareEnix."

** At least one fansub had Suzaku declaring that he "will now proceed to pleasure myself with this fish". Note that in that scene, [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles he's not actually saying ]]''[[SpiceUpTheSubtitles anything]]''.

* A Taiwanese unlicensed developer known as Vast Fame made some surprisingly good, if obscure, bootleg games for UsefulNotes/GameBoy. Unfortunately, though their programming may have been good, their English proficiency left ''much'' to be desired, as is evident in the following:

* In late January 2021, ''VideoGame/TabletopSimulator'' added support for multiple languages, complete with a full localization into each one supported by UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}... using ''Google Translate''. The results were [[https://twitter.com/Dwimepon/status/1355464537093373952?s=19 predictably incomprehensible.]] For just a few examples, TabletopGame/{{Go}} usually ended up being rendered as the dictionary form of the verb "to go". In the French version, "Jigsaw" was translated as "Scie sauteuse", which means "jigsaw" as in the power tool. In the Japanese version the "No" in a Yes/No prompt became "number". The list goes on and on.

* A bootleg DVD of ''WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie'' was full of subtitles like this:

* ''[[StrikingAndPicturesqueDelineations Striking and Picturesque Delineations of the Grand, Beautiful, Wonderful, and Interesting Scenery Around Loch-Earn]]'' by Angus [=McDiarmid=] is a strange case of this trope being combined with PurpleProse to form a glorious verbal trainwreck. Intended as a guide for visitors to the [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} southern Scottish Highlands]], its prose (apart from the opening dedication) is almost totally incoherent and full of obscure and misused words. This is mainly due to the fact that [=McDiarmid=]'s native language was Scottish Gaelic, and in translating his work into English, he used a dictionary extensively, picking the most impressive word without taking into account its part of speech. In addition, it is also suspected that the author may have been attempting to emulate or even surpass the work of Creator/SamuelJohnson, to whose writings he had been introduced by the local church minister.

* ''Striking and Picturesque Delineations of the Grand, Beautiful, Wonderful, and Interesting Scenery Around Loch-Earn'' by Angus [=McDiarmid=] is a strange case of this trope being combined with PurpleProse to form a glorious verbal trainwreck. Intended as a guide for visitors to the [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} southern Scottish Highlands]], its prose (apart from the opening dedication) is almost totally incoherent and full of obscure and misused words. This is mainly due to the fact that [=McDiarmid=]'s native language was Scottish Gaelic, and in translating his work into English, he used a dictionary extensively, picking the most impressive word without taking into account its part of speech. In addition, it is also suspected that the author may have been attempting to emulate or even surpass the work of Creator/SamuelJohnson, to whose writings he had been introduced by the local church minister.

* [[http://www.divxmoviesenglishsubtitles.com/H/Home_Alone_4.html This]] subtitle script of ''Film/HomeAlone4''. It seems almost Shakespearean.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest Before you ask: no, there is no elephant.]][[note]]For some idea of how mangled this is: the original line is "He is like my brother."[[/note]]]]

** Another notorious incident went even further beyond this: at Nelson Mandela's funeral, the "interpreter" who was supposed to translate the proceedings into South African Sign Language turned out to be a fraud who knew no SASL and simply pretended to interpret, making meaningless gestures throughout.