History Woolseyism / Other

[[AC: Advertising]]
* The Slap Chop commercial has Creator/VinceOffer use the DoubleEntendre "You're gonna love my nuts" as he prepares to chop some peanuts. In the Spanish-language version, he says "Mira mi huevo" (look at my egg) as he is about to chop an egg. "Huevos" are Spanish slang for testicles, the equivalent of "nuts" in English.

[[AC: Music]]
* [[Music/TheSmiths The Smiths]]...in Ukrainian? It really really helps that this language has a slang term that means the same, scans perfect and even begins with the same letter. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZPtnuPKyu4 Batyar...lovedida...]]
* The famous western song "Oh! Susanna" got some changes in the Spanish translations: The "With my banjo on my knee" part is slightly changed to "Pronto estaré junto a ti'' (Soon I will be with you), in order to make it rhyme with "Oh don't you cry for me" (Spanish: No llores más por mí). Likewise, the "For I come from Alabama" line is replaced with "Pues salí de mi casa" in some translations, in order to remove any reference from the U.S.
* Foreign language versions of songs are often completely rewritten rather than translated, as it's pretty rare for a song to rhyme in more than one language.

[[AC: PuppetShows]]
* When ''Series/{{Star Fleet}}'' was distributed to England, the dubbing team was given an overly literal and uncleaned up translation. Dubbing director Louis Elman brought in American writer Michael Sloan (creator and writer of series such as ''Series/{{Master Ninja}}'' and ''Series/{{The Equalizer}}'') to adapt the scripts. Sloan added many terms such as "hyper speed", "quantum power", "parsecs" and "militons" to this adaptation, and giving most of the characters sensible name changes, whilst keeping the storyline.

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]
* In the eighties, there were [[DuelingDubs two different Norwegian translations]] of ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'': one in which he kept his original name, and one in which he was named ''Pusur''. The former tried to stay close to the original text, while the latter sometimes altered the text completely, changing the content of entire storylines (a sequence where Jon and Garfield are watching a horror movie is changed to having them watch a crappy vaudeville show, complete with references to very obscure Norwegian celebrities). TranslationWithAnAgenda was also a common occurence. Eventually, the former school of translation won out, but the name ''Pusur'' remained and became canon.
* In ''The Pre-History of ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', Gary Larsen discusses a change that was made in one of his cartoons before it was distributed to foreign markets. In the cartoon, a ship drops a microphone into the water to record whale songs, and a whale swims up to the microphone and sings "Louie Louie". In some foreign markets, the whale instead sings "Singing in the Rain". Larsen admits that "Singing in the Rain" was funny, and writes that the song change was probably due to "Louie Louie" being less well-known outside of the US.
** In another, he mentions one of his cartoons (a penguin, indistinguishable from a vast crowd of others, singing "I gotta be me") turned into a greeting card, with the change that the singing penguin was turned yellow so it actually ''is'' different from the rest. He regarded this as missing the point of the cartoon.
* One Polish translation of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' renamed it [[PunnyName "Kelvin & Celsjusz"]][[note]]Kelvin and Celsius[[/note]], while the Finnish one renamed it "Lassi ja Leevi" after Lars Levi Læstadius. The Norwegian name of the strip is [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Tommy og Tigern]] [[note]]Tommy and the Tiger[[/note]].
** In one strip, Calvin complains about "the lack of sex education" because the English language doesn't have grammatical genders. When it was translated into Norwegian, which ''does'' have grammatical genders, "Tommy" instead complains about grammatical genders being politically incorrect.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* Used in TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering on occasion. The Italian version of [[http://www.magiccards.info/cfx/en/74.html Volcanic Fallout]] is "Pioggia di Lapilli" ("Rain of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapilli Lapilli]]"), the Italian [[http://www.magiccards.info/wwk/en/41.html Tideforce Elemental]] is "Elementale della Marea Selvaggia" (approximately "Savage-Tide Elemental"), and the Italian [[http://www.magiccards.info/roe/en/165.html Splinter Twin]] is "Gemellare" ("Twinning").
** This can result in a pun which cannot easily be retranslated back to English. The card [[http://www.magiccards.info/roe/en/32.html Lightmine Field]] was translated into Italian as [[http://www.magiccards.info/roe/en/32.html Campo Illu-Minato]] - "illuminato" meaning "illuminated" and "minato" meaning "mined" in the sense of having explosives placed in it.
** The Slivers - HiveMind creatures, each of which grants abilities to all the others - are known in Italian as "Tramutanti", from the same root as English "transmute".
* What may be the most amazing translated name, the [[Tabletopgame/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh!]] card called "Mind Hack" in Japanese was astonishingly renamed ''[[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mind_Haxorz Mind Haxorz]]'' in the English translation.
** Other cards that had "death" in the name were translated as "Des," for cards such as "Des Koala" and "Des Frog." Initially just a Bowlderization. Then comes "D.3.S. Frog" (a fusion of three Des Frogs), which in Japanese was "Gaeru San-Death"; literally "Frog 3-Death", but also a pun on "Gaeru-san desu", meaning "I'm Mr Frog".
** The Frog archetype is full of this, as the entire archetype is just Japanese puns on "frog". One of the better ones is "Underworld Frog", whose name sounds like "yomigaeru", or "return to life", reflected by its revival effect. This was changed to "Treeborn Frog", punning on "Reborn Frog."
** And then you have the card "Tasukeleton" in the OCG (a zombie pig you can banish to negate an attack). Its TCG name? "Bacon Saver".
** The archetype named "Ritua" in Japan (as in, a corruption of [[GratuitousEnglish the English word "ritual"]]) was changed to "Gishki" in the English game, a corruption of "gishiki", [[KeepItForeign which means "ritual" in Japanese.]] The feel was preserved, and a pretty good name in its own right was created.
* The French translation of the [[{{FunetikAksent}} ork tellyporta]] from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is "téla-tépula", which means "you iz here-you izn't here no more". An orkier description of a teleporter you will not find. Similarly, shootas and choppas become "ki'tir'" and "ki'coup'", "(thing) that shoots" and "(thing) that chops" (though the former was later renamed "fling'", based on French slang for "gun").
** Taken to new heights with the 7th Edition Ork codex, which added the Tellyport Blasta, a weapon capable of {{telefrag}}ging the enemy: The French translation is the brilliant "Boum Tépula" ("Boom you'z gone").
** In the Italian translation, the Deff Dread was translated as "Zkatola di Morte", something like "Da Box of Deff", while the Kommandos became "Guaztatori", which would be translated back as something like "Spoila Boyz" and Warbikers, while are usually translated with the bland "Orki Motociklizti" ("Bika Orks") in other pieces of lore are shortened to "Motorkociklizti" ("Motorkbikas")
** The best Italian translation, however, is what they did with the Bolters, who were renamed with the more suggestive (and fitting with the Imperium way of naming things) "Requiem guns".

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]
* Brian Hooker's excellent translation of ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac''. He substituted lines and allusions to Creator/WilliamShakespeare and Marlowe which were appropriate to the classical French theatre quoted in the original text. This inspired Anthony Burgess to use the same approach in his own translation 50 years later.
* The Metropolitan Opera adaptation of ''Theatre/DieFledermaus'' by Howard Dietz and Garson Kanin is usually not a literal translation but fairly close; it gives actual lyrics to the refrain of the waltz ensemble whose original German text is "duidu, duidu, la la la la la." Sometimes, however, they couldn't be bothered to do anything more literate than a BetterThanABareBulb spoof, as in the IrrelevantActOpener which now ran, "It's the kind of libretto where we all are at a ball."
* The English version of ''Theatre/LesMiserables'', as opposed to its "Concept" version, released in French some years before. "At the end of the day", for example, takes all the best from "Quand un jour est passé", gets rid of the less effective lines and most importantly is easier to sing. The original lyrics are impossibly hard to articulate clearly; the translation is more musical because of the added alliterations, etc. Another stellar example is "Castle on a Cloud," which manages to make Cosette's characterization and sadness shine through much better.
** In the Japanese version, Jean Valjean's prisoner number is changed from 24601 to 24653 (in Japanese, "Ni-yon-roku-go-san") in order to preserve the vowel sounds of the last two numbers.
* The British version of ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'' changed the song "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" to "You Won't Succeed in Showbiz". They also changed the jokes about Jews to stars for fears the the British audience wouldn't understand it due to the U.K.'s small Jewish population.
* In the original Italian sources for ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', there's no etymological connection between the heroine's name, "Giulietta," and the month of July, which in Italian is "Luglio." Shakespeare followed the tale's other English adaptations in Anglicizing "Giulietta" to "Juliet," and added that she was named thus because (as the Nurse mentions) she was born on the last day of July, which suits the passionate, "summery" nature both of Juliet herself and [[HotBlooded most of the other characters.]]
* The Hungarian translation of ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' makes Music/MichaelJackson the washed-up superintendent instead of Gary Coleman, since Coleman isn't as well-known in Hungary. The joke about Coleman working on Avenue Q because his parents stole all his money is changed to Jackson losing his estate after a lawsuit from two young boys (after Jackson died, the joke changed to him overspending and then faking his death).

[[AC: WebOriginal]]
* The Swedish dub of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' has several examples of this.
** Bakura is changed from British to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scania Scanian]], with appropriate cultural references changed (like eating [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spettekaka spettekaka]] instead of bangers and mash). Likewise, Joey is from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stureplan Stureplan]] instead of Brooklyn.
** As the final ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book had been out for years when the Swedish dub of episode 23 was released, the book Téa had spoiled was changed to the final ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' book, and her ship is changed from [[CrackShip Harry/Hedwig]] to [[YaoiFangirl Edward/Jacob]].
** There's also this change in dialogue:
---> '''English!Mokuba:''' Let's go find [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} the genie]] voiced by Creator/RobinWilliams and [[TheOtherDarrin occasionally]] by Creator/DanCastellaneta.
---> '''Swedish!Mokuba:''' Let's go find the genie voiced by Dan Ekborg, who also played [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} Hades]].
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''
** The criminal Roman Torchwick mockingly refers to protagonist Ruby Rose as "Red". The Japanese dub changes this to "Akazukin", the Japanese name for Literature/LittleRedRidingHood -- which doubles as a MythologyGag since Ruby's character design was explicitly inspired by the character.
** While the series still haven't gotten its own Korean localization, but Korean fans refer "Faunus" as "Suu-in" (수인/獸人), which literally means "human with beastly characteristics"/"anthropomorphic animal" or simply [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom "furry"]].
* In ''WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest'', although the script has some wacky moments, there's one particular exchange that's memorable for being particularly poignant and dramatic in the midst of the silliness. Rather than the original exchange from ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', where Anakin accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him, we get this.
-->'''Anakin''': [[TranslationTrainWreck Is you let her rebel me!]] (You turned her against me!)
-->'''Obi-Wan''': This is ''your own'' masterpiece. (You did that yourself!)

[[AC: Other ]]
* The name of Tel Aviv, Israel is a Woolseyism: the intent was to name the city after Theodore Herzl's book ''Altneuland'' (An Old-new Land), but this didn't translate well into Hebrew. Thus, to get the idea across, a combination of Tel, refering to an ancient archeological site in the form of a hill, and Aviv, spring (the season), which symbolizes renewal.
** In fact, the name "Tel Aviv" came well before the city - it was the original name given to the book by its Hebrew translator.
** Moreover, there was a Biblical site named Tel Aviv from which the name was taken, albeit not at the site of the current city.
*** That's allegedly the reason it was chosen - people argued whether to give it a name referring to Zionism or The Bible. [[TakeAThirdOption Tel Aviv was both]].
* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' does it with their own site ''sometimes'', since some of the jokes, even when adapted, are still horrible as the original ones. But then, since Viacom expelled Adam and Donna from the team, it was just bound to happen.
* As Wiki/TVTropes goes from language to language, tropes occasionally get names that are neither direct translations nor bland descriptions. For instance, the French version of AllOfTheOtherReindeer, Fr/VilainPetitCanard, instead references the fairytale ''Literature/TheUglyDuckling'', while the German version of GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff is De/AmerikanerLiebenRammstein (Americans Love Music/{{Rammstein}}). On the Russian site, TheScrappy is [[Franchise/StarWars The Despised Jar Jar Binks]], since ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' is too obscure there to even be mentioned on the page as of April 2018. Similarly, the ScoobyDooHoax is "[[Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles The Stapleton Plan]]".
* A phenomenon known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phono-semantic_matching phono-semantic matching]] is used very extensively in China - as every Chinese character has a meaning assigned (as opposed to alphabetic or syllabic systems where the characters on their own have no inherent meaning and only represent sound), translators often go out of their way to use characters relating to the term being translated, sometimes even compromising more accurate pronunciation (as opposed to using more accurately-sounding characters that mean nonsense, which is also frequently used):
** When Coca-Cola first came to the Chinese market in 1928, there was no official representation of the name in Mandarin, so several shopkeepers interpreted it in different ways. While the right sounds (ko-ka-ko-la) were used, the wrong ''characters'' were used, producing interpretations such as "BiteTheWaxTadpole" or "Bite the Wax-Fattened Mare". Eventually, an official translation of Coca-Cola was used, sounding fairly close to its name (ke kou ke le) with the added bonus of meaning (more or less) "Tasty and fun" or more loosely/poetically, "Let your mouth rejoice". [[http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp]]
** In Chinese, AIDS is sometimes translated as the descriptive "獲得性免疫缺陷綜合症", or more commonly "愛滋病" (''Àizībìng''), the first two characters of which sounds similar to "AIDS" and the last is for "illness". It literally means "disease that breeds through love", alluding to its affinity on sexual contact.
** The Chinese name for Belarus is 白俄罗斯 (''Báièluósī''), which is a transliteration, but also literally means "White Russia", which is exactly what Belarus means.
** "Vitamin" is translated into Chinese into the similar sounding "維他命" (''Wéitāmìng''), which literally means "Maintain his life".
* Isaac Watts' psalm "translations" for use in the Anglican church. Until the mid-1800s, the Anglican church didn't allow singing of hymns, but metrical translations of the Book of Psalms and other scriptural references were considered sacred enough for use. To hear Watts tell the tale, King David made direct references both to his own far-distant descendant Jesus Christ (by name, no less), ''and'' to the British empire - an international power ruling large amounts of land mass which were completely unknown to the Hebrews in David's time, seated in a nation that had yet to be created. Some of Watts' translations are still in use - "Joy to the World" chief among them!
* The ''Franchise/GIJoe'' franchise was renamed ''Action Force'' for the European market, because the phrase "G.I. Joe" wouldn't have meant anything to the non-American audience.
* The Music/JonathanCoulton song "Re: Your Brains" has a French version ("Re: Vos Cerveaux") which replaces the line "All we want to do is eat your brains! We're not unreasonable; I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes!"" with "On veut juste vous bouffer le cerveau! Non, ce n'est pas si bête; ca va pas t'couter les yeux de la tête!" This translates roughly as "We just want to eat your brains! It's not so bad; it won't cost you the eyes from your head!" However, in French, "couter les yeux de la tête" is an idiomatic expression for something expensive, similar to saying something "costs an arm and a leg."
* In some Fairy tales that feature a WickedWitch that isn't always named, especially "Literature/HanselAndGretel", sometimes the witch is Literature/BabaYaga - as in, the Baba Yaga from Slavic mythologies, seeing as she is pretty much ''the'' slavic WickedWitch.
** There is at least one case when a Sicilian fairy tale was translated to Russian as Literature/BabaYaga. The original was Mammadraga, a similar enough creature in concept, except Baba Yaga isn't usually described with snake hair.
* When all of the Latin prayers and other parts of the Catholic mass were translated into various native languages after Vatican II, it was decided that more user friendly translations would be used instead of direct translations.
** However, around 2000, the Holy See acknowledged that the required [[MisterSandmanSequence modern English]] translations of 1969 were inappropriate. After about 10 years of research, study, and surveys a new translation with minor changes was released in 2011 under Benedict the XVI. The newer versions stick with words closer to the original Latin such as "consubstantial" or "hosts" (collective now for angels).
** In the Japanese version of the Catholic Mass, at the point where most languages use a translation of "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof...", the Japanese say 主よ、あなたは神の子キリスト、永遠のいのちの糧、あなたをおいてだれのところへ行き ましょう [[note]]Lord, you are Christ, the Son of God, the bread of eternal life; if we leave you, to whom shall we go?[[/note]]. This is because, due to the Japanese tradition of humility and self-abasement, the traditional prayer would be seen merely as common courtesy with no real meaning, and the Japanese bishops have consequently substituted a Biblical passage that would be more meaningful to a Japanese audience.
* Manga on Danbooru is an interesting case. Usually the translators will try to keep it as close to source as possible, but occasionally this will happen, almost always with a note stating the literal translation.
* The old idiom "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" makes this trope OlderThanFeudalism. A direct translation would be "If you are in Rome, live in the Roman way; if you are elsewhere, live as they do there."
* Key West is an anglization of the Spanish ''Cayo Hueso'', meaning "Bone Cay". Key West also happens to be a very strategic island controlling shipping between Florida and Cuba. It remaining loyal in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar was ''key'' to allow the Union to take New Orleans and damage the Confederacy's fighting ability in the ''west''.
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** In another, he mentions one of his cartoons (a penguin, indistinguishable from a vast crowd of others, singing "I gotta be me") turned into a greeting card, with the change that the singing penguin was turned yellow so it actually ''is'' different from the rest. He regarded this as an inversion for CompletelyMissingThePoint of the cartoon.

** In another, he mentions one of his cartoons (a penguin indistinguishable from a vast crowd of other penguins singing "I gotta be me") turned into a greeting card, with the change that the singing penguin was turned yellow so it actually ''is'' different from the rest. He regarded this as an inversion for CompletelyMissingThePoint of the cartoon.

* In ''The Pre-History of ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', Gary Larsen discusses a change that was made in one of his cartoons before it was distributed to foreign markets. In the cartoon, a ship drops a microphone into the water to record whale songs, and a whale swims up to the microphone and sings "Louie Louie". In some foreign markets, the whale instead sings "Singing in the Rain". Larsen admits that Singing in the Rain was funny, and writes that the song change was probably due to Louie Louie being less well-known outside of the US.
** In another, he mentions one of his cartoons (a penguin indistinguishable from the others sing "I gotta be me") turned into a greeting card, with the difference that the singing penguin was turned yellow. He regarded this as an inversion for CompletelyMissingThePoint of the cartoon.

-->'''Anakin''': [[TranslationTrainWreck Is you let her rebel me!]]
-->'''Obi-Wan''': This is ''your own'' masterpiece.