History Main / BiteTheWaxTadpole

** In December 2013, IKEA's annual charity plushie, the stuffed [[TheBigBadWolf]] Lufsig, gained attention in Hong Kong after someone threw one at unpopular Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying ([[DontExplainTheJoke nicknamed "the wolf" by his particularly large opposition]]). While the juxtaposition was funny, Cantonese speakers realized that its name (a corruption of a Swedish word meaning "to lumber") as listed on IKEA's Mainland China website, "Lù mǔ xi", was pronounced as "Lo Mai Sai" in Cantonese, which could be read as a pun of "Lo Mai ''Hai''" ("your mother's [[CountryMatters cunt]]"). [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]], the Cantonese word for "throw" is a homophone of a word commonly translated as "[[PrecisionFStrike fuck]]" ("Diū"). The expected response was subverted, as the resulting MemeticMutation caused Lufsig to [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff fly off store shelves in Hong Kong and the mainland]] (with people ''lining up in the morning to buy them'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools and support IKEA's causes]]). The Chinese name was later changed to a closer transliteration that averted the Cantonese wordplay.

** In December 2013, IKEA's annual charity plushie, the stuffed [[Literature/LittleRedRidingHood Big Bad Wolf]] Lufsig, gained attention in Hong Kong after someone threw one at unpopular Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying ([[DontExplainTheJoke nicknamed "the wolf" by his particularly large opposition]]). While the juxtaposition was funny, Cantonese speakers realized that its name (a corruption of a Swedish word meaning "to lumber") as listed on IKEA's Mainland China website, "Lù mǔ xi", was pronounced as "Lo Mai Sai" in Cantonese, which could be read as a pun of "Lo Mai ''Hai''" ("your mother's [[CountryMatters cunt]]"). [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]], the Cantonese word for "throw" is a homophone of a word commonly translated as "[[PrecisionFStrike fuck]]" ("Diū"). The expected response was subverted, as the resulting MemeticMutation caused Lufsig to [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff fly off store shelves in Hong Kong and the mainland]] (with people ''lining up in the morning to buy them'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools and support IKEA's causes]]). The Chinese name was later changed to a closer transliteration that averted the Cantonese wordplay.

* The Buick Lacrosse was renamed Buick Allure in Canada, because in Quebecois slang, not only is ''crosse'' a word meaning "to fraud, swindle, rip off" (which, for obvious reasons, is a bad name for a car, much like the "no va" urban legend), but can also refer to [[ADateWithRosiePalms crossing your hands around "la verge"]]. For the 2nd generation, the name was restored, and GM also began to offer replacement nameplates for those who are silly enough to want them. At the same time lacrosse is a popular sport in Canada.

* There is a story out there that when Chrysler began selling cars in Chinese markets, they did inexplicably poorly. It turned out that when "Chrysler" was transliterated into Mandarin Chinese, it became "about to die".

[[folder:Film]]

** By the same token, the German word ''Fahrt'' can be found on numerous traffic signs and related literature, as it translates to "travel", "ride", or "traffic", depending on the context. Some other Nordic languages drop the "h", resulting in [[https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f89c9c372df4bb86beca34479ec15a29 a Danish reminder to slow down]] or [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tqDRXmmBB7Y/Suuf1RrPuvI/AAAAAAAACU8/fp-JL1H9z9U/s400/1_1248170851_tee-hee-hee.jpg a Norwegian sign about speedbumps]] containing the word.

* In 2013, Burger King tried to do an advertisement in Russia that showed red poppies being crushed by a Whopper, arguing that the poppy "was popular once, but now its time has passed". The ad was ''meant'' to be an oblique [[TakeThat attack]] towards a certain other fast food chain (the word for "poppy" in Russian sounds like "[[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Mac]]"). However, Russian broadcasters skipped past the VisualPun, and rejected the ad because poppies are used to produce opium (and thus, the ad implied that the Whopper was better than drugs). What made their objection even more bizarre is that it's ''[[CriticalResearchFailure white poppies]]'' that are used in the production of opium, not red.

Known as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_blunder "brand blunder"]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki. A subtrope of BlindIdiotTranslation. Compare with GratuitousEnglish, MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels, InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike, CleanDubName. The entire point of the HomogenousMultinationalAdCampaign is to avoid this, and a MarketBasedTitle is another way to. HaveAGayOldTime is a subtrope (or at least a related trope).

*** This is also the reason why most Spanish versions of the book end with the Brodignan arc, with the remainder of the story restricted to rarely-found classic versions as well as very sjort AbridgedForChildren editions (less than 10 pages), where the proper name is not given. Those editions simply call it "the floating island".

* This trope is [[TropeNamer named for]] one of the classic examples ([[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/蝌蝌啃蠟 蝌蝌啃蠟]], Kēkēkěnlà, actually meaning "tadpole chews wax", ''not'' "bite the wax tadpole"), one of the unofficial attempts to transliterate "Coca-Cola" into Chinese before a formal name was introduced;[[note]][[http://snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp These were never official names]]; rather, before there was an official Mandarin version, shopkeepers who sold Coke would use whichever transliteration they wanted[[/note]] the right sounds were used, but the meaning of the ''characters'' was disregarded, with the result that instead of advertising soft drinks, [[ExpospeakGag the mastication of paraffin by larval amphibians was encouraged]]; another unofficial variant was "Bite the wax-fattened mare" (騍馬口蠟, Kèmǎkǒulà). Creator/DaveBarry declared "Bite the Wax Tadpole" to be "the best name I ever heard for a soft drink". (The closest "bite the wax tadpole" could ever get to sounding like Coca-Cola would be 齰蝌蚪蜡 - cuòkēdǒulà. Close, but no cigar.)\\

* This trope is [[TropeNamer named for]] one of the classic examples ([[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/蝌蝌啃蠟 蝌蝌啃蠟]], Kēkēkěnlà, actually meaning "tadpole chews wax", ''not'' "bite the wax tadpole"), one of the unofficial attempts to transliterate "Coca-Cola" into Chinese before a formal name was introduced;[[note]][[http://snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp These were never official names]]; rather, before there was an official Mandarin version, shopkeepers who sold Coke would use whichever transliteration they wanted[[/note]] the right sounds were used, but the meaning of the ''characters'' was disregarded, with the result that instead of advertising soft drinks, [[ExpospeakGag the mastication of paraffin by larval amphibians was encouraged]]; another unofficial variant was "Bite the wax-fattened mare". Creator/DaveBarry declared "Bite the Wax Tadpole" to be "the best name I ever heard for a soft drink". (The closest "bite the wax tadpole" could ever get to sounding like Coca-Cola would be 齰蝌蚪蜡 - cuòkēdǒulà. Close, but no cigar.)\\

* This trope is [[TropeNamer named for]] one of the classic examples, one of the unofficial attempts to transliterate "Coca-Cola" into Chinese before a formal name was introduced;[[note]][[http://snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp These were never official names]]; rather, before there was an official Mandarin version, shopkeepers who sold Coke would use whichever transliteration they wanted[[/note]] the right sounds were used, but the meaning of the ''characters'' was disregarded, with the result that instead of advertising soft drinks, [[ExpospeakGag the mastication of paraffin larval amphibians was encouraged]]; another unofficial variant was "Bite the wax-fattened mare". Creator/DaveBarry declared "Bite the Wax Tadpole" to be "the best name I ever heard for a soft drink". (The closest "bite the wax tadpole" could ever get to sounding like Coca-Cola would be 齰蝌蚪蜡 - cuòkēdǒulà. Close, but no cigar.)\\

** IKEA also hit the news in Czech Republic when their ads announced the "sale of Hoven" (a carpet named after a Swedish town). In Czech, "hoven" is plural genitive case form of the word meaning "shit". The name by itself wasn't funny for grammatical reasons and the sale announcement was the first time the name could be interpreted as a meaningful Czech word in official ads. The carpet was later renamed to Fare in Czech republic.

* There's a [=PlayStation=] game titled ''Irritating Stick''. The title actually describes the game fairly well (and is a fairly literal translation of the game's Japanese name), but it's very easy to ridicule.

** In English, Pikachu's name is often misconstrued as referring to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika the pika.]]
** Speaking of Pokemon, the "Tanga Berry" roughly translates to "Stupid Berry" in many Filipino Languages. Cue the laughing Filipino Pokemon fans.

* Unlike other companies, IKEA makes it a point to not relabel their products for foreign markets, no matter how stupid they sound in the local language. It's still backfired, though: IKEA got in trouble when it advertised its "Gutvik" brand bunk beds in Germany -- because while "Gutvik" is the name of a town in Sweden, it's an explicit sexual reference in German, albeit a grammatically wrong one. It sounds a lot like the expression "guter Fick," meaning "good fuck" or "good lay." ''Gut'' without an ending here wouldn't make sense.

** There's also a storage box called "Knep." In the native Swedish language, it means "trick," but Danish-speaking customers were amused at the name as in their language, it literally means [[PrecisionFStrike "fuck."]] Due to the proximity between Denmark and Sweden, their languages are so similar that Danish people sometimes poke fun at the Swedish with InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike or SeparatedByACommonLanguage jokes whenever IKEA sells certain products with Scandinavian titles that result in unintended amusement.

* The cryptocurrency startup Nonce Finance was going for a cryptography-related name, but received a lot of mockery once it was pointed put that it's also British slang for "sex offender". The company has since poked fun at its own blunder, adding "Struggling with brand names" to its Twitter bio and posting [[https://mobile.twitter.com/noncefinance/status/1412079348861923328 this tweet.]]

* The Quebec 24-hour convenience store chain Couche-Tard raises some eyebrows if you don't speak French. It merely means "go-to-bed-late" or more idiomatically, "night owl." Although it's been buying up convenience store chains across English-speaking North America, there's more than one reason it generally leaves them with their original branding.

** Fukyu (pronounced foo-kyoo, though English-speaking ears often hear it... slightly differently) is a very common surname in Japan. It's also the name of one of the most widely practiced karate katas in existence, which is often good for a chuckle amongst new karateka.

* Halla lumber mill in Kotka, Finland, had difficulties on orders in Arabic countries. Finally a whole cargo of premium pine was returned, untouched. It appeared the sawmill had stampled the ends of the boards with company logo, HALLA. Eventually someone pointed that Arabic is read from right to left. Defiling God's name is a severe crime in Islam.

* Both ''Happy Days'' and ''Joanie Loves Chachi'' had the character "Chachi," whose name sounds a lot like the Korean word for penis ("chaji").

** Also, instead of using an umlaut as part of the "ü", the company Fücker uses something resembling a [[http://sysadm.in/blog/images/fucker-bus.jpg monobrow]], resulting in the letter "ü" actually being recognized as a "u".

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker Anthony Fokker's aircraft]] is a beautiful and historically significant piece of Dutch aerospace engineering. Among its [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker#Famous_Fokker_aircraft_and_pilots many famous exploits]], it was flown by the ace of aces, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen Baron Von Richthofen]]. But more importantly, it is ''a lot'' of fun to say over the radio.

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by a pilot in a [[https://aviationhumor.net/atc-quotes/ now-legendary air traffic control exchange]].

* The cryptocurrency startup Nonce Finance was going for a cryptography-related name, but received a lot of mockery once it was pointed put that it's also British slang for "sex offender". The company has since poked fun at its own blunder, adding "Struggling with brand names" to its Twitter bio and posting [[https://mobile.twitter.com/noncefinance/status/1412079348861923328 this tweet]].

* This can even take place between dialects of English, such as with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_%28food%29 faggots]].

* Taco Bell once sold a tasty burrito with chili and cheese under the name of "[[http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=1889 Chilito]]" in some locations. After much snickering, they learned that "chilito" was Hispanic slang for "small penis" and went to "Chili Cheese Burrito" for the product name.

* The bassoon, in most languages, translates either into something similar to the original French word "basson" or into something close to "faggot".[[note]]One of the languages calling a bassoon a "faggot" is German, leading to a well-known incident in musical history circles where Music/JohannSebastianBach called an uncooperative member of his ensemble a ''[[InherentlyFunnyWords Zippelfagottist]]'' ("nanny-goat bassoonist") and then drew his sword on the man after the argument got (even) more heated.[[/note]] The Wiktionary lists those translations in its [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bassoon entry]] for "bassoon". To be fair, English has [[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/faggot multiple meanings for "faggot"]], including "bundle of sticks for firewood" and "meatballs from OopNorth".

* Music/LaRoux is named for singer Elly Jackson's flame-red hair and her androgynous look (''roux'' is the French word for a ''male'' redhead;[[note]]a female redhead is "rousse"[[/note]] ''la'' is the ''feminine'' definite article). However, "roux" also means a [[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roux sauce base/thickener made from flour and butter or some other sort of fat]]. Not quite the effect they were intending for in some countries where EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench.

** There's also a city in Mongolia called Mörön, though it is also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6r%C3%B6n_%28city%29 pronounced differently]]

*** Which comes full circle, considering the offensive origins of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoloid_race the term]].

** Another German example-- [[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASS_Altenburger "Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkartenfabrik," or ASS]], is a popular playing card manufacturer, comparable to Bee or Bicycle in the United States. In German itself, it happens to be FunWithAcronyms, as the acronym simply means "ace".

* ''Dikshit'' is a fairly common surname in India. 'Nuff said. It's pronounced exactly like you hope it wouldn't be pronounced, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QVzKihKiYI this poor news anchor fell victim to the trope]].

* Much like Lady Gaga, Argentine footballer Fernando Gago [[https://reddit.com/r/Philippines/comments/28q96u/ is the butt of jokes from Filipino football fans]], as "Gago" means "moron" or "asshole" in many Filipino languages. You have to feel for those wearing a Fernando Gago jersey in the streets of Manila.

** English speakers also snicker at the name, as the first two syllables are pronounced exactly like "titty," a slang term for a woman's breasts, while the last two syllables are a common euphemism for the word "shit." ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I0Hee533Iw did an entire song about it]].

* There's also the Slovak politician [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavol_Paška Pavol Paška]]. His surname unfortunately looks a lot like the Finnish word for shit (paska).

* Danish Oil and Natural Gas, aka. DONG Energy, rebranded themselves "Ørsted", ostensibly [[https://www.thelocal.dk/20170202/denmarks-dong-energy-to-ditch-coal-by-2023 because they're moving away from fossil fuels]] [[https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/5rmn5r/danish_green_energy_giant_dong_said_on_thursday/ and onto green energy]], but also [[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/bc4s6g/nice/ because "dong" is slang for penis]].

* This trope is [[TropeNamer named for]] one of the classic examples, one of the unofficial attempts to transliterate "Coca-Cola" into Chinese before a formal name was introduced[[note]][[http://snopes.com/cokelore/tadpole.asp These were never official names]]; rather, before there was an official Mandarin version, shopkeepers who sold Coke would use whichever transliteration they wanted[[/note]]; the right sounds were used, but the meaning of the ''characters'' was disregarded, with the result that instead of advertising soft drinks, [[ExpospeakGag the mastication of paraffin larval amphibians was encouraged]]; another unofficial variant was "Bite the wax-fattened mare". Creator/DaveBarry declared "Bite the Wax Tadpole" to be "the best name I ever heard for a soft drink". (The closest "bite the wax tadpole" could ever get to sounding like Coca-Cola would be 齰蝌蚪蜡 - cuòkēdǒulà. Close, but no cigar.)\\

** Another German example-- [[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASS_Altenburger "Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkartenfabrik," or ASS]], is a popular playing card manufacturer, comparable to Bee or Bicycle in the United States.

* In 2016, Japan-based Glico had specially-named Pockys to be given as different types of gifts, such as for good luck, love, friendship, and even ones for parents. These names were amalgamations of certain words with "Pocky". One, however, intended to be given by an admirer, had the unfortunate name of "Sukky".[[note]]"suki", roughly, "admiration"[[/note]]