lost in translation
click here if you would like to see the shanghai diaries translated into chinese, korean, japanese, italian, german, french, spanish — hell, even portuguese. someone is trying to sell me this service … but i’m not buying. have a feeling there would be lots of “super karate monkey death car”-type stuff in there.
don’t get that reference? well, you need to watch more newsradio, one of the best television shows — ever.
in a classic episode, jimmy james’ autobiography — a poor seller in america — becomes a hit in japan. after being translated from english to japanese, the book is then translated from japanese to english for it’s re-release in america. the title went from jimmy james: capitalist lion tamer to jimmy james: macho business donkey wrestler.
here is an excerpt from the episode, where jimmy is to read from the book at an american bookstore:
Mr. James: The original title of this book was Jimmy James: Capitalist Lion Tamer but I see now that it’s … Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler. You know what it is. I had the book translated in to Japanese then back again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler … well there you go. It’s got kind of a ring to it, don’t it? Anyway, I wanted to read from Chapter Three, which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence. “I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street. Many days no business come to my hut …” My hut. “… but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo … dung. Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans — and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey.”
Later, during the Q&A.
Question: Mr. James, what did you mean when you wrote, “Bad clown making like super American car racers, I would make them sweat. War War.”?
Mr. James: Well, you know … it’s like when a clown is making like a car … racer. It’s sorta … like … the FCC. The clown … the clown is like the FCC. And I was opposed to the FCC at the time, right? So it was like I was declaring War. WARRRR!
Question: So then did the “American yum yum clown monkey” also represent the FCC?
Mr. James: Yeah, it did. Thanks a lot.
Question: What did you mean when you said, “Feel my skills, donkey donkey donkey, donkey donkey.”?
Mr. James: Sighs
10.13.2003, 1:07 AM · Site News, Television
