Poll of the Day > What are your thoughts of shows being Americanized for the USA?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Such as scenes like in Pokemon where ricecakes, although still clearly ricecakes, called sandwiches or donuts?
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those are stupid, and crunchyroll recently made a series of videos explaining why they did that, and how fucking stupid it was then, and now

but for stuff like taking a different regions show and making a western version of it, like the office?

i'm fine with that.
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I remember a scene in dbz where goku was eating bao and king kai called them bean tacos lol
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I don't really give a shit, because I'm not a weeb, and I get the fact that 90% of the audience may not understand regional references or cultural quirks of other countries.

I thought this was going to be a topic about shows from one country being adapted in another (like the UK Office being adapted into the US Office, or Friends being adapted into the UK as Coupling, or the occasional (terrible) attempts to redo shows like Red Dwarf in the US), and that's a subject I actually tend to be more opinionated about. If only because I've seen multiple UK shows I like that were adapted into terrible US versions. But some adaptations like that are good, so it's hard to say it's always a bad thing.


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I dislike localization like that. No harm in some kid learning that people eat different things than them.
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Its stupid. All you're doing to making the people ignorant of other cultures even more ignorant.

See the first harry potter book.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I don't really give a shit, because I'm not a weeb, and I get the fact that 90% of the audience may not understand regional references or cultural quirks of other countries.

I thought this was going to be a topic about shows from one country being adapted in another (like the UK Office being adapted into the US Office, or Friends being adapted into the UK as Coupling, or the occasional (terrible) attempts to redo shows like Red Dwarf in the US), and that's a subject I actually tend to be more opinionated about. If only because I've seen multiple UK shows I like that were adapted into terrible US versions. But some adaptations like that are good, so it's hard to say it's always a bad thing.

I prefer to act like the US attempt at Red Dwarf did not happen
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Most of the time I have no real issue with it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I thought this was going to be a topic about shows from one country being adapted in another (like the UK Office being adapted into the US Office, or Friends being adapted into the UK as Coupling, or the occasional (terrible) attempts to redo shows like Red Dwarf in the US), and that's a subject I actually tend to be more opinionated about. If only because I've seen multiple UK shows I like that were adapted into terrible US versions. But some adaptations like that are good, so it's hard to say it's always a bad thing.

Yeah, that was what I was assuming as well. I will say that I've liked the trend simply because it gives an alternate take for something I like. Being Human UK and US diverge pretty substantially in terms of content, with the UK version flat-out going off the rails later on. The handling of certain concepts was also interesting. And, because I saw s1 of the US version first, I hadn't expected them to play the original plan straight, where George/Josh was used to kill Bishop (I can't remember what he was called in the UK version).

In the case of White Van Man / Family Tools, I got two shows I absolutely loved. Ironically, Family Tools was canceled almost immediately (when only 10 episodes had been produced) but, because BBC seasons are shorter, the two shows have roughly the same number of episodes.

As for The Office, I'll admit that I never quite understood Michael Scott *until* I saw David Brent when Ricky Gervais's sublime performance made clear the character. Granted, I still didn't like Michael Scott all that much, but I got his appeal and liked him a bit more. In general, the UK version handles the concept so much better even if the jokes tend to fall flat due to the British idioms.

Kimbos_Egg posted...

Its stupid. All you're doing to making the people ignorant of other cultures even more ignorant.

See the first harry potter book.

That's a remarkably stupid viewpoint since, if a person has no context for something, having that thing exist doesn't really benefit anybody unless you're including explanations at which point you're disrupting the flow of the novel.
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when they make a us versionof the show sometimes it works, (whose line us is much better than uk) and sometimes it doesn't (like being human).

the translation thing is kind of dumb
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KNAtmHov0" data-time="
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hypnox posted...

ricecakes

Rice balls?
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I think the worst was the American inbetweeners.
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Sarcasthma posted...

hypnox posted...

ricecakes

Rice balls?

It's not a ball. It's triangle shaped
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KNAtmHov0" data-time="

lol
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JOExHIGASHI posted...

Sarcasthma posted...

hypnox posted...

ricecakes

Rice balls?

It's not a ball. It's triangle shaped

There are ball-shaped ones, too.
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I suppose it's not much different than dubbing movies into English...
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Firewerx posted...

I suppose it's not much different than dubbing movies into English...

It's very different when they change cultural references.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KNAtmHov0" data-time="

It just confused the fuck out of me when I was a kid, I knew they weren't donuts but didn't know what they really were
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I don't watch foreign shows but I'd be indifferent, so long as they're not changing stuff to something it's, visually, obviously not.
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Mead posted...

I prefer to act like the US attempt at Red Dwarf did not happen

That ... was a thing?

*looks it up*

Oh, my. That's a bit like making a spaghetti taco. It's just something you shouldn't do.
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Taily_Po posted...

That's a remarkably stupid viewpoint since, if a person has no context for something, having that thing exist doesn't really benefit anybody unless you're including explanations at which point you're disrupting the flow of the novel.

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=That+thing+you+just+read+about+but+didn%27t+understand&s=

Side note, I like the new autoflag message they've got for lmgtfy. Nice and snarky.
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Now what we know how people feel about things being Americanized for the USA, how about when they're Americanized for France?

Krazy_Kirby posted...

when they make a us versionof the show sometimes it works, (whose line us is much better than uk) and sometimes it doesn't (like being human).

lolwut?

adjl posted...

Taily_Po posted...

That's a remarkably stupid viewpoint since, if a person has no context for something, having that thing exist doesn't really benefit anybody unless you're including explanations at which point you're disrupting the flow of the novel.

[Autoflagged stupid link where reposting it would get me suspended]

Side note, I like the new autoflag message they've got for [redacted]. Nice and snarky.

Yes, because running multiple google searches per page is certainly a better solution than just having a version edited for foreign audiences. It's kind of like how we encourage Americans to learn Japanese instead of just translating games during localization.
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Taily_Po posted...

Now what we know how people feel about things being Americanized for the USA, how about when they're Americanized for France?

Krazy_Kirby posted...

when they make a us versionof the show sometimes it works, (whose line us is much better than uk) and sometimes it doesn't (like being human).

lolwut?

adjl posted...

Taily_Po posted...

That's a remarkably stupid viewpoint since, if a person has no context for something, having that thing exist doesn't really benefit anybody unless you're including explanations at which point you're disrupting the flow of the novel.

[Autoflagged stupid link where reposting it would get me suspended]

Side note, I like the new autoflag message they've got for [redacted]. Nice and snarky.

Yes, because running multiple google searches per page is certainly a better solution than just having a version edited for foreign audiences. It's kind of like how we encourage Americans to learn Japanese instead of just translating games during localization.

only weebs do that
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it's basically them saying you are too stupid to understand this foreign thing
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VeeVees posted...

it's basically them saying you are too stupid to understand this foreign thing

Except no, it's not. Every culture has its own slang and idioms and it's stupid to expect people to just know them and stupider still to have countless things people would need to Google in a work since it disrupts the reading. That's not counting simpler issues where people wouldn't necessarily even know that they didn't know what it means -- such as floor numbering between America/Canada/etc and the UK where the UK's "first floor" actually means the second floor because they consider the ground floor as the "zeroth" floor.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

I don't really give a shit, because I'm not a weeb, and I get the fact that 90% of the audience may not understand regional references or cultural quirks of other countries.

I thought this was going to be a topic about shows from one country being adapted in another (like the UK Office being adapted into the US Office, or Friends being adapted into the UK as Coupling, or the occasional (terrible) attempts to redo shows like Red Dwarf in the US), and that's a subject I actually tend to be more opinionated about. If only because I've seen multiple UK shows I like that were adapted into terrible US versions. But some adaptations like that are good, so it's hard to say it's always a bad thing.

I thought this too. I recently heard it goes the other way too. Theres a show in Russia called Its Always Sunny in Moscow.
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kangolcone posted...

Theres a show in Russia called Its Always Sunny in Moscow.

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Taily_Po posted...

Kimbos_Egg posted...

Its stupid. All you're doing to making the people ignorant of other cultures even more ignorant.

See the first harry potter book.

That's a remarkably stupid viewpoint since, if a person has no context for something, having that thing exist doesn't really benefit anybody unless you're including explanations at which point you're disrupting the flow of the novel.

Depends on the mindset of the person I'd say. Personally I would stop reading/watching something to look up said word and find out what it is. It disrupt the flow of the reading/watching but I learned something new in the process.
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