Fake Translations as Bilingual Humour

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Including all the links from this thread in the latest "roundup" on the blog.

And speaking about representation of foreignness, French-Belgian
cartoon character (and live action feature films) Lucky Luke would be
an interesting example. He's a cowboy-themed avenger who fights crime
in the typical "Western" context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke
(Pronounced /lykilyk/, by the way...)
In a way, Lucky Luke brings together many stereotypes about Americans
in a single show.

Lucky Luke's not the only such example. There have been lots of
Francophone «bandes dessinées» with foreign characters, from Blake and
Mortimer to Blueberry and even «Tuniques bleues» ("bluecoats" about
United States Cavalrymen during the US Civil War). Not to mention Yoko
Tsuno and supporting characters in other contexts (such as Asterix).
But it's just happens that someone is watching the latest live action
Lucky Luke film in the next room, and it made me think about these
people allegedly living in a frontier town of the US "Far West"
speaking with distinctive French accents. In general, very few things
in Lucky Luke have anything to do with English, save a few boards with
English names ("bank," "saloon," and "jail" are example I remember)
and the song for the closing credits of the cartoon ("I'm a poor
lonesome cowboy..."). It sounds like the latest film has a bit more
Americana, including some anachronistic ones and some displaced gags
(such as Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff). And I'm intrigued by the
fact that "Spaghetti Western" actor Terence Hill did a version back in
the early 1990s. It seems that a good number of things related to
Lucky Luke have been made available in English.

Actually, is Lucky Luke known in your neck of the woods?

--
Alex
http://enkerli.com/



On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 10:32, Kerim Friedman <oxusnet at gmail.com> wrote:
> How Hollywood represents foreign speech: a video slide show
>
> http://slate.me/9ZP4mj
>
> - kerim
>