Tag / Macanudo

by Kilby

Sometimes “translation” means moving to a different place

Here are two more instances of creative translation in “Macanudo”.

The Spanish dialog means: “I wish the leaves had eyes.” – “Ha ha ha! The things you say!“

In both cases the gag is a simple (auditory) pun: in English twofold on “leave(s)” (noun/verb); in Spanish threefold on “ojalá“=”wish”, “hojas“=”leaves”, and “ojos“=”eyes” (one verb and two nouns; all three words sound very similar).

In this second case the difference between the two language versions is more extreme:

In Spanish: “Do you like it when I call you a lunatic?” – “Yup.“

Perhaps the translator did not trust English-speaking readers to recognize the “lunar” etymology of “lunatic”, or maybe she simply loved the song lyrics more.

P.S. Several months ago I looked up the meaning of the name “macanudo“, discovering that it meant “a person or thing considered admirable or excellent because of its positive qualities“. Besides being an eminently appropriate name for the comic strip, this also explains why it is the name of a cigar brand. I was in Copenhagen (on vacation) just a few days before I created this post, and just happened to run into this shop:

by Kilby

Cross-Cultural Calendars

This Macanudo strip might appear to be misdated to American readers:

… because the school year ended over a month ago. It turns out that the Argentinian school year begins in March, and doesn’t end until December. Nevertheless, the strip is still (slightly) misplaced, because Argentinian students go on their Winter break in July. Henrietta may not be at the beach, but she isn’t in school right now, either.

by Kilby

Bashing on the Drummer

We discussed this first Macanudo strip (in both languages) in the “Macanudo Road” post in April:

At the time I thought that Liniers changed the name of the leader because Ringo is still alive (and John isn’t), but a pair of subsequent strips give me the impression that he just likes bashing on drummers:

(Of course, this strip has absolutely nothing to do with the way nor why Best was actually dumped from the Beatles.)

Just like the first strip above, the question here is “Why Ringo?” (Perhaps he is supposed to be the one with the lowest level of awareness-enhancing substances in his system?)

by EditorM

Bonus post: Back in the translation shop

Today’s Macanudo, twice:

“It was nice while it lasted.” Okay, I’ll buy the pairing. Both are sweetly regretful but have just a tiny bit of a sting, don’t you think?

But now, today’s Baldo, also twice:

Now at first this looks like something we’ve seen a few times with Baldo: A pun or language-dependent joke in the English version, and then a reduction to a univocal expression in the Spanish version with no attempt to preserve the polysemy needed for the pun.

But not this time!

The key is in hachacento, which does not register as a recognized or translatable Spanish word, at least by Google Translate. But looking at parts:

hatchet ==> hacha
accent ==> acento

So we do get both axe and accent! (But not sent ==> enviad{o/a}. But who cares at this point!)

P.S. Don’t forget to stop and smell the noises in panel 3.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 19th, 2024

Some comics with socks appeal:

..

From the “Wisdom from the Funny Papers” Department. Sometimes a “cry for help” must be responded to with help. Sometimes when “they’re just doing that for attention” the humane response includes paying attention.

BTW, Maritsa Patrinos of the Six Chix now has her own separate strip, called Working Cats and appearing at Comics Kingdom.

I thought this was going to be about sentence-adverbs; but it was better than that. (Hopefully, everybody remembers what the controversies and pseudo-rules about sentence-adverbs were.)

No, I don’t see a joke here. But also I can’t say there’s supposed to be one, so it’s not really a CIDU. So let’s just take a minute to admire the artistry here. Such draughtsmanship! That ice-cliff shows us both distance and height, even while a whole surface is devoid of detail.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 05th, 2024

Scammers certainly are getting more creative. I got a “reimbursement” from my Jane Doe, the condo property manager, with the email Jane.Doe@propfirm.com, which was suspiciously close to her actual email of Jane.Doe@propfirm.net, and this is a person I occasionally get reimbursements from (luckily as old-school physical checks)

From Dan Piraro’s subscription newsletter, “The Naked Cartoonist“. I’ll conclude with an early collaboration with Wayno; a Bizarro cartoon about red flags in relationships. If only they were this obvious in real life!

by EditorM

It can happen by accident; or by feline attack.

I thought the difficulty regarding the USB Type-A plugs was traditionally the alignment when making the connection. And that disconnecting is, if anything, a bit too easy — as the post title notes, it doesn’t take much.

Side questions: Is the Spanish text somewhat antique, as the English is? And, in the middle panel do we see more of the sword that doesn’t quite match the reveal of the last panel?

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