...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Completely Unnecessary Translator
- 381 statements
- 72 feature instances
- 42 referencing feature instances
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The heroes are talking to someone, like a Ruthless Foreign Gangster or the head of a foreign MegaCorp, and they have to go through a translator to do so. After a few back and forths, the foreigner will answer the heroes directly in the language of the work fluently, meaning they like to keep around a Completely Unnecessary Translator. Story-wise, this is good to show that they are obviously foreign, what with the Russian/Chinese they were using, and that they are intelligent (dumb characters never pull this off beyond one or two lines in English). Behind the scenes, it's expensive and takes up too much screen time and effort to be plausible for very long. Common with characters who Majored in Western Hypocrisy. Subverts Tactful Translation, as it turns out at least one person in the conversation knew exactly what the other really said the entire time. See also Elective Unintelligible. If the translator is in on it too or wants to have some fun of their own, they may become a Trolling Translator. See also Language Fluency Denial. |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_18e35f7a | type |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_18e35f7a | comment |
Dream Wife: Clem is negotiating an oil deal with the Khan of "Bukistan", with a courtier acting as translator. At one point Clem says he can't stick around Bukistan because he's going home to get married, which the Khan replies to by saying "But of course you cannot stay" in fluent English. After this power move, the Khan continues to let his courtier translate. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_1e0f7416 | comment |
This is a major plot point of Eloise McGraw's Mara, Daughter of the Nile. Mara is a double agent posing as the princess's interpreter — to a king who speaks her language. She initially convinces him that her role is to preserve his rank, but when he catches her changing his words, she is forced to reveal the truth (or part of it, anyways). | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_22126d33 | comment |
Andor: It becomes clear that the Aldhani elder is competent at Basic given his reaction to lieutenant Gorn's Tactful Translation. He understandably refuses to make things any easier on the Imperials currently colonizing his world and carrying out cultural genocide on his people though. | |
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In Barry, the protagonist is brought on to train a group of Chechens, with a translator standing by. After two of them ask questions in English Barry asks them how many of them can speak English. They all raise their hands at which point Hank tells the translator to leave. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_26ef42e7 | comment |
In Kevin & Kell, after Herd Thinners reopens its insectivore division with a mostly bat workforce, Angelique poaches Desdemona, Kell's vampire bat assistant, to be her VP of Operations. It turns out that Angelique mainly wants her to translate her orders into sonar. Desdemona's first "translation" is "She thinks you don't understand normal speech", and the bats decide that, with a Bad Boss like Angelique, this is probably an advantage. | |
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Spider-Man: No Way Home: Ned's lola (grandmother) goes on several long rants about his guests in Tagalog, forcing him to translate. Once they've finished cleaning up after themselves, she says flatly in perfect English "I'm going to bed." | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_2a8943c0 | comment |
Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette has to play host to her Great Uncle Wang Cheng, but doesn't speak his native Mandarin Chinese. She attempts to use a translation app, but it goes wrong, so Ayla enlists Adrien as an interpreter. After a while (long enough to leave Marinette's apartment), Cheng reveals that he speaks English. He doesn't speak it well, and does require Adrien's help translating for the cooking show he's participating in, but he's more than conversational enough to communicate with Marinette (begging the question of why he didn't so much as say "hello" to her when he arrived, since it wasn't any secret). | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_2b113e02 | comment |
In The Mummy (1999), Beni puts on a suave act as Imhotep's interpreter, translating his nefarious plans from Ancient Egyptian into English to the heroes. Evy, who is fluent in the language, corrects his translation. Given that Imhotep's nefarious plans are about kidnapping her, it's definitely a badass bookworm moment. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_2e621178 | comment |
An episode of The Good Wife has Diane click on a strange email link, resulting in the firm's computers being hacked, and the client files being held for ransom. When simply paying the ransom fails, Kalinda tracks down the blackmailers to a man in Russia. She connects to his computer and has one of the lawyers translate for her (his parents forced him to learn Russian). Eventually, when Kalinda gets him angry enough, he reveals that he understands English just fine, so the lawyers stops translating. Not unreasonable, as many Russian schools teach at least some English. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_341c02e9 | type |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_341c02e9 | comment |
In Batman Begins, Ducard translates for Ra's al Ghul, who later speaks to Bruce in about five words of perfect, if clipped, English. May serve as foreshadowing that Ducard IS Ra's al Ghul, and that was a decoy. Using this trope allows him to literally speak for Ra's, while not revealing his identity. | |
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Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People includes a bizarre version of this. Strong Bad speaks English. Strong Mad, though hardly articulate, speaks English. Yet Strong Bad insists on using The Cheat, who doesn't speak English at all, to translate between them in Strong Badia the Free. Worse yet, Strong Bad and Strong Mad are brothers. So, this is likely a case of Bad being a condescending prick towards his brother. |
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In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes notices that Captain Tantony of the Bonk Guard is reacting just before Skinner translates what Vimes is saying into Uberwaldean. So he says "And tell him he has a fly on his nose," and has the pleasure of watching the man try to prevent himself glancing down. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_41b0198a | comment |
The Dresden Files: In the book Changes, The Red King, through his translator, arranges a duel with Dresden. Once Dresden wins, the Red King goes back on his agreement, stating, IN PERFECT ENGLISH, "We never even spoke to each other." Harry should have seen it coming (though of course it wouldn't have helped him even if he had). Earlier in the series, Queen Mab speaks through one of her servants, and Harry wonders to himself if she's doing this so she can pull a "I never said that," trick on him later on. She's not, she's just so utterly furious about her daughter Maeve being infected by Nemesis that her voice actually hurts Harry when she does speak. |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_468bebb0 | comment |
In Discworld: In Snuff, Billy Slick the goblin acts as a translator between Granny Slick and Captain Carrot. After the interview, Carrot asks Billy to congratulate his grandmother for having such an excellent grasp of Morporkian, and there's a burst of laughter from the cottage... In Pyramids, the Evil Chancellor Dios claims this position as High Priest to the God-Kings of Djelibeybi. Whatever orders those kings give, he "interprets" their words to match the traditions that he's been enforcing for over seven thousand years. In The Fifth Elephant, Vimes notices that Captain Tantony of the Bonk Guard is reacting just before Skinner translates what Vimes is saying into Uberwaldean. So he says "And tell him he has a fly on his nose," and has the pleasure of watching the man try to prevent himself glancing down. |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_4a059a74 | comment |
When The Mandalorian goes to hire some Anzellan droidsmiths, they speak in heavily accented Basic that he stuggles a bit with. Greef Karga "translates" for them, even when Mando can understand them just fine. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_4a453e0d | comment |
In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Harold's parents speak perfect English, but the "translator" (whose spoken Korean is atrocious) assumes everything they say in English is some unknown Korean dialect. | |
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In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, the narrator performs this service for the readers, translating Spanish words that don't need translation (e.g., "señor") or in one panel translating "policÃa" as police... and providing a separate footnote for each of the four times the word is spoken on that page. | |
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In The Daily Show, when Jason Jones went to Iran, he hired a translator to take to journalist Maziar Bahari, who already spoke English fluently. However, whenever Bahari spoke English, Jason would pretend not to understand him and would ask the translator what he said, even though the translator actually spoke even worse English. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_54beed92 | comment |
Tetris (2023): At their first encounter Belikov completely ignores Rogers until Henk brings in his translator. Later, Belikov is accompanied to the meetings by a translator of his own. It's not until he slips and answers Henk directly that his ability to speak English is revealed. Justified example, as the translator was probably required both by Soviet protocols and by KGB to keep a constant eye on him. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_55868d41 | comment |
In Frisky Dingo, ancient Chinese sweatshop worker Old Spice is eventually revealed to speak English after entire episodes of only communicating in Chinese and having Xander Crews (who knew he spoke English) translate for him. This only came to light after Killface insulted Old Spice's "car" (Crews misheard Old Spice, who was actually talking about his wife) and Crews berated him. "What does it matter what I say about his bloody car?" "Well, he speaks English!" "...You speak English?" "Yes!" | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_57a3683f | comment |
Not Always Right sees this genius, who insists on translating between a German cashier and an English-speaking customer. However, not only does the cashier speak English, said cashier is even replying in English. Nevertheless, the "helper" decides to "translate" everything the cashier says "back" into English. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_59593dcd | comment |
In Snuff, Billy Slick the goblin acts as a translator between Granny Slick and Captain Carrot. After the interview, Carrot asks Billy to congratulate his grandmother for having such an excellent grasp of Morporkian, and there's a burst of laughter from the cottage... | |
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American Dad!: Most of the humor with Toshi comes from what everyone thinks he's saying in Japanese, which is at odds at the various disparaging remarks and death threats he's actually throwing at people. It's later revealed he actually understands English perfectly fine, but refuses to speak anything other than Japanese out of nationalistic pride, forcing his sister to step in and translate for him on occasion. Another episode parodied this when Toshi's mother says "Why do you only speak Japanese? I don't even speak Japanese!" And when she meets Francine, the latter doesn't understand her perfect and accent-free English, calling out to the room "Does anybody speak sushi hostess?". Though it was meant as an insult at the time. |
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In The Priory of the Orange Tree, the pirate overlord known as the Golden Empress is multilingual, but she keeps a translator so that prisoners she wants information from will underestimate her. She starts speaking a common language with Niclays Roos once she determines that he only cares about creating an elixir of life and not any personal gain or escape. | |
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On Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the investor from Macau pretended not to speak English, having his daughter or wife translate. He just likes messing with people. | |
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In Stargate SG-1, when the Russian general is first introduced, he comes with a Tactful Translator. When Daniel Jackson reveals he understands everything the general is saying, the General then reveals he is fluent in English anyway. Trying to bluff your way past a linguist fluent in 29 languages (and that's not counting his knowledge of Goa'uld and, later, Ancient) is not a good idea. | |
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On For All Mankind during the early phases of the Alternate History version of Apollo-Soyuz the Soviet delegation brings translators and the negotiations are full of Insistent Terminology and overly formal. When Margo Madison (for the Americans) and Segei Nikulov (for the Soviets) meet in private, they soon adopt First-Name Basis, hold the conversation in English (which Sergei is perfectly capable of speaking) and solve many a problem by Taking a Third Option | |
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Saints Row has Mr. Wong, who sits there speaking Chinese until his translator makes a mistake, after which he switches to speaking fluent English. | |
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In The Great Ace Attorney, British Foreign Exchange Student Jezaille Brett first appears in a Japanese court speaking English. Once the player presses her, it turns out she can actually speak Japanese fluently. She was only using a translator because she's so racist that she doesn't want to "sully her tongue" with the language. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_841df154 | comment |
In Gambit, a Japanese businessman seems to be employing a very incompetent translator, but it's quickly revealed that he doesn't need the translator, but finds it keeps his opponents off-guard. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_863b7825 | comment |
Subverted in an episode of Yes, Minister. Bernard is organizing a funeral where the Prime Minister will have to speak to the leaders of foreign nations. He has to quickly clarify that translators won't be needed when the Prime Minister meets the leaders of certain nations - the English speaking ones. He then has to clarify again that this does include America, "with a certain generosity of spirit." | |
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Done in Team America: World Police in a meeting between Kim Jong-Il and a Chechen terrorist. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_8787a82d | comment |
An episode of Doctors featured an Asian bus driver who saved a boy's life with his Worthless Foreign Medical Licence, and then claimed not to speak English to avoid dealing with the fallout. Unfortunately, the translator they called in knew for a fact he did speak English. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_8cb3a247 | comment |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The Bulgarian Minister of Magic does this to Fudge at the Quidditch World Cup, with the added benefit of not actually having a translator. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_8d817ccb | comment |
Lost: Dogen, the leader of the people at the temple, knows English, but doesn't like speaking it, necessitating a translator. He eventually drops the act. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_8d85e141 | comment |
In Veep season 5, we are introduced to Chinese President Lu, who relies on this for subterfuge (and to stonewall Selina). He retains a translator for diplomatic purposes and to keep up appearances, but sends her away when the situation calls for blunt political maneuvering. On a later appearance, Selina snidely acknowledges the translator independently during a casual greeting, probably in solidarity with the woman's decorative position. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_90a3a7f4 | comment |
Kim Possible: The Japanese toy designer Nakasumi always communicates with Kim and Ron via his assistant, Miss Kyoko. It is eventually revealed that he speaks perfect English but just likes whispering into a pretty woman's ear. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_90f42a9b | comment |
In The Wheel of Time, Seanchan high nobility address people of much lower rank through a Voice, a slave who communicates with the noble in sign language and relays the message. Social class is very serious business in the Empire, so trying to bypass the Voice is a potentially deadly breach of etiquette. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_91e45f5 | comment |
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney: Lamiroir pretends to need an interpreter even though she speaks English, as part of her "exotic singer" stage persona. She really does need his help for other languages, however. Later, Machi Tobaye plays with the trope. He does know English, much to the surprise of several characters (including Lamiroir), but not all that well. |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_93b87ae5 | comment |
In The Wild Thornberrys, Nigel hires a helicopter pilot to help him film from the volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Assuming the pilot only speaks Russian, he attempts to communicate with him in the same language, but it goes dangerously wrong. When Nigel forgets the language all of a sudden in the end, he thanks him in English, only to reveal that he spoke it all along. The pilot, on the other hand, thought he was Swedish going by his accent. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_998cbda3 | comment |
Daredevil: James Wesley acts as a translator between the leaders of the gangs that work with Wilson Fisk. It turns out Madame Gao can speak English (she can speak all languages), but pretends not to as part of her Obfuscating Stupidity. Nobu, meanwhile, can speak English fluently, but not perfectly, making Wesley's translation non-vital, but not entirely redundant — mostly Nobu just takes issue with Wesley watering down his words. And Fisk can speak Mandarin and Japanese, and has Wesley translate for him so that his associates underestimate him. Wesley acts annoyed when Madame Gao calls him and Fisk out on their ruse. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_998cbda3 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_9af804ae | comment |
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A variation occurs when The Professor Aronnax, Battle Butler Conseil, and Idiot Hero Ned Land cannot understand the language used by their captors, every one of them try to talk to them in their respective native languages (French, German, and English, respectively). When their captors didn't react, Aronnax spoke Latin without success. In a second interview, the man that will present himself later as Captain Nemo tells them: | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
One scene in A Song of Ice and Fire has Daenerys speaking with a slaver via a little girl slave named Missandei, who provides a Tactful Translation of the slaver's comments. Dany, who speaks the language being translated, alternates between amusement at the slave and disgust at the slaver, and ultimately saves the girl by recruiting her and sets her master on fire. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_a0ff9e30 | comment |
In Pyramids, the Evil Chancellor Dios claims this position as High Priest to the God-Kings of Djelibeybi. Whatever orders those kings give, he "interprets" their words to match the traditions that he's been enforcing for over seven thousand years. | |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_a2c37f38 | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_a2c37f38 | comment |
Planescape: Torment allows you to possibly use this yourself. Dabus, the servants of The Lady of Pain, only communicate via Rebus, a symbolic "language" that consists of a series of pictures that appear above their heads. If the main character has high enough intelligence and wisdom scores, he can understand them. However, he can still ask Annah, Grace, or Dak'kon to translate for him. At one point, this can be used to reveal plot information: talking to Fell, the Dabus tattoo artist and having Dak'kon translate for you (provided you can understand Rebus already) will allow you to catch Dak'kon lying to you. Calling him on it reveals information about how he's connected to your past. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_a32b6a64 | comment |
The West Wing: Toby and Josh wish to speak to Bambang, an official from Indonesia, and set Donna to find a translator for the conversation. The translator she finds speaks Javanese (which is used in Indonesia) but not Batak which is what Bambang speaks. He does however speak Portuguese and there's a man on the kitchen staff who speaks Batak and Portuguese but not English. After several rounds of back and forth translation Bambang asks in perfect English if they should just speak to each other. Donna stammers that she was misinformed before hurriedly taking the translators away. Also occurs in a US-China summit. The Chinese Premier speaks perfect English, but all official meetings are conducted with a translator as per usual diplomatic protocol. Switching language for anything more than pleasantries could be interpreted an act of subservience, and would lead to a loss of diplomatic face. The real negotiations are all done in the backroom and in English.note Although it's not a well known fact, English is practically the national second language of China, where more people speak English than do in the United States. |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_a6658fee | comment |
In The Hunt for Red October, when Mancuso, Jonesy, and Ryan have finally managed to get on the titular submarine, the Americans and the Soviets just look at each other. Ramius notices Mancuso's prominently displayed sidearm and mentions it to his Number Two in Russian (fearing Mancuso is the "Buckaroo" type he'd been worried about), causing Ryan to chuckle, as he knew Russian. Ramius questions him for a bit in Russian, then switches to fluent English. At least one other Soviet officer speaks English. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_b0183e04 | comment |
In Garth Marenghis Darkplace, as a joke on Garth being comically prejudiced against Scotland the dialogue of the ghosts is subtitled, even though they're speaking completely comprehensible English with a Scottish accent. The subtitles also explain that highlander means "Scotch Person". | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_b0183e04 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_b14ad6df | comment |
In The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, this is done by Corlath, the Damarian king, to the Homelanders, as a way to buy a bit more time for thought during negotiations. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_b14ad6df | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_b30ae4db | comment |
In Game of Thrones, a translator is used to translate Kraznys' Valyrian to the Westeros Common Tongue for Daenerys while they are negotiating a trade. The whole time, Kraznys is particularly vile and calls her a whore, among other unsavory things, behind a Tactful Translation from Missandei. Shortly thereafter, Daenerys reveals she is more than fluent in Valyrian - it's her first language. He ends up paying for his rudeness. The Tactful Translation does however likely save Missandei's life since it shows Daenerys that the girl has brains and cunning. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_be11029d | comment |
A literal variation appears in The Compleat Al. When Al appears in Japan as a guest on a radio show, the hostess asks him a question in Japanese. Al's translator repeats the question to him in Japanese, prompting Al to confess "I can't understand a word you're saying." | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_be11029d | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_c03c2b44 | comment |
A justified (from the "foreigner's" perspective) example, from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, where the pirate boss has a huge, imposing deep voice 'translator' to speak for him. When the translator says the wrong thing at the wrong time and gets shot for his trouble, the pirate leader eventually speaks up... in a hilariously soft and squeaky voice. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: In "The Christmas Invasion", this is a plot point: when the main characters suddenly start understanding the aliens without their translator, they realise that means that the Doctor has recovered from his regeneration and is about to show up to save the day. "Extremis": When the Doctor meets the Pope, a cardinal translates the Pope's Italian into English. Of course, the Doctor speaks all languages, but he doesn't mention it in order to be polite. You can see him trying not to look annoyed. |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_c511c682 | comment |
Towards the end of Asterix and the Goths, Getafix, who has been kidnapped by the Goths so they can learn the secret of the magic potion. Getafix has no intention of helping them but the translator lies and says he will because he's been told that if Getafix says no, they will both be executed. However, Getafix can actually speak Gothic fluently and knows what the translator is doing. Once Asterix and Obelix are thrown in jail with Getafix, he drops the ruse as part of their escape plan. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d03ce8d5 | comment |
The Chaser's War On Everything has a sketch where a man asked people for directions in English with an American accent and claimed not to understand their Australian accents and assumed they couldn't understand him either. Another guy then came over who would "translate" between the two people. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d03ce8d5 | featureApplicability |
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In the Pokémon: The Series fanfic "Symbiosis", Pikachu acts as one to Ash so no-one would find out about his abilities. Hilarity Ensues when Ash has to pretend that he doesn't know what Pikachu is saying and Pikachu has to charade his message. | |
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| Pokémon: The Series | hasFeature |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d6863ea5 | comment |
The Mongolian Connection: Serik uses Khulan to translate English to Mongolian when Wade Dalton—an undercover FBI agent posing as a drug dealer—comes to his office with an offer. He's later revealed to speak perfect English, which irritates Wade. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d6863ea5 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d8520b74 | comment |
Taken to ridiculous extremes in Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Abe Lincoln Must Die! The buffoonish president at the beginning of the game confuses Sam and Max for translators, and needs them for some diplomacy. The diplomat in question is Whizzer, who can't speak any language except English! But the president insists that he can't understand a word Whizzer says, forcing Sam to help (or, as it's Sam and Max we're talking about here, deliberately mistranslate entirely to achieve his own goals.) | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d8520b74 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_d9c602eb | comment |
Happens in an episode of South Park were the school principal asked Kyle if he could translate some Hebrew visitors... Who happened to speak in perfect English, parodied further since the Principal Victoria and Mr. Mackey still didn't understand what they were saying and needed Kyle's translation anyway, which simply consisted on repeating whatever they said. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_dd5e97c1 | comment |
The Case Files of Jeweler Richard's Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian speaks at least seventeen languages and has never needed a translator in his life. Nonetheless, Seigi sometimes acts as one when blond, blue-eyed Englishman Richard doesn't feel like talking to someone in Japan. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_dd5e97c1 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e2ade9fb | comment |
Joseph in the Book of Genesis: While there were probably many people for whom the translator proved indispensable, one case where he wasn't needed at all was when Joseph's own brothers showed up. He used the service anyway, as a means of hiding his identity. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e2ade9fb | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e461623 | comment |
New Superman #9 opens with Lex Luthor visiting the Ministry of Self-Reliance and speaking a few sentences of broken Mandarin. For most of the story I-Ching provides Tactful Translation between Luthor and Kenan. Near the end, it turns out that Lex speaks Mandarin fluently but likes people to underestimate him. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e461623 | featureApplicability |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e461623 | featureConfidence |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e4a1416 | comment |
In the book Changes, The Red King, through his translator, arranges a duel with Dresden. Once Dresden wins, the Red King goes back on his agreement, stating, IN PERFECT ENGLISH, "We never even spoke to each other." | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e4a1416 | featureApplicability |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_e59c7dc4 | comment |
It's very common in wrestling for a foreign heel to have a manager as a translator when they can speak English, in order to make the gimmick feel more authentic. Common with Japanese wrestlers in WCW who were often managed by Sonny Onoo, but another notable example being Kamala (intended to be Ugandan, and managed by a 'safari' character Kimchee) who was actually American. The WWE also satirised this with their 'American' dubbing of Kaientai faction of Taka Michinoku and Funaki - whose English was fluent - in order to evoke bad kung fu dubs. | |
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Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_ed0803a7 | comment |
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country has a Klingon courtroom scene based on the real-life Adlai Stevenson incident at the UN (see Real Life folder below). Kirk and Spock are being interrogated in Klingon via translators, until General Chang shouts at Kirk "don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!" Kirk speaks Klingon and Chang knows it. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_ed0803a7 | featureApplicability |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f0c816fb | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f0c816fb | comment |
In the Breaking Bad episode "Salud", Gus Fring is acting as translator between the English-speaking Jesse and the Spanish-speaking cartel men. That is, until Jesse calls the cartel's chief chemist an asshole. This prompts the chemist to reveal that he can speak English. Jesse is unfazed and still intimidates the men into complying with his method of cooking Walt's meth. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f0c816fb | featureApplicability |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f0c816fb | featureConfidence |
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| Breaking Bad | hasFeature |
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| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f554e011 | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f554e011 | comment |
Early in Shizune's route of Katawa Shoujo, Hisao learns sign language, but is hesitant to tell Shizune or use it to talk to her until he is able to use it well. He has Misha translate, despite her being fully aware that he is learning sign language. Unbeknownst to him, Misha has already told Shizune that Hisao is learning sign language. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f554e011 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f554e011 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Katawa Shoujo (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f554e011 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f655ed11 | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f655ed11 | comment |
A variant in Frasier when Roz enlists Frasier to translate for her when she wants to break up with her French boyfriend Jean-Pierre. Technically Frasier is necessary as a translator, but Jean-Pierre figures out what she's trying to say long before she's spoken her piece, so he and Frasier spend the rest of the conversation playing along and really talking in French about restaurants. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f655ed11 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f655ed11 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Frasier | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f655ed11 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f72ec4f4 | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f72ec4f4 | comment |
In Bananas, the dictator of San Marcos had a (heavily accented) translator when he met with the President of the U. S. — even though the dictator was American Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen). | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f72ec4f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f72ec4f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Bananas | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f72ec4f4 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f74b5f80 | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
In the Babylon 5 episode "Acts of Sacrifice", the Lumati representative, Correlimurzon, requires his underling Taq to speak for him to Commander Ivanova on the conceit that talking directly with a "lesser species" like humans constitutes a loss of face in his culture. He only speaks directly to Ivanova once he has deemed humans as "worthy", in particular when he saw humans have traits of The Social Darwinist as much as the Lumati are (albeit unintentionally...which is debatable given human history of social stratification...). | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f74b5f80 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f99f6e4d | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f99f6e4d | comment |
In The Sum of All Fears, Jack Ryan is brought to Russia and asked to work as a translator. President Nemerov asks Ryan if he's read his dossier. Ryan says he has, and starts listing biographical information about the man. Including the fact that in college, he got his highest grades in English. Nemerov drops the act immediately, and is impressed by Jack calling him on it. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f99f6e4d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f99f6e4d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Sum of All Fears | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_f99f6e4d | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_fe724d7f | type |
Completely Unnecessary Translator | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_fe724d7f | comment |
German band Rammstein did an interview for an American radio show once through a translator. When asked about the meaning behind one of their songs, they gave a long reply in German, which the translator struggled to find an appropriate English equivalent for. One of the band members gave a much shorter answer in English himself. The next time one of the band members was interviewed on that show, it was in English without a translator. | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_fe724d7f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_fe724d7f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Rammstein (Music) | hasFeature |
Completely Unnecessary Translator / int_fe724d7f |
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