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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle
- 466 statements
- 82 feature instances
- 32 referencing feature instances
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A Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle is a sort of cousin to Harsher in Hindsight and Values Dissonance. It's different from Values Dissonance in that it isn't a case of different cultural values which makes for the potential wince, but rather when an accidental reference to something negative and well known in one country or culture is made unknowingly in another. One of the most famous examples could be the swastika—in Buddhist countries, it's a benevolent symbol of the sun. In the West, it is primarily recognized as the symbol of Nazism. See Non-Nazi Swastika for more on that. This could be merely amusing, but the potential offense is the more notorious version of this trope. See also: Bite the Wax Tadpole (for advertising examples), Culture Clash, Fee Fi Faux Pas, Accidental Proposal, Accidental Marriage, Fumbling the Gauntlet, Harsher in Hindsight, Values Dissonance, Deliberate Values Dissonance, V-Sign, In My Language, That Sounds Like..., and Did Not Do the Bloody Research. A Clean Dub Name might be related to this. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | parsed |
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Dropped link to AsianStoreOwner: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to Beyonce: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_11f09a3d | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_11f09a3d | comment |
Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! has the infamous Banned Episode regarding its web anime series Petit SEKAI in which the punchline for a particular gag ends with Leo/need dressing up in "tribal" outfits while wearing dark makeup with bright lipstick. The joke is meant to be a play on a stereotypical ganguro appearance from Gyaru Girl subculture, but for American fans it accidentally came off looking like Blackface. Public outcry on the internet eventually got the episode removed and replaced with a censored version that tweaked the outfits and removed the dark makeup to make it less offensive for Western fans. | |
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Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_135f4195 | type |
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Dune: After meeting Duke Atreides the Fremen representative spits on the floor, and before the Atreides' guards can go for their weapons because of the insult someone familiar with the Fremen culture steps in to explain this is actually a sign of deep respect — Arrakis is a desert planet and water is so scarce (to the point that dead bodies have their water recycled) that "offering up one's water" is an almost sacred act. Both sides laugh it off and continue introductions. Inverted later when Paul kills a Fremen warrior in an honor duel and is so shook up at the man's funeral he cries. The Fremen are awed that "he gives water to the dead," helping to cement Paul's place in their messianic prophecy. |
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Dune | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_18ce5aab | type |
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The intro/attract sequence from Samurai Shodown II goes like this: "Long, long ago, there were a man who try to make his skill ultimate. Because of his bloody life, it's no accident that he was involved in the troubles." (Ok, that series in general tends to be an Anachronism Stew, but even so, that particular anachronism probably wasn't intentionally put there by SNK...) | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_18ce5aab | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_1b51bb94 | type |
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The Nintendo Game Fester's Quest was released more than two decades after The Addams Family was off the air. It was also about three years before the big movie revival. American kids may not have recognized him or the name Uncle Fester, especially since the Addams' Family connection was mentioned nowhere on the box and at the time reruns of the show were rare. In the U.K, while they may have been marginally familiar with The Addams Family. However "Uncle Fester" (or just "Fester" for short) is also widely known in the UK as rhyming cockney slang for "child molester". Without the proper context, put the word "Fester" together with "Quest", along with the character's leering expression on the cover and see what happens. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_1b51bb94 | featureApplicability |
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The Addams Family | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_1cc09117 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_1cc09117 | comment |
In Bleach the hilt of the sword of the protagonist in its bankai (upgraded) mode is the character manji, which as stated in the Naruto example above, is a swastika. In fact, the "ban" part of bankai means swastika; "bankai" in Japanese is written as �解. | |
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Bleach (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Displaced (The Legend of Zelda): The Gorons nearly start a war by referring to Gerudo as "tall Hylians," and then make it worse by respectfully calling them "brother." Zelda explains to the Gorons that Gerudo are an entirely different culture to Hylians, and she explains to the Gerudo that Gorons don't have a concept of gender. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_1d2310c3 | featureApplicability |
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Displaced (The Legend of Zelda) (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_21574300 | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_21574300 | comment |
Rumble Roses XX has something called "Queens Mode", where the wrestler who lost the match have to suffer a penalty. For example, having to sweep around a pool with a push broom. And she reacts to it by getting angry or being embarrassed and blushing, or something. This is considered a kind of erotica in Japan. Western audiences considered it so incredibly weird and creepy that it contributed to Rumble Roses XX's status as a Franchise Killer. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_21574300 | featureApplicability |
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Rumble Roses (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Reversing the countries (though it wouldn't have caused offence but laughter), the captain of the USS Enterprise NX-01 was almost called Jeffrey Archer until UK fans pointed out it wasn't quite the straight-arrow name they had in mind. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2250e67e | featureApplicability |
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Star Trek: Enterprise | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2f90633c | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2f90633c | comment |
Manehattan's Lone Guardian has one involving a pony whose name is Maverick, which makes Leviathan inwardly wince when she hears it: the pony in question earned the name because she went a long time before earning her Cutie Mark, whereas those in Neo Arcadia with that moniker were hunted down and killed. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2f90633c | featureApplicability |
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Manehattan's Lone Guardian (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2fa6ae81 | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2fa6ae81 | comment |
Blade of the Immortal: A manji was an issues being both the name and personal insignia of the main character. Rather than redraw his kimono with its prominent manji design every time Manji appeared on the page, Dark Horse Comics instead opened every single one of its 31 volumes with a lengthy explanation about the history of the manji and its total lack of connection to the Nazi party (for one thing it's the inverted manji, which the Nazis used as their symbol). | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_2fa6ae81 | featureApplicability |
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Blade of the Immortal (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_30a5ebfd | comment |
Naruto: In the manga, the Hyuga branch line curse mark is a manji. The anime changed it to an "x" to avoid the Nazi connection. However the English manga kept it a manji. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_30a5ebfd | featureApplicability |
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Naruto (Manga) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_3aeb1c75 | comment |
Dragon Ball: Similarly to Jynx from Pokémon, Mr. Popo is often pointed at as a racist character, being a tubby fellow in Arabic clothing with inky black skin and large lips who acts as a caretaker and, more pertinently, servant to the Guardian of Earth, leading to black slavery connotations. Outside of the home releases of the show, he is often digitally coloured blue with his big pink lips removed, the latter of which the ViZ translation of the manga also follows. In the Garlic Jr. filler arc, the Quirky Miniboss Squad is named after various condiments: Gasshu (sugar), Zaldo (salt), Binega (vinegar), and... Tard. Needless to say, he got a Dub Name Change. Dragon Ball Z Abridged had a good time with this. |
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Dragon Ball (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_434363ba | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_434363ba | comment |
In the original American context: Bender's name is, in addition to his (intended) job description, a reference to the phrase "going on a bender", meaning "getting really shit-face drunk (probably while in the middle of a bar/pub-crawl)", which is fitting considering how much alcohol he consumes. It's also a reference to John Bender from The Breakfast Club, who his early personality was a pastiche of. | |
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The Breakfast Club | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_46518682 | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_46518682 | comment |
In the 1983 Sesame Street special "Big Bird In China", Big Bird and Barkley encounter the Monkey King during their trip. While Chinese viewers obviously recognized the character, there was a backlash from Western parents. They were complaining that their children were terrified by the character. In-universe, Big Bird himself nearly had a heart attack the first few times the Monkey King appeared out of thin air. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_46518682 | featureApplicability |
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Sesame Street | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_468bebb0 | type |
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Discworld: Goblins have Names That Unfold Like Lotus Blossoms and consider it a deadly insult to call someone by only a fraction of their true name. Humans tend to be The Nicknamer. One goblin politely explains to Moist that he should never abbreviate his name again; another goblin grants a trusted human serious N-Word Privileges by allowing him to use a nickname (and even then, only jutsified by the fact that they're in a dangerous job, and getting the other's attention with his full name would take too long). | |
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Discworld | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4bc7b849 | comment |
The Story of the Weeping Camel: The Mongolian teen boy who is sent off to the village to get a musician, as well as fetch other necessities, is called "Dude". It's pronounced with two syllables, "doo-duh." | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4bc7b849 | featureApplicability |
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The Story of the Weeping Camel | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4bcaa9d6 | comment |
Triptych Continuum: In "Naked Lunch", Gerald Gristle nearly starts violent riots throughout Canterlot because he opens a butcher's shop, something that would be fine in his homeland of Protocera, but which drives the herbivorous ponies of Equestria mad with terror. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4bcaa9d6 | featureApplicability |
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Triptych Continuum / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4ef7866a | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_4ef7866a | comment |
WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? didn't sell well in Russia and other Slavic-speaking countries, since its Japanese title in its suffix, Sukasuka, means "bitch"note implying "prison bitch" or "informer", in Russian underworld slang, to make it even worse in their native tongue. When considering the existence of a certain criminal organization that has a major foothold in these countries, this naturally got the author and publishers of the novel in trouble. Also, in some Italian dialects Sukasuka sounds like "suck it, suck it". | |
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WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_5b15000 | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_5b15000 | comment |
Similarly, Chris Jericho went too far in riling up a crowd in Brazil by tearing up a Brazilian flag - which is illegal in that country. | |
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Chris Jericho (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_5e2cf42 | type |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_5e2cf42 | comment |
The album cover of the eponymous first album from System of a Down depicts a hand flashing with all five fingers extended out with the palm facing the person. This is considered an offensive gesture in Greece since to them, it is known as the Mountza. The band themselves justifies the artwork of the album cover as being inspired by a 1928 anti-fascist poster designed by visual artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany. | |
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The reaction to the Resident Evil 5 trailer. A few people in the US found the depiction of Africans to hearken back to the more openly racist days when depictions of Africans and African-Americans as animalistic and barely human were rather common and accepted. Most importantly, they found the concept of a white American male shooting shambling, black Africans more than a bit distasteful. Matters weren't improved much when, after adding black female sidekick character Sheva to the game as an attempted Author's Saving Throw, Capcom inexplicably gave her an unlockable alternate costume which dressed her in a leopard skin Fur Bikini, war paint and a necklace of bones, and the full game itself also included a level set in a primitive native village where the heroes were assaulted by black zombies wearing grass skirts and throwing spears!note To the game's credit it is explained that said zombies were normal people prior to the infection, albeit briefly: an Apocalyptic Log left by one of them before turning remarks how he saw some of his friends "in ceremonial attire" and finds it odd as there wasn't a festival that day Bob Chipman tore an absolute strip off them in one of his earliest videos after having previously given them the benefit of the doubt in response to the original trailer controversy. These issues are the reason why Far Cry 2 managed to get around such controversy by putting in a greater number of white Caucasian mooks for the player character to kill instead of black mooks (though there are no shortages of hostile black people you can encounter in the game and one of the playable characters you get to choose at the start of the game is black) despite the game actually taking place in a fictional nondescript location in Africa; the game developers justifying this by stating that these mooks are foreign mercenaries for hire. |
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Resident Evil 5 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_62570927 | comment |
Marvel's Schutz Heiliggruppe. Sure, the intention (portraying superheroes from modern Germany who hunt down Nazi war criminals) is laudable, but the execution... Oh boy! Let's start with the group's name itself. It is supposed to mean Group of Protecting Saints, but actually translates to Protection Holy-Group. (The intended figurative meaning was League of Guardian Angels, which would in German be Liga der Schutzengel. The translation published in Germany simply went with Helden-Liga —> Hero League). Granted, Gratuitous German is bad, but not really offensive. Perhaps they aimed for Schutzheiligen-Gruppe, which would be Group of Patron Saints; a bit closer, but still wrong. The leader of the group is Hauptmann Deutschland. Obviously, he is intended to be the German counterpart of Captain America, complete with a name that is a direct translation of Captain Germany and a flag-costume. The problem: That sort of Patriotic Fervor makes Germans, who know better than most how badly that sort of thing can get out of hand, a bit uncomfortable. (Since the Football World Cup 2006, displaying patriotism in a modest degree may be more acceptable, but the Schutz Heiliggruppe had been introduced before that event). And the fact that a military rank is part of his name makes it even worse. Marvel later changed his name into Vormund. Intended meaning: Guardian. Actual meaning: Legal Guardian. D'oh! (The correct term would be Wächter, the translation published in Germany went with Freiheitskämpfer —> Freedom Fighter) And the second member of the Schutz Heiliggruppe is Blitzkrieger (Lightning Warrior): A member of a group which is dedicated to exterminating Nazism, is named after... an infamous war tactic, invented by the Nazis. (The translation published in Germany just went with Generator, due to his electricity-related powers). The third member is Zeitgeist. Nothing offensive here. (Phew!) Just maybe a bit unimaginative, considering that Zeitgeist (Time Spirit) happens to be a quite well-known word among English native-speakers. |
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Marvel Universe (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6443309b | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6443309b | comment |
In The General Series, the Skinners (nomadic barbarians) refer to the main character as "half-man", which pisses of one of his subordinates. The main character takes his subordinate aside and explains that to the Skinners "half-man" is high praise of a non-Skinner. In the Skinner language, the words for Outsider and "not-man" are the same, as are the words for Skinner and "Real Man". By calling him "half-man", they are saying he's much better than almost all others. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6443309b | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6443309b | featureConfidence |
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The General Series | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6443309b | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_65d9acd2 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_65d9acd2 | comment |
The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? I & II" have a character who chooses to switch fates with Sarah Jane, and the fate is drowning (or possibly from the impact from falling from a pier into the sea, it's not clear). Her name was Andrea Yates, which is the same name as that of an American woman who drowned her own children. Several American fans winced and called this distasteful on the Outpost Gallifrey forums, but was confirmed unintentional by writer Gareth Roberts who would've used another name had he known. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_65d9acd2 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_65d9acd2 | featureConfidence |
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The Sarah Jane Adventures | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_65d9acd2 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_692cc2ba | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_692cc2ba | comment |
Flat Dreams plays it for Black Comedy; in Dimension 47, it's normal for women (or at least women of Pyronica's species) to eat their mates, especially after falling pregnant. Unfortunately for Pryonica, her mom was a dimension-traveler who didn't think that maybe this wasn't a multiversial rule, so when she ate Pyronica's dad, she was sentenced to jail, resulting in Pyronica being literally born in prison. | |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_692cc2ba | featureConfidence |
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Flat Dreams (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_69f768c8 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_69f768c8 | comment |
A Moon and World Apart: As in canon, this is described in chapter 11 as one of the reasons the citizens of Ponyville are scared of Zecora — her pawing at the ground was taken as a sign of aggression, when it was really her way of looking for water. Sunset, who's more familiar with zebra behavior, explains this as soon as she's told about it, leaving Applejack and co. feeling rather embarrassed over the misunderstanding. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_69f768c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_69f768c8 | featureConfidence |
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A Moon and World Apart (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_69f768c8 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6a907c1a | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6a907c1a | comment |
Anchor Foal: Fleur dis Lee's apparent origins in Protocera, the griffon nation, by its dominance-focused nature having caused prominent kerfluffles elsewhere: It implies she's had such negative interactions with Equestrian ponies. In chapter 20, she makes the mistake of offering some of her Protoceran Pony Cuisine to a pegasus customer whilst trying to be friendly. She's morbidly impressed at the result: she didn't know it was possible for a pegasus to simultaneously fly and projectile vomit. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6a907c1a | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6a907c1a | featureConfidence |
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Anchor Foal (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6a907c1a | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6ac55ec7 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6ac55ec7 | comment |
The designers of the Dungeons & Dragons setting PlaneScape decided to create a weird-sounding jargon, probably to make the setting seem more "alien." Aside from making the sourcebooks hard to read, this might have worked — if they'd created one instead of just appropriating words from Victorian thieves' cant ... many examples of which are still as harsh in British slang today as they were in the 1900s. | |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_6ac55ec7 | featureConfidence |
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Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_72262aee | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_72262aee | comment |
The whole "bender" thing in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra is a bit unfortunate for British viewers. In Britain 'bender' has a number of colloquial definitions, all of them boiling down to being an insulting reference to sexual deviancy. In the show, it's easy enough to ignore the double-meaning of the word when it is embedded within words like "waterbender" and "firebender". But the word "bender" also gets thrown about a lot in the show free of prefixes. It might be less of a problem if the word was a very adult-use one that would go straight over children's heads, given the show's audience. But "bender" is exactly the sort of immature playground insult that children would likely already know by the time they watched the show. Presumably, this is the main reason the original show was renamed Avatar: The Legend Of Aang for the European market. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_72262aee | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_72262aee | featureConfidence |
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Avatar: The Last Airbender | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_72262aee | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_73d7930f | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_73d7930f | comment |
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the episode "Destiny", O'Brien is assigned to work with a female Cardassian scientist who keeps arguing with and belittling him. It's not until a later scene that he learns that she was flirting with him, and that she took his responses as him flirting back. O'Brien has a Flat "What" moment and has to explain to her that he's already Happily Married. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_73d7930f | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_73d7930f | featureConfidence |
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_73d7930f | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7441e239 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7441e239 | comment |
The Ten Commandments (1956): The Egyptian taskmaster who gets killed by Moses in the first half of the movie is named Baka (in Japanese, "baka" means "fool" or "idiot"). | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7441e239 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7441e239 | featureConfidence |
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The Ten Commandments (1956) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7441e239 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7c038c18 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7c038c18 | comment |
Phineas and Ferb: In Gimmelshtump's neighborhood country Stumblegimp, turning to the side before someone is considered insulting. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7c038c18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7c038c18 | featureConfidence |
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Phineas and Ferb | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7c038c18 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7f9dbbcc | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7f9dbbcc | comment |
These issues are the reason why Far Cry 2 managed to get around such controversy by putting in a greater number of white Caucasian mooks for the player character to kill instead of black mooks (though there are no shortages of hostile black people you can encounter in the game and one of the playable characters you get to choose at the start of the game is black) despite the game actually taking place in a fictional nondescript location in Africa; the game developers justifying this by stating that these mooks are foreign mercenaries for hire. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7f9dbbcc | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7f9dbbcc | featureConfidence |
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Far Cry 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_7f9dbbcc | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8258e260 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8258e260 | comment |
Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: In the Japanese version, Bowser's victory pose is a Bicep-Polishing Gesture. However, western audiences weren't familiar with the gesture, and to people in Southern Europe and Latin America, it looked like slap-the-crook-of-your-elbow, which has roughly the same meaning as Flipping the Bird. His victory pose was changed to a double fist clench in international releases of the game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: the female Inkling would make a Bicep-Polishing Gesture whenever she hit someone with an item. This was patched out in the game's first patch: now the Inkling simply fist-pumps. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8258e260 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8258e260 | featureConfidence |
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Super Mario Bros. (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8258e260 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_89bf8ce | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_89bf8ce | comment |
Played with in an episode of 30 Rock in which Jack struggles to come up with a name for a mini-microwave which is not offensive in any language. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_89bf8ce | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_89bf8ce | featureConfidence |
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30 Rock | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_89bf8ce | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8d814070 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8d814070 | comment |
In the final episode of M*A*S*H, Klinger gives Soon-Lee Han one of his wedding dresses to let her know he'd like to marry her. She's puzzled as to why he'd give her a funeral dress (given that white is a color of mourning in Korea). | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8d814070 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8d814070 | featureConfidence |
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M*A*S*H | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8d814070 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8ec33a86 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8ec33a86 | comment |
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 features a prominent villain called Black Face in the Japanese version. Because that combination of words is normally associated with a racist costuming practice in the US, the English localization renames him Metal Face | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8ec33a86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8ec33a86 | featureConfidence |
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Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8ec33a86 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8eda89ef | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8eda89ef | comment |
Darker than Black has a "Heaven's Gate'' over Brazil (the counterpart to a "Hell's Gate" over Tokyo). To a western audience, the term is probably better associated with Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles' comet cult and their horrible end. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8eda89ef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8eda89ef | featureConfidence |
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Darker Than Black | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_8eda89ef | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_91684031 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_91684031 | comment |
Lenora from Pokémon Black and White is a black woman who wears an apron. It's supposed to be both because she's an archaeologist—it keeps her clothes from getting dirty and possibly is a place to put stuff—and to signify she's motherly. In America it comes off as referring to Mammy stereotypes, especially considering she has curly hair and is a Big Beautiful Woman. Her official art and anime appearances were changed to have the apron off (in the game art she drapes it over her shoulder like a Badass Cape) but her game sprite is unchanged even in the sequels. In Pokémon Adventures she's depicted without it, which may be due to the controversy. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_91684031 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_91684031 | featureConfidence |
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Pokémon Black and White (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_91684031 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_93fc1d2b | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_93fc1d2b | comment |
Paper Mario has, as a major character, a Star Kid named Twink. This is transparently short for "Twinkle" (because he is a star), but it didn't stop native English speakers from finding the name hilarious once the word became a part of gay culture. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_93fc1d2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_93fc1d2b | featureConfidence |
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Paper Mario (Video Game) | hasFeature |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9871d4f3 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9871d4f3 | comment |
In Bluey, which is from Australia, sandals are referred to as "thongs". In the US, "thongs" usually refers to G-string underwear, so storybook adaptations of the show released in the US change the word to "sandals". | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9871d4f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9871d4f3 | featureConfidence |
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Bluey | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9871d4f3 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db08ab9 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db08ab9 | comment |
Sherrilyn Kenyon's League series: A fantastic version of this meets unfortunate names, Dancer Hauk. On his native world Dancer means Protector and is suitably manly. Everywhere else it means Dancer, like the profession. Though some would argue that is no less manly, possibly even more so. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db08ab9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db08ab9 | featureConfidence |
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The Dark Hunters | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db08ab9 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db31bab | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db31bab | comment |
In Russia, however, it has a positive accidental meaning, inverting the trope. "Bender" is associated in Russia with Ostap Bender, the roguish anti-hero of The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf, with whom Bender the robot has quite a few things in common. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db31bab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db31bab | featureConfidence |
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The Twelve Chairs | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9db31bab | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9e2f90f4 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9e2f90f4 | comment |
This happened in One Piece. Whitebeard's flag originally had swastika-like crossbones but was changed from that chapter-on-out to be more like a plus sign. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9e2f90f4 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9e2f90f4 | featureConfidence |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9f89a5f0 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9f89a5f0 | comment |
Pokémon: The Pokémon Jynx was designed as a mix between a yeti and a Gyaru Girl, featuring saucerlike eyes and large pink lips against a pitch-black head. While the design didn't raise any eyebrows in Japan, in the US it provoked an outcry from black scholars due to it resembling blackface. The international release of Pokémon Gold and Silver recolored Jynx's face to purple as a result, and the redesign was carried over to the Japanese games too starting with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, with re-releases of the Gen I and II games being altered accordingly in all regions. Lenora from Pokémon Black and White is a black woman who wears an apron. It's supposed to be both because she's an archaeologist—it keeps her clothes from getting dirty and possibly is a place to put stuff—and to signify she's motherly. In America it comes off as referring to Mammy stereotypes, especially considering she has curly hair and is a Big Beautiful Woman. Her official art and anime appearances were changed to have the apron off (in the game art she drapes it over her shoulder like a Badass Cape) but her game sprite is unchanged even in the sequels. In Pokémon Adventures she's depicted without it, which may be due to the controversy. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9f89a5f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9f89a5f0 | featureConfidence |
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Pokémon (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_9f89a5f0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a1055d39 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a1055d39 | comment |
When We Were Kings: George Foreman arrives in Africa for the fight with Muhammad Ali in the company of his pet German shepherd. All it means is that George Foreman likes dogs, but in the Belgian Congo, the Belgian slavedrivers used German shepherds to terrorize and control the workers. The locals, already inclined to prefer Ali, become even more so. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a1055d39 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a1055d39 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
When We Were Kings | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a1055d39 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a17bbe03 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a17bbe03 | comment |
When The Last Airbender, was released in the UK, British cinemagoers found the repeated use of the word "bender" unintentionally funny. (As with Star Wars (see below), the word "bender" is slang in the UK for homosexual men.) | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a17bbe03 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a17bbe03 | featureConfidence |
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The Last Airbender | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a17bbe03 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a183d57f | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a183d57f | comment |
Similarly, Bender's name in Futurama has been known to cause giggles, particularly where the context of its usage has been a little ambiguous. But given the nature of the show's humour, and particularly the nature of the character so named, the ambiguity is far less unfortunate than Avatar. In fact, this (presumably unintended) spin on Bender's name seems to work well within the tone of the show. In the original American context: Bender's name is, in addition to his (intended) job description, a reference to the phrase "going on a bender", meaning "getting really shit-face drunk (probably while in the middle of a bar/pub-crawl)", which is fitting considering how much alcohol he consumes. It's also a reference to John Bender from The Breakfast Club, who his early personality was a pastiche of. In Russia, however, it has a positive accidental meaning, inverting the trope. "Bender" is associated in Russia with Ostap Bender, the roguish anti-hero of The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf, with whom Bender the robot has quite a few things in common. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
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Futurama | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a183d57f | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a28e763d | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a28e763d | comment |
In Nine Goblins, one of these starts a war with the goblins. After being pushed to the edge of lands they could relocate to avoid humans, they send a diplomatic delegation to demand territory. The humans don't see coup-counters, elaborate paintings describing clan history, and lean dangerous battle steeds. They see bones caught in the hair of mud-covered goblins riding bony pigs. The negotiations do NOT go well. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a28e763d | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a28e763d | featureConfidence |
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Nine Goblins | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a28e763d | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a36bad5e | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a36bad5e | comment |
The 1982 BBC adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor featured fairy disguises that looked remarkably like Ku Klux Klan costumes. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a36bad5e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a36bad5e | featureConfidence |
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The Merry Wives of Windsor (Theatre) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a36bad5e | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a39dcffa | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a39dcffa | comment |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The way that Miranda Richardson pronounced her character Rita Skeeter's name (Rita Skita) reportedly sounded awfully close to an Icelandic slang term for defecation, leading to many patrons purportedly snickering when they first saw the movie in theaters. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a39dcffa | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a39dcffa | featureConfidence |
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a39dcffa | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a4ff8e01 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a4ff8e01 | comment |
Fate/Grand Order ran into this with the character of Emiya Alter, an "evil" version of Emiya who has very dark skin. Officially, the reasoning behind his skin color is that he over-used his magic which darkened his skin (regular Emiya has this too, though to a much lesser extent: he merely looks tanned). However, an "evil" version of the character also having black skin rubbed a lot of Western fans the wrong way. When he was released in North America, his artwork was altered so that he has the same skin tone as regular Emiya. Related to this, an In-Series Nickname given to the character was Demiya, which stands for Detroit Emiyanote Detroit is a US city with a high crime rate and a majority African-America population. In order to avoid the Unfortunate Implications such a name would have in the West, the NA version changed it to Edgemiya, or "Edgy Emiya", lampshading the Darker and Edgier nature of the character. |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a4ff8e01 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a4ff8e01 | featureConfidence |
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Fate/Grand Order (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a4ff8e01 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a86b7660 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a86b7660 | comment |
Due South may have suffered in the eyes of British viewers because the Mountie's hot boss had the same name as the most hated (and admired; being divisive was actually part of her policy) woman in recent British history. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a86b7660 | featureApplicability |
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Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a86b7660 | featureConfidence |
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Due South | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_a86b7660 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_abfcff6a | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_abfcff6a | comment |
During the production of Rocky and His Friends, the Mexican studio that was handling the animation sent an episode of Peabody's Improbable History to a local film processing lab twice and never received a completed print. This was because it was marked with the production code P-2, which is pronounced in Spanish as "Peh-Dos", which sounds just like "pedos"— the Spanish word for "farts". Naturally, nobody at the lab wanted to touch a tape named "farts". | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_abfcff6a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_abfcff6a | featureConfidence |
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Rocky and Bullwinkle | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_abfcff6a | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b4d9adb9 | type |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b4d9adb9 | comment |
Contact at Kobol: Aside from such obvious issues of the Tau'ri perceiving the Lords of Kobol as just more Goa'uld, there are lesser problems. A particular example of this is that, by uncanny coincidence, a famous military figure in the Colonies has a personal sigil that looks almost exactly like the swastika. | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b4d9adb9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b4d9adb9 | featureConfidence |
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Contact at Kobol (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b4d9adb9 | |
Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle / int_b5efd918 | type |
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Harley Quinn (2019) has a plot point that baffled English-speaking audiences outside the USA. Doctor Psycho is ostracised by his peers, and by everybody, for using the word cunt in an altercation with Wonder Woman. In places like Britain and Australia note In Austalia, "cunt" is practically punctuation and can be used affectionately between friends, as in "how are ya today, y'old cunt?", this was a head-scratcher: in a TV show that uses "fuck" liberally and un-bleepedly, why was this word bleeped out as if it were a big deal, and what was so shocking about a character who is even called Psycho using it as an insult to the woman who's just got the better of him in a fight? The guy's entitled to vent in those circumstances, for fuck's sake... the fact that in the USA using this word to a woman is beyond the event horizon even by a villain didn't really travel well. | |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy A minor, comical example: During the section explaining how scientists view of the Babel Fish has allowed for the final proof of the non-existence of God, it is said how one can then go on to prove black is white and promptly get run over at the next zebra crossing. In Britain and many other countries, black-and-white striped "Zebra Crossings" are the equivalent of the (often yellow and consisting of two parallel lines stretching from curb to opposite curb to walk between) American "Crosswalk"note The zebra-striped version is also very common in many American localities, but is still always referred to as a "crosswalk". Americans, when reading the joke, usually imagine the term as an equivalent to a "Deer Crossing" (that is to say, a place where zebras cross) which makes for an equally humorous though wildly different joke. note In at least one Swedish translation, "zebra crossing" was translated literally into "zebrakorsning" which has no connotations to traffic at all. It could be interpreted as "cross-breeding of zebras" which doesn't make much sense, or "crossing a zebra" (as in travelling across it) which makes even less sense. In-universe is an ill-timed remark by Arthur Dent which happens to coincide with the opening of a small space/time wormhole, the other end of which is at a war negotiation long ago in a distant galaxy, where the phonemes of his comment just so happen to translate into the vilest killing insult either species has on hand. Another in-universe example would be the word Belgium being the universe's most offensive swear word. Imagine the mayhem if Belgians ever developed space travel... You also don't want to play (or even pretend to play) cricket in front of any alien. To a human, it's just a game. To an alien, it's a mockery of the most horrific interstellar war in the history of the galaxy. Discussed in And Another Thing: one culture's "This pasta is fantastica!" is another's "Your mother plays it fast and loose with sailors." |
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Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan sparked a lot of amused reactions from Filipino speakers since the title character's name sounds rather close to the Tagalog word "burat", which means "penis." In-universe, the titular protagonist's uncouth mannerisms portrayed in the movie, while relatively normal in his home country of Kazakhstan, don't bode well when traveling to the United States as shown when he takes a tourist trip to various locations around the country, making him look like a perverted weirdo towards Americans. |
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Critical Role: In-Universe. In campaign 2, Jester decides to cause chaos by sneaking into the Church of the Platinum Dragon and painting the statue of Bahamut in bright colors. In her mind, this was an innocent prank, and her goal was just to cause a stir. What she failed to realize is that Bahamut directly opposes Tiamat, the Queen of Chromatic Dragons and one of the Betrayer Gods, and that painting an idol of Bahamut in chromatic colors is the highest form of blasphemy one could possibly commit. | |
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Random Assault: Tony is from the UK and they got Irishman Mark Breen the same episode which led to geopolitical escalations. | |
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Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: Ranma and his companions have no understanding of the subtler aspects of pirate culture in the Grand Blue, leading to them neglecting such essentials as giving themselves a crew name and a Jolly Roger before beginning their pirate career. This leads to them being saddled with the Atrocious Alias of "The Dirty Coward Pirates", which goads them into finally trying to make a decision and rebrand themselves... as the Kamikaze Pirates. The fact that the name "Kamikaze Pirates" itself falls into this is openly lampshaded. It was suggested by Kodachi Kuno, whose very traditionalist (if slightly eccentric) upbringing means she associates it with the pre-World War II meaning of "Divine Wind", and thus she considers it to symbolize the strength, ferocity and courage of herself and her crewmates, who at this point have been Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond. Nabiki, being more familiar with modern attitudes, brings up that the term has instead come to mean "suicidal". The rest of the crew debates it for a little while before deciding to run with it, because a) they can't come up with a better name, and b) they're Japanese, so the old meaning has more resonance with them. Nabiki privately observes to herself that both meanings are valid interpretations when it comes to them. |
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My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" created a bit of a stir. In North America (where the cartoon was made) the word "cider" generally refers to the raw, unfiltered, spiced apple juice produced by a cider press* as distinct from the filtered, heat-treated, unspiced apple juice that comes in sealed containers and has an extended shelf-life. In Europe, "cider" always refers to the beverage made from fermenting this juice - which North Americans would call "hard cider" or "alcoholic cider". This makes the episode quite amusing for European viewers, as the fact that the entire town is willing to stand in line for hours at a cider stand makes the entire cast look like drunks. Considering some of the ponies' reactions upon drinking said cider (or not getting to drink it), the creators were likely very aware of the implications. Incidentally, cheap, low-quality and scarily strong hard cider that tastes at least as foul as what Flim and Flam were getting out of their machine at the end is the traditional English equivalent of malt liquor. Cue numerous jokes from British Bronies about how they missed a trick by not selling the stuff at three litres a bit to hobos and juvenile delinquents. In-Universe, there's one of these in "Bridle Gossip", where Zecora's pawing at the ground (something real zebras do to search for water) is mistaken by the ponies as a threat display (which it is for them, as it is for real horses). |
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In Doctor Who: When the Ninth Doctor said "You see what I mean? Domestic!" in response to Mickey several American fans expressed disgust at his apparent racism; however this was a misunderstanding of the language. In the UK "Domestic" isn't really used to mean "Domestic servant", but rather "Domestic argument" or in this case "mundane and boring". The otherwise well-regarded Tom Baker serial The Talons of Wang-Chiang was flatly refused by PBS and other non-British rebroadcasters due to the extensive use of yellowface and the straight Yellow Peril villainous depiction of most of its Chinese-British characters. Not by all, as it was shown several times on the WOSU PBS station in Columbus, Ohio in the mid-'80s to '90s time frame. The Twelfth Doctor story "Under the Lake"/"Before the Flood" featured a deaf UNIT officer, Cass, who communicated entirely in British Sign Language (and was played by the genuinely deaf actor Sophie Stone). Some American viewers who knew American Sign Language accused the actors of "making up gibberish gestures" and insulting deaf people, not knowing that while the two countries both use English as a spoken language, the two sign languages are very different and not mutually comprehensible.note British Sign Language was developed independently in Scotland in the eighteenth century, while American Sign Language is derived from French Sign Language |
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YouTube videos (they may possibly also be found on other streaming sites) of "Americans reacting to British Football Chants". For anyone who's ever been to a Premier League match can tell you, calling the chants NSFW would be the understatement of the century. No one and nothing is off limits. That includes paedophile jokes. The people being lampooned have been convicted, yet they are also unlikely to be anyone the American sporting fraternity has ever heard of, which leads to statements of disbelief to outright sympathy at the abuse they get because they don't know any better, and occasionally a subsequent retraction once they do the research and find out the truth (Jimmy Savile, we're looking at you). Not so much a problem with Americans who have moved to the UK and thus will be familiar enough with UK Current Affairs to know who is getting slaughtered and why. | |
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Grrl Power: Succubi were created as a Slave Race and, after they won their freedom, dealt with their biological need for a nominal master by setting up a council of matriarchs to vet Sympathetic Slave Owners. At this point in Dabbler's life, the fiend Thothogoth is more like an old friend/regularly scheduled booty-call, but when he shows up, complains about how hard Dabbler was to find, and genuinely compliments her on how well she's outgrown her "completely obedient" developmental phase, he sounds like he wants to drag her back to his dungeon, and Maxima reacts accordingly. | |
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Chile has quite many words with dirty connotations, so names like Piccolo sounds like "pico" (Lit. Beak or peak, used as a slang for penis), Mr. Popo (Baby talk for "poto" and/or "popo", butt and poop respectively) or Pichu (short for "pichula", very vulgar expression also meaning penis) doesn't go unnoticed by dirty minds over there. | |
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Beast Wars introduced the word "slag" (referring to the crud that floats to the surface of liquid metal during refinement) as a fictional G-rated swear word for decades, until someone in the UK finally pointed out that has a more common, moderately offensive definition there - a woman of loose morals. As such, the word doesn't see much use in cartoons aimed at younger audiences and has more or less been taken over by "scrap", which was actually introduced in the original series. | |
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Heavy Object has a minor character named Putana Highball. Presumably she's named after a Hindu demonness, but unfortunately in Italian putana means prostitute. | |
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In Doki Doki Literature Club!, many a Japanese Let's Player, reactor, VTuber, or commentator will tend to laugh at how Sayori's room has an air conditioner type◊ that's much smaller than what it's supposed to be, due to the background artist not properly scaling the appliance in accordance to the room. In contrast, "local" players of the game won't even notice it. | |
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In Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kimmy meets a Vietnamese guy named Dong and laughs at his name (which besides meaning penis in English, it just means winter in his mother tongue). However, when Kimmy tell him her name, he laughs at her because he claims that Kimmy in Vietnamese also means penis. That's not even remotely accurate, but the joke wouldn't work otherwise. | |
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A first season episode of Mork & Mindy was heavily censored when it was first run in the UK because of a character named Arnold Wanker. Oops. UK viewers still titter at the closing credits of any Buffy episode where Thomas Wankernote For those wondering: Wanker is (or was prior to heavier British influence on entertainment) unremarkable in America on account of the large German population, and "Wanker" is a perfectly respectable German name. is listed as the composer. (In the States, it's the word "titter" that would cause... giggles.) |
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The Jazz Jackrabbit series has Jazz's 'crazy' little brother Spaz Jackrabbit. On top of 'spaz' already being a derogatory term in the UK, his depiction as a unstable hyperactive with his tongue hanging out and drooling (generally viewed as unsavory stereotypes of mental disorder) did not help matters either. Epic Games, then Epic Megagames, were at the time a mostly US-based company and designer Nick Stadler was unlikely to be aware of the negative connotations of designing a character in such manner. Fortunately for Epic, Jazz Jackrabbit published at a time when international video games were not considered news content of merit and the outrage proved minor (though they have reduced his visibility significantly since). | |
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Dragons: Riders of Berk has similar problems to Avatar: The Last Airbender as though having Hiccup's home called Berk can pass by less noticed in the film How to Train Your Dragon having it in your show title causes some amusement to anyone from the UK as 'berk' is a term that basically means 'idiot' or 'jerk'. In fact, it comes from Cockney rhyming slang, as it is short for Berkshire Hunt. Now...what much more rude word does the word "hunt" rhyme with? In this case, it's likely the creators knew exactly the connotations of the word when they first picked it; it's just what passes in the US goes more noticed in the UK. | |
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Stellaris: Happens In-Universe, and is an Invoked Trope to boot. If an empire sends a diplomatic envoy to another empire to improve their diplomatic relations, said diplomatic envoy may have their Translator Microbes hacked so that, instead of uttering the magnanimous platitudes expected of a diplomatic envoy, they slung xeno-slurs to the rulers. The insulted empire can either take it with good humor (resulting in improved diplomatic relations for a short while as well as a temporary happiness increase as the people laugh at the unintentional comedy fodder), or demand an apology (for an Influence gain and temporarily harmed relations.) | |
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Ms. Marvel (2014)'s lead is Kamala Khan. Her parents named her Kamala because, in Arabic, Kamal means "perfection". In Finnish, however, the word "Kamala" translates to "horrible." | |
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War and Peace's name, directly translated into French, is "Guerre et Paix", which is accurate but also a homonym for "not very thick" (guère épais). Oh the irony. | |
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Invoked in Star Trek: Voyager as part of the reason the holographic Doctor never chose a name for himself, as he couldn't find a name that meant something good in all languages; as an example, he notes that "Frederick" bears a resemblance to an impolite term on the Bolian homeworld, while the Vulcan name "Sural" was also the name of a brutal dictator on Sakura Prime. | |
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In Katawa Shoujo, the name of the girl who confessed to Hisao, Iwanako (岩éšå�), is an obviously made-up first name by non-Japanese speakers that doesn't exist as a name you'd normally give to children in Japan, to say the least. It literally means "Rock Fish Child", which makes sense if you realize it was translated into Japanese after it was conjured up with English letters. To English speakers, the name works because they don't know better. Though it gets lampshaded by Kenji once, when he says to Hisao "This rock-fish-child chick is totally into you". | |
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In early seasons of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, characters (most often Sabrina) would sing the in-universe hit "Funky Song" to themselves. The lyrics go: 'Shake your whammy fanny, funky song, funky song, shake your whammy fanny, fu-u-unky song...'. That is fine in the US where fanny is another word for bottom. In the UK, not so much. | |
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One episode of Mighty Max had a plotline involving giant hostile insects, and featured Max complaining about "these buggers"; it's not clear whether this was a deliberate attempt at dirty humour, a Shout-Out to Ender's Game or genuine ignorance, but it created a bit of a problem when the episode aired in Britain... without anyone having thought to watch it all the way through first. Oops. | |
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YuYu Hakusho had a minor Bare-Fisted Monk character (in the first Tournament Arc, where Genkai was looking for an apprentice) with a manji tattooed on his forehead; he was also shaved bald in typical Buddhist monk fashion, which could be misconstrued as being a skinhead. The English-language release included a Note from Ed. in the margins noting that it had nothing to do with the Nazis. | |
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Transformers: The character Spastic has sparked this in the UK; while in America, the term "spastic" refers to being aloof and clumsy, in the UK it is an offensive term for those with cerebral palsy. Word of God is that because they had never intended for his toy to release in the international market, no one had done a name-check to make sure they weren't inadvertently offending people. They eventually re-named him to Over-Run to avoid further controversies. Averted example: a (much older) character from the toyline named Spasma somehow avoided the controversy, possibly because his bio didn't involve mentions of his mental state beyond "thin-skinned bully who goes home to cry the moment anything doesn't go his way." Beast Wars introduced the word "slag" (referring to the crud that floats to the surface of liquid metal during refinement) as a fictional G-rated swear word for decades, until someone in the UK finally pointed out that has a more common, moderately offensive definition there - a woman of loose morals. As such, the word doesn't see much use in cartoons aimed at younger audiences and has more or less been taken over by "scrap", which was actually introduced in the original series. |
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