kidattypewriter

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Thomson and Thompson

Names For Thomson and Thompson in different languages:

Dupond and Dupont (Belgian)
Schultze and Schulze (German)
Jansen and Janssen (Dutch)
Kadlec and Tkadlec (Czech)
Hernández and Fernández (Spanish)
Johnson and Ronson (Bengali)
Skapti and Skafti (Icelandic)
Dupon and Dubon (Japanese)
Uys and Buys (Afrikaans)
Tik and Tak (Arabic)




In Persian, though, they're just Dupont and Dupont!

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are psychic, aren't you? Just the other day I found a second-hand TinTin book for my sister (who used to torture me with it, as I may have mentioned. TinTin was a fascist sympathiser, you know, as I never tire of saying to her).

TimT said...

Isn't it Tintin? It is in the English translation books, anyway. Wouldn't want to get him confused with Rin Tin Tin, after all!

There's an essay in the New Yorker this week that set this post off that explores the fascist angle.

TimT said...

Rin Tin Tin sounds like jolly fun as well!

Anonymous said...

It's a shame the full article isn't available. I'm sure K would be so happy were I to email her conclusive proof of my point.

Parsing again? Given the many hours I have suffered at the hands of his audio tapes and videos, I will insist upon TinTin. It lets me maintain the delusion of fighting back, you see.

German shepherds are magnificent creatures. It's a shame they have spinal problems so often, as K tells me. One has to be very careful when getting one. Judy, a German Shepherd cross, guarded my cradle, so I'm very fond of them.

Oh, and I almost forgot- I spotted this in a bookshop on the weekend, but then I was distracted by this, so I cannot offer further details.

TimT said...

What, the full article isn't available? Oh well, the magazine will be out in newspaper agencies... today or tomorrow. I love being a subscriber! (What's the emoticon for smug?)

If your German Shepherd isn't cross, having spinal shepherds would certainly make it cross.

My favourite German Shepherd is Kommisar Rex!

Anonymous said...

My favourite living German Shepherd is a dog called Dutch, whom I used to walk around Glebe a few years ago. I loved the way he took such delight in my pathetic improvised games.

Smug and incorrigible- what a combination!

TimT said...

Look here, was he German or Dutch? He needs to make his mind up. None of this shilly-shallying about national identities!

Anonymous said...

There's that deadly combination again!

TimT said...

I agree. One should never combine shillying with shallying. Shillying on its own is bad enough, and Shallying is dreadful. Put the two together, and the resutls are positively horrifying.

The Dog of Freetown said...

This makes me want to live. Thundering typhoons.

TimT said...

Kieran, another snippet I picked up from that New Yorker article: Captain Haddock in Afrikaans is 'Kaptein Sardijn'.

By the way, did anyone see the Tintin TV show? NOT ONLY did Tintin have some horrible bland American accent; NOT ONLY were Thomson and Thompson given weird-and-not-right fake-Cockney accents, but - worst of all - SNOWY DIDN'T TALK! OUTRAGEOUS!

Anonymous said...

Do people just groan and roll their eyes when you persist or do they sometimes lash out physically? I imagine you must have lots of bumps on the top of your head, matching the bumps on your face from weading accidents.

The TV show to which you refer is what my sister has on DVD. The packaging design, I grudgingly admit, is nice. The number of episodes she can watch in a row terrifies me, as does (am I going to be berated for this?) the amount of Futurama she can view in a single sitting, without wanting to punch something.

Personally, I'm just glad they've decided to revive Transformers!

TimT said...

Is it some pun I said? Something silly about shillying?

I've forgotten what approach they take to Captain Haddock's toping in the show. Do they actually show him drinking copious amounts of whisky (which he undoubtedly did) or do they shove it off camera?

Anonymous said...

Baby, I'm soooo impressed with your Afrikaans! And yes! Kaptein Sardyn is right! And Uys and Buys.

By the way, I never DID thank you for my lovely crookedest street postcard, did I? THANK YOU! I brought it with me to Stellenbosch. In fact, right now it is my only wall decoration. When are you taking another trip so that you can add to my collection. Then again... I have never been to Melbourne either... hint, hint. If it's outta South Africa, it's foreign to me!

And now that my shameless begging is done (for now)... don't you have a facebook account like a normal online entity? I've searched for you, but alaas...

Anonymous said...

I'm not inclined to sit through it so I can actually check for you, but I do vaguely remember that he did have a bottle. As you well know, alcoholism is perfectly acceptable in a children's television series, and violence only adds a spot of colour and further marketing opportunities with various toy weapons, etc.

I'm just curious as to what the customary mode of response is. I find myself charmed and irritated at the same time! Should I just write "Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!", with an additional "r" for each pun?

TimT said...

Red! Facebook, what is it whereoff you speak? Anyway, you have to come to Melbourne, although I guess you wouldn't have to send me a postcard... Plus, there are MANY other exciting places to visit in Australia apart from Melbourne - at least one, if not more!

Karen: here I must once again pause to pour out thanks to Blogger for its amazing powers. Why, in real life, I am merely a stuttering fool. On this blog, I hardly stutter at all!

I am of course immoderately pleased to discover that Captain Haddock/Bedsock/Sardiyn's way with the drink is preserved on screen as an Example and Paragon for all good little boys and girls to imitate.

Anonymous said...

Don't be so delighted. I'll be wracked by guilt and will have to borrow the DVD and view an entire episode, just to make sure I'm not telling lies. You can't expect me to go through that!

I wonder how one stutters in the written form? I'm sure it's been done many times before, but I can't think of any good examples offhand... I suppose idle musing is perhaps the closest equivalent!

tdix said...

Thanks for sharing this timt. I have read a number of Tintin adventures in Spanish and was tickled almost red when I encountered Hernandez and Fernandez - though I can't be bothered giving them their accents now!

TimT said...

Cut and paste, Spanish-speaking Tim, cut and paste.

I'm still trying to figure out the stuttering dilemma, though...

Anonymous said...

I hope you realise that a simple phonetic transcription of stuttering would not be adequate. It must be stuttering as it is known solely within the realm of writing, with no reference to any other mode of expression.

(The insomnia prevails- it has the curious effect of making me even more pretentious than usual! I hope your sleep patterns have righted themselves)

TimT said...

I just went rummaging around in my collection of Viz Comics; in one of those, there's a character called 'The Monk with Tourettes'. He wanders around these British monasteries, swearing helplessly at the most inopportune times (usually when the Archbishop comes to visit, for instance). After these involuntary outbursts, he usually looks faintly shocked at what he has just said.

Finally, in despair, his fellow monks send him to another monastery - a silent one - less in the hopes that it will cure him than to stop him offending every Vicar or Archbishop that comes visiting.

This is the relevant bit: in the last frame, the Monk with Tourettes is seen producing a beautiful medieval-style piece of calligraphy, complete with ornamentation and birds and butterflies darting in and around the letters.
The text is a latin prayer - that ends in a horribly vulgar swear word.

The Vulgate, indeed!

Anonymous said...

I had to wiki (would that be the verb?) Viz comics because I wanted to know what sort of comic would have a storyline like that! Is the naughty word completely visible or do you get a few letters? I like the second option-turning the whole thing back upon the reader's depravity!

You do seem to be quite fixated upon the Vulgate. I think this is the second or third reference you've made since I've been here. Perhaps this is the musical you will eventually write!

Anonymous said...

Oh, something that amused me the other day- "dashed" as a mild swear word (albeit not current now) comes out of writing dashes in the place of other swear words- as in "D---". I know this is obvious, but I hadn't thought about it. I really like "dashed" and firmly believe that an effort should be made to revive it. It's like your monk story- censorship turned back upon itself.

TimT said...

No, it shows the whole thing. Other characters in Viz include 'Johnny Fartpants', 'Whore Mouse' and 'Felix and his Amazing Underpants'. They're not a comic much given to subtlety, though their humour really is spot on.

Anonymous said...

Are they for children, adults or the whole family? They sound a bit like those "day my bum went psycho" books (the name of the author escapes me right now). My younger sister used to read those R.L. Stine books which were so popular a while back. My mother and I found some whilst cleaning out a cupboard the other week and were they ever morbid! I suppose that it's quite common to enjoy things like that at that age.

TimT said...

Sort of for children, or more teenagers, whose parents don't know they're reading it. It's got a lot of stuff in there that's quite extreme - violent English humour. Sort of a punk-humour ethos (I think the magazine was set up in the 1970s). Some of it is more warped than funny.

That's a fascinating spot of info about 'dashed' - certainly, we must put that word back in the vocabulary. 'Dashed'! My word!

Anonymous said...

You must endeavour to use "dashed" in your next post!

You must have an extensive collection of things your parents didn't know you were reading, although 1970s comics are a little more creative and obscure that most kids manage.

TimT said...

I haven't used the word dashed yet, but I will!

Girl Clumsy said...

Hello TimT,

Long time no see... you commented on my blog ages and ages ago I remember...I think it was through Vibewire? Man, I haven't written there since before I left the country last year!

I've just happened upon your blog again and was tickled by the Thompson&Thomson names... I am quite frankly obsessed with Tintin, and I credit my career choice of journalism to him! Last October I got the chance to go to the Comic Book Centre in Brussels which has a big exhibit on Tintin - and an equally big gift shop!

Anyway, just wanted to share more of the Tintin love (even though he never actually got any, but come on, it was kids' adventure stories, not a saucy romp).

Cheers, Natalie.

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