WSJ: D'oh! Arabized Simpsons Aren't Getting Many Laughs

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 14, 2005 | By YASMINE EL-RASHIDI, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

[aculeus]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- When an Arab satellite TV network, MBC, decided to introduce "The Simpsons" to the Middle East, they knew the family would have to make some fundamental lifestyle changes.

"Omar Shamshoon," as he is called on the show, looks like the same Homer Simpson, but he has given up beer and bacon, which are both against Islam, and he no longer hangs out at "seedy bars with bums and lowlifes." In Arabia, Homer's beer is soda, and his hot dogs are barbequed Egyptian beef sausages. And the donut-shaped snacks he gobbles are the traditional Arab cookies called kahk.

[snip]

Few shows have more obsessed fans than "The Simpsons," and their vast online community is worried about whether classic Simpsons dialogue can even be translated. One blogger wrote, "'Hi-diddly-ho, neighbors!' How the h -- are they going to translate that? Or this great quote: Mr Burns: Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."

[humblegunner]

And the donut-shaped snacks he gobbles are the traditional Arab cookies called kahk.

Arabs eat kahk? Who knew.

[tet68]

So now Lisa is gone, victim of an "honor Killing" and the
fundementalist neighbors are now Al Quieda?

Osama the Klown?

Omar now works in an Iranian nuclear plant?

Who knew?

[Jaxter]

Mmmmmm...kahk.

[muawiyah]

The "hi diddly" and "okidoakly" phraseology can be readily translated into Arabic from their original Mingo!

Start here: http://www.geocities.com/language_directory/languages/mingo.htm

[willyd]

Ramadan will be tough for sheik simpsoon...doh!

[.cnI redruM]

I guess this proves ya can't have your kahk and eat it too.

[Rudder]

...but he has given up beer and bacon, which are both against Islam...

Beer and Bacon don't like Islam?! I think it's the other way around.

[Eurotwit]

bookmark

[muawiyah]

Even "doh" ~ we had this lady in the office who used to call up her kid everyday when he got off school to set him straight on doing his homework FIRST.

In the course of her conversations with him she'd drop in a few "Okilidoakilies" and "Dohs".

One day I sent her an email about all those words being in Mingo, and gave her a snippet from one of the "on-line instruction sets".

She started laughing so hard she actually fell out of her seat ~ I heard her hit the floor!

Notice, of course, that in Mingo the feminine nominitive suffix is always "Squa". Definitely a non-PC language!

[gridlock]

Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."

What a great line. Somebody should write a book of the collected wisdom of Monty Burns.

[ClearCase_guy]

Let them eat Kahk!

[gridlock]

Beer and Bacon don't like Islam?

I knew there was a reason I liked beer and bacon so much. The enemy of my enemy, and all that...

[Jet Jaguar]

The Reverend Lovejoy replaced by Imam Killjoy.

[yer gonna put yer eye out]

I'll give up my BLT when they pry it from my cold, dead hand...

[Pantera]

kahksuckers

[Homer1]

So the muslim version of Homer Simpson likes to gobble Kahk? I could have guessed.

[aculeus]

Well I say, hard cheese.

[skinkinthegrass]

LOL!..HA! HA! ...love tag!.

[Pantera]

kahk, the other white meat