calapine's thread for doings the Polandball

[Ironwood]

They apparently also have a badass bikini team. 

I would be interested in a follow up here.

[calapine]

They apparently also have a badass bikini team. 

I would be interested in a follow up here.

Actshually:

The[lSwedish Bikini Team was a group of American female models who appeared in an advertising campaign for Old Milwaukee beer. These commercials ran for several months in 1991 in the United States, playing with American stereotypes of Scandinavian women being blonde and having big breasts. The premise of the commercials was that a group of bored or thirsty men were "saved" by the Swedish Bikini Team. Other commercials would focus on a group of men male bonding on a hunting trip and saying "Guys, it does not get any better than this", to which a narrator would say the man was wrong and an Old Milwaukee truck would drive miles off road towards them claiming "it improved", "..and when the Swedish Bikini Team showed up, it got somewhat better."[1]

While many viewers saw the ads as a parody of traditional beer advertisements, some feminists found the ads misogynistic.[citation needed] Though the campaign generated widespread interest, the advertisements were dropped after protests by the National Organization for Women and female employees of the Pabst Brewing Company.[2]/quote]

[Chimpy]

Blades 101.....

[Selby]

Blades 101.....

Yeah that killed me. Laughed out loud at work.

[calapine]

If you like these kind of anti-jokes you should hang out with me. 

[calapine]

That's my new favourite.

[Polysorbate80]

If you like these kind of anti-jokes you should hang out with me. 

You’d get along with my D&D group perfectly.

[calapine]

Britain teaches South Africa not to be racist:




(The father-son thing US-UK have going on is heartwarming. :))

[Sir T]

My biggest problem reading these is that most of the time I have no idea who the flags are. 

[Goumindong]

South Africa pre and post apartheid

[pxib]

[calapine]

This Polandball is based on real events. The Misused English words and expressions in EU publications guide has further examples.


It makes for a fun read - if you are into language - as you can really tell the author just about had it with the English language being butchered:

[Polysorbate80]

Reading that along with those definitions under the influence of too many poolside Mai-Tais is a weird combination of WTF and time-cubish almost-makes-sense.  In an effort not to accidentally invoke the Great Old Ones, I will wait until vacation is over to re-read them...

[Mosesandstick]

The English used in EU legal text is hilarious, it's like some sort of bizarre dialect. Obviously not so funny when there are legal issues, or when our continental European friends keep trying to translate or correct documents drafted by native speakers.

[calapine]

Posted that once (twice?) before.

But no matter, love it. That cartoon is my spirit animal.  



Just wait until I sobered up enough for my next sanctimonious post about EU vs US!

[Polysorbate80]

Well. sobering up certainly did not help my understanding of the earlier Euro-english translations. 

Perhaps next time I should go the opposite direction and try black-out levels of intoxication?

[Sir T]

It works for Europe.

[Polysorbate80]

As long as I don't wake up Swedish

[Polysorbate80]

Apparently I was blackout drunk last night.  Maybe I’m more Scandinavian than I thought 

[calapine]

Polandballs in which countries are cute or dorky are the best. 

Background of course being that the Polish language and vowels aren't quite on speaking terms.

[Teleku]

I can confirm.   

Sometimes the cab drivers in Warsaw didn’t know (or didn’t understand what I was trying to say) the street I lived on, so I had to use a landmark to get them to go to.  The only landmark nearby is a place called Trzech Krzyzy.  While I was very thankful for that single E to give me something to build a foundation around, it was never fun.

[Zetor]

Yeah, Slavic countries can be fun -- I remember vacationing on Krk island in Croatia when I was a kid and it just felt wrong (also, does this mean that 'buying a vowel' is not a good choice on Wheel of Fortune?  ). Obligatory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfKZclMWS1U

[calapine]

 

Wow. We vactioned 80 km apart.

When I was kid (must have been around 1987-90) we used to spend the summer holiday in Rovinj / Red Island a few times.

Still have a picture of me sitting rider-like on one of those medival guns at the coast. When swimming I got got pushed against rocks by a wave. It just scratched my skin but I still have a tiny scar. (guess due to contact salt water?). Feeling nostalgic.

How easy was holiday in yugoslavia for east-block families? (Due to it being socialist but not Warsaw pact or behind the iron curtain).

[Zetor]

Honestly, I was so young I only remember the sea urchins and their many spines. Well okay, "oskrbnik centar" was memorable too.  

Hungary-Yugoslavia had a very interesting relationship in the communist era, because a lot of Yugoslavia used to be part of Hungary (in fact, my family has some distant relatives, we were visiting them in Krk). I don't remember any significant drama on that border, though it was obv a hard border with fairly strict contraband checks.

[Chimpy]

Papers, please!

[pxib]

The opening song from Alexander Hamilton in Polish

[Polysorbate80]

After listening to that, I ask how it’s possible to say anything in Polish that doesn’t sound vaguely like you hate the person you’re speaking to

[Sir T]

Because its from Poland?

And now its stuck in my head. Gaaaah.

[RhyssaFireheart]

That was really good though.  I always wonder how they have to "contort" other languages when translating musicals from the original.  I mean, I can't tell here because of the whole not-speaking-Polish thing, but it was enjoyable to listen to.  I'd forgotten how spoken Polish sounded though, lol!  They definitely forgot the vowels when coming up with it.

[Sir T]

Well, as a quick look around the various editions of the Bible can attest, translation is an art rather than a science. You can either go with exactly the syntax of the words which could sound terrible in your own language, or you can go with the sense of what was said originally, but written in a poetic way. Or somewhere in between.

[Sir T]

Lol, I saw this comment on the youtube and I think it sums it up much better than I ever could.

Piotrek Patelnia

Good quote about translations - Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful. ;)

[Polysorbate80]

All right, time to buy some new office toys...

[calapine]

79 USD for a EUBall!

I am not made out of money.  

[Polysorbate80]

I see $49 for the regular and $55 for the one with the propeller beanie, is it maybe added VAT or something for you?  Whatevs, we could just get one and ship it to you.

Haven't made up my mind for myself but I'm definitely getting the Prussia for my D&D buddy, his Masters in history focused on Early 20th century Europe and he's a big WWI nerd.

I find Finland with the bottle and knife highly amusing, even though I have zero Finnish heritage.

[calapine]

Non-serious: I thought this would take a different turn. Shame...

Serious: There is actually going something on with Schengen and Switzerland right now. Some EU wide gun law changes are going to affect them as well and they are going to vote on them. A no would likely push them out of the common travel area. OTOH they had a quit a big impact on the details of the law, despite nominally not having a vote on its creation. Very interesting example of interdependence. Zeit had a long article on this, I could provide a translation if wanted.