Matt Yglesias is amazed that you can buy a coconut-flavoured candy called ‘Super Osama Kulfa Balls’ in China. There’s worse to be found in every German supermarket that I’ve ever been in …
Matt Yglesias is amazed that you can buy a coconut-flavoured candy called ‘Super Osama Kulfa Balls’ in China. There’s worse to be found in every German supermarket that I’ve ever been in …
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And my German friends all laugh when they see the soda brandname “Spritz up”, which is of course a 7-up knockoff… “spritz ab”, which sounds identical, is the divided form of the verb “abspritzen” which means to ejaculate.
And, of course, the French drink Pschitt.
http://www.pschitt.fr/
„Dick“ is of course the normal word for ‘fat’, cognate with ‘thick.’ Perhaps more weirdly, Irish Mist (‘Irish shit’ to the juvenile-minded German-speaker) did not see the need to rebrand for .de and .at, and still seem to be selling respectably.
As this is a nice family-oriented blog, I’ll just provide you with a link:
When you’ve had enough of the Danish pastry
Sorry, Henry, that’s a string bet.
The action stands at one Super Osama Kulfa Ball to go….
And, of course, those soft-drinks sold in Japan in the early 1970’s—Calpis and Pocari Sweat. Which, of course, is perfectly fine if you’re not selling to English-speakers. But they were labeled in Romaiji, not Hiragana, which thrust those associations into your face when you saw them advertised.
New post category?
When the Japanese Calpis was imported into Korea (or copied by Korean companies), the spelling of the drink was helpfully changed to “Coolpis” (see here for an example (scroll down)). The stuff actually tastes pretty good though.
Formerly known as “Dickmanns Negerküsse” (“Dickmann’s Negro kisses”).
And there’s also the endless possibility for … interesting…results when you search for the best sausage stuffing machines, made by the German company F. Dick.
Polcari Sweat isn’t just a ‘70s thing. My girlfriend fell in love with it so much when she was living in Japan she gets it specially imported to the States. To my palette, that stuff is just as disgusting as it sounds.
Don’t forget that other yummy Japanese treat, Men’s Pocky sticks.
Enjoyed in Australia with a slice of Coon cheese.
The holiday-destination review site Tripr.TV doesn’t go over so well among German speakers.
And what German child doesn’t love his or her Puky bike?
That’s a splendid new category name, by the way.
In Egypt I used to enjoy a chocolate bar called “Mr. Long,” which featured on the label (in English), “When you’re this long, they call you mister.”
My Pocari Sweat-drinking and defending girlfriend reminds me of the Serbian candy “Negro” that we found in Kosovo. (We were told that people boycotted it not because of its name but because it was Serbian.) She also took the opportunity to urge me to try Calpis when we go to Japan this fall.
Two words “ pork faggots“.
I’ve always been fond of Mr. Brain’s Pork Faggots (in a rich West Country sauce).
I owned (and put into a collage I sold) A box of Darky Toothpaste. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie
I don’t suppose there’s someone out there who might remember those weird chocolate ice cream bars sold in Korea back in the late 80s, the ones that were advertised with a hideously racist cartoon of a little African boy (complete with a bone in his nose) gobbling one up? I don’t remember the name, but I remember it was pretty embarrassing by our standards. I saw a lot of unintentional racist stupidity during my time there, but those chocolate bars take the cake. (They were pretty tasty too. Mmm, frozen cream filling.)
I love the new tag. It suggests posts wandering in out of Platonic space, and taking a wrong turn somewhere in the Internets.
#4
Tried those when I was in Denmark, and brought several back to offer to people. Adolescent, yes, but provided brief, quality amusement. The ones in the dark box are a bit salty though.
I understand the English are still fond of spotted dick; some brands may be more dubious than others.
My girlfriend (who is Chinese) refused to believe that ‘Darlie’ toothpaste used to be called ‘Darkie.’ I pointed out to her that
a) It had a picture of a grinning black man on it
b) The Chinese is ‘Black Man Toothpaste.’
@ 9
It sure as hell was called “Darkie”—and i have the box (c. 1966) to prove it. The image is minstrel-show outrageous.
@23
My upbringing precludes my use of the “N” word, but my German friend assures me that they were called “N***** Kisses” by all and sundry.
I don’t have a brand name example, but here’s an interesting story. A slang expression for cachaça, the sugarcane brandy that is used for caipirinhas, is pinga, from the verb pingar, which in Portuguese means to drip, inspired by the distillation process.
A former colleague of mine came back from a trip to Brazil and was chatting with a Cuban-American friend of hers. The friend asked her how she liked Brazil and she replied that she loved it, especially the pinga. “I tried it several times, my husband even tried it and he usually doesn’t go for it, but he loved it, too.”
She didn’t realize that the reason why her friend looked horrified was because pinga, in some Spanish-speaking countries is a slang expression for penis.
Mr. Brain’s Faggots
I like the blunder by locum in this link. The Umbro Zyklon trainer is about the worst offender though I think in the list.
Oh, and we can take it the other way around too, I think. There’s a Peruvian restaurant I know of by the name Las Conchitas Calientes. I’m not sure what that means to Peruvians, but where I learned my colloquial Spanish you don’t say that in polite company.
Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds?
I discovered Darlie toothpaste while in Beijing last summer. This weekend I noticed that at the Asian market (named “Asia Market”) nearest to my house (in North Carolina), they had stocked a supply of it behind the register. I was rather surprised that it’s sold here.
The Doody family from Wolverhampton has been crowned The Faggot Family….
OMG
Sadly no longer in production, and conspicuous in its Internet absence, many’s the happy hour I spent chewing those old SorBits back in the day.
interesting
@9, 23, 27: If Wikipedia is to be believed, my compatriots – much to my surprise – claim to be the inventors of the flødebolle – formerly known as negerkys. (Calling somebody en flødebolle amounts to a serious insult).
You can still eat jødekager (jew cakes), though, especially around Christmas. Recipe here.
While we’re at it: An ordinary white bread is known as a French bread (franskbrød) in Danish. In Sweden, I’ve seen those sold as Danish French (danskfranska). Nothing adolescent or scatological in this but perhaps worth an honourable mention.
I’ll raise you “Barf” washing powder (former SU), “Crap” carp mousse (Romanian), and “Lemon Car Rental” (Armenian).
OK, the last one doesn’t fit so well but I always thought it amusing.
Surely there is a worthwhile distinction to be made between non-native English-speakers hilarious cock-ups, the tolerance for ‘forbidden’ expressions in other languages, funny foreign words [oh, how sophisticated], and even funnier names, like ‘faggot’, for things that meant what they mean long before becoming infantile slang for something else?
Just saying guys, OK?
Well there is always the Mitsubishi Pajero.
Danielle @27,
My upbringing precludes my use of the “N” word, but my German friend assures me that they were called “N***** Kisses” by all and sundry
The German Neger is, or at least till fairly recently was, a neutral descriptor corresponding not to the N-word but to the English “Negro”. The latter term is obsolete as a neutral descriptor in America these days and would be somewhat offensive (except, possibly, when used in jest by black people themselves), but is nowhere near the social H-bomb that is the N-word. Similarly, Neger is dying out in Germany as a neutral descriptor—today you’re far likelier to hear schwarz, which is simply “black”. Older people still sometimes say Neger, though, and I’ve never had the impression that they (or at least, the ones I’ve heard say it) meant it in any way as pejorative.
Subject to the observation supra, yes, everybody used to call these things Negerküsse. One still hears the word from time to time, but there’s an increasing consensus that it has had its day. I’m more familiar with Mohrenkopf (“Moor’s head”), which is not, come to think of it, much better; though its archaic quaintness somewhat dampens its force.
Whatever one calls them, though, the name is perhaps less disturbing than the practice (beloved of German schoolchildren) of smashing one between the halves of a bread roll and eating it as a sandwich.
Dave @38,
funny foreign words [oh, how sophisticated]
I don’t think anybody would deny that it’s a bit silly to laugh at foreign words our anglophone eyes/ears find amusing. But from your comment, one would almost think you believe silliness a bad thing.
Maybe it is. Still, if you are driving in southern Bavaria and can encounter without giggling the sign announcing that one has arrived at Wank, well, I will happily concede your superior sophistication through my giggles.
Oh, and because turnabout is fair play, when English-speaking cold sufferers ask, “Vicks, please”, they should not wonder when their German-speaking companions smile.
/childish
What about amusing/rude differences between English speakers? That could be good for a giggle. Let’s start with the meaning of “fanny” on either side of the atlantic.
The illustration looks like a shot from “Herman’s Head.”
Nothing wrong with being silly, but thinking ‘faggot’ in long-established UK usage is amusing merely displays one’s own ignorance.
Anyone for a discussion of the remarkable transatlantic disparities in the meaning of the word ‘torture’?
Oh, I’m such a wet blanket [but at least I’m not being held over someone’s face while they experience all the sensations of drowning…]
39: Older people still sometimes say Neger, though, and I’ve never had the impression that they (or at least, the ones I’ve heard say it) meant it in any way as pejorative.
Probably not. But the German Wikipedia says: “Er ist heute wegen seiner rassistischen Konnotation weitgehend aus dem öffentlichen Sprachgebrauch verdrängt” i.e. “Today it [the word “Neger”] is largely avoided in public speech because of its racist connotations.”
And older people in England still say ‘coloured’, how can they? Don’t they know it’s ‘people of colour’? or was that the late 80s?
Actually, in govt circles now it’s ‘Black Minority Ethnics’ which is as ugly a piece of linguistic sh1t as you’ll ever see; especially as I’m old enough to remember when calling someone ‘an ethnic’ was an overtly racist insult…
gdr @45,
yes, that sounds about right. But you’ll still find a lot of older people who say it, and I’d be surprised if too many of them were trying to express what one expresses in English by using the N-word. (In fairness, I should note that there are also plenty of older Germans who, when told by a younger generation that Neger is a word one doesn’t use any more, stopped using it.)
Perhaps one can think of it like this: Neger is on its way out of acceptable German usage just as “negro” has left acceptable English usage. The process began later in German than in English, though, and isn’t yet quite complete. In English, I don’t think one can any longer use “negro” and claim in good faith that one is not trying to give offence. In German, people can still say Neger in good faith; but the people who do so will probably be dead in ten or twenty years.
Dave @44,
Nothing wrong with being silly, but thinking ‘faggot’ in long-established UK usage is amusing merely displays one’s own ignorance
You’re not a wet blanket, and you make a fair point. It needs a little more nuance, though, I think.
It’s one thing to laugh, Beavis and Butthead-like, that huh huh huh, you said “faggot”. It’s a bit different to be amused at the notion that people protected by an ocean’s breadth from familiarity with a moderately disgusting British regional delicacy might well react oddly on hearing the term used out of the context they know. (Beavis and Butthead are funny, to the extent they are funny, not because someone said faggot, but because they think it’s funny that someone said faggot.)
Similarly, an English-speaker stumbling upon a road sign that reads “Wank”, or a German who hears reference to “Vicks” (phonetically, the German equivalent of “wank”) is likely to laugh, there’s nothing wrong with that, and no, neither one is likely to think the word in question really has anything to do with masturbation. Indeed, in a way the humour inheres precisely in the fact that it doesn’t.
Anyone for a discussion of the remarkable transatlantic disparities in the meaning of the word ‘torture’?
Why? Did I miss the news stories that HMG has suddenly realised what the Americans are up to and, in indignant protest, pulled all troops from Iraq and refused any further collaboration with the Bush regime?
I once had Gorilla Balls. They came in a can and were made of carob. This was decades ago.
Two from Portugal.
http://www.throttleman.com/
Started out as a Tie Rack sort of operation, specialising in boxer shorts. Or the local version of peanut M&Ms?
http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2007/07/tintin-and-the-.html
Conguitos? With, yes, their brand of a smiling pygmy?
Why? Did I miss the news stories that HMG has suddenly realised what the Americans are up to and, in indignant protest, pulled all troops from Iraq and refused any further collaboration with the Bush regime?
Oh, I wish, I so do. The Government is not the People [especially not when it’s “Her Majesty’s” – give it back, woman, you’ve had it 56 years, and you haven’t done anything useful with it yet!]
Meanwhile, I was actually thinking more of a little town called Geneva, but there you go…
Dave @50,
Meanwhile, I was actually thinking more of a little town called Geneva, but there you go…
Since you mention Geneva, and as long as we’re talking about the comic potential of mangled language, I am reminded of something I once read in a Bill Bryson book about the oddities of allophonic English usage. He described a Japanese bag he’d seen, with a palm tree and sailboat on it and the words “Switzerland… City by the Sea!” (or words to that effect).
Dickmann’s: As recommended by Ozzy Osbourne impersonators.
Apparently, our “megabags” of potato chips cause mirth in other countries:
http://www.steveisaacs.com/archives/2007/10/megapussi.jpg
In English, I don’t think one can any longer use “negro” and claim in good faith that one is not trying to give offence.
So seeing as you just used “negro” in an English sentence, you are admitting your racism.
And now I just did. Damn it.
Stuart @57,
inverted commas are our friend.
Anyway, I don’t have to be a racist to give offence!
What do inverted commas have to do with it?
If I was to say Bush is an “idiot”, a “liar” and probably “insane”, that means he shouldn’t take offense at it?
Surely the point is that any word, no matter how offensive it can be in some contexts, can also be obviously clearly inoffensive in other contexts. It has nothing to do with what punctuation is used in the vicinity of the word.
Since we’ve been laughing at others, please everyoen to have a laugh on me.
The day before my wife and I returned from our first trip to Brazil together, her family had a barbecue for us. I put some hot peppers on my rice and everyone who saw me was aghast. In seeking to calm people, I only served to embarass myself. I intended to point out to them that I put the hot peppers on pão (bread) and ate it. Instead, I didn’t nasalize the ao dipthong and in effect said pau. Pau literally means stick, but it has at least one primary slang meaning and you can only imagine that when I realized what I had said, it was not the peppers that made my face red.
When I was in New Zealand, I saw a dentist advertisement that promised, “Smashing Great Teeth” which sounded very strange to this American.
Stuart @59,
Surely the point is that any word, no matter how offensive it can be in some contexts, can also be obviously clearly inoffensive in other contexts. It has nothing to do with what punctuation is used in the vicinity of the word.
Of course. The inverted commas were all about signifying that context. I’m surprised that somebody able to enlighten us with an insight as subtle and difficult as the one you’ve shared with us here didn’t pick up on that.
A brand of toilet paper found in Sweden: Krapp.
Soft and fluffy and an unfogged favorite.
BIG NUTS
I once went to a supermarket in Thailand called “Shit Supermarket”. I don’t think “shit” is a popular Thai word, so I’m not sure what they were going for there.
The first time I came across a bottle of Hooch, my initial instinct
as a chemistwas to wonder why they’d put formic acid among the sugary beverages.Many moons ago when I was shacked up with my now wife in Finland, my future father-in-law called asking after her. I had not seen her all afternoon but really stumbled over relating that over the phone. You see phonetically the Finnish word of “to see” is only one subtle vowel difference from “to know our daughter in the biblical sense.” After that I made it a policy to incorrectly say that I had not “looked” at her all afternoon, although the formulation was not correct it was safe and easily pronounced.
Well, krapp is actuall kräpp in Swedish and pronounced like crêpe, raher than like crap. But, yeah, if you imagine away those dastardly umlauts, it’s kind of fun-in-an-oddly-appropriate-way.
How about Mr. Pibb? The cans used to have stylized upper-case Bs thus rendering them MR. PIßß. Drink up!
My local supermarket stocks a Polish brand of groceries made by a firm called Smak. Cue oh-so hilarious narcotic references every time we shuffle past.
67. Ukko, I had the same problem in Denmark with the Danish equivalent of “cozy.”
“Vicks” (phonetically, the German equivalent of “wank”)
A minor correction: The German ‘Ficken’ is not the equivalent of ‘Wank’ (masturbate), but of ‘F*ck’ (and etymologically related to it)
And in Germany “Vick’s” Health products are labelled “Wick’s”
khr @73,
you’re right about ficken, but you’re wrong in thinking that’s a correction.
The German counterpart of “to wank” is wichsen (s/l “vixen”); wichs (s/l “Vicks”) would be the imperative singular.
And while I have no way of checking at the moment, I’m pretty sure you’re also wrong about “Wick’s”, and for that very reason. A German would pronounce that name the way an anglophone pronounces Vicks, and there we’d all be, giggling like schoolchildren. I’ll have a look next time I’m down at the Apotheke, but I think the stuff is sold here under the name “Wick”, which when pronounced à la boche is not going to conjure up any troubling images, save perhaps that of an androgynous young Viking. (If you’re familiar with 1970s German children’s television, you’ll know what I’m referring to.)
Germans reading, as opposed to anglophones saying, “Vicks” wouldn’t think it equivalent to “wank”, b/c they pronounce “V” as F. But that would create problems of its own.
stuart @59
Inverted commas are (normally, and in the case under discussion) a visible signifier of the use/mention distinction. mrs tilton @49 & yourself @57 did not use “negro” but mentioned it.
mrs.tilton @74
I was not entirely correct: the German name of Vick’s health-care products is “Wick”, not “Wick’s”.
Here is their homepage:
http://www.wick.de/
Greetings
khr
About seven years ago, while driving through Almaty, the main city of Kazakhstan, The Woman Warrior and I pulled up next to a bus with a huge sign advertising, in shades of Linda Blair-green, a laundry detergent called Barf . . .
If you can stride into an English-speaking country with a brand called, say, Smeg, it shows a swaggering confidence in the authentic quality of your product. I laugh at your Anglo-Saxon focus-groups! I am Volvo, hear me roar!
I recall that when I was a child the ‘Negerkuesse’ still had a cartoon picture of two kissing African savages on the box, complete witch curly hair, huge lips, and big earrings. But that was another brand, Hansematz, not Dickmann’s. They were yummy too.
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