Asterix

[idunnosomename]

oh I did find "toi y en a compris". I guess that's kind of condescending? it's the way it's woven into Mrs. Geriatrix's dialogue too: "you heap big dead loss". again part of the reason these are so great is the amount of thought Bell/Hockridge put into the translations

[chveik]

oh I did find "toi y en a compris". I guess that's kind of condescending? it's the way it's woven into Mrs. Geriatrix's dialogue too: "you heap big dead loss". again part of the reason these are so great is the amount of thought Bell/Hockridge put into the translations

yeah it's extremely condescending, even if you were saying it to a toddler. i feel like 'you savvy?' doesn't completely express that

[idunnosomename]

I mean it's funny, that's what counts

[chveik]

yes sure. i should read the translations

[mothman]

Having just reread it, I've decided I've never liked Caesar's Gift. Everyone in it is just horrible.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Having just reread it, I've decided I've never liked Caesar's Gift. Everyone in it is just horrible.

I like the line 'what's the use of a Gaulish village?  Can't drink a Gaulish voice, can I?'

[Keebleman]

I like the line 'what's the use of a Gaulish village?  Can't drink a Gaulish voice [??], can I?'

Well you completely flubbed that one. Well done.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Well you completely flubbed that one. Well done.

That must have been autocorrect and me not paying attention.

[MoreauVasz]

yeah it's extremely condescending, even if you were saying it to a toddler. i feel like 'you savvy?' doesn't completely express that

I always took it to be racist.
A mockery of the way that immigrants might speak French.

That being said, I think I'm right in saying that when Asterix features black African characters it tends to have them dropping their Rs but weirdly mangled French is definitely shades of 'you're fresh off the boat'.

[Replies From View]

My brother had a bunch of Asterix books.  Being 11 years older than me, he'd had a head start.  Then I saw The Twelve Tasks of Asterix in the cinema, excitedly bought the new book with the same title - my own Asterix book!! - and lo and behold was pissed off because it was written like a story book rather than a comic.  Same dimensions as the comic books; what an absolute swizz.


So I learned my lesson never to try to like the same things as my older brother ever again.

[mothman]

I always took it to be racist.
A mockery of the way that immigrants might speak French.

That being said, I think I'm right in saying that when Asterix features black African characters it tends to have them dropping their Rs but weirdly mangled French is definitely shades of 'you're fresh off the boat'.

This has been puzzling me. So the original French text is more in the vein of explaining it slowly like you would to a child or an idiot, so it's quite patronising? Whereas the English translation brings in this near-pidgin speak like - some allege - someone would to a foreigner?

Because I've always thought it was odd, so many subsequent jokes built around heap-big this, you-savvy that. And all of it born of the Roman businessman having to explain business ideas in simple terms - which everyone else then parrots, thinking they're being clever as they're using the "language of business." It's quite an intellectual vein of humour.

Therefore we can assume (?) there was no racist intent in the French original; can we say the same for the English translation? It's a funny one, both countries were former colonial powers...

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I like the line 'what's the use of a Gaulish village?  Can't drink a Gaulish voice, can I?'

I meant 'can't drink a Gaulish village, can I?'

[Solid Jim]

This has been puzzling me. So the original French text is more in the vein of explaining it slowly like you would to a child or an idiot, so it's quite patronising? Whereas the English translation brings in this near-pidgin speak like - some allege - someone would to a foreigner?

Because I've always thought it was odd, so many subsequent jokes built around heap-big this, you-savvy that. And all of it born of the Roman businessman having to explain business ideas in simple terms - which everyone else then parrots, thinking they're being clever as they're using the "language of business." It's quite an intellectual vein of humour.

Therefore we can assume (?) there was no racist intent in the French original; can we say the same for the English translation? It's a funny one, both countries were former colonial powers...

I don't think we can assume this. Based on my zero knowledge of French culture and almost five minutes of Googling, the original text would appear to have similar connotations of "oh dear, I'd better dumb this down by speaking in the sort of broken grammar I assume you backward native savages are only capable of."

https://french.stackexchange.com/questions/9625/quest-ce-que-moi-y-en-a-comprendre-veut-dire

Obviously this is originating from the antagonist of the story so you couldn't exactly call it an endorsement, but it might still be something you'd think twice about including nowadays?

[mothman]

Oh yeah, I'm not implying anything here, just trying to understand.

[idunnosomename]

I mean the translation "heap big" is also mildly racist as it's Tonto Talk

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TontoTalk (best source on internet it seems)

I mean it's of its time, and hardly abominable now. doubt anyone is personally offended by that sort of thing

[Replies From View]

If Asterix was written nowadays it would have sudden asides with various characters yelling at the reader and calling them a prissy little snowflake gayboy

[Kankurette]

Or Asterix and Obelix would be an actual couple.

[Replies From View]

Or Asterix and Obelix would be an actual couple.

More likely they would have an overt case of the not-gays, with constant reference to girlfriends for clarity.  The readers would be pilloried as the gay ones.

[mothman]

There was the recent book that had their parents, and that was bad enough.

[Kankurette]

More likely they would have an overt case of the not-gays, with constant reference to girlfriends for clarity.  The readers would be pilloried as the gay ones.

So far, so Uderzo. Still, at least there's fanfic.

[Keebleman]

In the awful Uderzo solo effort Asterix and the Secret Weapon a woman takes a shine to Asterix and kisses him, whereupon he socks her full in the face!!!!  An absolute flamer, then.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Or Asterix and Obelix would be an actual couple.

In one of the books, some of the village women talk.  One says, 'I always had my doubts about Asterix, a man of his age and still a bachelor.'  I think that was in Asterix and the Roman Agent.

[jobotic]

Isn't the "heap big" stuff the way that Native Americans (injuns) were portrayed as speaking in comics. Little Plum's dad and that?

So yes, pretty shite, but i don't know about the French version.

edit: and I've just read the post from idunnosomename that already says this