Linguistic cross-purposes

[lobelia321]

There once was a car manufactured by Toyota and sold as 'Mist'. In Germany, this car did not sell very well as the word 'Mist' in German means 'crap'.

Now there is a film called Something-or-other 'Airbender'. Now this is causing hilarity among t'school-age sons as in England the word 'bender' means 'a homosexual person' (actually, it's somewhat derogatory so it's closer to 'poof' or 'faggot').

Sorry, peoples of multi-corporate-national-wanttomakemoneyeverywhere persuasions: do your research better!!

On the other hand: ready-made fodder.

"I am buggering the air! I am an airbender!"

"Well, I am shafting in the air! Acrobatically! I am an airbender!"

"I've got air between my ears! But plenty between my thighs! I am an airbender!"

Wheeee!

But imagine making a film called 'Oxygen Faggot' or 'Ozone Poof'. Yes, multi-corporate title-inventors: it's not about bundles of kindling nor is it about Egyptian leather footstools...

Comments

[ia-ne.livejournal.com]

OZONE POOF! I want that on a t-shirt :D

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Bend it like ozone, baby.

[ia-ne.livejournal.com]

Btw, I don't remember the Toyota Mist, but Pajero (Mitsubishi) means wanker in Spanish :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Bwuahahahhah!

Oh dear. *wipes eye*

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....I guess the problem is that the animated series the film is based on is about "bending" the elements -- so there are air, water, fire, and um, earth? benders?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender

So the term is an essential part of the worldbuilding and could not be removed.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh the dilemma...!

"I'm sorry this world was built upon collecting faggots for power kindling. So we have fire faggots and air faggots and earth faggots and maggot faggots. Essential part of the world!!"

Oh dear, author wot wrote animated series: did you not do your research??

*laughs a lot*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Or, I've just had third thoughts! Maybe it's a subversive plot!! The author wot wrote series knew very well what she was about and smuggled the innocuous-looking bombshell word into t'blithely ignorant American context and is now lfhao!

Ah, the things I could do with the word 'dag'...

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

I've always felt a little pity for the people who make up a fake-medieval/futuristic/alien name and then it actually means something on the other side of the world. Not that they'll ever know since it's, you know, other side of the world.

Case in point: there was a female character in first season SGA named Perna. Sadly perna is the Finnish word for spleen.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Perna!

*laughs and laughs* (splenetically)

[karneol-vision.livejournal.com]

... well, if there had not been this huge blue something movie that stole the AVATAR title there would be no problem.

The series this movie is based on is pure wonder. It's kinda bad if people are going to end up finding the idea of the title ridiculous already :/

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

But could you take a movie called 'airqueer' seriously? No matter how fabulous the source canon? If you weren't a fan already??

Problem!!

[karneol-vision.livejournal.com]

That's why I blame Cameron's Avatar.

And... well to be true, I had no idea it might be linked to anything of that sort before you've mentioned it. (And I doubt I will link anything even now that I know about it.)

Is it really that common? I can't really believe that it's the first thing a person thinks of when they hear the term. To bend is a widely used word after all... I mean, I have many english-speaking friends and many of them know the series and yet none of them ever mentioned any such thing.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

The issue is not the word 'to bend' but the noun 'bender'. That's not really a noun in common use (as a verb, 'to bend' is totally common and means nothing sexual) but as a noun it's like 'faggot' or 'queer' and t'boys immediately started giggling when the ad for it came on in t'cinema (they're aged 16 and 12 so much more up on these words than I am; they are also English-born and bred while I am a foreigner, like you!).

There's another usage that I know of: to go on a bender which is, to go on a drinking spree (correct me, oh English flistsibs) but that doesn't spring to mind re film title because the other usage is specifically used for a person.

And I wouldn't say this is a common term; at least, I wouldn't hope so because it's somewhat derogatory and I wouldn't like to discover that it is common. And your friends, if they know the series, have probably forgotten all about the word's other meanings because they are fans!! Just like I never, ever thought of faeces when I fell in love with Kaká... (the word 'Kacke' means 'shit' in German, and 'kaká is very close to how a German child might say this...)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

By the way, English-speaking friends may not know the meaning unless they're English English-speaking friends. When I lived in Australia, nobody used this word, and I've never heard it said by Americans or Canadians so I think it's an English word.