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| Arabia |
| D'oh! Arabized Simpsons Aren't Getting Many Laughs |
| 2005-10-14 |
| EFL: Awww, too bad. Maybe they can have Homer throw acid in Marge's face or something... 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. Mmmmmmmmmmm...kahk. An Arabized "Simpsons" -- called "Al Shamshoon" -- made its debut in the Arab world earlier this month, in time for Ramadan, a time of high TV viewership. Ah, yes. The famous Ramadan Sweeps. It uses the original "Simpsons" animation, but the voices are dubbed into Arabic and the scripts have been adapted to make the show more accessible, and acceptable, to Arab audiences. The family remains, as the producers describe them, "dysfunctional." They still live in Springfield, and "Omar" is still lazy and works at the local nuclear power plant. Bart (now called "Badr") is constantly cheeky to his parents and teachers and is always in trouble. Providing the characters' voices are several popular Egyptian actors, including Mohamed Heneidy, considered the Robert De Niro of the Middle East. Wow. I'm impressed. Well, not really... "Al Shamshoon" is currently broadcast daily during an early-evening prime-time slot, starting with the show's first season. If it is a hit, MBC envisions Arabizing the other 16 seasons. But there's no guarantee of success. Many Arab blogs and Internet chat sessions have become consumed with how unfunny "Al Shamshoon" is. "They've ruined it! Oh yes they have, *sob*. ... Why? Why, why oh why?!!!!" wrote a blogger, "Noors," from Oman. Some longtime "Simpson" fans who are Arabs are incensed over the Arabized version. "This is just beyond the pale," wrote As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus, whose blog, angryarab blogspot, often touches on politics and the media. After viewing a promotional segment of "Al Shamshoon," Prof. AbuKhalil wrote, "It was just painful....The guy who played Homer Simpson was one of the most unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop the project, and air reruns of Tony Danza's show instead." Woah! Ouch! Put some ice on that. 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." Monty Burns should be president. A blogger, who uses the name "Nibaq," wrote, "I am sure the effort [of] the people who made this show to translate it to Arabic could have made a good original show about an Egyptian family living in Egypt, dealing with religion, life and work and trying to keep a family together. That way they can proudly say Made in Egypt, instead of Made in USA Assembled in Egypt." Yeah. You could call it "The Flintstones". |
| Posted by:Farmin B. Hard |
| #8 The Simpsons are funny because it makes fun of American life and culture, i.e., it makes fun of ourselves, and we laugh at our foibles. The Shamshoons will fail because the MMs, Imams, and those in power cannot laugh at themselves and their society. The show is doomed, doomed, I tell ya. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-10-14 20:28 |
| #7 I'll be South Park would get a lot of laughs. If by "laughs" you mean "fatwas". Fer crissake, Mohammed's one of the "Super Best Friends". Let's not even get into Mr. Hankey and all the bizarre "impurity" fetishes they have. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-10-14 20:11 |
| #6 I'll be South Park would get a lot of laughs. |
| Posted by: Throgum Elmoluse7582 2005-10-14 18:32 |
| #5 Let's see ... The Simpsons without Duffman, Barney's drunken belching, Moe Sizlack's pugilistic callousness as he dispenses intoxicating beverages at his bar, no possibility of passages like the following: Homer: I like my beer cold ... my TV loud ... and my homosexuals flaming. At least, not in the sense of "flaming" that Homer meant. This is what happens when you try and broadcast one of the world's funniest prime time programs to a market that is almost devoid of humor. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-10-14 17:59 |
| #4 So does the religious fanatic next door (al-Ned) in this version take hostages and decapitate them? Beat Lisa for exposing her ankles? Bugger Bart during "Koran study"? Boy, that would sure make it much funnier... |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-10-14 17:55 |
| #3 I like your final comment, FBH. Someone please post a picture of Omar Shamshoon dancing with Princess Kashmir. I'm sure the A-rabs will love that image. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2005-10-14 16:50 |
| #2 Mo is still Mo, or should we say Moammar. |
| Posted by: Starvin B. Werse 2005-10-14 16:48 |
| #1 Monty Burns should be president. Have you noticed that Secretary Chertoff (of Homeland Security) bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Burns. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-10-14 16:07 |