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Re: English ComedyPosted by R. Berg on May 21, 2003 In Reply to: Re: A scene from an English Comedy posted by Miri Barak on May 21, 2003 : : : : the comedy is gimme gimme, two characters: Linda, a sex-driven
masculine girl and Tom Farrel, a gay. : : : : I'll quote some very problematic paragraph: : : : : My endless questions: : : : : My deepest thanks to any help. : : : Cilla may be Cilla Black, presenter of the popular TV programme Blind Date. See ya means I'll see you soon, in other words Au revoir or just Goodbye. : : : Thora Hird came from Lancashire, where the local food is hot pot. Perhaps the phrase means she is half authentic, half artificial. : : : To me, a box room is a small room where spare furniture and possessions are stored. It is obviously something quite different here! Tom may be admiring Thora as an actress. : : Miri, they gve you such difficult things to translate! The passages you quote here are full of uniquely English references that wouldn't mean much at all to non-UK residents. : : 'Allo Vera / Seeya Cilla. I know the TV show in question, and the character Linda is deliberately portrayed as both lower-class and thick. You're right about the 'Allo Vera / Aloe Vera thing, which works because Linda drops her h's, a deliberate reinforcement by the writers that she's not well-educated. Seeya Cilla is a contrived contrast to 'Allo Vera - it doesn't refer to any real product, but the "seeya" highlights the "'allo", and Cilla, as referred to above, is the name of an ageing English female variety and TV star (Cilla Black), which fits in nicely with Vera, since that's also an old-fashioned English woman's name. There was a famous female English singer of the 1940's called Vera Lynn who may be being alluded to here. Basically, both "products" contain the connotation of being suitable for elderly women. : : Dame Thora Hird was indeed a famous English comedy actress, although in recent years basically she was most famous simply for being old, given that she fronted a large number of TV commercials for such things as stair-lifts and other products for the elderly, an allusion that a British audience would pick up on. Her other most noticeable characteristic was her strong Lancashire accent, so if one is to be humorously dismissive of her, then the phrase "half hip replacement, half hotpot" caricaturises her two primary attributes. : : A boxroom is a small room in a house, usually upstairs, which is typically used for storage. Sometimes these are turned into bedrooms, but there's only ever barely enough room to fit a bed in there. If someone is reduced to sleeping in a boxroom, then one has some pretty lousy accommodation. : : Best of luck - I've had to translate texts before now, but with such a specific allusion-filled piece, I don't have a clue where I'd start. : Henry, thank you so much for your help. : yes, definitely this movie is most difficult to translate, because
each line has an allusion or a slang, first I have to understand
it and second to try to translate. Luckily it is the last one, as
we finish our studies. : I'll be most grateful if you can help me in one more: : party pants - are they his special ones, reserved for such occasions? : and Ann Widdecombe is a Tory member of parliament which the Liberals hate because she made untolerant remarks towards different groups. : anyway I don't have much place to explain this in the subtitles. : I know I take advantage of your generosity and patience, and
thank you so much for that. I'm American, but some of these phrases are known in the U.S. too. "Paint the town pink" would be a gay version of "paint the town red," which means go out and have fun--not necessarily sex; maybe going to nightclubs, eating, drinking, dancing, singing (loudly). "Hip replacement" probably alludes simply to being old. "Bucketload of drugs" isn't about cars. As many drugs as would fill a bucket (a pail). By the bloody by" should be enclosed in parentheses. "By the by" means "by the way," "incidentally."
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