Trailer for the series "Ted"/Peacock
The arrival of the great series "Ted" on the Hebrew screen is a good opportunity to turn the spotlight on one of the most frustrating features of the translation into Hebrew on television: the almost sweeping sterilization of curses and profanity.
Profanity undergoes an almost total purification process on its way from English to Hebrew, stripping the original meanings in favor of more refined versions such as "hell", "son of a bitch", "let me jump" and even "oof".
According to the "Ted" translation file, in the first twenty minutes of the series the word "fuck" about its inflections is said 46 times.
And in Hebrew?
Only seven times with the root ZYN in the same period of time, one of them is a direct translation to dick.
In fact, even a much less vulgar word like shit is translated in the series as "hell".
It seems to be done so automatically that even when one of the characters says "fuck it", it translates to - you guessed it - "hell".
Not only censorship but also error.
In a particularly laughable moment throughout the season, the translation's attempt to mute the crudeness of the original turns "glory hall" into "glory hole", a term that no one has ever used, unlike the original, which even has an entry on the Hebrew Wikipedia.
But apparently someone really doesn't want us to really understand what is meant.
After all, we must keep our integrity and our decency.
11 "fuck" became three "hell", from the series "Ted"/screenshot, yes
"Fuck it" became "hell".
From the series "Ted"/screenshot, Yes
In a series like "Ted", this puritanism is especially noticeable and outrageous, because like the films before it, it plays on the dissonance between the innocence of the teddy bears and the profanities that come out of his mouth and around him.
It's not very different from another series that played on a similar trope, though it couldn't be more different: "Veep."
These days, another round of the series is being broadcast in the nights of Yes TV Comedy, and it's simply terrifying to see how the translation (performed by different translators) castrates it, literally.
The concept of "Veep," to present the supposedly respectable public messengers of American politics as loud-mouthed impersonalists, was largely stymied by the patronizing censorship of the translation.
This is a series that is difficult to transfer from one language to another, full of brilliant tongue twisters, most of which are incredibly rude and picturesque, but the translation's allergy to everything that smells of rudeness is mind-boggling.
"Armed Data" became "Damned Data", "Armed Boat" became "Rugged Boat" and so on.
And these are the cases where there is at least an attempt to use some kind of adjective - most of the times it just disappears completely.
Thus "these are armed midterm elections" became simply "these are midterm elections" etc. etc.
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"my fucking name" became "my fucking name".
From the series "Criminal Case"/screenshot, Apple TV Plus
"your fucking mouth" became "your fucking mouth".
From the series "Slow Horses" season 3/screenshot, Apple TV Plus
"little fucker" became "little trash".
From the series "Kalvi Shomura"/screenshot, Disney Plus
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"my fucking ship" became "the fucking ship".
From "The Mossad" season 2/screenshot, Apple TV Plus
"the fucking orders" became the "fucking orders".
From "The Mossad" season 2/screenshot, Apple TV Plus
The word "fucking" was simply censored with three dots.
From "Pretty Little Things"/screenshot, Disney Plus
There is a tremendous meaning in the use of such blunt and extreme words, and the translation completely ignores it.
In the fifth season, when Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) discovers after sleeping with Charlie Bird (John Slattery) that he is working against her, she uses the same word three times to illustrate the small nuances of their differences: "He fucked me and then he fucked me? What is he trying to do, fuck me".
Even in Hebrew it should have been the same, letting the viewers decipher for themselves what each of them is saying: "He fucked me and then he fucked me? What is he trying to do, fuck me?".
In practice, the translation on the screen was: "He slept with me and then fucked me? What is he trying to do, fuck me?".
Just don't use the seventh word.
And it's not just limited to the word fuck.
"The Axis of Dick" becomes "Zir Dick", something devoid of any meaning in Hebrew.
"I smell like a bum's shit" translated to "I smell like a dump".
"Dick slapping" became "applying pressure".
The worst moments are the ones that turn the translation into an infantile alternative, if you can even call them alternatives.
"You sold your dick" became "You sold yours".
"Fuck you" became "Jump me".
When Selina tries throughout an entire episode to find the person who called her "cunt", the translation does indeed write "cup" twice or three times, but the rest of the times it turns the word into ק.
Just like that.
unbelievable.
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A scene whose whole point was to illustrate the filthy mouth just after it was said that it was a professional place, was neutralized by turning every "fuck" into "hell".
From "Mrs. Maisel" Season 5/Screenshot, Amazon Prime Video
"Motherfucker" became "son of a bitch".
From "True Detective" season 2/screenshot, Yes
"Fuck" became "off".
From "True Detective" season 2/screenshot, Yes
In the last decade the American chastity belt has loosened several holes.
The streaming services, which are not subject to the supervision and language dictates of the US Department of Communications, can blaspheme to their heart's content.
And since they do it, and premium cable channels like HBO have always done it, the basic cable channels, at the mercy of advertisers and in the past would have been content with nothing but shit, have also loosened the reins when it comes to fuck.
Advertisers also care less.
In Hebrew, this vulgar exuberance has become a particularly awful and absurd trend: "translation" fuck and its inflections to "pak".
This is an attempt to eat the cake and leave it intact - to convey the obscenities but at an arm's length, without using the shocking words in the holy language.
The results are so bad that they often distract from the plot, exactly what a good translation should not do.
Arguably, it's conceivable when a character says "Fuck" in frustration.
After all, "pak" has become a common word in Hebrew as well.
The answer is that it doesn't matter.
A translation should translate, and whenever the word "cock" is used to reflect that frustration, that's the word to use.
But even if we agree that these cases can be glossed over, when the Hebrew translation starts introducing "fucking" - and worse, the "a news" - we are already in trouble. "Shut your fucking mouth", "Someone else will fulfill the fucking orders in my place", Harry took my fucking ship", "How do you know my fucking name?". Surrendering to spectacular superiority instead of simply writing "Fucking mouth", "Fucking orders" etc.
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Ben's "Fuck you" to his father became "Go to hell".
From "Invincible"/Screenshot, Amazon Prime Video
Censorship via pun not required.
The name "Harriet Badcock" (bad cock) became "Harriet is sacred to me".
From the series "Devil's Hour"/screenshot, Amazon Prime Video
Sorry but this is not a translation.
From "Ted Lasso" season 3/screenshot, Apple TV Plus
In one of the most ridiculous cases in the third season of "Ted Lasso", Roy Kent, whose dirty mouth is his trademark, said "Fuck Nate, fuck thinking, fuck fuckin Socrates".
The "translation" on the screen: "Fuck Knight, Fuck Thought and Fuck Fucking Socrates".
Only one word here is in Hebrew, for awkward linguistic juggling, if only to avoid using the root Z.Y.N.
Someone, somewhere in the whole process of translating foreign series into Hebrew, appointed himself a moral commissar who trusts the soft souls of the viewers.
It is possible that the translators themselves are responsible for this censorship, perhaps it is inhibited and rewritten by the linguistic editors, it is possible that from the beginning the broadcasters in Israel issued a directive to reduce profanity as much as possible.
The very fact that not all translations are like this implies that this is probably a choice that does not come from above, and even if there was one, it is certainly not relevant in the foreign streaming services.
Either way, it's a fundamentally stupid trend, which strips away the original meanings in a way that sins against them, and ironically repeatedly insults the viewer's intelligence.
More on the same topic:
Ted
veep
Ted Lasso