Given that every shit, crap, bitch, bastard, ass, pimp, whore, hooker and f--k in print and in spoken dialogue is unerringly beeped out, blanked out, starred and what have you, this slip - an inappropriate, indecent, no-no word (by our television censors' standards) in plain sight, not once but at least 25 times, in the subtitles of a prime time show on Indian television has to have been the most mortifying yet! Or let's say it should have been so for the zealous guardians of our decency!
A staple diet of a series of English language shows on Star World between 9 and 11 pm has me plonked in front of the television every night. I read the subtitles because try as I might they cannot be ignored and because the shows themselves are fairly inane and predictable. Their predictability is vaguely comforting though - it allows me to watch them in a half conscious, lazy-hazy way between sitting, slouching, lying down, eating, drinking, talking, phoning, reading, working..... whatever.
But on the night of August 8, I suddenly sat bolt upright and stayed that way till the end of One Tree Hill, a soap about a small obscure town somewhere in America...... at first I couldn't believe I was reading a subtitle which contained the word 'gonad' ...... it's got to be a slip, I told myself..... but no, a few seconds later there it was again.....and again......and again......and again....and yet again, gonad, gonad, gonad, gonad, gonad, every single time the actor in the frame said 'gonna' as in 'going to'! What the hell was going on? My first thought: Were the caretakers of our morals on a holiday or what? My second one: Does the subtitler (or whatever he is called) have a hearing impairment?
To save you the trouble of checking out 'gonad' in a dictionary, it means a testicle or an ovary .....okay if you don't believe me here is the Wikipedia meaning - The gonad is the organ that makes gametes. The gonads in males are the testes, and the gonads in females are the ovaries. The urban dictionary website at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gonads calls gonads balls, jewels, nuts, etc. Ha ha ha.... it gets funnier - the urban dictionary website gives an example of how the word 'gonads' is used in slang. Here it is, "my ex-wife kicked me in the gonads"!
Now I wonder what exactly possessed the subtitler to zero in on this word to use, not once but multiple times. It does not sound even remotely like 'gonna' for God's sake. It is pronounced go-nad (as in pad). It is not a commonly known or used word. (The only reason I know it is because like all enthusiastic Scrabblers I know this and other weird, little known words that help me to unload my seven letter tiles before my opponent unloads his.) Was this esteemed guardian of our morality trying to embarrass his boss or the channel? Was it sabotage? Or was he just a good Scrabbler having some harmless fun?
Methinks this subtitler was doing none of the above.......if he was he would have to know the meaning of the word, and if he knew the meaning it would take some nerve to do what he did or a great sense of humour! Both of which I don't somehow think he has! Methinks he knows the word 'gonad' but not its meaning (bad Scrabbler), that he is a fool, that he does not care to check the meaning even out of curiosity if not in the quest for excellence, and that there is no one who proof reads/edits what goes up on the television screen! And if there is anyone who argues that 'gonad' is okay then why not penis, dick, prick, tool, etc etc etc (all of which we know are religiously beeped out), especially if these words are used to correctly transcribe the spoken dialogue ?!!!! Just a thought to chew on.... ha ha ha!
On a more serious note, this slip would actually be really, really hilarious if it wasn't a reflection of the ignorance, mediocrity and complete lack of accountability of this subtitler and for that matter the whole tribe of proof readers/editors, whether on Indian channels or on the prestigious BBC, in filmi rags and tabloids or in snotty intellectual journals like the Economic and Political Weekly! This is not about being corrupted by indecent words. This is not about morals and propriety. It is about realizing that it is time to sit up and start noting the errors in spelling, syntax, and usage of language. It is about beginning to feel ashamed of the 'chalta hai' attitude in print and broadcast journalism and frankly in just about everything else!
A staple diet of a series of English language shows on Star World between 9 and 11 pm has me plonked in front of the television every night. I read the subtitles because try as I might they cannot be ignored and because the shows themselves are fairly inane and predictable. Their predictability is vaguely comforting though - it allows me to watch them in a half conscious, lazy-hazy way between sitting, slouching, lying down, eating, drinking, talking, phoning, reading, working..... whatever.
But on the night of August 8, I suddenly sat bolt upright and stayed that way till the end of One Tree Hill, a soap about a small obscure town somewhere in America...... at first I couldn't believe I was reading a subtitle which contained the word 'gonad' ...... it's got to be a slip, I told myself..... but no, a few seconds later there it was again.....and again......and again......and again....and yet again, gonad, gonad, gonad, gonad, gonad, every single time the actor in the frame said 'gonna' as in 'going to'! What the hell was going on? My first thought: Were the caretakers of our morals on a holiday or what? My second one: Does the subtitler (or whatever he is called) have a hearing impairment?
To save you the trouble of checking out 'gonad' in a dictionary, it means a testicle or an ovary .....okay if you don't believe me here is the Wikipedia meaning - The gonad is the organ that makes gametes. The gonads in males are the testes, and the gonads in females are the ovaries. The urban dictionary website at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gonads calls gonads balls, jewels, nuts, etc. Ha ha ha.... it gets funnier - the urban dictionary website gives an example of how the word 'gonads' is used in slang. Here it is, "my ex-wife kicked me in the gonads"!
Now I wonder what exactly possessed the subtitler to zero in on this word to use, not once but multiple times. It does not sound even remotely like 'gonna' for God's sake. It is pronounced go-nad (as in pad). It is not a commonly known or used word. (The only reason I know it is because like all enthusiastic Scrabblers I know this and other weird, little known words that help me to unload my seven letter tiles before my opponent unloads his.) Was this esteemed guardian of our morality trying to embarrass his boss or the channel? Was it sabotage? Or was he just a good Scrabbler having some harmless fun?
Methinks this subtitler was doing none of the above.......if he was he would have to know the meaning of the word, and if he knew the meaning it would take some nerve to do what he did or a great sense of humour! Both of which I don't somehow think he has! Methinks he knows the word 'gonad' but not its meaning (bad Scrabbler), that he is a fool, that he does not care to check the meaning even out of curiosity if not in the quest for excellence, and that there is no one who proof reads/edits what goes up on the television screen! And if there is anyone who argues that 'gonad' is okay then why not penis, dick, prick, tool, etc etc etc (all of which we know are religiously beeped out), especially if these words are used to correctly transcribe the spoken dialogue ?!!!! Just a thought to chew on.... ha ha ha!
On a more serious note, this slip would actually be really, really hilarious if it wasn't a reflection of the ignorance, mediocrity and complete lack of accountability of this subtitler and for that matter the whole tribe of proof readers/editors, whether on Indian channels or on the prestigious BBC, in filmi rags and tabloids or in snotty intellectual journals like the Economic and Political Weekly! This is not about being corrupted by indecent words. This is not about morals and propriety. It is about realizing that it is time to sit up and start noting the errors in spelling, syntax, and usage of language. It is about beginning to feel ashamed of the 'chalta hai' attitude in print and broadcast journalism and frankly in just about everything else!
Hi Amita. I too am often mortified by sloppy editing in the Indian print media. On a more important note, let's play Words with Friends!
ReplyDeleteFascinating read, Amita. And ever so true. As a linguist and culture specialist, I tend to watch most foreign-language films with subtitles simply because you get a better feel for the culture, the people and the language. And I am sometimes truly appalled by the poor English subtitling in Hindi films. There is no doubt that subtitling is a very difficult job, especially if the subtitles have to be in a foreign language, but all that is no excuse for sloppiness!
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