Homer Becomes Omar

geekster writes "With Omar as Homer, and Badr substituted for Bart, The Simpsons is now playing on Arab television. But in order not to risk offending an Arab audience, the characters in Al Shamshoon, as the show is now called, have modified some of their most distinguishable traits." And you thought internationalization was hard for software!

The show will need local humor appeal

[It doesn't come easy]

Taking Homer and stripping out all of the Americanisms isn't going to make it funny to people with a mideast cultural sense of humor (it would probably be funnier if they just left the Americanisms in). Homer is a success in America because we are laughing at ourselves. I would bet Omar could be as much of a success if the show could present the same kind of local irreverent humor about life there like it does for life in the US.

Changing Homer?

[SillyNickName4me]

Even more damning was the response of Al Jean, executive producer of The Simpsons. He said: "If Homer doesn't drink and eat bacon and generally act like a pig, which I guess is also against Islam, then it's not Homer."

Sums it up quite nicely I think.. not having seen this of course.

Re:The show will need local humor appeal

[Enigma_Man]

I wonder what local-arab irreverant humor is like? Any local-arabs have any insight?

-Jesse

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

What's with all the Apu comments?

[lightspawn]

You do realize he's not an arab, right? Right?

Apu

[temojen]

Apu is Hindu and from India, not Muslim from Arabia. Many of the stereotypes about Indians are probably held in common.

Re:From the article...

[Rayonic]

Why can't you just keep your own cultural identity instead of trying to be the same as us?

Fark that! I can't wait to start downloading subtitled copies of the arab-language Simpsons.

Heck, if this new Simpsons catches on, maybe certain societies will start to accept that self-ridicule can be both constructive and funny.

You can't keep a human culture under glass, sterile and preserved for all eternity. Cultures grow and evolve -- the strongest ones have no problem taking in new ideas and putting their own spin on them.

Re:My karma can stand it

[drsquare]

Of course, the Simpsons never makes fun of Christians or conservatives.

Re:My karma can stand it

[GreyWolf3000]

Uhmmm....no.

Television is not emasculated to suit the whims of anyone. Television is governmed by Media Overlords (TM), who have Democrats and Republicans alike eating out of their pockets.

*cough* Telecommunications Act of 1997 *cough*

But since someone mentioned Muslim fanatics, I suppose your comment was to be expected.

Re:My karma can stand it

[RLiegh]

In America, you can go on television and air criticisms of Republican, Christian or any other viewpoints; and you may get a debate or -at worse- a reprimand.

Let me ask you, how likely is it to put forth atheistic and/or anti-muslim views and have them broadcast...and if, by some miracle you were able to; what would happen to you?

Compare and contrast.

"The movie is very funny... in France."

[Errandboy of Doom]

Just like Jerry Lewis!

ITP I fix the typo from the parent post:

[RLiegh]

Let me ask you, in Saudi Arabia how likely is it to put forth atheistic and/or anti-muslim views and have them broadcast...and if, by some miracle you were able to; what would happen to you?

Re:My karma can stand it

[Krach42]

Look, the issue isn't that we're emasculating our own content. But you can't tell me that we're not pandering to christian values when... well, this is too long to put in a dependant clause, I explain.

Watch some Anime, originals from Japan. There are shows that are marketed to children, or young adults, or at least air during such hours that American families usually allow their children to watch TV. These shows have STRONG explicit words in them occationally, and nudity.

So, what do we do in America? Well, first we change the explicit words so that when say, an actor says "Chikushou" = very strong curse word, along the lines of "fucking christ!", or "kuso" = literally, "shit", we change these words to be "darn" or "dangit". I mean, we change the words coming out of the characters mouth from "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THAT HURT!" to "OUCH! Hey man, that hurt!"

Next up is how to deal with nudity. Well, we have good examples of these... we just digitally insert bikinis on to them. There you go, all happy christian-safe now.

So, yes, the US does censor content coming from foreign countries, the same as this Al-Shamshoons does in Arabia.

how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay?

[first_tracks]

how about we stop pushing our culture on other countries? hasn't recent history shown that western overload on cultures that aren't ready for it results in some sort of backlash? okay so that was probably more due to US capitalism and oil greed shoving its way around the middle east like a bull in a china shop. but still, do we have to actively seek feeding our dribble-for-culture across the globe? i really do like the Simpsons... ? damn, i must really be hating the US these days.

Poetic Justice

[OzPeter]

[rant]
As a person who is not a citizen of the US .. I cringe every time I see a US adaption of classic non-US work. It seems as if the American audience can't consume anything that is not made safe for them by converting it to a local reference point. Case in point, all the British sitcoms that have been remade over the years. Trying to take something that does not naturally occur in your culture and then (figuratively) bashing it around the head to make it fit does not result in a work with the same or better quality as the original.

So to all you people beating on the Arabic adaption of the Simpsons, all I can say is welcome to how the rest of the world sees what you do to non-US culture.
[/rant]

My karma can stand it, too

[Spetiam]

I'm interested to see what they do about Krusty, who's Jewish.

Remember that episode where Sideshow Bob programs Bart, while wearing a suicide bomber's belt, to hug Krusty and blow him up? In the original version: ...yet another "kill Krusty" scheme, this time by hypnotizing Bart into becoming a suicide bomber and killing Krusty on the show. However, at the last minute, Krusty makes an on-air apology to Sideshow Bob for all the pain he's caused him, causing Sideshow Bob to have a change of heart. Sideshow Bob warns everybody that Bart is a bomb, prompting Krusty's monkey to swoop in and throw the bomb away [answers.com] (the only people hurt are the evil network executives, whose body parts merge into a T-1000 like monster).

With "Badr" as the new protagonist, what happens in that episode now?

Did I just give away the ending?

fuck that

[Ender Ryan]

I'm a constant critic of America, Americans, American foreign policy, American politics, etc. these days, but really, that's a rather disengenuous comment you just made. There is indeed censorship on the airwaves, and even on cable "bad language" is removed so as to not offend anyone, but there is still a stark contrast between predominantly Muslim nations and America.

In America, you can get fired, censured, and or fined for saying the wrong thing on public airwaves, but in the Muslim world(or not, you're really not safe anywhere), you can be executed, with support from the state, for expressing the wrong views: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie [wikipedia.org].

I'm an atheist, and frankly, anyone who supports jihads, fatwas, crusades, etc., can, well, fuck off.

Re:My karma can stand it

[coyote_oww]

Dear God, I just don't understand why you Americans put up with all that censoring

Huh? Great-grandparent was on a US show that was censored in the UK, grandparent was about censoring in Canada?!?

oh, yeah, this is Slashdot, where it's always America's fault!

Re:What's with all the Apu comments?

[TrappedByMyself]

because they are the very CAUSE of suicide bombers IMHO

Umm...no, suicide bombers are caused by power hungry leaders in oppressive societies use fanatical nationalism and/or religion to con people into dying for a cause. Its just another form of exploitation.

If some ignorant redneck scares you more than someone willing to murder innocent people for some random reason, then you need a reality check.

Re:My karma can stand it

[Pig Hogger]

So, in short, you think that exposing children to harsh language and sexual content (this isn't "artistic nudity" but sexually charged) is a good thing? Did you ever consider that maybe Japan's culture is wrong?

Of course, you would not think for a second that YOU would be wrong, stupid biblethumper???

Re:My karma can stand it

[brain007]

You aren't. You aren't forced to watch The Simpsons or anything else on TV. You aren't forced to own a TV for that matter. Cultural values != individual values.

Re:er...

[umeshunni]

Having lived in Saudi Arabia when I was a kid, I think I can answer this..
>> 7-11s run by Indian guys
Not 7-11s, but most stores are run by Indian guys.
>> Nuclear Power Plants
No.
>> Catholic or Christian churches with Evangelical stereotypes
Not legally.
>> Comic book stores
No.
>> Nursing homes
No.
>> donuts
Yes - Dunking Donuts was rather common there.
>> Tom and Jerry
Yes - even dubbed(!!) into Arabic! Tom & Jerry was pretty much the only thing on TV for kids!
>> American Football
Yes!
>>Politics, National Forests, and dive bars?
No. No. No.

Re:The show will need local humor appeal

[geekoid]

becasue no Muslim has ever been a suicide bomber?
Or because you can stand someone satiring what a very few muslims have done?

Suicide bombers happen, right now a lot of them have a Muslim background. ther is nothing wrong of making fun of those wackos.
That all the simpsons are, a satire of things that happen.

No tv prime time sitcom series has ever discussed god and religous faith more then the Simpsons. Yes they make fun of some of then extreme elements. OTOH Homer will ask questions the rest of us wouldn't for fear of offending someone. If you noticed, the non christian people are usually the most tolerant of Homer.

Re:My karma can stand it

[mfrank]

All I know, is when I travel to a foreign land, I always learn the phrase "Don't shoot me, I'm Canadian" in the local language. And I'm pretty sure the converse isn't true for Canadians.

Seriously, any Canadian that says they're American because they live in the Americas is just a retard.

Re:how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay?

[e2ka]

No one is shoving anything down anyone's throat. The Arab TV network wouldn't air it if they didn't think there was an audience. i.e. people who already want to watch it.

Re:how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay?

[bani]

pushing it? how about they stop buying it, or stop producing it themselves?

i find stuff like rammstein's "amerika" quite amusing. their song is a pointed criticism/whine/lament about the pervasiveness of "american culture", yet rammstein themselves are part of the problem -- they're playing rock music, which is perhaps the single most pervasive and identifiable aspect of american culture.

they'd be less hypocritical if they played polkas or something.

blaming the us is stylish and cool, but american culture and music was already popular in eg communist countries under tight dictatorships -- it's not like we forced it on them at gunpoint, and there wasn't exactly advertising campaigns for it either. might be better to ask yourself why american culture and products are popular despite not being forced upon people at gunpoint.

Re:My karma can stand it

[aputerguy]

Yes and by that logic we shouldn't call people from the country of South Africa, "South Africans" because clearly people in other countries in the lower half of Africa may be confused/offended since they too are from South (as opposed to) North Africa.

Canadians are North Americans, not Americans.

Re:The show will need local humor appeal

[Sycraft-fu]

Intended as humour or not your post makes an extremely good point. The reason we are going to see things like the Simpsons imported is because the Middle East is NOT ready for the same kind of humour made locally about them. While I'm sure there are many, even the majority, of people there that could find something poking fun at themselves funny, the leadership cannot. A real Arab show like the Simpsons would, by necessity, make fun of Islam and the Arabic way of life just as the real Simpsons makes fun of Christianity and the American way of life. There's no way in hell the leadership over there would tolerate such a thing.

So instead, they are going to get a watered down version of American humour. My bet is that it falls flat. Most people won't understand the humour, and those that do are probably worldly enough to get the unedited version off the Internet.

Re:Japan has lowest teen pregnancy ...

[pbhj]

>>> "... you intolerant ignoramus!"

Presumably you mean you can't tolerate him?

Oh and just because a nation has a low level of teenage pregnancy doesn't mean it doesn't have a high level of sexual depravity (rorikon? schoolgirl pants in vending machines?) it just means you've been blinded by the prevalence of one set of behaviours into thinking association (or maybe even correlation) implies causation. [Perhaps you think sexual depravity is OK, but that doesn't stop your implied conclusion from being poorly supported].

If a nation allows husbands to beat their wives and coincidentally has low rates of teenage pregnancy (causally connected or no?) then by your reckoning $nationOfYourOrigin should encourage wife beating.

And finally ... just because you disagree with a person doesn't make them ignorant. For all you know he may be Japanese (seems unlikely I know).

Seems to me Freud would say something about a society majorly into repression causing the ultimate out-bursting of the repressed emotion in deviant behaviour; if Japan were such a repressive society, perhaps due to an obsession with ancestor worship then this might explaing the results. I am absolutely not saying this is the case with Japan, I am not a Japan scholar by any stretch of the imagination. I guess I'm just an intolerant, ignoramus.

Re:My karma can stand it

[Curunir_wolf]

Actually in America if you stridently critisize republicans you can lose your job. Especially if your job is in the media, or in education or the govt. One the American taleban targets you and the talking heads on fox news and talk radio start braying your job is on the chopping block.

Where's my "Bullshit" mod? What the fuck are all those New York Times reporters still doing with jobs?

Re:I looked it up.

[Darby]

Guess what: the landmass we live on is called "America."

Guess what: No it isn't.
The landmass I live on is called *North* America. There is a formerly connected until they dug a big trench through it landmass known as *South* America. Pretty infrequently they are jointly referred to as *The* America*s*

There is no solo landmass referred to as America although the middle country in *North* America is very frequently referred to as America.

What exactly is so confusing about this?!?

Re:My karma can stand it

[alc6379]

Even funnier...I've seen TV shows, and movies on TV, where for "God Damnit!" they bleep out "God", but leave the "Damnit."

***prepares for flamebait mod***
You can blame that on the religious folks wanting to press their beliefs on you. To them, taking The Lord's name is a BIG no-no.

But, of course, that brings up another question... If you're saying "damn it", you're cursing something. You're wishing ill, or a curse upon someone. Isn't God kind of implied in doing it? If you're going to bleep it out, it just occurs that you would bleep out the whole God Damned thing.

Re:My karma can stand it

[Trejkaz]

No, animation is not "high art". It is definitely art, though.

I'm not some American piece of crap... in fact, I'm a person who has watched the anime he likes to watch being almost consistently ruined for US consumption. Hence, I see the commercial translation efforts of the US as basically a defiling of art, and I'm not entirely convinced that an translation of the Simpsons for Arab TV would be any more acceptable.

Re:how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay?

[k98sven]

they're playing rock music, which is perhaps the single most pervasive and identifiable aspect of american culture.

Bullshit. You're living in the past.

Saying that rock music is uniquely American is like saying that theatre is uniquely Greek. Just because it originated in the US doesn't make it American forever. Outside the US, rock music hasn't been regarded as a American phenomenon since the 50's. The "British Invasion" killed any pretenses of that.

Rammstein is a particularily bad example, since they have none of those original American (Read: blues, country, Elvis) elements in them, as well. Their main source of influence was Laibach, who in turn had Kraftwerk as a main source of influence.

Kraftwerk owes absolutely nothing to Rock music, and Rammstein very little.