Homer Becomes Omar 840
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!
My karma can stand it (Score:5, Funny)
Come on, you all were thinking it, Homer without the H or beer or hot dogs or bacon- eeeew.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Funny)
Go crazy
Don't mind if I do
God I hate it when people rip out the core of something because it may be offensive
*Melon Farmers is a reference to the BBC TV cut of "Repo Man" where the words Mother-fucker were replaced by Melon farmer
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:4, Funny)
I've heard TBS edit such things as "Melon-Funnin'" when it was the -ing variant as opposed to the -ers variant.
Melon-Funnin' just sounds like it should be illegal to me.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, I'm sure guys like Apu working at convenience stores is a much less common sight in Syria than it is in the American midwest. Would they even get the joke over there?
My karma can stand it, too (Score:5, Insightful)
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:
With "Badr" as the new protagonist, what happens in that episode now?
Did I just give away the ending?
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:4, Informative)
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Informative)
Apu was kidnapped at age 4 from his family in bangladesh and forced in to slave labor as a "professional" camel jockey in Qatar. After out grow the profession he was kicked to the curb where he was hired by a wealthy Arab merchant and works an 18 hour shift at the Kwik-E-Mart, soon he'll be able to afford a ticket home if his till doesn't keep coming up short and he sells his extra cornea and kidney; as his room and board only take 16 hours of work a day.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Informative)
I believe the alterations were made by Alex Cox, the director, himself, in response to the BBC's request for cuts so that it could be shown. So he decided to go completely and humorously over-the-top in censoring his own film, partly to make a point, one suspects.
See http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/faqmf.htm [melonfarmers.co.uk]
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Interesting)
On Canadian television, "mother fucker" is often censored to "*blank* fucker". yes, they cut out mother and leave the fucker. Im totally serious.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Insightful)
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:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Insightful)
Canadians are North Americans, not Americans.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, and ignore that weird dude making handsigns - he's flipping you off in 41 of them.
Re:I looked it up. (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
***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 (Score:4, Funny)
This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps!
Better than the corn growers (Score:5, Funny)
So, (I'm been told) whenever anyone makes a stiff arm salute, the voice-over dubbing says "Look how high the corn grows!".
I wonder if young Germans ever insult their bosses and superiors by calling them 'corn growers' as an oblique reference to their acting like fascist assholes.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Funny)
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Interesting)
The first season of Sailor Moon had a bunch of evil henchmen who all dress the same.
In the original, one of them is a very effeminate man dating of of the other bad guys.
For the U.S. dub, that man was turned into a woman: Literally emasculated.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
ITP I fix the typo from the parent post: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ITP I fix the typo from the parent post: (Score:5, Funny)
It's (some would say deliberately) poorly drawn, cheaply animated, and while the voice cast is now famous, they used to be relative nobodys (with maybe one exception). The story arc is your basic sitcom family living a basic life. The subversive twists are what make it funny.
I think they ought to leave the shows exactly as they are. They would give foreign audiences a pretty good idea of what life is like over here.
Plus, it would be fun to watch Mall of America tourists look around for the "Leftorium."
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Interesting)
That sword cuts both ways. You aren't forced to listen to Howard Stern or watch explicit television either so why can't they be broadcast?
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Insightful)
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:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Informative)
Fansubber's Japanese? (Score:3, Informative)
Japan has lowest teen pregnancy rate , USA highest (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.unicef.org/pon96/inbirth.htm [unicef.org]
Saying "Did you ever consider that maybe Japan's culture is wrong?" shows not only that you are a idiot, but that you have no idea that not only do people in Japan have less sex, and lower crime rates. So to say that they are somehow immoral because of what they show their children is idiotic, they know how to raise their children, they dont let their televisions do it for they as you obviously let your television do. Stop berating people of other nations and start looking at the problems in your own home you intolerant ignoramus!
Re:Japan has lowest teen pregnancy ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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:Japan has lowest teen pregnancy ... (Score:5, Informative)
OK, well, here goes. My as well post AC on this one. I'm Japanese, and live in Tokyo. Sexual depravity does not explain the situation. Japan is very open to sex in general, and has a thriving large sex industry. No, not the underground, illegal, dangerous industry as seen in other parts of the world (although there is a small bit of this too), but a regulated, legal industry. Want sex? Can't get any for free? Pay for it!
Whether you like the idea or not, it seems to work over here. The women get paid generously, of which the majority aren't forced into the trade as slaves or anything. As for sex related crime rates, well, there are still unfortunately a lot of "chikan" in the trains, but rape is way down on the list. Got drunk, wanna fuck? Well, I think the fact that you can walk into a brothel and get some sorta decreases the drive to actually rape anyone. Afterall, I find it amazing that rape rates are so low considering how much we drink, and how drunk we get.
And finally
Not the grandparent, but ask and though shalt receive.
if Japan were such a repressive society, perhaps due to an obsession with ancestor worship then this might explain 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.
Japan is repressive in a lot of ways, but very open in others compared to western nations. Sex is one of them, public drunkness another, and so on so forth. I don't think you can really compare them head on and expect to see a clear correlation of facts without considering a whole boat load of intricate details.
That said, here's my take on the issue. In Japan, there are no real dirty words to start out with. There are bad words, some are censored, but none have the same connotation as "fuck" in the English language. You could probably interpret this as being that there ARE words like this (kuso = shit, direct translation) but there's no stigma attached to them, and thus they aren't really that "dirty". So the Japanese have a difficult time in general understanding how a word like "shit" and "fuck" could be such dirty words, merely because there's no comparative word or even the concept.
As for nudity and sexual images in children's anime, it's all in moderation I suppose. For example, you can't show genitals in any publications in Japan. None. It's illegal. TV, magazines, photos, what not. (And I'm not talking about children's stuff here, I'm talking about porn.) On the other hand, the general concept is that boys will be boys, girls will be girls, and no ammount of censorship will change the fact that they'll eventually be intrigued by their sexuality. So what's the point in trying to pretend it doesn't exist. That's why mild nudity is no big deal in anime. Some parents don't want their kids to watch it, or watch it until a certain age, and they control that. But it's not a big deal.
As for teen pregnancy, I suspect there's a bit of a twist here. I think it's more prevalent than unicef makes it out to be, but that there are a lot of abortions that probably go un-reported. If you're an anti-abortionist then this may shock you, but it's not a big deal in Japan. Historically Japan has not exactly been a thriving nation where everyone had plenty to eat. Kids were occasionally "pruned" to make sure the entire village wouldn't starve at times. Same goes for the elderly. In times of famine, this makes sense, but I suppose there was a high probability of famine back in the day. (I'm talking 150+ years ago.) I suspect that such trends help in creating an atmosphere that the unborn are, well, unborn and not quite hum
Re:Japan has lowest teen pregnancy ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think your remark about openness of society about, for example sex, of 'the western world' applies more to the united states than to western Europe. In the Netherlands there's even sex on 'public' cable television (not state sponsored though),there are no problems with nudity in any media (not even for children) and being a prostitute is officially 'just a job'. As for the rest of Europe, it might not be exactly the same, but it's not that different at all. I think the USA is one of the most prudish coun
The last time I criticized a government official.. (Score:3, Interesting)
So, I can tell you first hand. You can only criticize in the US if you have the power to take the person and their entire organizat
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Insightful)
Where's my "Bullshit" mod? What the fuck are all those New York Times reporters still doing with jobs?
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:3, Interesting)
fuck that (Score:3, Insightful)
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'r
Re:My karma can stand it (Score:5, Informative)
You're kidding me? You must not have seen many episodes at all then.
Homer's patented Moon Waffles.
The "good morning burger"
The one where Homer starts his grease recycling business (and feeds $25 worth of bacon to the dog.)
The one where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, and Homer lists all the types of meat she won't eat "ham? bacon? pork?" "Dad! those are all from the same animal!"
The one where Homer and Marge are in the garden of eden, and Homer eats the bacon directly from the pig.
and those are just off the top of my head... bacon is mentioned on a pretty regular basis.
Re:No Santa's Little Helper (Score:4, Informative)
Re:No Santa's Little Helper (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagen ame=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE& cid=1119503547226 [islamonline.net]
[QUOTE] The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has spared us from being
Re:No Santa's Little Helper (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, that's well... progressive of them..
I thought it was only the Danish [google.com] that did that.
D'oh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:D'oh (Score:5, Funny)
Omar: lâ ilâha illâ allâh !
Definitely. This is so going to be a hit.
The show will need local humor appeal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:5, Insightful)
-Jesse
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:5, Interesting)
The book was so horrible, that even Cat Stevens agreeded somewhat that Salman should be killed. He later [wikipedia.org]appologized [wikipedia.org], but the point is-- you're not supposed to agree with the ravings of a lunatic religious leader in the first place.
My post may have a humorous tone, but the events described above are real.
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:5, Insightful)
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:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:4, Funny)
"Oh! Now I'll never get my 72 virgins..."
That wacky Omar! How will he screw it up this week?
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, but it looks like it will still be set in America:
FTA: The dysfunctional family, that continues to live in Springfield...
Assuming that there isn't a Springfield somewhere in the Middle East?
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:2)
Re:The show will need local humor appeal (Score:2)
nuclear heathens (Score:5, Funny)
Yvan Eht Nioj! (Score:2)
More deadly than Saddam, eh? Methinks that episode with either be neutered or omitted...
Now for all the other Obligatory Simpsons Quotes. Please keep them all to this thread, lest we quell serious discussion on Slash— oh, never mind.
Will Lisa and Marge... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Will Lisa and Marge... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Will Lisa and Marge... (Score:3, Informative)
The Middle East isn't as uniformly tyrannical as you think it is. In many of the gulf coast countries, for instance, you can go to the mall and see women dressed the same as they are in the States or in Europe.
Changing Homer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sums it up quite nicely I think.. not having seen this of course.
Homer works at nuclear plant. Omar blows it up. (Score:3, Funny)
-Eric
Apu? (Score:4, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:From the article... (Score:5, Insightful)
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:From the article... (Score:3, Funny)
That's why they're Homer -genizing it!
Violence is the Ultimate Virus (Score:4, Interesting)
The recent violence of Sept. 11 and the Iraq war has had an immense impact on the psyche of both peoples. This will translate into a deeper knowledge of each other and, hopefully, more understanding.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Knowledge of one's enemies transmutes to some extent in a sharing of cultures. Violence, as the ultimate virus, might be seen as injecting plasmids into each sides cultural DNA.
Doki Doki Panic (Score:5, Interesting)
Well... (Score:2)
So wait a minute (Score:2, Funny)
In the first episode (Score:5, Funny)
What's with all the Apu comments? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's with all the Apu comments? (Score:5, Funny)
Rev. Lovejoy: The lesson is that all of God's children can come together and help their fellow man, whether they be (motions to Flanders) Christian, (motions to Krusty), Jewish, or (motions to Apu).....Miscellaneous!
Apu (annoyed): Hindu. HINDU! There are 600 million of us, you know.
Rev. Lovejoy: Oh, that's super!
Paraphrased, but you get the idea.
Re:What's with all the Apu comments? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
This is the first time... (Score:2)
What's become of the cross screen adaptation for the Simpsons Movie? Has Brooks or Groaning [spelling funny] let any tidbits slip about it yet?
Wow this is a bad idea bonanza (Score:2)
Apparently Omar is also Hindi for Homer... (Score:2, Funny)
Video clips/screen captures? (Score:2)
Some shows/films don't stand i18n (Score:4, Interesting)
Well I believe it'll be the same for Omar Simpson: the original Homer is funny because it deforms and amplifies flaws in the US society. It's reasonably funny in many western countries, because the american culture is kind of universal, and even when it's dubbed, it's not too hard to understand half of the jokes (many very US-centric jokes are lost in France, Sweden or Spain though, particularly those involving famous personalities known only to the US public).
But in countries far from westerm values, and not as developed, with different and sometimes stricter sets of moral values, adapting the Simpsons to suit these people will suck the marrow out of the bone. It'll the arab version of the US "the visitors" flop. Either give them the full unabridged, ashamedly US version of Homer and let half of them love it and the other half hate it, or give them Omar and let all of them hate it.
Re:Some shows/films don't stand i18n (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, in Sweden The Simpsons is not dubbed, it's subtitled like just about every other foreign (non-swedish, it's sad that I feel the need to add this) show.
Also, while there probably are a few US-centric jokes that most viewers don't get you'd probably be surprised at how many of these "famous personalities known only to the US public" are actually if not famous in Sweden then at least well-known enough that quite a lot of the viewers get the jokes. Hell, there are enough people in Sweden who know enough about bad US movies and tv shows from the 80's to make Family guy popular... So once again, you'd be surprised at just how much we know of american culture.
/Mikael
I can hear it now... (Score:5, Funny)
In the words of Kent ibn Al-Brockman (Score:4, Funny)
Okay, I'm sorry. That was insensitive and I should never have pressed the submit button.
also of note (Score:4, Interesting)
personally i think this is a wonderful project, it's a shame he's already having skittish reaction from hollywood execs
if we could just laugh more, in both the muslim world, and the west, at each other, how awesome a leap into a better world would that be?
er... (Score:5, Interesting)
7-11s run by Indian guys
Nuclear Power Plants
Catholic or Christian churches with Evangelical stereotypes
Comic book stores
Nursing homes
donuts
Tom and Jerry
American Football, Politics, National Forests, and dive bars?
If not, how is a majority of this humor going to translate? It's a heavy parody of American culture. I'm just not sure how that's supposed to sell.
Re:er... (Score:5, Interesting)
In Quebec, the Simpsons are the same episodes at what you see in the states. There has been a number of translated signs but they've been mostly subtitled. However, the dialog content is extremely localized, to a point where the same episode in french canadian and US english are actually more like two different episodes. Let me give you an example;
There's an episode where Krusty ends up facing his daughter for the first time, wich he ignored the existence of. He explains how he meet her mother in the first Iraq war where they both served and that after a torrid night of sex, she had missed her rendez-vous point where she could have sniper-shot Sadam. They loose each-other, she gives birth and since has been very angry at Krusty. So far, same episode in Quebec and US. But when Krusty enters this little girl's apartment, he sees paintings of dead and murdered clowns painted by her mother. in Quebec, krusty exclaims "Wow... on dirait Murielle Millard sur l'acide!".
Just thinking of that makes me laugh, still.
It translates to "Wow, it looks like Murielle Millard on acids". That's is. nothing else. This stuff is purely localized top-culture material. you'd have to know that Murielle Millard is a top class theater actrice, a class act woman, always proper and that also had a signing and acting career earlier on. A few years ago, she held her own paintings varnishing expo in a classy arts gallery in Montréal. It made the news. Most (all?) her painting were of clowns.
Pure comedy for grown-ups. I'm laughing again.
That's how the Simpsons can be well localized. Even for arabs. Two arab friends where I work were laughing already at Homer's donuts becoming Omar's [insert-arab-round-cake-pastry-name-wich-I-forgot
Poetic Justice (Score:4, Insightful)
As a person who is not a citizen of the US
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]
Re:Poetic Justice (Score:3, Interesting)
there are exceptions of course, all in the family [imdb.com] was a remake of the british series "Till Death Do Us
Ayatollah (Score:3, Funny)
Marge and Homer go through old things in the attic in preparation for the big sale.
Marge: Can we get rid of this Ayatollah T-shirt [it says: "Ayatolla Assaholla"]? Khomeini died years ago.
Homer: But, Marge! It works on any Ayatollah: Ayatollah Nakhbadeh, Ayatollah Zahedi... even as we speak, Ayatollah Razmada and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power.
from The Simpsons, "Two Bad Neighbors" (3F09)
airdate: 14-Jan-96
Re:Can they handle it? (Score:2)
Re:Can they handle it? (Score:2)
Re:Can they handle it? (Score:5, Funny)
For the record, it's a kahk.
He's a kahk-gobbler.
Omar al-Shamshoon loves the kahk.
Re:So what happens to Apu? (Score:2)
Apu (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:wait who... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:wait who... (Score:3, Informative)
How old are you, ten? Look, son, 50 years are nothing in the development of humanity. They "died out" just 25 freakin years before I was born, doesn't sound that much to me. My dad was 21 already. And I'm not even middle-aged.
Hell, 25 years before I was born my anchestors in this country had to be stopped by an onslaught of most major nations from exterminating millions of jews, gays, sinti, roma, communists, anarchists, libertarians, (I'm sure I forgot
Re:mistake in the article (Score:5, Informative)
40% under 15
+ 20% ages 16 - 20
==================
= 60% under 20
Re:mistake in the article (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It just won't be the same! (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, this is the only show where I think that the voice acting is better than the original. Not that the original voice acting isn't good but actors in the french version are just doing a better job.
Fortunately, the ones for the last few years are more sane and portray the familly as 100% american.
But the worse adaptation we have is King of the Hill. They decided to remove any and all reference to US in the text and turns it into total nonsense.
Both shows are funny to watch even tranlated but we are in a North American context too and can understand the jokes even when they are butchered. I guess it won't be the case in middle east...
Re:Reverse I18N (Score:3, Informative)
Re:how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay? (Score:4, Insightful)
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:how about we STOP pushing our culture, mkay? (Score:3, Insightful)
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