worlds colliding
Well, it was inevitable. There wasn't really any doubt in my mind that if I stayed here long enough it would have to happen. Everyone knows that you really can't call a friend a friend until you sit down and watch Spinal Tap with them, and that's what I did last night with a few of my Brazilian friends. It was by their request - I wouldn't have dared to initiate this kind of insanity on my own since the blowback could be huge and I might never recover.
I've written here before that my friend and coworker Viny (I think he's 19) is a huge fan of heavy metal, or more specifically, death metal. (At the risk of getting totally off topic I'll just say that the idea of death metal appealed to me in principle, when I knew nothing about it, but once I heard and saw it performed a few weeks ago it was clear to me that it really just plain *sucks*.) Apparently Viny read in an interview with the guitarist and drummer of Primal Fear that Spinal Tap was their favorite movie. This, rather than my repeated suggestion, in pidgin Portugese that "You really gotta see that movie," is what got him to ask when we could get together to see it.
Even though Viny did ask to see it, I knew that I would be taking on a lot by watching it with him and especially Ivanildo, who is at best skeptical about anything related to heavy metal and never has a problem berating the crap out of Viny over how bad he thinks metal sucks. Luckily my (copied) DVD has Spanish subtitles, which helps out Portuguese speakers quite a bit. Both of them laughed at least a couple of times at language-only jokes (as opposed to some kind of physical humor) so they understood a good part of what was going on on their own. I of course was laughing my ass off the whole time, and many, many times was the only one in the room laughing. I'm more used to the opposite situation: everyone else in the room laughing and me being like "What? What?" ("Que? Que?").
Even the times when I stopped it I could tell that I wasn't getting through with a lot of my very circumspect explanations and again with the pidgin Portuguese. But, all told, they laughed a hell of a lot more than I expected them too. This was in part, I'm sure, just because I was laughing and they got their cues from me. Also since there's a lot of jokes that are either vulgar and/or regarding sex, they were able to relate without me explaining (thank god) since those subjects are somewhat universal, at least in comedy.
The one part which got fewer (i.e., none) laughs than I expected was when I explained the title of "Sex Farm Woman." I may not have translated it right (although I just checked it on AltaVista/BabelFish and it was the same) but all I got was blank stares. I, of course, could barely keep from laughing while I was talking, in part because of the subject matter, and also because of the situation. The concept of "working on a sex farm" is of course in itself pretty funny, but when in the middle of trying to translate it into Portuguese you think to yourself "I'm trying to explain 'Sex Farm Woman' to people in Portuguese," it's surreal in a very funny way. I almost had to ask myself "How much stranger could this situation be?" And the answer was: None, none more strange.
I've written here before that my friend and coworker Viny (I think he's 19) is a huge fan of heavy metal, or more specifically, death metal. (At the risk of getting totally off topic I'll just say that the idea of death metal appealed to me in principle, when I knew nothing about it, but once I heard and saw it performed a few weeks ago it was clear to me that it really just plain *sucks*.) Apparently Viny read in an interview with the guitarist and drummer of Primal Fear that Spinal Tap was their favorite movie. This, rather than my repeated suggestion, in pidgin Portugese that "You really gotta see that movie," is what got him to ask when we could get together to see it.
Even though Viny did ask to see it, I knew that I would be taking on a lot by watching it with him and especially Ivanildo, who is at best skeptical about anything related to heavy metal and never has a problem berating the crap out of Viny over how bad he thinks metal sucks. Luckily my (copied) DVD has Spanish subtitles, which helps out Portuguese speakers quite a bit. Both of them laughed at least a couple of times at language-only jokes (as opposed to some kind of physical humor) so they understood a good part of what was going on on their own. I of course was laughing my ass off the whole time, and many, many times was the only one in the room laughing. I'm more used to the opposite situation: everyone else in the room laughing and me being like "What? What?" ("Que? Que?").
Even the times when I stopped it I could tell that I wasn't getting through with a lot of my very circumspect explanations and again with the pidgin Portuguese. But, all told, they laughed a hell of a lot more than I expected them too. This was in part, I'm sure, just because I was laughing and they got their cues from me. Also since there's a lot of jokes that are either vulgar and/or regarding sex, they were able to relate without me explaining (thank god) since those subjects are somewhat universal, at least in comedy.
The one part which got fewer (i.e., none) laughs than I expected was when I explained the title of "Sex Farm Woman." I may not have translated it right (although I just checked it on AltaVista/BabelFish and it was the same) but all I got was blank stares. I, of course, could barely keep from laughing while I was talking, in part because of the subject matter, and also because of the situation. The concept of "working on a sex farm" is of course in itself pretty funny, but when in the middle of trying to translate it into Portuguese you think to yourself "I'm trying to explain 'Sex Farm Woman' to people in Portuguese," it's surreal in a very funny way. I almost had to ask myself "How much stranger could this situation be?" And the answer was: None, none more strange.
posted by n10471 at 4:02 PM
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