The translation of puns

[Lord_Vetinari]

One of the funniest things I have witnessed was when a (very drunk) friend of mine tried translating a pun from Swedish into English to some Spanish guys. He just wouldn't let them go until they got the point, poor fellas.

So, I thought I would start a tread celebrating the pointlessness of translating puns. I will start with some swedish ones myself, the top one is the one my friend used:

1. How many people does a two-man submarine hold?
Three, Per In The Locker was one of them

2 .It is neither cool nor easy to be an Est (short for Estonian)

3. How can you see that a car comes from Poland?
It can be seen on the coating

4. Where did the road go, I think we are driving on a field

5. A moose walked through a stream, became clean, and then
that was done

Of course this is all utterly pointless, but that is the beauty of it, if you are not convinced, try explaining a pun in a foreigt language yourseleves (preferably when you are well drunk)

Now you try

 

[duke o' york]

Here's one for Genghis then:

Les regles contre l'assassinat s'appellent quoi en anglais?

(the answer's a bit rude in French but no kid who has never heard them before will be able to do the translation anyway so I ought to get away with this )

Wow - my first post back here after being nominated by Simon to be the Civilization Fanatics Clown and no-one'll get it! Hmmm.... maybe Phillipe will. He ought to.