Los locos del golf

One of my favorite movies, and certainly my favorite comedy, is Caddyshack. It was the first "R" rated film that my parents took me to see. Last night I was flipping around the TV dial and I saw that Caddyshack was on. Now, I own the DVD but I still stop to watch for a while whenever it's on. And all of a sudden when Judge Smails (Ted Knight) opens his mouth to recite his poem on the deck of his new yacht, The Flying Wasp, Spanish comes flying out. It turns out that it was Telefutura that was broadcasting a dubbed version of the movie.

They translated the title to "Los locos del golf" which means "Those crazy golfers"

Here's the thing, it was almost as funny in Spanish, and in some ways funnier, as it was in English. I have to hand it to the folks that dub these movies. The good ones are actors just as much as the ones on screen. Working in Spanish-language advertising I've worked with a lot of voice-over talents for radio commercials and even dubbed some corporate videos. Imagine reading a script you've maybe even never seen before while at the same time watching a monitor to try time your phrases properly to fit in the time alloted (while the actor on screen is moving his/her mouth).

While whoever had the job of translating the script made some mistakes, Judge Smails' poem was classic. They even made it rhyme. I don't remember it exactly in Spanish but here it is in English.

It's easy to grin,
when your ship comes in,
and you've got the stock market beat.

But the man worthwhile,
is the man who can smile,
when his shorts are too tight in the seat.

Fore!

I should have yelled two!