# Fun with closed captioning. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206 "2012-08-02T18:33:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206/21 "2012-08-04T15:48:04Z")
I’m sure the powers that be have to be furiously working on switching it over to a completely automatic voice recognition machine-based system. It will be immensely more efficient (read cheaper). Plus, Siri aside, voice recognition \*\*has \*\*made enormous advancements in the last five years. ---
**Author:** ![Tess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206/22 "2012-08-04T19:14:37Z")
Not too long ago I was watching some cop show where the person interviewed yelled, “It wasn’t me!” CC had him yelling, “It was me!” I wonder how many deaf viewers spent a moment or two trying to figure out why the cops were completely disregarding a murder confession? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206/23 "2012-08-04T21:52:09Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I’m sure the powers that be have to be furiously working on switching it over to a completely automatic voice recognition machine-based system. It will be immensely more efficient (read cheaper). Plus, Siri aside, voice recognition \*\*has \*\*made enormous advancements in the last five years. You wouldn’t know it from reading the voicemail transcriptions that Vonage emails to me. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206/24 "2012-08-07T18:39:26Z")
One that mystifies me to this day: the episode of **The Simpsons** where Lisa discovers that nerd sweat attracts bullies, and salad dressing makes nerds “invisible” to them. When Lisa and Marge are backstage at a scientific conference getting ready to present her findings, Lisa points out that the audience is full of scientific notables, including “the inventor of the walkie-talkie”. Marge gasps, “And that’s not his wife!” But the caption says “the inventor of the no-spill mug.” No idea why they made the change; it’s not like one is harder to spell than the other. My only guess is that “walkie-talkie” isn’t meaningful to the hearing-impaired. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206/25 "2012-08-07T19:12:52Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > One that mystifies me to this day: the episode of **The Simpsons** where Lisa discovers that nerd sweat attracts bullies, and salad dressing makes nerds “invisible” to them. When Lisa and Marge are backstage at a scientific conference getting ready to present her findings, Lisa points out that the audience is full of scientific notables, including “the inventor of the walkie-talkie”. Marge gasps, “And that’s not his wife!” > > But the caption says “the inventor of the no-spill mug.” No idea why they made the change; it’s not like one is harder to spell than the other. My only guess is that “walkie-talkie” isn’t meaningful to the hearing-impaired. I always assumed that when there is an alternate joke in the closed captioning (not that uncommon), that the closed captioners were working from a script or a pre-broadcast version of the show that got changed at the last minute. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-with-closed-captioning/630206.md?page=1)