# Ha ha ha America **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313 "2006-04-19T16:14:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/1 "2006-04-19T16:14:06Z")
Here’s a link to a short film which won at the Sundance Festival, I think in the “documentaries” category. It has a point and is in no way mundane, which is why I didn’t post this in MPSIMS. Hilarious, yet deeply disturbing. For broadband connections only. [http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC](http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC) ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/2 "2006-04-19T19:15:04Z")
we give you good deal on disproportionate foam finger says we #2 we #2 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/3 "2006-04-19T19:41:16Z")
Wen Zhou more enormous than New York Fucking City! Who enjoying fragrant monkey tail now? Who indeed? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/4 "2006-04-19T19:58:42Z")
Actually, watching the whole thing, it’s a surprisingly effective criticism of America…especially when you get to the end and they drop the broken Chinglish routine for the last sentence and you realize that the filmmaker is perfectly aware of how awful the translation is, and that he’s making fun of us for feeling superior _because_ of the mutilated translation. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/5 "2006-04-19T20:49:09Z")
Maybe my irony meter is broken, or my sense of humor is on the fritz, but I thought it was a stupid, senseless waste of film. It’s annoyingly shot, the mistranslations were idiotic, and, given the huge amount of crap to make fun of America with, not very successful at even scratching the surface. It was unfunny, boring, and idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/6 "2006-04-19T20:57:12Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Maybe my irony meter is broken, or my sense of humor is on the fritz, but I thought it was a stupid, senseless waste of film. It’s annoyingly shot, the mistranslations were idiotic, and, given the huge amount of crap to make fun of America with, not very successful at even scratching the surface. It was unfunny, boring, and idiotic. It was a perfect “underdog” film. I believe it was shot that way entirely on purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/7 "2006-04-20T01:13:35Z")
No tie shorts in complicated knot. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/8 "2006-04-20T01:15:42Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > It was a perfect “underdog” film. I believe it was shot that way entirely on purpose. Ah, the ultimate defense of the bad movie: “I meant to do that.” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/9 "2006-04-20T02:31:17Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > Actually, watching the whole thing, it’s a surprisingly effective criticism of America…especially when you get to the end and they drop the broken Chinglish routine for the last sentence and you realize that the filmmaker is perfectly aware of how awful the translation is, and that he’s making fun of us for feeling superior _because_ of the mutilated translation. Um, the last sentence is “Go fuck yourself,” so not sure of your point. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/10 "2006-04-20T03:13:10Z")
> [@](#): > > **RikWriter** : Ah, the ultimate defense of the bad movie: “I meant to do that.” Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/11 "2006-04-20T03:16:45Z")
“You runt pig with no formal access to prosperity tit.” I think I pulled something laughing… ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/12 "2006-04-20T03:19:23Z")
Actually, the last line of the film at the end of the short credits) was, I believe, something along the lines of, “Thanks to [insert names here], the People’s Republic of China, and to the industrious and devastatingly shrewd business people of Wen Zhou.” This is completely atypical language in the film, being proper English. My interpretation of this is that the filmmakers used the broken Chinglish translation as a deliberate device to lull the American viewer into a sense of superiority, only to pull it out from under them in the end by saying, “Yeah, we fucked it up on purpose.” after all, the director was Jon Daniel Ligon. No way is English this guy’s second language. I can only assume that it was this feature which got it into the Sundance festival at all, being that the rest of the movie barely rises above the level of a bad Flash-based web movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/13 "2006-04-20T03:20:26Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance. Yup. You got it. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/14 "2006-04-20T06:53:58Z")
An interesting premise, but _waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay_ too long. You could have cut it down to 3 minutes and gotten the same effect. At least it’d reduce the chances of the music causing internal bleeding… ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/15 "2006-04-20T07:26:09Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > An interesting premise, but _waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay_ too long. You could have cut it down to 3 minutes and gotten the same effect. At least it’d reduce the chances of the music causing internal bleeding… That’s what I thought, too. Although maybe 3 minutes is two minutes too long. On second thoughts, it was just rubbish. Boring, overly-self-aware drivel. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/16 "2006-04-20T07:39:28Z")
I thought it was genious. The entire Buddha Island part was hilarious “we can give you a job push button for self amusement. but wait. do you have prior experience push button? what button you push in 5 year?” then to have the rug pulled under you by learning that “fragrant monkey tail” = sucks ass, and that the chinglish was intentional, and the author definitely intended the masturbatory connations of “push button for self amusement” is just brilliant. Oh, and the connotations of the pipe laying guy. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/17 "2006-04-20T11:12:54Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Also great for whooshing folks who think that talented film makers would really talk like that in a film about China. The director is Jon Daniel Ligon who attended the University of Michigan. It deserved the recognition it got at Sundance. You missed the point. It wasn’t that ANYONE believed the mistranslations were accidental, it was that they thought they were idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/18 "2006-04-20T14:16:20Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > You missed the point. It wasn’t that ANYONE believed the mistranslations were accidental, it was that they thought they were idiotic. I don’t believe this for a second. I’ll bet that most people who watch the movie have a smug sense of superiority over the comically ridiculous (and yet so typical) mistranslations. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/19 "2006-04-20T14:23:29Z")
I find it hard to believe that many people would think it were a ‘real’ set of translations for more than a few seconds. They’re mostly painfully-contrived attempts to be humourous. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313/20 "2006-04-20T14:27:36Z")
No they’re not. They are fairly standard Chinglish fare of the sort frequently made fun of on pages like [this](http://www.silverladder.com/literature/chinglish/chinglish.htm), among many, many others. We’re all Netizens. We’re all aware of the phenomenon. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ha-ha-ha-america/353313.md?page=2)