Every so often while flipping channels I am drawn to the Spanish channel. I don’t speak any more than basic kitchen Spanish and a few cusses that I’m not even sure what they exactly mean.
Anyhow I keep noticing the talk shows they have on Univision (I think thats the network) are just as interesting as nything in english in that formate even w/o knowing what is going on. There is one show in particular that just seems to be one fellow delivering a funny and informative monolouge with interesting news stories and anecdotes ties in to a stream of words that are only briefly broken with some mild shenanagins in the background (he has, of all things a couple of male tumblers on the show and a lively band). I watched for over an hour last night and was very entertained and left wondering if the shows are as good if you understand the language.
Anyone watch Spanish TV and understand it let me know.
Anyone who watches w/o understanding and also finds the form entertaining also respond. I wish I knew the name of the show I watched last night, it was great. It was either Otro Rollo or Sabado Gigante Internacional.
I don’t watch the Spanish channel, but I do remember that my siblings and I watched a lot of TV when we lived in Japan although we didn’t speak Japanese.
I used to speak Spanish fluently and while (admittedly) I have lost a large part of my mastery, I believe they are saying something to the effect of ‘I wonder if those crazy Americans actually believe this is what our culture is about! jeje!’
I speak very little spanish, but I love to watch those channels. My fave: Sabado Gigante! That show just rocks. And I can’t figure out 5% of what they’re saying.
You are definately not alone. I have watched more than my fair share of spanish television. It started when my old roomate & I would come upon Sabado Gigante while channel surfing & yell out in unison, “Chuck Daly!” See for yourself… http://www.eliteentertainment.net/1989-90pistons/daly.html
After that got old, I began noticing the other wonderful attributes of Spanish television…
Beautiful, scantily-clothed women (usually dancing around Chuck Daly).
Mexican Wrestling (often involving midgets with crazy costumes and acrobatic stunts that are actually worth watching)…
Their version of ‘Funniest Home Videos’ usually depicts something that I wouldn’t find funny in real life (i.e. an old woman on top of a table falling on her head). But their audience laughs their heads off. It only gets to be funny when they keep rewinding the video & playing it really fast 4-5 times in a row (boom, boom, boom,…) & they pan to the audience in a fit of hysterical laughter, that’s when I can appreciate it.
What else can I say, except, “Viva Spanish Television!!!”
The more important reason to watch the show, Lente Loco!, is that the hostess, Odalys Garcia, has enormous breasts. And I mean enormous. See also this picture.
Another show to watch is Primer Impacto, a tabloid-type newsmagazine show. The two hosts, Myrka Dellanos and Maria Celeste Allenos, put Mary Hart and that woman on “Access Hollywood” to shame.
>>>The more important reason to watch the show, Lente Loco!, is that the hostess, Odalys Garcia, has enormous breasts. And I mean enormous. See also this picture. <<<
Odalys Garcia is cute but I get turned off by her constant need to flash that phony smile. As for the show, since I don’t understant much Spanish, I only get a minimum of the practical jokes throughout the show however I find the last sketch hilarious most of the time: that would be the scam with the dude who interviews a passerby with his partner coming in intervals to irritate the interviewee. He’ll throw water from behind and fake a sneeze, pull off a hat and run off, etc. The only thing I don’t understand is that this skit is always done on the very same strip, week after week, and the interviewee is never wise to the joke. However when the pest reveals, “Usted esta on la camera de Lente Loco,” all of a sudden the dupe laughs and shakes the pest’s hand. “Haha, good one. Hohoho.” So they know about the show but have no idea that they are being put on, even though it’s happening on the very same street as all the past shows, until the pest reveals their scam. And when he does, all of a sudden the victim’s apparent amnesia disappears.
There is one show, Laura en America, which in my opinion, is the Spanish language equivalent of Montel, i.e. a show where the host comes off, or tries to come off, as being caring when all they really care about are their ratings.
My favorite show is Betty La Fea, which is not on Univision. (We get three or four Spanish channels, plus a very interesting channel that changes languages every few hours - Chinese, Japanese, Farsi, mostly.) You should definitely check it out! But I got pissed off the last time I saw it, because they had made Betty bonita. Men interested in large breasts should watch this one, because to show how fea Betty is, they have surrounded her with a bunch of supermodels in the cast.
BTW, Sábado means Saturday. There’s Sábado Gigante and also Super Sábado.
Laura en America is like nothing on American T.V… The one show I watched (I understand Spanish and speak it haltingly) was about stepfathers molesting their daughters. The youngest girl was about 12 years old. The format went like this:
Daughter would say father is getting fresh. Mother would say father is a good man and wouldn’t do that. Laura pulled out hidden video of these men talking fresh and actually trying to jump on said daughters. Mothers would rise up and beat the living shit out of fathers while audience cheered. The police show up and arrest the stepfathers.
