Help me translating Black Adder Page 2

Quote: WrongTale @ February 20 2012, 10:16 AM GMT

CAPTAIN COOK

"I smell something fishy, and I'm not talking about the contents of Baldrik's apple crumble."

I wonder if Blackadder means the actual food (as the Baldrick is a cook for him) or perhaps the contents of the trousers?

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Just the food I think.

George wants "to give Harry Hun a darned good British-style thrashing, six of the best, trousers down"

And here the cricket jokes start, right?

No cricket reference. Six of the best means six strokes of the cane.

"The Vomiting Cavalier"?

What does he mean by Cavalier here? Simply a cavalryman?

It appears to eb a reference to Frans Hals painting, The Laughing Cavalier.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

During the trial, Melchett says about BA:
"Nonsense. He's a hound and a rutter and he's going to be shot."

A rutter, I presume, is an animal who is in the rut?
(incidentally, another script I found online said "rotter")

'rotter' sounds more likely, but with Blackadder you never know!

"Little Freddy scores a century for the first eleven"

Nope. No idea. Scores a hundred, probably. Whatever that means.

Scores one hundred runs (i.e points) for the first team.

"Old Morehen's Shredded Sporum"

Apparently some colourful name for a whiskey George's mommy sent him. Or a colourful name for a homemade alcohol?

No, more likely a colourful commercial name. And I think that should be 'moorhen' (a type of waterfowl) and 'sporan' (a Scotsman's purse).

MAJOR STAR

BA describes the great British music-hall tradition - Two men with incredibly unconvincing Cockney accents going: 'What's up with you then? What's up with me then? Yeh, what's up with you then? What's up with me then? I'll tell you what's up with me then. I'm right round off , that's what's up with me."

"round off" - no idea what it is. "Annoyed"?

Presumably that should be 'browned off', i.e. fed up.

PRIVATE PLANE

Flashheart calls someone a "rubber-desk johnny" on the phone. This looks like combination of two expressions. I know what rubber johnny is, though.

Nope baffled by that one.

When describing the 20-minuters, Flashheart says:
"tasty tucker, soft beds and a uniform so smart it's got a PhD from Cambridge"
George later confuses it, saying "Soft tucker, tasty beds, fluffy uniforms."

What does "tucker" mean here?

Food.

George is somewhat disappointed by the actual purpose of the the 20-minuters:
"Hairy blighters! This is a turn-up for the plus fours." Hairy blighters is apparently some aviators' mild oath. But that other expression completely puzzles me. I found out what the plus fours are, though.

A 'blighter' is a person but with disparaging overtones. 'Plus fours' are short trousers worn to play golf. I am not sure Blackadder oaths stand up to a lot of analysis!

While threatened by the Red Baron in prison, BA says:
"You see, Baldrick, dress it up in any amount of pompous verbal diarrhoea, but the message is - square heads down for the big Boche gang bang."

Oook. I know what words like square heads, Boche and even gang bang mean. I'm confused by the simplest word: "down".

'heads down for' is a dififcult idiom to paraphrase; it means something like "getting on with". So 'squareheads down' means "Germans getting on with".

"as pointless as trying to teach a woman the importance of a good forward defensive stroke."

Aw, nice. Not enough cricket jokes

Women are as hard to explain cricket to as Latvians.

When urging everyone to leave the German prison, Flashheart says:
"As the bishop said to the netball team. Come on, chums!"

What am I missing here? Netball is some sort of basketball for women, I found out, so... the team consisted of women, but the Bishop refers to them as men?

The usual expression is 'the Bishop said to the actress' and implies a sexual innuedo. I think netball team implies particulalrly randy bishop. 'Come on chums' could be deliberately anti-climactic - we are led to expect an innuendo that is not delivered. Unless 'come on' i.e. ejaculate on, is the innuendo.

Hope this helps.

Quote: Aaron @ February 20 2012, 1:46 PM GMT

Frankly, very few people here understand cricket. I bet you know more about it than I do. Unless I'm missing something, the "trousers down" bit rather implies being hit on the bare backside jolly hard 6 times. With a bit of subtle doubt as to whether the "thrashing" could be a euphemism for anal sex...

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It refers to corporal punishment in school, when children were caned.

Quote: Aaron @ February 20 2012, 1:46 PM GMT

I'm unsure on the plus fours bit either, but a blighter is "a person regarded with contempt, irritation or pity". Not sure about this "mild oath" business, but I'd probably have taken the addition of 'hairy' to be an insulting implication that they're unshaven, unkempt, not fit and proper, etc. Perhaps someone else knows something else here though...

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Plus Fours are short trousers worn to play golf in. The turn-up refers to both the hem of the trousers and a play on the phrase 'turn up for the books.'

I smell something fishy means I suspect something deceptive or dodgy

Rutter could refer to one who ruts, i.e. tries to have sex with everything

Rubber desk is similar to 'as useful as a chocolate teapot'. Johnny is standard incorporates-all male name, combined for effect with the preceding 'rubber'

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ February 20 2012, 1:58 PM GMT

Plus Fours are short trousers worn to play golf in. The turn-up refers to both the hem of the trousers and a play on the phrase 'turn up for the books.'

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Ah! I love it when this becomes a place of learning.

Quote: WrongTale @ February 20 2012, 10:16 AM GMT

"Old Morehen's Shredded Sporum"

Apparently some colourful name for a whiskey George's mommy sent him. Or a colourful name for a homemade alcohol?

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Ah, I've actually looked this up now. The official script book says "Old Moorhead's Shredded Sporran". I don't know if it's a mistake in the book or the script playing on (more likely) an existing name: Google tells me that "Old Moorhen's Shredded Sporran" is a cocktail.

Of course, the cocktail could have been named by a Blackadder fan in the years since. In which case it's probably a play on the colourful and ridiculous sentimentalistic sounding names of whiskies.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ February 20 2012, 1:58 PM GMT

Plus Fours are short trousers worn to play golf in.

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And worn by adventuring reporters.

Quote: WrongTale @ February 20 2012, 10:16 AM GMT

PRIVATE PLANE

Flashheart calls someone a "rubber-desk johnny" on the phone. This looks like combination of two expressions. I know what rubber johnny is, though.

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Think everyone has pretty much nailed all the others but I would add for "rubber-desk johnny" that it is a combination of several things.

1) a desk jockey is slang used to describe military personnel who do not fight on the frontline, so Flashheart is basically calling them a coward.

2) the name "Johnny" was often used as a generic name, as in "Johnny Foreigner" to describe people from a foreign country or "Johnny on the spot" to describe someone who happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was usually used in a slightly derogatory manner, often to describe someone of lower class.

3) Rubber Johnny was, and still is, slang for a condom.

So by combining all these to call him a rubber-desk Johnny, Flashheart is expressing his contempt for someone he considers lower class, the non-fighting man and also including a sexual reference which hints at his sexual machismo, not bad for three words!

Woof!

God - it's like Crufts in here.

Major (and private, and general) thanks to each and every one of you, allowing me to enrich the experience of watching these episodes. And well, learning new things never hurt anyone either.

Aaron, I am using subtitles which were supposedly taken from the last year's Ultimate Blackadder edition. I had no problems with the second and the third series.
I am also checking them against the scripts at seeleyonline.com (http://seeleyonline.com/BlackAdder/BlackAdder.html)

As to "hairy blighter", it is included in this sketch: http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/rafbante.htm
Apparently it is not the best source from scientific point of view

As to "squareheads", the urban dictionary says: "A derogatory nickname for Germans during World War I, when Germany was our enemy. They supposedly had large, square-shaped heads."

Is "tucker" some special kind of food - or simply a food?

I did forget to ask about Seeley's "pony club trials"
This must be some kind of horse riding sports for children... Is it this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventing
(in that case, it is not really for children )

I have two more episodes to watch - the hospital and goodbyeee, incidentally, my favourites in Goes Forth. My 9-year old, now having watched all the episodes, considers this joke to be his favourite:

Blackadder: I thought I'd get my headstone done.
George: Really? What are you going to put on it?
Blackadder: 'Here lies Edmund Blackadder - and he's bloody annoyed.'

Quote: WrongTale @ February 21 2012, 8:48 AM GMT

God - it's like Crufts in here.

Major (and private, and general) thanks to each and every one of you, allowing me to enrich the experience of watching these episodes. And well, learning new things never hurt anyone either.

Aaron, I am using subtitles which were supposedly taken from the last year's Ultimate Blackadder edition. I had no problems with the second and the third series.
I am also checking them against the scripts at seeleyonline.com (http://seeleyonline.com/BlackAdder/BlackAdder.html)

As to "hairy blighter", it is included in this sketch: http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/rafbante.htm
Apparently it is not the best source from scientific point of view

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Blight is in fact a disease in plants. Blighter just means someone who's annoying.

Is "tucker" some special kind of food - or simply a food?

Tucker are snacks in the dormitories in public schools-cheap food?

I did forget to ask about Seeley's "pony club trials"
This must be some kind of horse riding sports for children... Is it this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventing
(in that case, it is not really for children )

You couldn't really get adults riding ponies-they're too small. Pony clubs are only for children.
Have you got a market for this translating yet???

Quote: WrongTale @ February 21 2012, 8:48 AM GMT

Aaron, I am using subtitles which were supposedly taken from the last year's Ultimate Blackadder edition. I had no problems with the second and the third series.
I am also checking them against the scripts at seeleyonline.com (http://seeleyonline.com/BlackAdder/BlackAdder.html)

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Blimey, that's a bit depressing if they're so inaccurate. Presumably they were created by computer rather than human. Ho hum.

Quote: WrongTale @ February 21 2012, 8:48 AM GMT

Is "tucker" some special kind of food - or simply a food?

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No, it's just slang for food in general. You may have heard the (now slightly antiquated) term 'tuck shop', which would generally be taken to mean sweets and snacks, or 'tuck in' meaning 'begin', usually with regard to starting a meal. Either way, no, it does not have particular connotation of a specific foodstuff.

Quote: WrongTale @ February 21 2012, 8:48 AM GMT

I did forget to ask about Seeley's "pony club trials"
This must be some kind of horse riding sports for children... Is it this one? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eventing
(in that case, it is not really for children )

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Where, and in what episode, is that?

Quote: Aaron @ February 21 2012, 10:46 AM GMT

Where, and in what episode, is that?

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I'll respond properly later... but this was in Corporal Punishment, right next to Freddy and him scoring a century.

Have you tried translating the first series?

Quote: WrongTale @ February 21 2012, 12:59 PM GMT

I'll respond properly later... but this was in Corporal Punishment, right next to Freddy and him scoring a century.

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Ah. Curse of the poor script again. It is:

"...I have to read this drivel. 'Hope that Celia thrives in the Pony Club Trials and Freddy scores a century for the first eleven.' You can't deny..."

It's just chit-chat waffle that George is writing to his mother. We are to assume that Celia is a relative, perhaps George's younger sister, and he's hoping she does well in a contest at the pony riding club to which she belongs. It probably would take the form of something similar to (but smaller than!) equestrian eventing; but that's irrelevant, there's no hidden meaning or implication of any kind. It's just (comparable to Blackadder's impending execution) pathetic small-talk.

Can I suggest you furnish your bookshelf with a copy of the following before going any further in your endeavours? I can tell how much effort you're putting into getting this right, so I'd hate for it to be spoilt by working from poor source material!

See Amazon product listing
[p=http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/215829/-Blackadder-/Product.html]

The following may also be of help - and certainly of interest:

See Amazon product listing
[p=http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1388210/Cunning/Product.html]

Quote: Aaron @ February 21 2012, 10:46 AM GMT

Blimey, that's a bit depressing if they're so inaccurate. Presumably they were created by computer rather than human. Ho hum.

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I have the Blackadder Complete Collection (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000ASALUQ/comedyguide-21/) and checked it recently. In all places, the subtitles were the same as in the Ultimate Edition. "Round off", "rotter", "Old Morehen's Shredded Sporum", the lot.
Plus, Hugh Laurie definitely pronounces "-hen" in "Old Morehen's Shredded Spo-something"

However, I later found two more irregularities regarding subtitles.
When Melchett suggests Blackadder should "pop his todger between two flowery baps" (and shout "dinner, Fido!")
...he surely means floury?

And Blackadder says in Corporal Punishment: "Call me a bluffo traditionalist, but I was always taught to wait for the order to attack before attacking."
bluffo? should be "bluff old", right?

But, now to the part where you explain me why my English is mediocre

"you're the worst entertainer since St Paul the Evangelist toured Palestine with his trampoline act." says BA to Baldrick.
I'm not a religious person nor very knowledgeable in Biblical events, and I cannot think of what Blackadder refers to in St. Paul's life.

General Hospital
George in hospital claims he has received from his relatives:
"a potted turkey, a cow in jelly, three tinned sheep", etc.
What's the difference between potted and tinned?

BA described the nurse's possible man-friend as "hung like a baboon". This means he has ... member like a baboon, right? Supposedly big one

George gets slight depressed during "Goodbyeee" before the big attack:
"I might get a bit mis if it wasn't for the thought of going over the top tomorrow. Permission to get weaving, sir."

Not sure what he means by weaving here. Running through the trenches, getting all the men together? Since later he comes back and reports that: "All the men present and correct, sir."

In the last but one scene, when the big guns go silent, George is hopeful that "The big nobs have got round a table and yanked the iron out of the fire."

The first part, OK, they gathered around the table. But yanking an iron out of fire? Any hidden meaning here?

Thanks in advance, and I believe this will be the last installment - unless I hit an expected rock.

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

I have the Blackadder Complete Collection (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000ASALUQ/comedyguide-21/) and checked it recently. In all places, the subtitles were the same as in the Ultimate Edition. "Round off", "rotter", "Old Morehen's Shredded Sporum", the lot.
Plus, Hugh Laurie definitely pronounces "-hen" in "Old Morehen's Shredded Spo-something"

However, I later found two more irregularities regarding subtitles.
When Melchett suggests Blackadder should "pop his todger between two flowery baps" (and shout "dinner, Fido!")
...he surely means floury?

And Blackadder says in Corporal Punishment: "Call me a bluffo traditionalist, but I was always taught to wait for the order to attack before attacking."
bluffo? should be "bluff old", right?

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You are correct on both counts.

All of this strongly suggests - a little dishearteningly - that the subtitles on these DVDs have been generated by computer. A clever computer, admittedly, but not an accurate one, and with little - or more likely, no - checking by humans. One would have hoped they'd put a little more effort in!

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

But, now to the part where you explain me why my English is mediocre

"you're the worst entertainer since St Paul the Evangelist toured Palestine with his trampoline act." says BA to Baldrick.
I'm not a religious person nor very knowledgeable in Biblical events, and I cannot think of what Blackadder refers to in St. Paul's life.

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He's not referring to anything. He's drawing a ludicrous comparison to illustrate how awful Baldrick's act was.

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

General Hospital
George in hospital claims he has received from his relatives:
"a potted turkey, a cow in jelly, three tinned sheep", etc.
What's the difference between potted and tinned?

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Potted turkey is a specific dish. Tinned sheep ... I'm not quite sure about. But it's probably translatable as tinned lamb. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pottedturkey_71060

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

BA described the nurse's possible man-friend as "hung like a baboon". This means he has ... member like a baboon, right? Supposedly big one

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Yes, like a baboon - although, as he's referring to a theoretical vicar, whether he's implying a big or a small one is open to interpretation. The look on Blackadder's face as he says it may give a hint, but I would suspect big rather than small.

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

George gets slight depressed during "Goodbyeee" before the big attack:
"I might get a bit mis if it wasn't for the thought of going over the top tomorrow. Permission to get weaving, sir."

Not sure what he means by weaving here. Running through the trenches, getting all the men together? Since later he comes back and reports that: "All the men present and correct, sir."

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I had no idea about this either, but Google informs me that "get weaving" means "get cracking", i.e. ready to go. So he's going and preparing and checking that the rest of the men under Blackadder's command are ready.

Quote: WrongTale @ April 12 2012, 11:42 AM BST

In the last but one scene, when the big guns go silent, George is hopeful that "The big nobs have got round a table and yanked the iron out of the fire."

The first part, OK, they gathered around the table. But yanking an iron out of fire? Any hidden meaning here?

View original

Unless someone else can enlighten me, I believe to pull an iron from the fire means to come up with a new idea, in this case a last minute resolution to hostilities.