TV Shows Watched: Solar opposites: S5E3 (Hulu) with audio description, City of God: The Fight Rages On: S1E1 (MAX) with audio description, and Only Murders in The Building: S4E1 (Hulu) with audio description.
Podcasts: Political with Gavin Newsome (Interview with Flava Flav) (Side Note: You Know What I’m Saying?), Tosh Show (Interview: His Adorable Son), Here’s The Thing With Alec Baldwin (Interview: Rory Kennedy), and Pod Save America (Politics)
YouTube: None
Movies: None
Today, in hilarious choices in audio description, we’re going to dive head first into yet another international show, City of God: The Fight Rages on, which is produced by Zoo Digital. The show is a completely unnecessary 20 Years later sequel series to the classic Fernando Meireilles film,and I don’t plan on watching more than the pilot. I will say, for what it’s worth, the voice acting is solid. At least on par with Pachenko in terms of finding actors doing dubbing who don’t sound like you found them at your local 7-11. But, Zoo digital boldly went all in.
Now, sighted or blind, we routinely listen to music not in the English language. Unlike film, this is a tradition long ago supported by the prevalence of opera, which was almost always performed in the original language, and for years was well attended by the masses, who came for the experience. Still, today, whether it be classics like Bésame Mucho or la vie En Rose, we still listen to songs not in the English language. K-Pot is thriving. Reggaeton. Despacito. There’s no real reason to translate a song. And yet…
In the first episode, I cracked up, because there’s a moment where a song is being sung/played in the background, and they translated it. So, in a very flat narrator voice you get this random Brazilian hip hop song that is overtly sexually explicit, and just this really dry voice saying things like “Gonna ride you all night long. Gonna make you my pussy.”, and it goes on for about a solid thirty seconds. It was one of the more bizarre experiences I’ve had in audio description, but I loved how insanely awkward it all felt. Like, here’s this song with a distinct beat and voice, and undercutting it is a narrator making no effort, and just doing their job of reading this script, which includes these sexually explicit song lyrics. The juxtaposition had me in stitches.
Unintentionally hilarious, but still I was dying. loved it. Make those bold choices, and run with them. I would not have made this choice, but then I wouldn’t be submitting people to the funniest moment in audio description this year. It would be like if you suddenly heard (basically) any current politician suddenly start speaking the lyrics to a gangsta rap song. it doesn’t matter who that person is, or their political affiliation, i can hear each and every one of them in my head doing those lyrics, and it all sounds utterly absurd. If you don’t have the swag to pull it off, it becomes unintentionally hilarious, no matter what your initial intention was. Here, the initial intention is to provide accessibility, but the narrator doing it couldn’t be less enthused. Joe Biden could read and try to quote ANY rap song, and it will sound super freaking weird. But, it would also sound weird if Trump did it. Sometimes, you just have to have that reflection when you know you are not the right person, and it will become a meme.
