tv comedy

Afternoon. I was working on a necklace design while our helper watched TV. From where I sat I could hear the clumsy Filipino dubbing, so I supposed it was another one of those Tagalized Korean dramas.

From what I gathered, it was supposed to be a drama, but the awkward language just made me laugh like it was a comedy. Seriously, who uses unfamiliar, five-syllable Tagalog words in a casual conversation? I wonder where these local distributors find their translators and if those translators actually get paid. Anyway.

One scene just cracked me up. It involved a male character and two female characters, one of which I assume was the b*tchy girlfriend and the other seemed like the suspected other woman. The girlfriend-figure started out in all her royal nastiness, "Sinasabi ko na nga ba! Tumalikod lang ako ng sandali, naglalandian na naman kayo!," and then suddenly, so sweetly, like she switched personalities, she said, "Sweetheart, nagugutom na ako, puntahan naman natin yung bagong bukas na restaurant."

I had to look up from my work and absorb it - What the heck was that about? Was the character supposed to have some sort of mental deficiency? Did the translation miss something? Was there a portion of the scene that was edited out? Either way, it sounded idiotic, and I just had to pause and laugh at that weird monologue.

And then, as if on cue, the commercial that soon followed kept me in a snickering mood. An intelligent-sounding voice over goes, "These women will experience the [brand name] difference. Why? Because [brand name] is different." Toink. What a cleverly packaged tautology.

The drama program resumed and I found out that it's entitled "Temptation of Wife". Whaaat is that supposed to even mean? Like, if the non-sequiturs in the dialogues weren't hilarious enough, you could always cap the awkward translation with wonky phrasiology.