French & Saunders & Madonna, oh MY

Beverage alert. If you have one in hand, do not take a sip before you listen to this. You have been warned.

Background: Madonna was interviewed by a Hungarian journalist during the filming of the movie Evita. The questions were asked in Hungarian, translated to English for her, then her answers were translated back to Hungarian. The whole interview was then written up, in Hungarian, for a newspaper in Budapest.

This interview was then translated once more from Hungarian back to English for a transcript more closely resembling a big pot of goulash.

The transcript is what French and Saunders, two comic geniuses, are reading from. I laughed so hard I ended up with a coughing jag.



thank you Julie!

For anyone wishing to have a go with their own words, there is always Babelfish. (You know, from THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.) You enter a body of text, translate it to another language and then cut and paste it and translate back again to English.

For example, if you take the first three lines of this blog, translate them to Korean, then back to English you get this:

Beverage alert. You there is 1 starts and in case, you before listening closely this, has sip and the branch dries. You were warned.

The branch dries? What does it all mean, Basil?