Comment by sunaookami
3 hours ago
I only know the German version from RTL2 which had funny commentary dubbed over it with made-up names and stuff. Curious, did the dubs in other countries do the same? Were there languages with the original commentary translated?
In the uk it was Craig Charles of red dwarf fame, renowned funk and soul DJ and robot wars host. It was brilliant.
I can hear his laugh just reading this
We had this in the 80s/90s in Italy within a show called "mai dire banzai", they mixed up clips of Takeshi's Castle and Za Gaman[0], and the commentary was three guys of which two acted as faux Japanese experts and the third acted surprised at the completely made up bits of Japanese culture.
It was incredibly popular back then.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za_Gaman
US had Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boww2fJUEHc
strange Poland didn't have one...
The dubs for the Spanish version did it too. There were two dubs, one in 1990 and another one for a 2006 re-run. Both completely made up.
Probably unscripted improv, and hilarious. Go chino cudeiro!
Yes, it was a deliberate strategy to add localized commentary, as the original context would not apply in foreign markets. An example of Transcreation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcreation