Fake English... Alright!
February 18, 2022 10:27 AM Subscribe
For my #DoublesJubilee contribution, I bring up Prisencolinensinainciusol, a song by an Italian singer-songwriter, actor, film director, musician, and dancer Adriano Celentano, is not in Italian. It is not in English. It is fake gibberish that sounds like English to Italians.
I also found some other old posts.
There was a discussion of the song on the "today I learned" subreddit, but it was featured previously on the blue.
Also previously was Skwerl, a four-minute short film with dialog of what English sounds like to foreigners.
Also previously was a blog post about what is actually being said in the song Louie Louie by the Kingsmen, which caused controversy and was investigated by the FBI.
Also previously, saying things in one language is hard to do in another language.
And my own addition is an adorable minute-long cartoon in a kiwi accent: Beached Whale
There was a discussion of the song on the "today I learned" subreddit, but it was featured previously on the blue.
Also previously was Skwerl, a four-minute short film with dialog of what English sounds like to foreigners.
Also previously was a blog post about what is actually being said in the song Louie Louie by the Kingsmen, which caused controversy and was investigated by the FBI.
Also previously, saying things in one language is hard to do in another language.
And my own addition is an adorable minute-long cartoon in a kiwi accent: Beached Whale
He also made one for French, which I would love to find.
posted by ocschwar at 10:33 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 10:33 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
The 1974 performance with Raffaella Carrà from RAI Uno's Milleluci program is THE ONE.
posted by mykescipark at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2022 [16 favorites]
posted by mykescipark at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2022 [16 favorites]
I will never stop loving this. If I ever gain any amount of fame or notoriety, I would like them to play this when I enter the room. I will provide the appropriate moves.
posted by Kitteh at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2022 [18 favorites]
I remember when I did that "judge your Spotify history" thing it asked "Do you listen to Prisencolinensinainciusol unironically?" I said yes and it responded, "Cool."
posted by charred husk at 10:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by charred husk at 10:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
OLL RAI!
posted by briank at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I can't recall how I first ran into this but it's one of my favorite things, along with "English as She is Spoke "
posted by aspersioncast at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by aspersioncast at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes, another link to the performance with Raffaella Carra!
posted by vacapinta at 11:14 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by vacapinta at 11:14 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love every filmed version of Prisencolinensinainciusol. Nice post!
I shared the schoolroom version of this with a friend who immediately said, "I want to be the woman with long dark hair at the back." I'm 95% sure that's Claudia Mori, who co-wrote the song and is also an impressive artist that has done things much more interesting than participating in this dumb series of music videos that I love. I have endless respect for my friend and their intuition. They called out the smartest person in the room in 90 seconds.
As a teacher with big classes, I'm really tempted to try to recreate it. My version will be ungendered and entirely optional.
posted by eotvos at 11:19 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
I shared the schoolroom version of this with a friend who immediately said, "I want to be the woman with long dark hair at the back." I'm 95% sure that's Claudia Mori, who co-wrote the song and is also an impressive artist that has done things much more interesting than participating in this dumb series of music videos that I love. I have endless respect for my friend and their intuition. They called out the smartest person in the room in 90 seconds.
As a teacher with big classes, I'm really tempted to try to recreate it. My version will be ungendered and entirely optional.
posted by eotvos at 11:19 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
I am impressed by the optimism of the "Translate to English" button Google shows you when you look up the lyrics.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:22 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:22 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
I love this song! The looping beat especially is magical.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:39 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Pronoiac at 11:39 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
My wife enjoys all things gibberish and can even speak in a fake language which is all gibberish but also kind of not hard to understand. Anyway, I mentioned this song a couple weeks ago and she had never heard of it so I had the pleasure of introducing her to it.
The thing I like most about it is that, aside from the non-lyrics, the song is a total banger.
posted by bondcliff at 11:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
The thing I like most about it is that, aside from the non-lyrics, the song is a total banger.
posted by bondcliff at 11:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
Also my contribution to this thread: Bouli Lanners (Belgian actor) singing "Sonny" in Fake English.
posted by vacapinta at 11:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 11:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
“Uma pessoa só deve falar, com impecável segurança e pureza, a língua da sua terra. Todas as outras as deve falar mal, orgulhosamente mal, com aquele acento chato e falso que denuncia logo o estrangeiro.”
"A person should speak the language of their homeland with impeccable assurance and purity. All other languages should be spoken badly, taking pride in the badness, and using that phony, grating accent that reveals at once they are a foreigner."
[Eça de Queiroz]
posted by chavenet at 11:55 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
"A person should speak the language of their homeland with impeccable assurance and purity. All other languages should be spoken badly, taking pride in the badness, and using that phony, grating accent that reveals at once they are a foreigner."
[Eça de Queiroz]
posted by chavenet at 11:55 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
My friend from Madrid who speaks pretty fluent English gave me a demonstration of how they used to imitate English speakers back when they were kids–-before they learned English.
His voice dropped a register, and he started saying things like "Worg gurdle I clock worgle" which I thought was hilarious. I told him when we were kids, we used to "imitate" what Spanish sounded like to us English-only Chicagoans. Mine was something like a fast-paced "Ero comprero niveeda nevada neevero." We had a laugh. He speaks English with a pretty heavy accent, whereas I can understand only a little Spanish and barely speak it at all.
It's amazing that we make all these rhythmic sounds with our mouths and throats and take it all for granted. And pretend to ourselves that other people can understand our thoughts!
posted by SoberHighland at 12:03 PM on February 18, 2022 [7 favorites]
His voice dropped a register, and he started saying things like "Worg gurdle I clock worgle" which I thought was hilarious. I told him when we were kids, we used to "imitate" what Spanish sounded like to us English-only Chicagoans. Mine was something like a fast-paced "Ero comprero niveeda nevada neevero." We had a laugh. He speaks English with a pretty heavy accent, whereas I can understand only a little Spanish and barely speak it at all.
It's amazing that we make all these rhythmic sounds with our mouths and throats and take it all for granted. And pretend to ourselves that other people can understand our thoughts!
posted by SoberHighland at 12:03 PM on February 18, 2022 [7 favorites]
Funny how my instinct is to turn up the volume because I can't quite understand what is being sung.
posted by 2N2222 at 12:12 PM on February 18, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by 2N2222 at 12:12 PM on February 18, 2022 [7 favorites]
Funny how my instinct is to turn up the volume because I can't quite understand what is being sung.
For me, that's the genius of it. The title sounds like gibberish, so ignore that, but the rest of the song sounds tantalizingly close to something that might actually be language -- English even! And then it's just . . . not.
posted by The Bellman at 12:15 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
For me, that's the genius of it. The title sounds like gibberish, so ignore that, but the rest of the song sounds tantalizingly close to something that might actually be language -- English even! And then it's just . . . not.
posted by The Bellman at 12:15 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
If I had all the money, I'd commission the folks behind Bad Lip Reading to write new English lyrics.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:16 PM on February 18, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:16 PM on February 18, 2022 [5 favorites]
Let's not forget The IT Crowd's reciprocal contribution to the field: gibberish that sounds vaguely like Italian to English listeners.
posted by Mayor West at 12:18 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Mayor West at 12:18 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
This song is far from OLL RAIGHT because the drummer, the horn players and the singer all disagree on where the 1 is.
posted by emelenjr at 12:21 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by emelenjr at 12:21 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Sid Caesar was a master of international gibberish.
posted by PlusDistance at 1:13 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by PlusDistance at 1:13 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Triple, Quadruple, who cares.
This song just rocks. And the B&W version with the mirrors is just so great.
Be right back
posted by Windopaene at 1:17 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
This song just rocks. And the B&W version with the mirrors is just so great.
Be right back
posted by Windopaene at 1:17 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
OK, back.
mykescipark nails it!
Another? give me a sec...
posted by Windopaene at 1:24 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
mykescipark nails it!
Another? give me a sec...
posted by Windopaene at 1:24 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Slightly off topic, but if you like Italian jazz, Paolo Conte's Happy Feet and Via con me should please. (Bonus ear worm: opening theme for I delitti del Barlume, which show is also worth watching if you get a chance.)
posted by BWA at 1:25 PM on February 18, 2022
posted by BWA at 1:25 PM on February 18, 2022
canção para inglês ver by lamartine babo - later covered by a very young os mutantes
i don't know if if makes sense in portuguese but it sure as hell doesn't make sense in english
posted by pyramid termite at 1:33 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
i don't know if if makes sense in portuguese but it sure as hell doesn't make sense in english
posted by pyramid termite at 1:33 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Japanese comedians try to have the most American conversation
HEY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!?!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:46 PM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
HEY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!?!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:46 PM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
On a tangent, I'm reminded of the beatnik scene from Visit to a Small Planet, where Jerry Lewis, playing a space alien, reacts with emotion upon hearing a scat singer's "lyrics".
posted by Morpeth at 1:51 PM on February 18, 2022
posted by Morpeth at 1:51 PM on February 18, 2022
"...it's cool for cats / it's cool for cats..."
posted by k3ninho at 3:06 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by k3ninho at 3:06 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
This song is far from OLL RAIGHT because the drummer, the horn players and the singer all disagree on where the 1 is.
That is precisely what gives this song its rhythmic power. The polyrhythms defy gravity.
posted by mykescipark at 3:42 PM on February 18, 2022 [13 favorites]
That is precisely what gives this song its rhythmic power. The polyrhythms defy gravity.
posted by mykescipark at 3:42 PM on February 18, 2022 [13 favorites]
Believe it or not, there is something new to say about this video: A few years ago, I got Adriano Celentano's early record albums, from the 1950s. He was being marketed as an Italian Elvis, and he sang a number of U.S. hits from the day, and you could tell that he was too lazy to memorize all the lyrics, so every so often, he'd just break into this "Americanese" gibberish -- just like in the famous video from the 70s. And that's where it all started ...
posted by Modest House at 3:52 PM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 3:52 PM on February 18, 2022 [10 favorites]
I love this song and every few years have to remind my coworkers that it exists. Somehow they forget about it every time, which means I get to experience the joy of witnessing their utter confusion and then transformation into joy over and over again.
posted by lilac girl at 4:54 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 4:54 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
See also this cover by Tosca Donati for a rather different take on the song.
posted by baf at 6:16 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by baf at 6:16 PM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm lowland Scottish, and Skwerl sounds somewhere between Atlantic Canadian and a Hamburg docker to me. Perhaps even Huron coast Ontario ...
posted by scruss at 8:29 PM on February 18, 2022
posted by scruss at 8:29 PM on February 18, 2022
Skwerl is extra weird because they sound like Americans but they’re holding their forks like Europeans!
posted by exceptinsects at 10:03 PM on February 18, 2022
posted by exceptinsects at 10:03 PM on February 18, 2022
This also calls to mind an interview I heard with some famous UK comedian from the '70s about how to make up fake words. (25% chance it's Terry Gilliam. But, search results sure aren't finding it.) His advice was to write down long sentences actually written in the language itself, then just randomly cut up the phonemes and re-order them into words of the right length. Then memorize it. Which seems absurd, but it's also true I find it impossible to make realistic sounding English without actually saying words or repeating too few sounds.
posted by eotvos at 5:32 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 5:32 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I love this song, and was first introduced to it in the last post. It makes me so unbearably happy.
I will never stop loving this. If I ever gain any amount of fame or notoriety, I would like them to play this when I enter the room. I will provide the appropriate moves.
I have a dream of reenacting the black and white version in the streets on Halloween. Need to find some people who’d be down to do this and actually learn how to dance. You in?
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:09 AM on February 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
I will never stop loving this. If I ever gain any amount of fame or notoriety, I would like them to play this when I enter the room. I will provide the appropriate moves.
I have a dream of reenacting the black and white version in the streets on Halloween. Need to find some people who’d be down to do this and actually learn how to dance. You in?
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:09 AM on February 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
In the same spirit of the song, this take on what languages sound like to foreigners is really great.
posted by zug at 7:25 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by zug at 7:25 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
There's also a Benny Benassi remix of Celentano's song
[Tidal has a really deep collection of this Italian Elvis' work]
posted by chavenet at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
[Tidal has a really deep collection of this Italian Elvis' work]
posted by chavenet at 11:44 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
YouTube (Music?) has the Benny Benassi remix.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:10 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Pronoiac at 12:10 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Having found that it exists, I am quite liking the Alex Party remix (youtube, appears to be his/his company's official channel).
Both this version and the Benny Benassi are also on Youtube Music if that happens to be your streaming music service of choice.
posted by BuxtonTheRed at 1:27 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Both this version and the Benny Benassi are also on Youtube Music if that happens to be your streaming music service of choice.
posted by BuxtonTheRed at 1:27 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have a dream of reenacting the black and white version in the streets on Halloween.I'd buy a plane ticket for that. I don't promise to dance well, but I promise to try hard.
posted by eotvos at 7:11 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also, realizing that I thought this immediately when reading the post but didn't actually say it, the Beached Whale video is fun. Thanks! As someone from the other hemisphere who has lived in close quarters with several New Zealanders, I'm pretty sure I get more than half of the humor. I wouldn't want to explain it to someone else, but it's great fun.
posted by eotvos at 7:34 PM on February 19, 2022
posted by eotvos at 7:34 PM on February 19, 2022
Japanese comedian Kogaken reinterpreting popular Japanese songs with gibberish English lyrics, with the help of a magical karaoke microphone.
Playlist:
Playlist:
- CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA (Dragon Ball Z 1st opening theme)
- Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea main title them
- Kobukuro - Sakura
- LINE default ringtone
- ＮＥＷＳ ＺＥＲＯ opening theme
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posted by kinnakeet at 10:30 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]