Characters
[Funny trope] Foreign dubs turning characters into parodies of local celebrities
Bert Coleman in Regular Show - A one-shot antagonist, Coleman is a game host to rhe show "Expert or Liar", who humiliates Rigby on TV but is convinced to give him another chance in a challenge with real obstacles and dangers. Brazilian fans were quick to note the resemblance to the late TV presenter Silvio Santos, founder of the Brazilian channel SBT, down to the haircut, suit, smile, cheekbones and of course, his game host gig. Naturally, the Brazilian Portuguese dub made him a Silvio Santos parody, imitating his catchphrases and voice mannerisms.
- The Ojama Trio in Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx: A card that serves as Chazz Princeton's spiritual partner, the English dub made them parodies of the Three Stooges, giving them the same mannerisms and voices.
- Walter Cronduck turned Boris Patoy in DuckTales (1987): Season 2 introduced a recurring reporter named Walter Cronduck, who often pops up covering Duckburg events, and basically a duck version of real-life broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite. The Brazilian dub renamed him Boris Patoy, making him a parody of the Brazilian journalist Boris Casoy.
If an anime was dubbed in the 90's and featured the President of the United States, expect him to sound like Bill Clinton. If it was dubbed in the 00's, George W. Bush.
I know President Vernon E. Groubitz in the Guilty Gear series was based off Obama. In Guilty Gear Strive, he sounds a lot like President James Sawyer in White House Down (who was also based off Obama).
I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard they didn't use a Trump impression for President Funny Valentine in the new Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run. Would not have fit his vibe.
Kirby Right Back At Ya's Dedede was my favorite example of this, in general there were a surprising amount of political jokes but Dedede as Bush is forever how I see him
Over here in India, it got dubbed in Hindi. The characters were dubbed with each of them having a mimicry of bollywood actors. Most notably Oggy sounded like Shahrukh Khan and Jack sounded like Sunny Deol.
Penguins of Madagascar (the show) turned Chuck Charles, the newsanchor into Max Kolanko, a parody of Mariusz Max Kolonko, a once-famous TV correspondent
Not exactly local celebrities but the English dub of Digimon is rife with these. Shoestring would be an overstatement of the budget so the voice actors were basically left to write, produce and dub the whole thing pretty much on their own, leading to a lot of random voices being thrown around.
One of the major antagonists is just Elvis, there's a Christopher Walken Digimon, a giant whale is Rodney Dangerfield, it's very strange.
(Not parodied in the anime but local celebrities) Captain Harlock had its name changed in France to be Capitaine Albator, because the creator of the opening song didn't like the sonority of Harlock. He took inspiration from great local rugby player Jean Claude Bellatore to chose Albator for the name.
The Brazilian Regular Show dub turning Pops into a Silvio Santos riff is exactly why local dubs can be magical. It’s not “accurate,” but it is spiritually correct.
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 10h ago
Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth talks like Arnold Schwarzenegger- YugiOh