Click the pic for the full Snopes piece with explanation...
2 days ago
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Maybe they love being on the road...
I have a "New Urban Legends" gadget on my iGoogle home page which periodically presents another Snopes Urban Legends item when "iGoogle." This morning's latest one is about a somewhat unfortunate case of closed captioning which occurred in relation to the recent California wildfires. I found it particularly interesting in light of my own prior blog entry—regarding some ridiculous DVD subtitling—which ended up, along with reader comments, touching upon the differences between subtitling and closed captioning.
Click the pic for the full Snopes piece with explanation...
Click the pic for the full Snopes piece with explanation...
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4 comments:
When I first learned of the Malibu fires, it was while watching the TV in the gym, with the closed captioning on. And it was only on the drive home that I realized that the rock star they had mentioned, Fleet, who was somehow the basis for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was actually Flea, the bassist for the RHCP.
Good one, Nat...
As a semi-regular user of closed captioning (usually only for scripted shows) I know I've seen an occasional head scratcher myself and maybe even a chuckle-inducer once in a great while, but nothing specific managed to stay in long-term memory for me to recount it now.
But to be fair it's often my own ears (or perhaps some actors' tendency to mumble?) that hinder my understanding and only the CCing which straightens out any confusion from my mishearing something. Which of course points out one of the main reasons why I use the CC feature—I tend to like SF or SF-tinged shows which invariably feature manic shouting, we-can't-let-the-drooling-monster-get-us whispering, or hurriedly spouted technobabble. Often the CCing saves me from having to repeatedly rewind the tape to give another listen or two or three (which would interrupt the flow of the story).
My department's laugh of the morning. :-)
Dim Skip, that's great!
Well, let me just express relief that my California-based readers have checked in with not a hint of rebuke.
I confess I had some misgivings about posting this item only because it could be seen as making light of an otherwise tragic event. The thing that put it over the top for me as postable was the fact of having previously posted about the sometimes comic results of poor subtitling and/or captioning.
Always good to hear if/when I provide a chuckle or two, Angel.
;-)
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