AMD 1

Ahhhh AMD, we meet again.  Per usual, I watched the show that is the voice of our generation: South Park.  Today, I revisited one of my favorite episodes, "Dances with Smurfs."  In this episode, Cartman becomes the reader of the school announcements.  He slowly transforms into Glenn Beck and uses the announcements to verbally lash out against the school's president: Wendy.  Cartman quickly gains a following and convinces people that Wendy's agenda was to "Kill Smurfs."  Eventually he turns it into both a book and a movie, but Wendy strikes back and gets the last laugh.
One of the first thoughts that popped into my head while watching the show was whether or not Germans understood all of the American references.  First of all, they have a character, Casey Miller, who is supposed to be like Casey Kasem.  In the American episode, the voice acting was flawless and I immediately knew who they were impersonating.  But the voice actor in the German version didn't sound anything like him.  So I wonder, did they get the joke or was it lost in translation?
Second of all, like I said before, Cartman transforms into Glenn Beck.  I remember when I first saw this episode, I had no idea who Glenn Beck was.  I later looked him up and formed my own opinion of him.  Did German viewers do that?  Do they even know who Glenn Beck is?  I will admit, though, South Park's portrayal of Glenn Beck isn't too far off...
I wonder, is there a German version of Glenn Beck?
Lastly, I noticed something else, something I've also noticed from the movies that we watched in German 101: for certain English phrases, there are more than one way to say it in German.  In this episode, that phrase was "Oh my God."  Not only was there the literal translation ("Oh mein Gott") but the subtitles also translated "Nicht du fassen" (sp?) as "Oh my God."  Although I find this really fascinating, I also find it strange that they use these different phrases instead of using one translation.
Maybe we'll learn about that later on in class...