1) Put Words In My Ears
Buffalax is Mike Sutton of Ohio, the Internet’s most famous practitioner of soramimi — the art of purposely hearing a foreign-language song as if it’s being sung in your native tongue. Sutton’s version of the English lyrics appear as subtitles.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYwS9k1ZexY
Buffalax, “Benny Lava” (Kalluri Vaanil, 2008)
In 2008, Sutton “buffalaxed” his first song, this clip from the Indian-Tamil movie “Pennin Manathai Thottu.” Prabhu Devahas often hears “Benny Lava!” when he appears in public. No surprise, there’s a “Buffalax Official Worship Page” on Facebook.
2) Put Words In My Mouth
The guys at Day Job Orchestra enjoy a different game: they put their own audio track over politicians’ speeches, TV commercials, and scenes from TV shows: see “Star Trek.”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDlTS-mlJAA
dayjoborchestra, “Star Trek “Chin Hitler” (2008)
3) Put Songs In My Mouth
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2DLNnFUrAE
SamRick, “One Direction: Story of My Life Dubbed” (2014)
4) Put Thoughts In My Head
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7YIAWsyB1I
BBC Comedy, “Funny Talking Animals: Walk On The Wild Side” (CBBC, 2009)
5) Be Your Own David Attenborough
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Randall, “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger” (2011)
6) Read My Thoughts
Certain creatures are easier to interpret than others.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw
klaatu42, “Ultimate Dog Tease” (2011)
7) Say No More
The story reaches its happy end, the heroes are reunited, hurray. What is there to say?
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QAlt4Sfl7Q
Olof & CJ, “Lord Of The Rings Voiceover” (2006)
8) Exorcise The Music
We get it. All’s well that ends well. Do we even need the rousing soundtrack?
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-GZJhfBmI
Auralnauts, “Star Wars Minus Williams” (2014)
9) Sound The Way It Looks
Loosen a few of the familiar formal elements from a film and it looks a lot different. Try this 1985 music video, “Dancing In The Street” with David Bowie and Mick Jagger, with an audio track more faithful to the video images.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_li_d_YviZ4
digitalofen, “Music Videos Without Music: Dancing In The Street” (2014)
10) Tell Of The Things I See
When you see a music video, you may feel compelled to simply change up the lyrics. Creator of “Literal Music Videos,” Dustin McLean did just that in 2008. As ever, he’s faced claims by the big record companies for copyright issues. Yawn.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HE9OQ4FnkQDustin McLean, “Take On Me: Literal Video Version” (2008)
11) “In A World Where Movie Makers Tell The Truth”
Oscar-winning films with grand themes are pretty stupid too if you tell it like it is with your own honest trailers, especially if Jon Bailey at Screen Junkies is available to do your voiceover.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzzLngXfCcI
ScreenJunkies, “Honest Trailer: Gravity” (2014)
12) Exorcise My Scouser
For guaranteed laughs, get a Scouser to do your voiceover.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKitKmHAa5g
ripdemfilms, “Scouse Exorcist (2009)
13) Tell Of The Things I Hear
When Eddie Vedder is singing, subtitles are much appreciated.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLd22ha_-VU
misheardlyricsguy, “Misheard Lyrics For Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam (2007)
14) Subtitles Visible To The Subtitled
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUT2EX28-Ms
skitHOUSE, “Interviewing Iraqi Resistants” (2004)
15) Put Words To Music
Here Josh Groban displays the inanity of a certain rapper’s tweets…
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axzxe1a78E
JimmyKimmellLive, “Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets” (2011)
16) Bleeping, Whatever The Amount
In certain cases, no dubbing. Just add a bleep censor to certain words. Call it “unnecessary censorship.”
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM
Count Von Count, “The Count Censored” (2008) – thx Steve Galloway
17) Mime The Mimics
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6PxMRUgmbA
robcantor, “29 Celebrity Impressions, 1 Original Song” (2014)
Wondering how Rob Cantor did this? Click here.
18) Skwerl
Reverse dubbing—making a language unintelligible—is a funny game for anyone who has been at a dinner table with everyone speaking a language you only barely understand.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY
Brian and Karl, “How English Sounds to Non-English Speakers” (2011)
19) Yo Yo Put That Music Into Me
When hip-hop is dubbed over with an affecting cello line (The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns — courtesy of Yo Yo Ma), dance artist Charles Lil’ Buck Riley exhibits a physical lyricism that could never be translated, substituted, or subtitled…
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x30hhpVaWM0
OpeningCeremonyNY, “Lil Buck and YoYo Ma” (Lil’ Buck and Spike Jonze, 2011)
– Ryeberg
