These look kinda nice I guess, but are hardly original.

The 'click wheel' style navigation is taken from the iPod and the pebble-like design is a straight copy of Bang & Olufsen's infinitely superior BeoSound 2 MP3 player.

An iPod killer? I doubt it very much...

You're right, translation IS the main purpose of subtitles, and that's the point; there's not much to 'translate' here. Russell's words are quite easily understood, given a bit of effort.

Americans in general often appear very lazy when it comes to understanding other cultures (although I'm absolutely certain this isn't the case with you chaps) and the practice of subtitling non-US English speakers doesn't do much to contradict this.

The more you're exposed to an accent, the better you understand it. British people are exposed to many kinds of American accents through films and television and can often understand even very strong regional US accents - I doubt this would be the case if any 'difficult' accents were automatically subtitled to save us the trouble of having to actually pay attention.

Jelf
Reader, Boing Boing

@ #3, Teresa (assuming it is you)

I accept your explanation, but that part about disabled viewers was a bit silly. I fail to see how myself and the second commenter have 'the disabled/non-disabled version of ethnocentrism in spades' [sic] - a rather offensive accusation!

You might have a point if the subtitles really were added for the benefit of hearing-impaired viewers, but that's clearly not the case as you never subtitle Americans on bbTV (see the current episode, for example).

And besides, what makes you so sure that neither of us is disabled?

Love Russell's bbTV eps, but is it really necessary to add subtitles?
Surely, BoingBoing's cosmopolitan readership don't find British accents THAT hard to understand?

Wow, life imitates St. Trinians!

This is great, but it does irk me somewhat that, now that James Jean is becoming something of a sensation, he goes from being an illustrator to a 'pop surrealist painter'.

This is symptomatic of the low regard in which people hold illustration. I'm sure David didn't mean to imply any prejudice through his choice of words but why re-brand the artist as a 'pop surrealist' when illustrator will do just fine? That's what he is, after all...

This is most unorthodox!

The inscription reads 'May You Be Touched By Its Noodly Appendage'

'His Noodley Appendage', surely?!

I have to comment again; this is an AWESOME episode!
Did Michael command it to be so?

Russell is charming and Peggy Sue and the Pirates are truly wonderful - I've watched this through three times and am now off to see if I can purchase their music somewhere online...

Thanks, BBtv!

I was really immersed in the music and then - Michael Bay!
What a horrible shock!

(great BBtv ep though)

These are great! If you like 'em, you'll find more good ones here:
http://www.fashionillustrationgallery.com/

@ #45 Antinous

A pedant writes:

It's 'Brenda', not 'Betty'

(cf. http://tinyurl.com/3xsv3e)

Prince Philip is brilliant!
When I was at art school in Falmouth, he and the Queen visited the town to open a new museum and a couple of black students and a disabled girl placed themselves at the front of the crowd in the hope of provoking some sort of hilariously out-of-touch comment. They were disappointed when he just smiled and walked on by...

Anyway, here's my fave prince Philip quote:
(upon being greeted by a fawning diplomat as he steps from a plane)
"And how was your flight, sir?" asks the envoy
"Have you ever flown?" the prince replies
"Yes, sir, often."
"Well," says the prince, "it was like that."

That robot is going to get repetitive strain injury pretty soon if he keeps this up...

He's getting things done!

Ok, so La Pequena Prohibida is kind of nasty but THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3bDwLhz_RY

is totally freaking awesome!

@ #3 - Exactly where in the clip did it state that the beaver was killed "in the most medieval way possible"? Did I miss the part where they dispatch the poor creature by means of an iron maiden or judas cradle? Or did you just make that bit up to add spice to your rant?

Quick, Xeni, post a Unicorn Chaser before I - bleuuuch - never mind, too late..

Aw this looks so cool! I wish to heck I lived in America!

Aw, bless! She's a lovely little thing, and no mistake - congratulations!

#60 - Since when were Anglo-Saxons 'barbarian conquerors'?

Thanks for this Joel - my menu screen looks mighty fine now!

Didn't bother with the BBtv one though, since I can't actually watch any of the flash eps on my iPhone... (although they do work fine if you download them from iTunes)

Best BBTV yet, I think!

Was that the mighty mighty Adam Buxton we glimpsed for a moment at the end there?

Great photo, Cory!

@ #7: it's ironic then that he began his career writing for 'Deadline' magazine...

Thank you Ape Lad, thank you!

But no thanks to BB for even mentioning the rotten film in the first place...

The cartoon editor is entirely correct - I used to produce regular cartoons for Punch magazine (the now-defunct British equivalent to the New Yorker) and this happened a lot.
For example, when the mad cow scare was at its hight in the UK, I sent in a (not very funny) cartoon depicting a 'boneless cattle farm' - the editor wrote back saying that two other cartoonists had turned in the exact same gag. A similar joke ran in Private Eye the same week.

Certainly the premise of the joke above is obvious enough for this to have been a coincidence - there must be thousands of cartoons about people feeding birds in the park...

By the way Mark, the cartoon editor's name is Bob Mankoff, not Bob Mankowitz...

Sorry to be unfashionable, but I have to say that drugs like this really do have a very negative impact on the lives of many people - it's not just the media 'blowing it up into a big issue'. I lost a friend who ran into the sea under the influence of magic mushrooms and was drowned. Another friend, whose use of drugs started with relatively mild substances such as weed, died of a heroin overdose. I know two people who's lives have been ruined by cannabis-induced psychosis, all because they were users of a 'harmless' substance. A friend who works for the Social Services in the UK knows of many, many more such cases.

So forgive me if I'm not impressed by all this nonsense about 'endangered minorities' and people who will 'never get the chance to stop and realize how beautiful life can be' (what utter bilge!) --- are people really going to argue that their 'freedom' to indulge in a bit of mild drug use in Amsterdam is more important than the life of, say, the schoolgirl mentioned in this article?

Is it just me, or is animated Jackhammer Jill sporting a beard in the BBTV ident?