Classic Rant #1,309 (October 24, 2014): Rock the Boat

It has taken me a bit longer to get off my family's recent cruise than I thought it would.

I didn't sleep very well the first few nights back home, and I think I missed the rocking of the boat--which in turbulent waters, really rocked a lot--and I felt as if I were on the boat still, as my body felt like it was rocking for a few days after our trip.

I guess that is what nine days on a cruise ship will do to you.

While on the ship, there was some down time, much of which we spent in our room, which was the size of a good-sized bathroom. Just imagine how big the actual bathroom was if the size of our room was that of a good-sized bathroom!

Anyway, whether it was during the day or in the evening, when we were back in our room, we had the TV on.

And what we watched on TV to pass some idle moments was pretty interesting.

Royal Caribbean does their TV different than Carnival. With Carnival, we seemed to get a satellite feed out of somewhere in Texas, and it was not repetitive, giving us new, fresh stuff to watch in those few idle moments we had aboard that ship.

On Royal Caribbean, we had international channels that were repetitive as all heck, showing the same things over and over and over.

We had CNN International, ESPN International, and some type of hybrids of the Food Channel, CBS, and a few other channels.

They did offer the American League playoff games and football, not reruns, but fresh showings of various games, if that was your fancy.

But I found most amusing their offering of various current TV shows, such as "Mike and Molly," "2 Broke Girls" and "The Big Bang Theory."

I hate these shows with a passion, but they were actually funnier when you did not understand the language.

Since there were more than 3,000 guests on board from about 40 different countries, these shows were not only offered in English, but in Spanish and German too.

Somehow, not knowing what the characters were saying made these shows funny, at least to me.

I don't know how many times on "2 Broke Girls" they said breast and boob, because honestly, I don't know what the Spanish and German translations of those words were, but it was funny to see such obviously American characters speaking these languages.

I remember as a kid, I would turn on our local Spanish channels, and would invariably get "Father Knows Best" and "Leave It To Beaver" dubbed into Spanish, and I found them to be funny not knowing what they were saying.

These were funny shows to begin with; watching them in Spanish made them hilarious to watch, in brief doses.

The local Spanish channels still dub in some of their product--mainly movies--but the old sitcoms are virtually gone from these channels, and they show much original programming these days, so seeing these shows on the boat dubbed into Spanish--and German--was a treat, bringing me back to my younger days.

Yes, I have a somewhat warped sense of humor.

Try watching "The Big Bang Theory" and see Sheldon explain the string theory to Penny--in Spanish and German.

Heck, it is way funnier than watching it in English, where I don't find it very funny at all.

Also, dubbing what these characters have to say into another language kind of misses the nuances of the characters when they speak in English.

I have watched "The Big Bang Theory" numerous times, as my wife enjoys the show.

The character of Sheldon is portrayed as something of an innocent, a brilliant person who has absolutely no social graces.

When the material is dubbed into Spanish and German, he sounds more like a bitter, petulant hermit than a brilliant scientist who knows his way around a laboratory better than a nightclub.

I found these things so funny that I recorded a few on my camera. Watch them and tell me what you think.

You might not find them funny at all, but I certainly did, allowing those idle minutes to waft away in no time.

Speak to you again on Monday.