Do you long for the days when dadaesque social media experiment horse_ebooks would transform garbled bits of gibberish into poetry? Well, then just turn on the captions next time you watch a John Oliver clip on YouTube.
Perhaps it’s the late night host’s crisp Midlands accent that’s throwing YouTube for a loop — but something is getting terribly lost in translation.
Prior to launching HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver was asked in a 2013 Fresh Air interview about his accent. Of it, he said: “I think my accent became a persona in and of itself, in its – I think deep down, Americans still can’t help but respect the British accents. I think it’s something latent in your history, in our history. You still can’t help but respect the authority of this voice.”
Well. Have a look for yourself here, but it would seem that YouTube is seriously undermining that authority.
What he actually said: “If you earn minimum wage there — 7.25 an hour — it would take you.” (2:24/Municipal Violations)
What he actually said: “…feeding meth to an alligator, feeding an alligator to a meth dealer” (7:42/Municipal Violations)
What he actually said: “That’s the kind of unsettling fact that deep down you probably knew” (1:00/U.S. Territories)
What he actually said: “Just to be clear, that is an Afghanistan war veteran moving an audience to cheers.” (11:45/U.S. Territories)
Correct captioning: “That upside-down piece of candy corn in a wig made of used medical drawers” (10:29/Infrastructure)
Correct captioning: “I thought it was worth mentioning because it feels like something he’d be…” (14:51/NCAA)
Correct captioning: “hashtag soybean wind” (14:59/NCAA)
Correct captioning: “On this scale, you can guess which. You’re wrong — it’s Bolivia!” (1:45/Elected Judges)
Correct captioning: “Just throw a robe on a pelican and tape a gavel to its wing” (2:46/Elected Judges)
