History Main / IncidentalMultilingualWordplay

* The Chinese name for Coca-Cola is 可口可樂/可口可乐 (''Kěkǒukělè'' in Mandarin); which (roughly) translates to "tasty and joy-inducing".[[note]]It’s worth noting that this is not ''incidental''; the Chinese localizers deliberately tried to find a transliteration that sounds like “Coca-Cola” while meaning something positive in Chinese. The original attempt to translierate it came out as BiteTheWaxTadpole, which is far from tasty and joy-inducing.[[/note]]

* In ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', the "Penis Parker" derogatory nickname that Flash gives Peter is translated in French as Flash simply pronouncing "Peter" as "Pay-ter", which sounds like the word ''"pêteur"'' ("farter").

** Erika was also one of the only characters to ''not'' have a DubNameChange, because it turns out that her name is ''also'' a western name. In fact "Erika" is actually an anglicised version of an old norse name, while English speakers may have been more familiar with the spelling [[SpellMyNameWithAnS "Erica"]] with a C.

** In ''Asterix and the Banquet'', the characters tour Gaul, picking up regional specialties. In Cambrai, they pick up peppermint sweets called "Bêtise de Cambrai", meaning "mistake" or "nonsense". Most of that section was wordplays on "bêtise". If the sweets had just been "peppermints" in English, the translators would have had to fill it with unrelated puns. Conveniently, however, they're similar to the stripy mints that are called "humbugs" in the UK, so they played on the meanings of that word instead.

** The end of ''Asterix and the Actress'' hinges on a joke about Caesar giving a golden statue of himself to an actress, which is a pun on the César Award, the French film awards -- completely unknown elsewhere. The English version altered it into "a golden me!" to play off M-E-, or Emmy.

* There is the Russian joke: "Какая разница между слоном и роялем?" ("What's the difference between a grand piano and an elephant?"). The answer is "К роялю можно прислонится, а к слону нельзя прироялиться" ("You can lean upon a grand piano, but you can't grandpiano upon an elephant"), which works because the root of "leaning upon" is "slon", same as the word for elephant. A very similar joke exists in Hebrew, where the answer to the same question is "פסנתר אפשר להפיל, אבל פיל אי אפשר לפסנתר" ("You can drop a piano, but you can't piano an elephant"), which works because the Hebrew word for elephant is "pil'", and the one for "to drop" is "lehapil'". Think of it like the English pun "What's the difference between a fish and a piano? You can tune a piano but you can't tuna (tune a) fish."

* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosEternalWingsAndTheLostOcean'' Kalas is pronounced the same as the word for raven in Japanese (karasu) [[spoiler:as his creator thought he was an omen of bad things to come]]. There's also some incidental wordplay in English as well, as his name sounds like "callous" in English, a pretty apt description of his personality.

* In the Polish, Russian and some other versions of ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', Grom Hellscream gets a MeaningfulName -- ''grom'' in those languages is either "thunder" or "bolt" (as in "bolt out of the blue").
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Mario and his PaletteSwap twin brother were both named by Nintendo of America, They named the twin brother Luigi, an equally common Italian name. In Japanese, this is rendered as ルイージ (ruiji), a Japanese word that means "similar", or "to resemble", leading to some serendipitous wordplay.
** The name of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario's]] EvilTwin, "Wario," is originally a {{portmanteau}} of the Japanese word "warui" (bad) and Mario. Thanks to the negative connotations of the word "war", and the fact that "W" looks like an inverted "M", Mario fans the world over are treated to a wordplay that translates exceptionally well. On top of that, the Polish language has "wariować" which means "to go insane" and "wariat" for a crazy person. It's like the lottery grand prize of lucky translations.
** Luigi's rival, "Waluigi", still works but a little less well, since anywhere else, it hinges on the fact that there's already an established EvilTwin whose name starts with "Wa". [[StuckInTheirShadow Seems that Luigi doesn't even get his own nemesis without Mario overshadowing him]]. In Japanese, it's a pun on "warui", which is either "bad" (as aforementioned) or an informal, somewhat condescending way of apologizing. "Waluigi" (or rather the more literal "waruiji") is also an anagram for "ijiwaru", which more or less translates as "mean", which Waluigi (and Wario for that matter) are.
** There's also ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', which is called ''Paper Mario: Super Seal'' in Japanese (Japanese uses the English loanword "seal" to refer to what a native English speaker would generally call a sticker). The Japanese word for "seal" is ''shiru'', and the sticker fairy character's name there is "Rushi" (essentially a transliteration of "Lucy"), made by switching the syllables of "shiru". Switch the syllables of "sticker" (roughly) and we get her English name: Kersti (which happens to look and sound similar to another real-life name, Kirstie).
** The PlotCoupon of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'' is named Wonder Seed. In Spanish, it's translated as the rhyming "Semilla Maravilla", while in German it's "Wundersamen", which includes the word "wundersam" ("wondrous").
* Amazingly, the wordplay in ''VideoGame/CatlateralDamage'' works even better in Japanese, "Nekolateral Damage".

* ''VideoGame/RabbidsGoHome's'' plot ''itself'' is a kind of lucky translation. Said plot revolves around the Rabbids deciding to "go home" by building a huge pile of stuff to go to the moon. In the original version of the game, it makes sense because the Rabbids are insane enough to think they can ''build a pile of stuff'' to get somewhere as far away as the moon. In the Japanese version, it makes sense due to there being [[MoonRabbit a lot of mythological connections between rabbits and the moon.]]

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'' features a pun by Yangus, a guy with a habit of picking his nose. In one scene, he says that he noticed something while "Picking me nose...erm, picking me some ''flowers''". Lucky as that in Japanese the word for "Nose" is also a pun for "Flower" and in English, you can "Pick" flowers or "Pick" your nose, so the pun worked in both languages, if through different words.
* In the ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' DLC "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" the villain Handsome Sorceror becomes [[AlliterativeName Handsome Hexer]] in German.
* In ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'''s Extra Stage, a lot of wordplay is based on two Japanese terms meaning "liver" and "test of courage", which sound similar. The English-language fan translation kept most of it by referring to the "test of courage" as "trial of [[{{Pun}} guts]]".
* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, there is a class called '''Dragon Knight''' that [[DragonRider rides non sapient Dragons]]. When Nintendo finally gave the series an overseas translation starting with the game, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', the Dragon Knight class was renamed '''Wyvern Rider''' to distinguish the common dragon mounts from the sapient dragons that feature heavily in the plot. Whilst the dragon mounts are commonly known in Japanese as ''hiryuu''[[note]]"flying dragon"[[/note]], an obscure bit of information mentioned in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' says the formal name for hiryuu is indeed [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent Wyvern]] in Japanese as well!
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''
** The Mann vs. Machine mode is abbreviated to [=MvM=]. Most translations of the word "machine" also start with "M", so the abbreviation of [=MvM=] is usually kept as-is.[[note]]The Mann in the abbreviation refers to Mann Co., so this is usually left untranslated.[[/note]]
** One of Engineer's primaries is called The Rescue Ranger, as a reference to ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers''. The Polish dub of the show, to keep the RR initials, was subtitled "Brygada Ryzykownego Ratunku" ("Risky Rescue Brigade"). Considering how the weapon works,[[note]]Allows the user to grab a building from far away at a cost of self-marking for death[[/note]] calling it "Ryzykowny Ratunek" ("Risky Rescue") works just as well as the original English name and keeps the reference to the cartoon.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'':
** The turnip market mechanic is based around a Japanese pun: the word "kabu" can, depending on the kanji used, mean both "stock/share" and "turnip". The English version keeps the pun by calling it the "stalk market" and even works in a pun with the name of the turnip vendor, Sow Joan (after the Dow Jones stock index).
** Bells, the name of the currency as a whole, is derived from the English word "bell" even in the Japanese version. But it was likely meant to allude to the fact that one of the native Japanese words for bell, "kane", can also mean "money", again, depending on the kanji used. The English version manages to preserve this somewhat thanks to "bells" also being a near-homophone of "bills", which can have several money-related meanings.
** Still on the topic of bells, they are represented visually as golden coins or money bags marked with a large star. So, instead of a literal translation, the Italian localisation opted to rename them "stelline" (little stars), which is only one letter off "sterline" (Pound sterling).[[note]]This may be in fact the real-life origin of the word "sterling", as according to the Oxford English Dictionary the most plausible etymology derives from a 12th Century Normal silver penny which was marked with a star.[[/note]]
* In ''VideoGame/FarethereCity'', the titular city was named ''Minoniyoku'' in the original Japanese game, an anagram of "yomi no kuni" or "[[DeadAllAlong land of the dead]]". Vgperson, the English translator for that game, changed it to "Farethere" which not only is an anagram of "hereafter" but can also be read as "fare(well) there" or "farther" (i.e. "the other side").
* The protagonist from ''VideoGame/SpaceChannel5'' is named Ulala, after the Japanese word for beautiful, "urara". Luckily, it can also be interpreted as the French expression "ooh-la-la", often used in response to witnessing something beautiful or amazing.
* TheProtagonist of the Japanese game ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' is named Sam (short for "Samuel") and his defining trait is being disconnected from other people and his unwillingness and innability to forge bonds with others. "Sam" also means "alone" or "by his lonesome" in multiple Slavic languages.
* In the Spanish localization of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', the titular duo known as the "Deadly Alliance" became the "alianza mortal", since the word "mortal" in Spanish can also be used as a synonym for "deadly".
* The bicycle shop in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' is named "Panku" in Japanese, which is both the transliteration of "punk" and Japanese for "flat tire", hence the punk-looking dude running it. In English, it was localized as "Punk-Sure".
* In one of the scenes in ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'', [[TheEngineer Glottis]] shows the protagonist a wheelbarrow he found and waxes about its upgrade potential. In Russian, the slang word for "ride" (in the sense of car) is тачка -- literally "wheelbarrow". The unofficial Russian localizations make full use of the resulting VisualPun.
* In ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand'', a wacky armadillo boss is named Sillydillo. The Spanish version was coincidentally able to translate this as "Armadiloco", a pun on "armadillo" and "loco" (crazy) that works even better than the original name.
* In ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', Big Man, a manta ray part of the idol group Deep Cut, is named "Mantaro" (a portmanteau of "manta" and "-taro," a common suffix for boy's names in Japan) in the original Japanese version. The German localization was able to get away with leaving this untranslated due to its resemblance to the word for "manta ray" in German, "Mantarochen".
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': As detailed on [[https://legendsoflocalization.com/how-horizon-zero-dawns-grizzly-joke-works-in-japanese/ Legends of Localization]], one scene in the game features a museum exhibit describing grizzly bears, and how they were ferocious hunters. One character comments "Those claws look like they could rip someone in half," while another responds with, "Perhaps in its youth. But...He said it’s grizzled. Old. Its hunting days are behind it." This wordplay happened to translate especially well into Japanese, since the Japanese scientific name for the grizzly bear is "haiiroguma", meaning "grey bear"[[note]]Since grizzly bears aren't native to Japan, this name probably came about by someone confusing the words "grizzly" and "grizzled", much like in the game[[/note]]. Since gray also carries connotations of old age (as in gray hair), the joke was able to be used almost as-is in the Japanese localization.
* Solid Snake was not actually named after David Hayter. The name "David" is a reference to astronaut David Bowman from the film/novel ''Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey'', as well as David Forrest, Meryl Silverburgh's partner in Hideo Kojima's second adventure game ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'', the name intended to match-up with whomever Snake escapes the base with at the end of the first ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' (Hal or Meryl). The fact that the English voice actor just happened to be named David as well is just a happy accident.
* ''VideoGame/Persona4'' features a character named Kuma, which means "bear" (as in the animal) in Japanese. When he enters the real world, he names himself "Kumada", which is a legitimate Japanese name. The English translation calls him Teddie, which is both a word for bear and a legitimate name, and adapts his "-kuma" VerbalTic by having him make un-BEAR-able puns. The character was already a PungeonMaster in Japanese, so this works well.
* The paranormal research that forms a key plot point in ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is called "rikai kagaku" in Japanese. It literally translates to "cognitive science", but a character points out that the "ka" in "kagaku" [[AlternateCharacterReading is written with the kanji for "mysterious" instead of "science".]] In English, the research is named, in this character's own words: "Cognitive [=PSIence=], with a 'psi' in front. Less science, more supernatural."
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** In his first appearance in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogTripleTrouble'', Fang the Hunter was originally renamed "Nack the Weasel" in non-Japanese territories. While none of his titles across the series' history refer to his species (he's a jerboa), "Weasel" can also be used to refer to a devious person, preserving the antagonism in his name.
** The military faction G.U.N.[[note]][[FunWithAcronyms Guardian Units of Nations]][[/note]], first introduced in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', works as a pun in both English and Japanese, since "gun" means "army" in the latter language.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', the eponymous character ate some {{Magic Mushroom}}s called ''waraitake'' or "laughing mushroom," which refers to multiple species of psilocybin mushroom. Media Blasters translated it as "funny mushrooms." In English, "funny" can mean "strange," but an adult probably wouldn't describe a ''thing'' as funny in that sense, but a quality ''possessed'' by that thing. A child, on the other hand, would just describe the thing itself as funny. Kenshin was definitely a child when this happened, so in the Media Blasters dub, Hiko appears to be directly quoting Kenshin's description of the mushrooms in question.

* ''VisualNovel/KamigamiNoAsobi'' has one that goes both ways. [[CrossoverCosmology The gods]] are going to [[ItMakesSenseInContext put on a school play]], and they decide to do Cinderella. Some of them don't know what it's about, and Hades says is must be about death, because ''Shinde''rella refers to death. Well, of course, the name Cinderella already comes from "cinders", so the subtitle says "The name Cinderella must refer to her cremated ashes". [[TheEeyore Thanks, Hades]].
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' examples:
** The second movie, ''Anime/Pokemon2000'', involves a prophecy about a disaster that only TheChosenOne (Ash, naturally) can stop. There's no wordplay here in the Japanese original, but the English translators couldn't resist adding some: the prophecy's English version says that "the earth shall turn to ash". Translators into other languages had to decide what to do with this -- Ash is still Ash in most places, but the pun only works in English. Several translations solved the problem by outright citing the English pun (i.e. the characters notice that Ash's name is the English word for that stuff the earth shall turn to). But the Italian translators got lucky: they noticed that the prophecy could be rephrased to include the words "a scendere", pronounced "Ash endere"!
** In ''Anime/{{Pokemon 3}}: Spell of the Unown'', Molly Hale, wanting to see her parents again, takes some Unown tiles and uses them to spell out "Mama", "Papa" and "Me" together in a Scrabble-like fashion. She's actually spelling out her own name here--in the Japanese version her name is Me, pronounced like the English pronoun. The English dub can just pretend it was the pronoun all along.
** In the Japanese version of ''Anime/PokemonMewtwoReturns'', Misty says during a river cruise that she's having no problem ignoring (''mushi-shima~su'') Bug (''mushi'') Pokémon around her. The English dub has an almost identical pun, where she says she won't "let Bug Pokémon '''bug''' [her]".
** Dawn had a nickname that was based on her past and was constantly known as Dee Dee from Kenny (or in Japanese, Pikari). We learn that it was because she hugged a Plusle and Minun a bit too much and thus they did an electric attack on her and made her hair stand on end thus gaining the nickname Pikari (with 'Pika' the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparks). The dub went for Dee Dee (which can be read DD) and the nickname became Diamond Dandruff.
*** In the Italian dub, where Dawn is called Lucinda, the nickname is "Lulu" and it's short for "Lunatica Luccicante" ("Glittering Lunatic")
** In the ''XY'' episode where Serena disguises herself as Ash, there is a scene where it appears to Serena [[ShipTease (and the audience)]] that Ash is romantically confessing to her, but then [[BaitAndSwitchComment it turns out he's just telling Pikachu to use Iron Tail before collapsing]]. The pun works in both Japanese and English because the Japanese word "ai" (love, as in "ai shiteiru") is phonetically identical to the English pronoun "I" (as in "I love you"), and "Iron Tail" was in GratuitousEnglish to begin with.
** Most names were left untranslated in Brazil, except for Professor Oak. Oak in Portuguese is "carvalho", which also happens to be one of the most popular last names in Brazil, so he was promptly translated as Professor Carvalho.
* In ''Manga/LuckyStar'''s anime adaptation, resident {{Otaku}} Konata Izumi's favourite anime is ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'', and many of the jokes are dependent on the fact that the two are voiced by the same person (Creator/AyaHirano). The jokes were left in the English dub because luckily, the same English voice actress (Creator/WendeeLee) ''also'' had enough range to play both Haruhi and Konata. The same goes for Creator/MinoruShiraishi in regards to Taniguchi (Creator/SamRiegel plays both in the dub).
* ''Manga/StrawberryMarshmallow'': Nobue's name sounds close enough to "no boobies" that Miu was able to spin an insult out of it.
* ''Manga/SchoolRumble'': Reading Sun Tzu, Tenma misreads a word as "to remove clothes" and "hare". The real problem was that she actually visualized this strange image of someone stepping out of a bunny costume, so it would be hard to ignore. It was translated as "to take off like a rabbit", a phrase which Sun Tzu did use.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** In episode 11 of ''Brotherhood'', there's a scene where Ed's trying to talk about a baby that's about to be born (in Japanese, ''umareru''), but he's too flustered to spit out anything beyond "''uma''", the first two syllables; Winry thinks he's talking about a horse, which is also translated from "''uma''". In the English version, Ed instead mutters "the ba..." ("The baby's coming"); by pure luck, the first syllable of 'baby' is pronounced the same as the English word 'bay', which is a certain-colored horse, thus making the pun work in English as well.
** Ed calls the second Greed "Greedling" because he possesses the body of a guy named Ling. However, "ling" as a suffix in English means "little" (e.g. fingerling potatoes), which works quite well in two respects. It makes sense that the second version would sort of be "little Greed", and it's completely in character for [[TheNapoleon Ed]] to call someone else little, which makes the nickname funnier in English.
** In the manga, though, Viz translated Ling's name as ''Lin'', so a variation on his Junior Greed title had to be given. Ed ended up calling him "Grin" as a contraction of 'Greed' and 'Lin', which, while not as true to the original intent of the joke -- i.e. a play on being a mini Greed--the joke still works in its own way.

* In ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'', "Hanage Shin Ken" (a parody of "Hokuto Shin Ken" from ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'') literally means "True Fist of the Nose Hair". The reference to ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' is obvious, even more so if the "True" is omitted. This is in fact ''doubly'' lucky, since 'Hokuto' is actually the name for the Big Dipper, not the North Star.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** At one point in the [[LadyLand Amazon Lily]], Luffy is being stared at completely naked by a group of amazons who don't know anything about men. When one of them asks what's in the 'bag' attached between his legs, Luffy replies with ''kintama'', which is a Japanese slang term for testicles that also means "balls of gold", so of course the amazons think he's saying that he has actual balls of gold between his legs. The English translation uses 'family jewels', which fits the joke perfectly.
** One filler villain has the "Kama-Kama Fruit", which the characters mishear as ''Okama'' (crossdresser). In the dub, the fruit's name was translated as the "Sickle-Sickle Fruit", and the characters mishear it as "Sicko".
** Spoofing the ByThePowerOfGrayskull trope, Franky activates his {{Cyborg}} abilities by shouting "{{Hentai}}!" instead of the traditional {{Toku}} phrase "''Henshin!''" (transform). In the English dub, he shouts "Convert!" which other people mishear as "pervert".
** Before the Straw Hats arrive at Dressrosa, Luffy mishears the name of the island and asks Law: "Have you ever been to Dressroba?". ''Roba'' means "old hag" in Japanese, so cue [[MsImagination Robin]] having an ImagineSpot about an ugly, old lady dancing around in a dress. The German translation makes Luffy say: "Have you ever been to Dress Oma?". ''Oma'' means "grandmom", so the hilariousness of the imagine spot stays the same. Furthermore, it is a lucky translation that ''Oma'' still sounds enough like 'Rosa' (two syllables, the same two vowels) to make Luffy's mishearing plausible.
** In the live-action series, Usopp's name is hilarious for Filipino Tagalog-speakers because "usap" means "talk(ing)," but he's specifically known for CryingWolf and [[BadassBoast boasting,]] so people in his home village are constantly telling him [[IronicName to shut up and go home.]] For the Tagalog anime dub, they only needed to add an extra letter to "Gum-Gum Fruit" because "goma" in Tagalog means "rubber."
* In ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', there is a reference to the "former Taro Sekiutsu" (former because he sold his identity to [[TheIllegal Maria]] and now lives in a cardboard box) being classless. This works perfectly as a pun in English, since Taro is both classless in the sense of abandoning society and classless in the sense that he's not attending class in high school.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'' has a couple, usually in the way of puns. One good example is Erza's spear, named 破邪の槍 (haja no yari, literally "spear of destroying evil"), which is translated as "De-Malevo-Lance". With no way to concisely render the concept of "destroying evil", they went for a play on words instead.
* In ''Anime/WolfsRain'' Tsume frequently calls Toboe "chibi" (meaning "small") as a disrespectful nickname. In the dub, he uses "runt", which works even better for having a canine/lupine connotation.
* A joke in ''Anime/{{Gintama}}'' involved characters [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext becoming sick and turning into]] Creator/WillSmith. He's called "Virus Smith". In Japanese "Virus" and "Wills" are pronounced similarly, so it's a pun. This pun doesn't work with English pronunciation, so the subs decided to go with an equally fitting English pun, "Ill Smith".
* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'':
** In episode 87, the principal makes a pun on "'nikui" (hatred) and "niku" (meat). [=AnimEigo=]'s subtitles rendered it as "I've got a beef with you, seeing you hide that meat in your pocket."
** The chapter / episode introducing Kotatsu-Neko (manga chapter 111, anime episode 51) is titled "Kaidan ni Neko ga Onnen", which literally means "There's a Cat on the Stairs", but "kaidan" written as 怪談 means "ghost story" (as mentioned above), and "onnen" written as 怨念 can mean something like "a grudge that persists after someone's death, turning them into a ghost". Viz translated it as "Two-Story Ghost Story", whereas [=AnimEigo=] didn't try to translate the puns.
* In ''Manga/YakitateJapan'', Kuroyanagi -- known for his punny reactions to really good breads -- tries a sample of chicken yakisoba bread and has to be restrained from taking off his pants. The double meaning of "cock" works the same in Japanese as it does in English.
* In ''Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro'', Medama-oyaji, the title character's father, an eyeball monster's name could be translated into English as "Franchise/PopEye".
* In ''Manga/BunnyDrop,'' there's a scene where a little boy is having a laughing fit because of a news report on TV. He thinks that the report is about [[ToiletHumor trains pooping]] (''unko''), when it's actually about trains being on time (''unkou''). The joke still works in English, due to the multiple meanings of the word "regular" (in addition to its normal meaning of "at frequent intervals," it's also commonly used euphemistically to mean "has normal bowel movements").
* A nice bonus in Polish translation of ''Manga/GetBackers'' is Mugenjou as "Nieskończony Zamek" which can mean "Endless/Infinite Castle" as well as "Unfinished/Incomplete Castle"

* In ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'', there's a character called Tokkori who once said "sono tokkori da", a pun on the phrase ''"sono toori da"'' (that's right). The fansubbers were lucky enough to make this "Exact-tokko-ly".
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
** Asuka in Japanese calls Kensuke, Toji, and Shinji the "trio of idiots," which was translated in English to ''Film/TheThreeStooges''.
** Before Operation Yashima, Rei tells Shinji "sayonara" instead of something like "matane", which implied that she thought she won't be able to talk to him again. This was easily translated into English by her saying "goodbye" instead of "see you".
* In the original Japanese ''Manga/KOn'', Azusa is nicknamed "Azunyan" ("Azumeow"). In the French translation, she's instead nicknamed "Azuchat", which incorporates the word "chat" ("cat" in French) ''and'' is phonetically similar to "Azusa" (the 't' is silent).
* An unusual written version is the title card of ''Anime/KillLaKill''. Mostly because of the font they use, the Katakana title, "キルラキル", bears a strong resemblance to "KIL;KIL". This is also something of an inversion, because "kiru" has several meanings (most notably "to cut" or "to wear") and "kill" is the least significant to the story. So a literal translation of the name loses a lot to English-speaking audiences.
* The same goes for the title card for ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', where "[=JoJo=]" bears a strong resemblance to its katakana version; ジョジョ.

* In ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' Sein and Wendi call Quattro "Megane-nee" or "Mega-nee" when not in her presence. There's a very easy translation in "Glasses-sis" and "Glass-sis", which is exactly the same pun.
* In ''Manga/{{Chihayafuru}}'', Chihaya's nickname for Nishida is nikuman (meaning a Japanese meat bun) based on his large, round shape and the fact that he was eating one of them when they re-met in high school. It would've been fine enough to retain the original, but one sub group decided to go a little further: one of the most common ingredients in nikuman is pork, and 'porky' just so happens to be a well-known nickname for fat people in English. This way, they get a nickname that reads the same as the original as well as still making sense in context.
* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has an arc that involves a temple called "Shokurin Tera". ''Shokurin'' is a pun both ''shoku'', one of the words for "food", and ''shourin'', the Japanese pronunciation of 'Xiaolin'. Both the official manga and anime translations (by Viz and Funimation respectively) successfully preserve the pun by translating it as the "Chow-lin Temple".
* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' has a part where Saitama is reading the website for the Superhero Registry with the slogan "an unregistered ''{{sentai}}'' is just a {{Hentai}}". The English preserves both the meaning and slants the rhyme a bit with "if you aren't a hero, you're just a weirdo."
* In episode 6 of the ''Anime/KanColle'' anime, Akatsuki attempts to say the word "elegant" in GratuitousEnglish but ends up saying "elephant". In the Filipino dub, this is translated as ''elegante'' and ''elepante'', with the exact meanings intact. The same joke works mostly the same in Spanish as well, being the sole difference that "elephant" is ''Elefante" in Spanish.[[note]]Which is not exacly surprising, as Tagalog has many loanwords from Spanish.[[/note]]
* "Mii-kun", the name of the tiny mummy from ''Manga/HowToKeepAMummy'', comes from the Japanese word for mummy, "miira", but the "mii" also happens to be pronounced the same as the "my" in "mummy".
* ''Manga/CellsAtWork'': The Cedar Allergy episode ends with B Cell and a Mast Cell fighting over whose fault the whole mess is. Mast Cell claims the B is for Baka, or Bonehead in English. The same joke works in Spanish, at least in the Mexican dialect, as B could stand for "Baboso", the Mexican Spanish for "dumbass".
* The Catbus from ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' is translated from "Nekobus". And in Spanish, as the word bus is more commonly referred to as an "autobús", "Gatobús" makes for a perfect translation.
* ''Manga/KeepYourHandsOffEizouken'' left the name of the film research club, “Eizouken,” untranslated to make the title more easily recognizable abroad. Thus, fans can call the manga or anime “Eizouken” and immediately communicate what they were talking about to those in the know. This led to a lucky coincidence with the anime opening “Easy Breezy,” where in the original Japanese, due to subject-object-verb order, the reveal of the title approximately goes “Ei [Moving]... zou [Picture]... ken [Research]... niwa [sentence particle] followed by the full title. With the English subtitles, the first four beats are occupied by the words “Keep Your Hands Off...” so then the full title reveal puts emphasis on the missing “Eizouken,” the series’ colloquial name.
* In ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'', the tenth girlfriend to be introduced is a ProudBeauty named Mimimi Utsukushisugi. This is a Punny Name in Japanese with her given and family names simply referring to her beauty, but to English speakers her given name sounds like "Me, me, me" which plays into how she presents herself as a vain narcissist.

* One ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' segment has Popuko and Pipimi on a plane when they're offered the choice of beef or chicken by a flight attendant, which angers Popuko. While seemingly a non-sequitur in the Japanese version, it gains a comedic double meaning in English due to the colloquial meanings of "beef" (as in "a feud") and "chicken" (as in "[[NobodyCallsMeChicken a coward]]"). In other words, Popuko interprets the question of "beef or chicken?" as the attendant asking for a fight. [[AccidentalPun A]] ''[[AccidentalPun fight]]'' [[AccidentalPun attendant]], if you will.
* In Episode 20 of the ''Manga/DeathNote'', L discusses the possibility of Light dying, which causes Misa to retort with the statement "I would never dream living in a world without Light." In the original Japanese, L replies with something akin to "yes, that's correct", but the English dubbed version renders the line to "yes, that would be dark", a play on the meaning of Light's name.

* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'': When fighting {{Medusa}}, Matsuri concludes a direct confrontation is necessary. His phrase in Japanese is "makkōshōbu (真っ向勝負)", which literally means "attack the center of the forehead", a pun on how this version of Medusa is a FlyingFace. This translates quite elegantly into English as "Guess we gotta fight head-to-head now."

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In the Dutch dub, "Bikini Bottom" is translated as "Bikinibroek". "Broek" happens to mean both "pants" and "brook", and is a very common suffix for a small town close to water.
** In France and Italy, instead of "April fool" they say "Poisson d'Avril" or "Pesce d'Aprile" (Fish of April) respectively. This makes the episode "Fools in April" funnier in those countries.
** In the episode "Band Geeks", right after his RousingSpeech that convinces his fellow marching band members to work hard and practice in order to make Squidward proud, [=SpongeBob=] shouts "A one, a two, a skiddly diddly doo!", which mostly serves as a comedic MoodWhiplash. The Brazilian version changes it to "É um, é dois, não deixem pra depois!" ("A one, a two, don't leave it for later!"), keeping the rhyming joke while also fitting with the more serious tone of [=SpongeBob=]'s speech.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** Mr. Garrisson once refers to Mr. Slave as his Teacher's Assistant, or Teacher's Ass for short. In Hungarian, Tanársegéd and Tanársegg mean exactly the same.
** The Brazilian translation "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E12HereComesTheNeighborhood Here Comes the Neighborhood]]" features an odd example: some people would burn "lowercase Ts" (that is, crosses) outside someone's house with the intent to convey to them that it was "time to leave". It actually gets MORE, not LESS stilted in Brazilian Portuguese, as it would be normally translated as "hora de ir embora" rather than "tempo de ir embora", which is possible, but sounds odd. However, since this was a case of StrangeMindsThinkAlike, the expression getting more stilted made it even funnier.
** Flatulent superstars Terrance and Phillip have their initials on their shirts, which adds an unintended visual joke for the French-speaking. The letters PT are pronounced pay-tay, just like the verb "péter", which is French for "farting".
* The Brazilian translation of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' saw the Slag Brothers being translated as "Irmãos Rocha". Irmãos = Brothers, and Rocha, which happens to be a common surname in Portuguese, means Rock. The net result is their name being more 'plausible' in Portuguese than in English.
* ''WesternAnimation/OscarsOrchestra'': The show’s German dub has a veritable ''field day'' with Oscar the piano’s [[ItMakesSenseInContext flying ability]] since in German there’s a word (“Flügel”) that can mean both “wing” and “grand piano”. To the extent that they even [[CompletelyDifferentTitle renamed the show]] “Oskar, der fliegende Flügel” after the pun. [[note]]This becomes even more hilarious when one realizes that the use of “Flügel” to mean “grand piano” came from the fact that the lidpiece of a grand piano is shaped a bit like a wing… which is also why the writers even decided to ''give'' Oscar flying powers in the first place![[/note]]
* The Polish dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' slipped in a joke about American Maid's vocation being "preserving peace", based on the word used to translate "maid" meaning more specifically "room maid" and "room" and "peace" being homonyms in Polish.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'':
** In the episode "Slumber Party Panic", the Gumball Guardians force Finn to answer a math question -- "2 + 2, solve it or die!" In the Japanese dub, the word "shi" is used for "die"... but since "shi" [[FourIsDeath also refers to the number four]], it just makes the situation even funnier.
** In the Norwegian dub, "Rainicorn" is rendered as "reinhjørning", making a pun on "regn" (rain as in "regnbue", rainbow) and "ein" (as in "einhjørning", unicorn), which are spelled the same, save for the R.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Dipper is a [[GuiltyPleasure closet fan]] of a girly Icelandic pop group called [[Music/{{ABBA}} BABBA]], it's worth mentioning that [[BlandNameProduct BABBA]] sounds just like "baba" (It only has an extra "b") which in Spanish and Portuguese means "drool", it only made the joke funnier in the Iberian and Latin American Spanish dubs. In Russian it sounds almost identical to "баба"/"baba" -- depending on context it's either "adult woman" or "sexually desired woman", which makes him a DirtyKid and CovertPervert.
* ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'':
** The Latin American Spanish dub refers the character [[WesternAnimation/IAmWeasel I.M. Weasel]] as "Zoila Comadreja", which is in homophone with "''Soy La Comadreja''", exact translation of "I Am Weasel", while 'Zoila' is an actual given name, albeit a female one, which is also perfect given that ''comadreja'' is gramatically female in Spanish.
** In the Polish dub, the character's name was 'Jam Łasica', with ''Łasica'' meaning "weasel" and ''Jam'' being an old-fashioned way of saying "I am". It's also one, very similar letter from 'Jan', the Polish version of the name 'John'.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'':
** In the episode "Laundry Day", Starfire attempts to sew a dress -- by placing the fabric in the oven and cooking it. This joke is even more funny in the Portuguese dub, as the translation for the verb sew (coser) is a homophone (i.e. is pronounced in the same manner) as another verb related to cooking (cozer) which was close enough to what Starfire actually did.
** In the episode "Terra-ized", Starfire initially thinks that the "L-Word" is "Lobster", with a thought bubble showing a lobster appearing over her head. It works in Italian too, where both "Love" and "Lobster" still begin with the same letter (being respectively "Amore" and "Aragosta").
* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'':
** In the episode "[[Recap/BojackHorsemanS1E11DownerEnding Downer Ending]]", Sarah Lynn's [[DrFeelgood drug dealer]] turns out to be an Asian doctor named Allen Hu. In the English version, his introduction leads to a brief "Who's On First" routine about him and [[Series/DoctorWho a certain time-travelling alien]]; the pun also works in the French dub since "who"/"Hu" sounds like "où", which means "where".
** The ShowWithinAShow Bojack acted in is called ''Horsin' Around'' in English. The Japanese dub changes it to ''Baka-Sawagi'', which means "fooling around", but also contains the kanji for "horse".

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is known in Brazil as "Du, Dudu e Edu", all common nicknames for the name "Eduardo" (Portuguese equivalent of Edward). "Dudu" is also much more natural than the somewhat forced "Double D" Edd is often called as.
* ''WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne'': The title is a rather forced pun on 'chili con carne'. The Brazilian version goes for a more subtle 'take it or leave it' route with the wordplay, titling the show "Mal Encarnado" (evil incarnate). The word 'carne' remains a part of it (which also means meat in Portuguese just as in Spanish), while also having a more separate and easy to understand meaning.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', the Flintstones and Rubbles visit "Rockapulco", an obvious pun on "rock" and "Acapulco". This was preserved in the Latin American Spanish dub ("Los Picapiedra"), where they visit "Rocapulco" (with "roca" meaning "rock").

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FreeWilly'' animated series, the villain got his WeCanRebuildHim level injuries when attempting to destroy a ship carrying [[CorruptCorporateExecutive illegal cargo with his company's ''logos'']], because his DumbMuscle servants misunderstood the order to remove those as an order to remove ''logs''. In Hebrew, "Bul'" means ''stamp'' while a log is "Bul' ets", so that's what the dub used.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', D.W. has an ImaginaryFriend named Nadine. Take away the second "N" and you get "nadie", Spanish for "nothing", making the name more meaningful to Spanish-speakers.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'':
** Among the recurring characters, there are the Goodfeathers, a pun on ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' and "feathers", as they are three gangster pigeons used as a parody of mafia movies. In the Italian dub, they are known as "Picciotti", not just because it means "young mafiosi" in Sicilian, but also because it sounds similar to "piccioni" (Italian for "pigeons"). In this way, even the Italian children who are not familiar with Sicilian language or mafia movies would have thought that "picciotti" was just a funny way to call the pigeons.
** Among the Goodfeathers, there was Pesto, named after Creator/JoePesci and his character [[Film/GoodFellas Tommy [=DeVito=]]], and being a pun on the type of pasta sauce. Coincidentally, it became a MeaningfulName in the Italian dub, because the verb "pestare" is a common way to say "beat up" (literally "crush", like how the aforementioned pasta sauce is prepared), and Pesto is the most violent of the three Goodfeathers.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Colonel H. Stinkmeaner's signature insult is calling others "nyukka" or "nyugga" instead of "nigga", especially the elderly Robert Freeman. This worked out fine for when the show was dubbed into Hungarian, where "nyugger" (a variation of "nyugdíjas" or retiree/pensioner) was already a common derogatory slang for old people.

* In the first episode of Literature/WelcometotheNHK, Satou goes to apply to a part-time job (''baito''), but loses his nerve and ends up repeating the syllable "bai-" for an awkwardly long time before segueing into a ramble about motorbikes (''baiku''). In the English dub, this is very easily rendered as "I came by... by... by... by ''bike'', of course!"

* The Finnish translation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' turns "Let It Go" to ''Taakse Jää'', roughly "Left Behind". The lyrics are about the things Elsa is leaving behind her, but ''jää'' is also a homonym for "ice". The Brazilian translation of the song is also quite a faithful translation of the original. In the Spanish dub the song is translated as ''Sueltalo'' which has the same amount of syllables and even rhymes, is a valid direct translation of the word although it can also means "Let it lose" or "Lose it" depending on the context.

* In the Japanese version of ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' the main song "Deliver Us" is translated into Japanese as "我らを救いたまえ" (''warera wo sukui tamae'', essentially "bestow upon us a savior"). Surprisingly, the song doesn't change much.

* ''Literature/ManiacMagee'': "Mars Bar Thompson" is nicknamed for his favourite food. Maniac Magee is clearly set in the U.S, but editions printed outside the US kept it in.

* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitosEternalWingsAndTheLostOcean'' Kalas got his name from the Japanese word "Karasu" meaning crow [[spoiler:As his creators thought he was an omen of bad things to come]]. There's also some incidental wordplay in English as well, as his name sounds like "callous", a pretty apt description of his personality.

* ''WesternAnimation/Nimona2023'': Upon falling into Todd's bathroom [[ItMakesSenseInContext as a pink whale]], Nimona [[TeenyWeenie glances at his groin and asks "Cold in here?"]], which is translated to "Samu kunai?" in the Japanese dub. "Samui" is usually said in response to a bad punchline, so in other words, Todd's tiny sausage is made even more of a joke!

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'':
** In the Brazilian dub, the sloth [[IronicName Flash]] is renamed 'Flecha', meaning "arrow", retaining both the sound and the connotation of speed. Interestingly, he shares this name with Dash Parr from ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'' in the same dub, which makes it rather funny when the two characters have a friendship in the[[VideoGame/DisneyHeroesBattleMode Disney Heroes mobile game]].
** Judy finds it distressing when a predator calls her "cute". In the Italian dub, it was translated as ''tenera'', which can mean cute, cuddly, soft, or tender. As in ''tender meat''. Which makes her discomfort even more justified.
** In the French dub, the scene where Judy pulls a hustle on Nick got an hilarious upgrade: after saying that it was a "carrot" (understand like a "[[MotivationOnAStick Carrot on a Stick]]", reinforced by her showing the carrot-shaped microphone), Finnick bursts out in laughter, mocking Nick for having been "carroted" which in French, means being the victim of a scam.
** Another French one: "dumb bunny" is translated as ''lapin crétin'', which is the French name for WesternAnimation/TheDumbBunnies, and most notably the original name of the VideoGame/RavingRabbids and adds an extra chuckle to the scene when you compare Judy to the screaming lagomorphs.
** Mayor Lionheart refers mockingly to his assistant Bellweather as "Smellweather". In the Italian dub it was translated as "Bruttweather", a pun around "Bella" (beautiful) and "Brutta" (ugly). The same lucky translation is used in the French dub, with Bellweather becoming "Mocheweather".

* In the Japanese version of ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' the main song "Deliver Us" is translated into Japanese as "我らを救いたまえ" (''warera wo sukui tamae'', essentially "bestow upon us a savior"). Surprisingly, the song doesn't change much.
* The Finnish translation of ''{{WesternAnimation/Frozen|2013}}'' turns "Let It Go" to ''Taakse Jää'', roughly "Left Behind". The lyrics are about the things Elsa is leaving behind her, but ''jää'' is also a homonym for "ice". The Brazilian translation of the song is also quite a faithful translation of the original. In the Spanish dub the song is translated as ''Sueltalo'' which has the same amount of syllables and even rhymes, is a valid direct translation of the word although it can also means "Let it lose" or "Lose it" depending on the context.
* Basil ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'', a Sherlock Holmes {{Expy}}, is called 'Basil Holmuis' ("hole-mouse") in Dutch. Yes, it's an actual word.
* The name of Cruella De Vil, from ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', works great in Spanish too. While originally the name would be a simple play on "Cruel Devil" for the English speakers, in Spanish, ''Vil'' means "Vile" so it works as "(Lady) Cruel of Vile".
* In Flemish, the word for "to saw" can also be used as slang for "to whine". So in ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' "Less talk! More sawing!" became "Niet zagen! Zagen!" ("Don't whine! Saw!").
* The Swedish subtitles for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' translate Homer's "D'OOOOOH...ME!" as "[[SpiceUpTheSubtitles KUUUU...POL]]!" It works fine since ''kupol'' means "dome", whereas ''kuk'' is a common curse meaning "dick".

* In the Portuguese dub of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens'', Doctor Cockroach [=PhD's=] name becomes "Professor Barata". While ''barata'' is the literal translation of "Cockroach", it's also a real Portuguese surname that happens to also be the name of a chain of academic bookstores.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' someone writes the phrase "forget you" on the antagonist's grave. This is translated into Chinese as "鬼才記得你", roughly meaning "[who in] the hell is going to remember you". More literally though, it means "only spirits will remember you", a very appropriate translation as an insult aimed at the dead.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet'', the scene of Ralph doing an unboxing of a bee swarm ends with a "OPEN SESA-BEES!" caption. The Italian dub comes out with a translation that manages to be almost literal and sound better than the original, "API-TI SESAMO!".
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron'', there's a part where the main character, Spirit, gets put in his place by a female horse, causing him to walk away while thinking ''"Mares..."'' in annoyance. In the Norwegian dub, this line becomes a hilarious DoubleEntendre as the Norwegian word for "mare" is basically the Norwegian equivalent for "bitch" (just not as obvious that children would react). The voice actor thus changed the line to ''"...Merr!"'' ("''Mare''").
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Trolls}}'', the bad guys are a race of dour [[TheEeyore eeyores]] known as Bergens. Bergen is the second largest city of Norway, known for having a lot of [[GrayRainOfDepression rain]]. The Norwegian dub had some fun with this by calling the bergens "Bergensere", meaning People from Bergen.

*** In the Italian dub, where Dawn is called Lucinda, the nickname is "Lulu" and it's short for "Luccica come la luna" ("It glows like the moon")

** The Japanese name Jōji sounds very similar to the English name "George". Actor Creator/JojiNakata and manga artist Johji Manabe have both been known to occasionally sign their names in romaji as George. Taking it to its logical conclusion, baseball player Kenji Johjima (in Eastern order, Johjima Kenji) occasionally refers to himself as George Mackenzie (Jōji Makkenjī).

* Works in the title of ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'' for several European languages, as the word cognate to or that translates as "earnest" is often used as a proper name.

* In Japan, legend tells that the sakura blossom is pink because it has been stained by the blood of a warrior. This might remind you of the Greek legend of Pyramus and Thisbe, the lovers whose blood stained the mulberry tree forever. In Iran, red tulips are said to indicate that a martyr has died on that spot.

** Or, for that matter, the Christian allegory of how holly bushes look like they do because a lost lamb bumbled into them, bending the leaves and staining the berries with its blood.

** Spanish "mierda" and Italian "merda" are synonymous with "crap" and "shit", in both senses. Italian also has "stronzata" (more or less "bullshit"), a word that derives from "stronzo", meaning literally "turd" (but also "asshole" when used as an insult).
** Similarly, the Latin "stercus" is a rude colloquial term for animal excrement but can also be used to suggest something is stupid, unfair, deceitful or nonsensical, similar to the modern English sense of the word "bullshit".

* In English, there's a joke about a zookeeper writing to his suppliers. He starts the letter, "Dear Sir, please send me two m̶o̶n̶g̶o̶o̶s̶e̶s̶." He throws it out and starts again: "Dear Sir, please send me two m̶o̶n̶g̶e̶e̶s̶e̶." He throws that out too, then thinks for a minute and comes up with, [[PerplexingPlurals "Dear Sir, please send me one mongoose, and please also send me another mongoose."]] Despite the language-specific nature of the joke, it has equivalents in at least two other languages:
** In French, you can keep the setup the same, and substitute jackals (correct plural of ''chacal'' is ''chacals'' but looks like it could be ''chacaux'').
** In Russian, there's a joke from Soviet times that relies on the same concept. A factory needs five fireplace pokers, and the workers are filling out the necessary requisition form. The problem is that Russian has different plural forms depending on the number attached; two to four takes the fairly easy genitive singular, but five or more takes the genitive plural, which is highly irregular, and in the case of "poker" (''kocherga'') nobody can remember the correct form (officially ''kocheryog'', but there are several other equally plausible possibilities). Anyway, the workers dither for a while over the correct declension, only agreeing that putting the wrong one on an official requisition will bring disaster down on them all. At last, they ask the old hand in the place, and he supplies what should have been the obvious answer: send in one form for two ''kochergi'' and another for three ''kochergi.'' (In an extended version, they get their pokers, but the bureaucrats, wise to their game but also unable to decline the noun, write "We have sent your entire order for four ''kochergi'' plus one extra.")

** In the Norwegian dub, "Rainicorn" is rendered as "reinhjørning", making a pun on "regn" (rain as in "regnbue", rainbow) and "ein" (as in "einhjørning", unicorn), which are pronounced the same, save for the R.

* A witty soldier gets a chamber pot dumped on him during a siege, and he lambasts his opponents for fighting dirty.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]", a character asks where the Doctor is, prompting the usual "[[TitleDrop Doctor Who?]]" question. The French dub turns this into "Un Docteur ? Où ?" ("A Doctor? Where?"), which sounds very close to "Doctor Who", thus keeping the joke intact[[note]]The show is still called "Doctor Who" in French, but the "Doctor Who?" questions usually become "Docteur Qui ?", thus losing the TitleDrop in addition to sounding rather awkward[[/note]].

** ''Zyuranger'' was a dinosaur themed show while ''Dairanger'' had mythological beasts with different color combinations. Rather than a black ranger Dairanger had a green ranger, but the green ranger's zord happened to be predominantly black with only a few green highlights, making it passable as a black ranger zord. The Dairanger rangers zords also had a similar megazord combination method with a red center, black arms, yellow and blue legs and a flying pink zord as accessory armor, which made the story of them being upgraded forms of the Zyuranger zords plausible.
** The SixthRanger was white and not green, but the green Zyuranger was killed off, which Power Rangers interpreted as his [[HourOfPower powers becoming unstable]] in order to justify his absence in fight footage. When the time came it was not hard to say the green ranger powers finally gave out and they made a new white ranger to take its place. And the sixth ranger Tigerzord was able to provide a secondary megazord combination much like the Zyuranger Dragonzord.
** ''Kakuranger'' did not have a pink ranger or a SixthRanger, but the white female ranger had a white colored flying zord with pink highlights. There was also an autonomous falcon mech that was repurposed as being the white sixth rangers zord. And while their base zords were a departure from the animal themed zords of the previous two shows (looking more like humanoid pagoda temples), they had MidSeasonUpgrade zords that WERE animal themed, and MMPR introduced those first to ease the transition.

** Fang the Sniper of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogTripleTrouble'' was originally given the name Nack the Weasel in English. While his original title did not refer to his species, "Weasel" can also be used to refer to a devious person, preserving the antagonism in his name.