Sunday, December 20, 2009

Speaking Fluent GIbberish

Sid Caesar used to do comedy sketches where he'd pretend to speak a foreign language like German or Japanese. It was funny but of course it was completely meaningless to people who actually spoke those languages.

Here's a video of an Italian singer Adriano Celentano doing exactly the same thing to English. This is what we sound like to them. The song is called Prisencolinensinainciusol. (If you want more, the color bits of this video come from this clip. There's a more recent Italian TV performance here. But to watch those two clips it would be helpful to actually speak Italian.)



Leslie saw this video and said "Good use of mirrors." Found via WFMU Beware the Blog

ADDENDUM: Some helpful soul has decoded the lyrics of this song and added subtitles. You can find out what he's singing about here. National Twosome.

Here's a Mixed Meters post which features another unknown-to-America Italian artist: Osvaldo Cavandoli of La Linea fame. (Watch the video.)


Prisencolinensinainciusol Tags: . . .

3 comments :

a lost anaphorian~ said...

I thought he was going for some type of Dylan thing and once the harmonica started i knew it. We need more of this for sure!!!

Anonymous said...

But this is what most lyrics sound like to me regardless of whether they are in English or gibberish.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

Happy Holidays
Now for the Rose Parade. Have you staked out a spot on the route?