Don’t Call Toku “Shirley”

Don’t Call Toku “Shirley”

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     Posted: November 29th, 2010
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Okay, so yesterday, Leslie Nielsen died(starred in Airplane! and Naked Gun). I already had today’s comic scripted, but I just had to find some way to throw in a tribute to such a funny actor. He had lots of great lines, but the one he’s known most for is his character’s response to a passenger in Airplane! who said, “Surely you can’t be serious!” to which he replies, “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” Say it out loud if you don’t get the joke right away.
And then there’s the beaver. I had to include a beaver in this comic, heh.

Notes on the Spanish version:
Yeah, the “Shirley” joke won’t be carried over to the Spanish version of this strip, since the line had to be changed in the Spanish version of the movie because puns simply can’t be translated. In Spanish, the passenger’s line was basically the same, but the response translates back to “Very serious. If you want, I can say it again.” It’s just as well, since the Airplane! reference isn’t required for the comic. I wrote this strip weeks before Leslie died.
I find it interesting that in Latin America, the title of Airplane! equals “And Where’s The Pilot?” while The Naked Gun was “And Where’s The Police?”. I like the correlation there. The titles varied between Spanish-speaking regions/countries, as many movies do. Even in English-speaking countries, there can be title changes. In Australia & New Zealand, Airplane! was named “Flying High”(source: English Wikipedia & IMDB). The Spanish Wikipedia page says(without citation) that it’s because their word for “Airplane” is “Aeroplane”, but I can’t find why they didn’t just rename it “Aeroplane!”. If I were to speculate, I’d guess copyright/trademark issues, somehow.



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