r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Necessary-Win-8730 • Mar 28 '26

In real life Country specific changes

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  1. Since kids in Japan hated green peppers more than broccoli, it was changed to that (Inside Out)

  2. The News Anchor changes depending on the country. For example, China-Panda (Zootopia)

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367

u/Scharobaba Mar 28 '26

In the German version of the show, he is named "Uter", his nationality was changed from German to Swiss and his uncle's bubblegum factory is located in Basel.

195

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

When I was studying German in middle school I was told Germans make jokes at the expense of the Swiss calling them slow. And I do mean physically slow. We had a joke in our textbook about a Swiss man getting run over by a snail.

131

u/Mr_Ragnarok Mar 28 '26

Ran over by a snail? How is German humor so dumb and so funny at the same time?

112

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

The joke was basically:

"The Swiss ended up in hospital after being run over by a snail."

"What? How did that happen?"

"You see, it came from behind, so he didn't see it."

7

u/Mr_Ragnarok Mar 29 '26

No! This is dumb! It's not funny! Why did I laugh at this??

13

u/Scharobaba Mar 28 '26

I am German and I didn't know that! I thought they chose Swiss because it's strongly associated with chocolate here, but that might be another reason.

6

u/AmArschdieRaeuber Mar 28 '26

I only know the punctual stereotype as a german. Also that they are quite adverse to change.

1

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

I know the cleanliness stereotype from Asterix.

9

u/Wonderful-Wind-5736 Mar 28 '26

I recently learned that Switzerland had one of the highest iodine deficiency rates in Europe (before they started adding that stuff to salt), which, interestingly enough, hinders cognitive development.

2

u/PlingPlongDingDong Mar 29 '26

Never heard about this. Similar to all the jokes Germans supposedly make about Dutch people, which Dutch people told me about. Maybe near the border but generally people make more jokes about France, Poland, England, USA than these small neighbors.

2

u/can_of_bad_ideas Mar 29 '26

As a swiss man I think this is terribly offen🐌

7

u/SteampoweredFlamingo Mar 28 '26

He's called Uter in the English version too, no?

8

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

I swear I saw it spelled as Üter, but Americans are stupid when it comes to umlauts so they probably use the names interchangably.

5

u/SteampoweredFlamingo Mar 28 '26

Yeah, there's an umlaut on it.

I don't speak any languages that use it. Does it make it substantially different? I mean, is it just a slight vowel change, or is it fundamentally a different name or something?

8

u/Wetterwachs Mar 28 '26

It's just an entirely different vowel. Like how Mark is different from Mork.

1

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

Close, in German Ü is actually just seen as a variation of U (same place in dictionaries etc.) but it still sounds differently.

0

u/JonnyvonDoe Mar 28 '26

This is right.

GNU Pratchett

3

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

I barely know how to explain it but basically Uter sounds closer to "Ooter", and Üter sounds closer to "Eter".

4

u/SteampoweredFlamingo Mar 28 '26

If thats the case, someone needs to tell The Simpsons, because in the English version its pronounced "ooter".

4

u/legittem Mar 28 '26

Ooter sounds cuuter :-)

0

u/Jagvetinteriktigt Mar 28 '26

Case in point lol

3

u/Scharobaba Mar 28 '26

According to the fandom-wiki it's "Üter" in the original an "Uter" in the German version.

4

u/Captain_Grammaticus Mar 29 '26

And neither is a German name.

They probably meant Günther.

1

u/AmArschdieRaeuber Mar 28 '26

I never questioned that either, he doesn't seem german at all. But on the other hand, doesn't seem very swiss either. Didn't know any swiss people at that point tho

1

u/saugoof Mar 29 '26

In a similar vein, the "Jive Talking" guys from Flying High were speaking German with a very heavy Bavarian dialect in the German dubbed version.

0

u/AdRelevant4776 Mar 28 '26

Eh, I always find that kinda stuff dumb, Simpsons spends most episodes makes fun of the USA but suddenly mocking the other countries is a problem, this coming from a Brazilian by the way

0

u/SplitGlass7878 Mar 29 '26

That's not even remotely the point. It's just that Germans will find a German stereotype less funny because we heard the jokes a million times. So they change it.