Sep 20
It’s His Dad, Not An Animal’s Hand!
Every now and then, I’ll switch on closed captioning, just to see what displays. I just watched an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, the one called “Citizen’s Arrest,” in which Gomer arrests Barney for making an illegal U-turn. In one scene, Opie tells Gomer that Barney got angry and resigned as deputy.
Here’s the exchange:
GOMER: You say Barney quit? He really quit?
OPIE: Yep. He’s off Pa’s force.
But in the world of the hearing impaired, closed captioning turns Opie’s line into this:
Yep. He’s off Paw’s force.
Paw?
I wonder if the captioners ever write things like “bear necessities” or “bale someone out of jail.” Has a hearing impaired person been forced to endure reading of someone putting clothes in a “drier” instead of a dryer, or a man giving his fiancé a one-carrot ring.
It wouldn’t surprise me. The hearing impaired deserve a copy editor, too.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I do the same thing, from time to time. Not sure why. But invariably, I’ll see some oddly worded version of what was actually said. “Paw” is a good one. Nice catch!
September 21st, 2008 at 1:40 am
Although, the P-A-W spelling of the word, “Pa” is commonly used to emphasize the drawl of a southern accent, so it may have been intentional.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Quite possible, Paul, but the captioners don’t seem to make much effort to emphasize the southern drawl of any other words. That’s why I tend to think of it being more of a transcription error.
September 21st, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Could be. My Dad has hearing loss, and uses the captioning feature of his television at times. You should try watching a live event with captioning on. That gets really interesting.