Question about what lines actually mean

[lemonleleupi]

[quote="Flowertall"]
My favorite line is "what`s a motto with you". I laughed really hard when I heard that for the first time. It`s very hard to translate that, and in the norwegian version Simba asks: "What`s a motto", and Timon replies: "Nothing, but it rhymes with lotto", which is norwegian for lottery. Hardly funny at all, but it`s impossible to translate that word for word.[/quote]


Yeah I agree.
Now I'm trying to translate all English lines into Japanese, and the most difficult part to translate is such kind of double-meaning joke. It makes sense only in English and once it is translated, it loses humor and wit
So I attempt to select expressions with a great consideration in order to make the difference of nuance minimum.

[SuperBabySimba]

The Norvagian version isn't even a joke really, it's simply a truth: motto rhymes with lotto, so where's the joke?

The Finnish translation is "What's a motto?" "Like a lotto but nothing like it." - Not funny in my opinion but still more of a "joke" than the norvagian one. I think it's impossible to get the meaning anything like the english one as it's the word play was created for engish langiage and no language is close enough to english as far as I know.

Anyway, I don't find that line funny at all. It may be a bit clever, but not as funny as Timon seems to think.

[Pixie]

The "lion around" joke is a pun.

[lemonleleupi]

In Japanese version, Banzai says "Chef's recommendation is... roast lion!"
It is not joke at all
But Timon says "Do you wanna know it motto?" Motto is Japanese word for 'more'. So this makes a kind of joke

[iluvnala]

i never understodd timons line but whaterevers lion around like lying on the ground that one is easy

[SummerSnowLeopard]

[quote="xLilacVixenx"]The first one is pretty simple. Lion is a common mistake for 'lying'. So if he said "We could have whatever's lying around," would that make sense? Yes; since Simba is a lion, and they intend to eat him, he made a joke out of that.

The second one is trickier, so I have no definate answer. Probably all they were going through and they couldn't even speak with Nala? I don't know. [/quote]
This ^^