What not to say in Australia / UK

[Petra Pan]

Yours truly:
> Do beavers as a species exist in
> Australia? Someone who had worked 
> on the old Nickelodeon show "Two
> Angry Beavers" once told me that the 
> show had to change names when
> exported to Australia because in 
> Australia, 'beavers' does not mean
> dam-building water dwellers with 
> big flat tails.

Shaun Hately, in part:
> Well, it's true 'beavers' has a
> different meaning in Australia
> (and not one you'd want to 
> use on a kids show) but Australian
> kids know what a beaver is -
> interesting thing about growing up
> in Australia is that a lot of kids
> know European and American things -
> like geography, history, and
> wildlife - pretty much as well as
> Europeans or Americans because so
> much of our TV comes from those
> markets.

Yes, my line of thinking was that 
maybe some of the intended audience 
are familiar with the reference 
to genitalia but surely the first 
thoughts of most of the kids would be 
of the cute little river swimmers.

still Shaun:
> The Angry Beavers was shown 
> here, but the title wasn't changed
> as far as I know - I suppose it's
> possible it was at first but it
> definitely currently airs under
> that title. Same with leave it to
> Beaver. Certainly been shown here
> under that title.

Ah!  I thought I felt my leg tugged 
by that mischievous imp...or maybe 
I mistook "considered changing name" 
for "definitely changing name."  :)

Catlady, in part:
> Here in USA, "beaver" has another
> meaning, as slang for, um, female 
> genitalia ... which is why
> publications like HUSTLER are
> described as having "split beaver"
> shots, and why there is a t-shirt
> labelled "Ward, weren't you a
> little hard on the Beaver last night?".

Funny you should mention that t-shirt 
because that joke was part of the 
original conversation, IIRC.

Speaking of unintended double entendre, 
did "Free Willy" go under a different 
title in the UK?

Petra
a
n  :)

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