The phrase “Do not want” is one of endless amusement, now spoken often in my department when referring to anything bad or…well…unwanted. The phrase is brilliantly humorous and more so now that I know its accidental origin.
But where did this epic phrase come from? I found out yesterday that I had inadvertently blogged about the origin without even realizing it in titled Star Wars, Backstroke of the West. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was Star Wars Episode III recorded in theater, dubbed in Chinese, then subtitled in English off the Chinese dubbing…thus resulting in truly hilarious phrases, such as “Like, reach the man, Good good good let us counter-attacking.”; “The Presbyterian Church like enjoys you not.”; and of course: “Do not want”.
This gem that I’m focusing on in this post occurs when Anakin Skywalker – clad in his Darth Vader garb – learns of Padme’s death. In Episode III he yells: “Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!”, however, the skillfully done translation of the Chinese dubbing to English resulted in the beloved phrase: “Do not want.”
Beautiful. The world has seen this phrase’s real-world usefulness and has embraced it with open arms producing high-end content like the lolcats at I Can Has Cheez Burger:
I recently came across the source of the phrase “All your base are belong to us”.
An old Sega Genesis game called ‘Zero Wing’ was poorly translated. Germans translated Japanese to English. One of the lines was “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” and was later turned into a vastly popular flash music video. I think you can still find it on newgrounds.com.
I love these mis-translations!
Thanks for clearing up the origin of “Do Not Want.” I’ve been wondering about it for a while.
Now, if only I could find the origin of the phrase “_______ Get.” For example:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/11/virtual_console.html
http://kotaku.com/gaming/tag/wii-get–a-side-story-218892.php
http://kotaku.com/gaming/mii/storm-trooper-wii-get-218943.php
http://kotaku.com/tag/shine-get/
I assume it also originates from a bad translation, likely from a Japanese source, given the videogame connection.
“_______ Get” is almost certainly a direct rendition of a bit of Engrish found in some Japanese game, possibly Pokemon or something similar.
Great info, the phrase ‘Do not want’ is used with some regularity on woot.com during a woot-off(in comments blog), when a less than desirable product makes it’s way to the stage. Glad to know the origin. Thanks.
I believe “* GET!” came from Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube. When you got a shine, the game would say “SHINE GET!” in giant text on the screen.
But it seems reasonably common in other places. Ie, the Japanese copy of Wipeout Pure I got had a sticker on the front saying “WIRELESS GET!”..