I'm making the italian subtitles for this episode and there's a phrase I really couldn't figure out right.
At a certain point Krusty gives Cletus a contract, saying something about the maximum earning allowed for the show-business enterprise blabla "scale!" (my guess).
I still don't get it: I imagine it'a joke about Krusty exploting the "yokels", but I really don't understand the meaning: what does "scale" stand for?
It is "scale."
Under the terms of one or more collective bargaining agreements, union members are entitled to certain minimums for any TV appearance. (I don't know what the relevant union is -- perhaps the Screen Actors Guild, or SAG as it's commonly called.) For reasons I don't know, that minimum is called "scale." I don't know what "scale" amounts to now, but it is very low; you could probably find out with a web search. (A few decades ago, it was on the order of $200 or $300.)
Various television shows, particularly the late night shows, famously pay all guests only scale. Guests are nevertheless happy to appear on the shows, because of the ancillary benefits, primarily the publicity. They would no doubt appear for free, but the union contracts require that they be paid at least "scale" and that is what they are paid.
So the most accurate translation for "scale" would be whatever "union minimum" is in Italian. That sort of detracts from the joke (which wasn't much of a joke anyway) which lies in the fact that Krusty, a two-bit entertainer himself, was using entertainment-business jargon, as Krusty often does. Perhaps there's a similar minimum in Italian entertainment union contracts, and perhaps there's an Italian jargon for them. If so, that's what you should use.
David Howorth
David Howorth ha scritto:
Thank you very much. You enlightened me. I don't know any specific word, so I'll use "uninon minimum" = "minimo sindacale".
Now that someone here has helped you, you have to help us. What do the following labels on the gas gauge in Rainier Wolfcastle's Ferrari in http://www.snpp.com/episodes/CABF14 mean in English?
NOTSOBADDA
MAMMAMIA ABBONDANZAMr. Mvsevm
[email] ha scritto:
I'd be my pleasure... :)
This is not italian. Not even close. I guess it's a joke about our usual pronounciation of "Not so bad". Almost any of our words end with wovels so we put them everywhere...
It should be separated: Mamma mia. Literally "My mother" (SuperMario anyone?): we use it as a typical expression of surprise. "Mamma mia, che regalo!" = "Oh my godness! What a gift!"
That's quite similar: abundance, plenty, very much of "C'e' abbondanza di denaro" = there's plenty of money. we can also say: "C'e' denaro in abbondanza".