11 funniest subtitling blunders

From Digital Spy

Any journalist who's ever transcribed an interview knows how hard it is to 100% accurately write down everything that's said.

Fortunately, when it comes to subtitles, it's usually a mix of software that prepares the subtitles or live captioning, generally in news programmes and real-time events, but the odd error slips through, as showcased in the fictional – yet likely accurate – BBC comedy W1A.

And given the world we live in, an error is usually screengrabbed for our enjoyment, so we've rounded up some of the funniest subtitle blunders around.

1. Famous for what now?

During a BBC Breakfast segment on the decline of fishing in England's coastal towns, a reporter was talking about the Norfolk town of Cromer, which is famous for its crabs, only for the subtitles to basically insult an entire town.

"Cromer, famous for its crap," read the subtitles, with presenter Dan Walker joking about the sweary blunder on Twitter: "Someone call Dave in subtitles... CRABS... we said CRABS."

2. That's a new Gladiator

This Morning's 25th anniversary reunion of Gladiators had a rather unfortunate subtitle blunder as Holly Willoughby started to speak to Panther (Helen O'Reilly), only that wasn't quite how she was described.

"Helen, you are cancer," the subtitles read, and we're pretty sure she never had a name change in her time on the show...

3. Terrifying weather

Sure, it's been a bit nippy recently, but be thankful this subtitle gaffe never turned out to be true on BBC Wales.

As Sue Charles was talking about the weather "bringing some rain along the north sea coasts", the subtitles thought she said, "Bringing some rain along the Nazi ghosts" so, you know, don't go complaining next time there's a light shower.

4. A British trait

Poor Dan Walker. We're not picking on him, he's just too happy to joke about awkward subtitle blunders.

In a segment on queuing at Wimbledon, the subtitles had Dan say this about the British public: "We might be bad at some things in the UK, but we are so good at killing."