Tag Archives: Clue

We speak the same language…

4 Dec

In one of my classes today, we had to do a breaking news writing assignment. It was one of those “the plot thickens…” type of stories, and one of the girls in my class thought that this assignment was like playing Cluedo.

Cluedo? What the hell is Cluedo?

So, as an unwitting American, I ask her what this Cluedo game is about. She tells me it’s some board game where everyone solves a murder. Then I said, “Oh! Clue!” Yes, that board game I enjoyed when I was still a Catholic schoolboy.

I don’t understand. So I went on Wikipedia later and found out about the history of Clue–I mean Cluedo–and it was originally made in Britain. However, when they introduced it to the United States, they decided to call it Clue. Cluedo sounds pretty tacky anyway, but what I don’t understand is why it’s called one thing in the UK while in the US, it’s a totally different name? It’s the same thing in advertising. I give you two examples:

In the UK, a movie came out in April called “The Boat That Rocked,” which was about British radio stations broadcasting from ships to counter the BBC. Here’s a trailer:

However, in the US, the same movie was retitled “Pirate Radio.” Pretty succinct, but I’m wondering why they can’t seem to have a common title for it. It’s not like we speak two different languages!

It’s not even limited to just titles. It also concepts. Did you know there are two different versions of the Mac vs. PC ad beaming worldwide in English? Of course, most of us are familiar with this one:

But if you’re living in the UK, you get Mitchell and Webb instead:

What can Mitchell and Webb do better in the UK that Justin Long and John Hodgman can’t? Please, I want to know! Oh, and don’t get me started with the Japanese Mac vs. PC ads!