Al Shamshoon (The Simpsons)

> DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- When an Arab satellite TV network, MBC,
> decided to introduce "The Simpsons" to the Middle East, they knew the
> family would have to make some fundamental lifestyle changes.
>
> "Omar Shamshoon," as he is called on the show, looks like the same Homer
> Simpson, but he has given up beer and bacon, which are both against Islam,
> and he no longer hangs out at "seedy bars with bums and lowlifes." In
> Arabia, Homer's beer is soda, and his hot dogs are barbequed Egyptian beef
> sausages. And the donut-shaped snacks he gobbles are the traditional Arab
> cookies called kahk.
>
> An Arabized "Simpsons" -- called "Al Shamshoon" -- made its debut in the
> Arab world earlier this month, in time for Ramadan, a time of high TV
> viewership. It uses the original "Simpsons" animation, but the voices are
> dubbed into Arabic and the scripts have been adapted to make the show more
> accessible, and acceptable, to Arab audiences.
>
> The family remains, as the producers describe them, "dysfunctional." They
> still live in Springfield, and "Omar" is still lazy and works at the local
> nuclear power plant. Bart (now called "Badr") is constantly cheeky to his
> parents and teachers and is always in trouble. Providing the characters'
> voices are several popular Egyptian actors, including Mohamed Heneidy,
> considered the Robert De Niro of the Middle East.
>
> MBC hopes "Al Shamshoon" will be the first of many adaptations for the
> growing Arab TV audience. "We are opening up a whole new genre of
> programming in the Middle East," says Michel Costandi, MBC's
> business-development director. Suppliers of Arabic-dubbed Western cartoons
> say demand had been sky-high for years, with Walt Disney Co. dubbing
> countless animations. Now broadcasters are looking for something new. "The
> advent of the satellite era in the Arab world has created -- and is still
> creating -- new channels on a continuous basis," says Sherine El-Hakim,
> head of Arabic content at VSI Ltd., a London-based company that dubs and
> subtitles TV shows and other content for broadcasters and corporations.
>
> With 60 percent of the population in the Arab world under the age of 20 --
> 40 percent is under age 15 -- the market for Arabized animations is vast.
> "Arabization is going to boom in these next few years," says Ms. El-Hakim.
> "We're such an impressionable people and we aspire so much to be like the
> West, that we take on anything that we believe is a symbol or a
> manifestation of Western culture." "Pokemon," "Digimon" and other animated
> shows from Japan were popular first, she says, "but now the Americans are
> taking over."
>
> "Al Shamshoon" is currently broadcast daily during an early-evening
> prime-time slot, starting with the show's first season. If it is a hit,
> MBC envisions Arabizing the other 16 seasons.
>
> But there's no guarantee of success. Many Arab blogs and Internet chat
> sessions have become consumed with how unfunny "Al Shamshoon" is. "They've
> ruined it! Oh yes they have, sob. ... Why? Why, why oh why?!!!!" wrote a
> blogger, "Noors," from Oman.
>
> Some longtime "Simpson" fans who are Arabs are incensed over the Arabized
> version. "This is just beyond the pale," wrote As'ad AbuKhalil, a
> professor at California State University, Stanislaus, whose blog,
> angryarab blogspot, often touches on politics and the media. After viewing
> a promotional segment of "Al Shamshoon," Prof. AbuKhalil wrote, "It was
> just painful. ... The guy who played Homer Simpson was one of the most
> unfunny people I ever watched. Just drop the project, and air reruns of
> Tony Danza's show instead."
>
> Few shows have more obsessed fans than "The Simpsons," and their vast
> online community is worried about whether classic Simpsons dialogue can
> even be translated. One blogger wrote, "'Hi-diddly-ho, neighbors!' How the
> h -- are they going to translate that? Or this great quote: Mr Burns:
> Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought
> of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison
> monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit
> because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."
>
> A blogger, who uses the name "Nibaq," wrote, "I am sure the effort (of)
> the people who made this show to translate it to Arabic could have made a
> good original show about an Egyptian family living in Egypt, dealing with
> religion, life and work and trying to keep a family together. That way
> they can proudly say Made in Egypt, instead of Made in USA Assembled in
> Egypt."
>
> Ms. El-Hakim says when it comes to Arabized animation, the market is still
> in its experimentation phase. A few boom years for adaptations of U.S.
> content may be followed by a surge in locally created productions, she
> says.