Making Off

Apart from the actual content of Spanish television, the daily TV listings in the papers offer their own curiosities. First, it’s not exactly clear why the newspapers bother to publish these listings. With a few exceptions (the news, soccer matches), program start-times are fairly flexible. A network-television program scheduled to run at 10pm might run at 10:24, or 10:41, or closer to 11. A “tonight-at-11” advertisement might run at 11:25, during a program that theoretically ended at 11. So that “appointment TV” in Spain can recall a doctor’s appointment in the U.S.: the procedure could start on time, but probably won’t. None of this is the result of breaking news or any other unforeseen interruption in television’s circadian cycle. It’s as if, after the nightly news and the soccer match, the synchronizing is left to interns. So long as you aren’t an Appointment TV kind of person, the phenomenon can make for some fun. You can place bets with your friends as to actual starting times, for example. When a “tonight-at-10” promotional spot airs at 10:40, you can feel like a time traveler.

That's Nicked Up

Also fun vis-à-vis Spanish TV listings in the paper, is that the listings are not always well edited. Frequently the series Nip/Tuck is listed as Nick/Tup. In English this kind of works phonetically: “nicked up,” as in what happens to a patient undergoing plastic surgery. Other weeks the series is listed as Nick/Up, which might also be said to work, in reference to what a plastic surgeon does to the patient — nicks him up.

Even when the listings are carefully edited, curious things can happen across languages. What may at first look like a proofreading error, may turn out not to be. When you read an encapsulated review of a behind-the-scenes, how-they-filmed-it series called Making Off, you may reasonably assume that the typist’s “f”-key got stuck. Or maybe a title and a review got mixed up: maybe Making Off is another series altogether, a series about history’s biggest bank heists, say. But no…the name of the series — a behind-the-scenes, how-they-filmed-it series — is, in fact, Making Off.*

One more Fun Fact before we move on: The Spanish version of Saturday Night Live is called Saturday Night Live and, like the original, it is presented live — on Thursdays.

* There is no soft “f” in Spanish, so “of” is pronounced off. Because “of” is pronounced off, it’s a bit of a mystery as to why we need a second “f” in the first place. Presumably “of” would supply both the appropriate (English) word, and the appropriate (Spanish) sound. With “off,” it would seem that an English word, “of,” is being spelled according to Spanish phonetics — but with English spelling.

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Charlie Geer is the author of the novel “Outbound: The Curious Secession of Latter-Day Charleston.” His work has appeared in Tin House, The Sun, Bloomsbury Magazine, and The Southern Review.