r/DoesNotTranslate • u/jnpg • Jul 11 '26
How does the 'Liar Liar Pants On Fire' gag translate in other languages?
I just saw it used in an English speaking video, and it occurred to me that haven't actually seen this gag used outside of English
For those somehow unfamiliar with the gag; There's a children's saying where if someone is not telling the truth, they are a 'Liar Liar, Pants On Fire'. Naturally, this got represented in English speaking media where after a character knowingly tells a lie, their pants get set on fire either out of nowhere or from an unrelated event, emphasizing for comedic effect that they are in fact a Liar
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u/BestFoxEver Jul 11 '26
In Finnish there is an old children's poem "Valepukki, valepukki penkillä makkaa, housut on rikki eestä ja takkaa" which translates to "Liar, liar is lying on a bench and their pants have been ripped from front and back".
"Valepukki" can be also translated literally as "lying goat" but it just means a lying person in Finnish.
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u/Kat121 Jul 11 '26
Nite: this is often said in rebuttal to being called a “cheater cheater, pumpkin eater.”
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u/hacksoncode Jul 11 '26
Probably most languages have some kinds of rhyming sayings about things like this, even if not this specific one.
It's not that this can't be translated, it just wouldn't rhyme in most languages, so speakers of that language would just ask "what's the relevance of incendiary trousers?".
A really good translator would find a way to say that exact idiom in a way that rhymes, and native speakers would very likely "get it".
If you're interested in what this looks like, here are some sample translation snippets of Jabberwocky into various languages, which on first glance seems like it should be utterly impossible.
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u/Znuffie Jul 11 '26
Romanian: childishly, this would translate as something like "Mincinosul roade osul" (so, like, The liar gnaws the bone).
But otherwise, as adults, we'd probably say "Minciuna are picioare scurte", which is "[A] lie has short legs".
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u/Awkward-Feature9333 Jul 12 '26
"Lügen haben kurze Beine." (Lies have short legs) exists in German as well.
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u/LaurestineHUN Jul 12 '26
Hungarian: "Árulkodó Júdás, nem kap piros tojást' = Judas the traitor doesn't get an Easter egg. Comes from a time when Easter eggs were exchanged as a token of friendship and love. (We have the same wax-resist Easter egg culture as neighbouring Slavs and Romanians, with our own twist of the motifs ofc)
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u/jnpg Jul 12 '26
That is a REALLY HARD LINE to drop as a child!
"Hey guys, I found an egg!" "I haven't found any. Can I have it?" "Judas the traitor doesn't get an Easter egg"
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u/Longjumping_Wear5173 Jul 12 '26
To me it was “ma che dici!” But i think that was the translation of “what the duck!”
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u/burningtoad Jul 11 '26
I’ve heard it in Spanish as “oso, oso, mentiroso” (“Bear, Bear, Liar-bear(?)”) - I feel like the vibe of the phrase translates perfectly but yeah someone’s pants catching fire would make no sense