The International House of Mojo

In the interest of returning to normalcy (or at least pretending to), here's a bit of trivia on The Secret of Monkey Island. In the february issue of industry magazine GameDeveloper, LucasArts veteran Noah Falstein talks about localisation issues and cultural differences. Here's a possibly interesting bit:

I discovered another clue working with some Japanese experts to translate the insult-swordfighting episode from The Secret of Monkey Island, where characters trade insults and rejoinders to gain advantage in fights. Although this went over well in America and Germany, our Japanese experts were detectably horrified (even though they politely veiled their reactions). They were amazed that we thought it was funny to insult each other, and they found two insults involving farmers and ancestors particularly offensive.

Ultimately the translators suggested to keep the swordfighting in, but remove the most potentially offensive references.

So, yeah ... Sam & Max 2.