# We do a little curl on curl action?



## alinadonz

Buongiorno a tutti. Nel tradurre una serie mi sono imbattuta in un'espressione che non riesco a capire. La situazione è questa: una madre, di solito molto impegnata, non ha nulla da fare al momento e cerca di coinvolgere i figli adolescenti a fare qualcosa insieme. Dice loro: "I have no work today, no house chores. So what do you say? We do a little *curl on curl action*?" E mentre dice "curl on curl" indica prima l'uno poi l'altro. Cos'è esattamente questa "curl on curl action"? Non riesco a capire... 
Grazie mille.


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## Tellure

Potrebbe avere a che fare con il football americano? È una serie americana, presumo.

*curl
6 :* a usually short pass pattern in football in which a receiver runs downfield and then curves back toward the line of scrimmage
Definition of CURL


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## alinadonz

Tellure said:


> Potrebbe avere a che fare con il football americano? È una serie americana, presumo.
> 
> *curl
> 6 :* a usually short pass pattern in football in which a receiver runs downfield and then curves back toward the line of scrimmage
> Definition of CURL


Ti ringrazio, ma stavo giusto per rispondere. No, si tratta di una loro abitudine di mettersi in piega i capelli a vicenda per farli diventare mossi. si capisce più avanti nell'episodio. Grazie mille!!


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## Tellure

alinadonz said:


> Ti ringrazio, ma stavo giusto per rispondere. No, si tratta di una loro abitudine di mettersi in piega i capelli a vicenda per farli diventare mossi. si capisce più avanti nell'episodio. Grazie mille!!



Saranno figli*e*, allora. Penso.


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## joanvillafane

Is this a written script? or are you listening to spoken dialogue?  Could it be "girl-on-girl" action? and possibly a play on words with "curl-on-curl."


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## You little ripper!

Tellure said:


> Saranno figli*e*, allora. Penso.


Yes! Unless the boys were gay and had hair long enough to put into curls!


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## Tellure

You little ripper! said:


> Yes! Unless the boys were gay and had hair long enough to put into curls!


 Esatto!


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## metazoan

The wording is probably meant to play on Joan's "girl-on-girl action", however inappropriate that might be.


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## You little ripper!

Indeed!


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## alinadonz

It is a written script and it's "curl". Her children are one male and one female and they have a Curl Night, which refers to the activity of styling hair and dreaming in it, to achieve curls the following morning.


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## joanvillafane

ok, no double meaning, then.  This information would have been helpful in the original post.


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## MR1492

joanvillafane said:


> ok, no double meaning, then.  This information would have been helpful in the original post.



Well, I still think there is a double entendre intended by the author. I think "curl on curl" sounds enough like "girl on girl" to be funny even though the phrase doesn't mean anything sexual in the story.

Phil


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## theartichoke

MR1492 said:


> Well, I still think there is a double entendre intended by the author. I think "curl on curl" sounds enough like "girl on girl" to be funny even though the phrase doesn't mean anything sexual in the story.



I agree. "Curl on curl action" would be an utterly bizarre phrase to describe curling someone's hair if it _weren't_ for the double entendre. The kids are teenagers (_figli adolescenti_, as post #1 specifies), and it's exactly the kind of juvenile, slightly off-colour joke a teenager might make.


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## MR1492

theartichoke said:


> I agree. "Curl on curl action" would be an utterly bizarre phrase to describe curling someone's hair if it _weren't_ for the double entendre. The kids are teenagers (_figli adolescenti_, as post #1 specifies), and it's exactly the kind of juvenile, slightly off-colour joke a teenager might make.



That's exactly what I meant but you said it much better than I!!!! Thanks theartichoke!

Phil


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## You little ripper!

theartichoke said:


> The kids are teenagers (_figli adolescenti_, as post #1 specifies), and it's exactly the kind of juvenile, slightly off-colour joke a teenager might make.


I thought it was the mother who made the suggestion.

I can understand the suggestion being made to a female teenager, but it sounds very strange made to a male. 



alinadonz said:


> It is a written script and it's "curl". Her children are one male and one female and they have a Curl Night, which refers to the activity of styling hair and *dreaming *in it, to achieve curls the following morning.


Perhaps you mean ’sleeping’?


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## MR1492

I admit the dialogue is not realistic but, to me, the double entendre is intentional despite the sex of the children. It's in bad taste but I still think it was intentional.

Phil


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## Tellure

You little ripper! said:


> I thought it was the mother who made the suggestion.
> 
> Ho pensato la stessa cosa. Non riesco comunque ad immaginare una mamma dire una cosa simile; d'altro canto, siamo in una serie TV americana dove quasi tutto è possibile, no? ​
> I can understand the suggestion being made to a female teenager, but it sounds very strange made to a male.
> 
> Molto strano... A meno che non ci troviamo nella serie TV made in USA di cui sopra. 😊​



Rendere lo stesso doppio senso e gioco di parole in italiano sarebbe comunque molto, molto difficile, se non impossibile. 🤔

Alinadonz, hai già pensato ad una possibile traduzione?


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## theartichoke

You little ripper! said:


> I thought it was the mother who made the suggestion.
> I can understand the suggestion being made to a female teenager, but it sounds very strange made to a male.



Ah--you're right, it is the mother who says it. I didn't read the OP carefully enough. How utterly bizarre, then. I find it much weirder that a mother should say that to her kids of either sex than that a teenage boy would say it to a girl, or vice versa!

I had the same thought as Tellure, though: my hat's off to anyone who can translate this into Italian.


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## boysenberryjam

Perhaps something along the lines of "Ci pettiniamo, bambole"? It loses the sexual overtones, sure, but that might be for the better!  And it ties in with the fact that she has nothing to do. I can't think of any other Italian idioms having to do with hair that would even loosely fit the context.


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## Fooler

I am sorry if I am lost with your posts concerning the sexual or not sexual double entendre.

What about_ Che ne dite? Ci.....avvinghiamo _(or sexier)_ lubrifichiamo_ (to lubricate/lubricant) _ i capelli ??_

My try


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## Tellure

boysenberryjam said:


> Perhaps something along the lines of "Ci pettiniamo, bambole"? It loses the sexual overtones, sure, but that might be for the better!  And it ties in with the fact that she has nothing to do. I can't think of any other Italian idioms having to do with hair that would even loosely fit the context.


Niente male! 👏


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## theartichoke

Fooler said:


> I am sorry if I am lost with your posts concerning the sexual or not sexual double entendre.



"Girl on girl action" is a colloquial expression for a pornographic scene involving two women; the only difference in sound between "girl" and "curl," at least in my kind of English, is a very slight one in the initial consonant.


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## WR-addict

What sort of wretched mom could ever talk like that to her children?!? 
...unless she is a porn actress. It would be of great help to know the title of the TV series, speriamo che Alinadonz ce lo faccia sapere. Tellure ha ragione, un equivalente in italiano non è facile da trovare.


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## Fooler

theartichoke said:


> "Girl on girl action" is a colloquial expression for a pornographic scene involving two women; the only difference in sound between "girl" and "curl," at least in my kind of English, is a very slight one in the initial consonant.



Thank you, I got the meaning but I couldn't understand if all your English ears understand or not the double entendre as real or something else.



WR-addict said:


> What sort of wretched mom could ever talk like that to her children?!?
> ...unless she is a porn actress. It would be of great help to know the title of the TV series, speriamo che Alinadonz ce lo faccia sapere. Tellure ha ragione, un equivalente in italiano non è facile da trovare.



Non conosco nemmeno io la serie ma penso (non conoscendo però la volgarità vera e propria alle orecchie anglofone), che non sia così proprio......_da strega_ nell'esprimersi (a meno che, giustamente, i ragazzi non siano bambini). Forse fa sì riferimento ad un atto di lotta pornografica tra due ragazze ma qui lo vedo appunto come una lotta, un azzuffarsi/avvinghiarsi tra di loro per farsi i ricci e stop.

Se vogliamo proprio rimanere sul volgare nel senso....._Facciamo zum-zum/ficchi-ficchi/un'(azzuffa)-orgia per farci i capelli ricci ?_

Mio pensiero


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## Mary49

WR-addict said:


> What sort of wretched mom could ever talk like that to her children?!?
> ...unless she is a porn actress. It would be of great help to know the title of the TV series, speriamo che Alinadonz ce lo faccia sapere. Tellure ha ragione, un equivalente in italiano non è facile da trovare.


See here: 
"1 I don't wanna say that I'm killing my to-do list, but I'm basically the Hannibal Lecter of moms.
Guys? Hannibal Lecter? Your mom eats faces.
[SLURPS.]
I'm sorry, what? I have no work today.
No remodels, no house chores.
So, what do you say? We do a little curl-on-curl action? Or curl on curl on curl? I'm kinda in the middle of something".


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## MR1492

Thanks, Mary! And Fooler.

Fooler, we do hear the difference but also immediately (at least us perverted old guys) make the connection between the sound of "curl on curl" and "girl on girl." As I said, in the context of the show's dialogue it is amusing but I agree it is a bit (as we say) cringeworthy.

Mary, thanks for finding the additional dialogue. As I noted above, the dialogue is strange and disgusting but it's meant to take advantage of the similarity of sound of the two phrases. There isn't any deeper meaning. It is, once again, someone trying to be edgy and funny.

Phil


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## rrose17

MR1492 said:


> we do hear the difference but also immediately (at least us perverted old guys) make the connection between the sound of "curl on curl" and "girl on girl"


Yup. I think it's the addition of the word "action" after that makes it impossible not to. And c'mon Phil, you're not that old.


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## MR1492

rrose17 said:


> Yup. I think it's the addition of the word "action" after that makes it impossible not to. And c'mon Phil, you're not that old.



Hey, da giovane, dinosauri dominavano la terra!

Phil


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## WR-addict

Mary49 said:


> See here:
> "1 I don't wanna say that I'm killing my to-do list, but I'm basically the Hannibal Lecter of moms.
> Guys? Hannibal Lecter? Your mom eats faces.
> [SLURPS.]
> I'm sorry, what? I have no work today.
> No remodels, no house chores.
> So, what do you say? We do a little curl-on-curl action? Or curl on curl on curl? I'm kinda in the middle of something".


Brava Mary49! Hai trovato la fonte, ora it adds up!


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