10 Movie Titles With Ridiculous German Translations
9. The Pope Must Die
German Title: Ein Papst zum Küssen
English Translation: A Pope To Kiss
The Pope must Die involves jokes that are fast paced albeit somewhat irreverent and exaggerated at times. The film is about a less than qualified and far from perfect priest who's mistakenly named the new pope. As the pontiff, he must deal with corruption stemming from the Vatican, the Mob and the sudden reappearance of a forgotten love interest.
But here's one interesting example of religion sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and causing Hollywood executives to thoroughly s**t their pants to the point that they had to make last minute changes to an already established title.
After pressure came showering down in form of protests from religious circles, the creative geniuses responsible for translating the movie's title, decided to go from: Der Papst Muss Sterben (The Pope Must Die) to Ein Papst Zum Küssen (A Pope To Kiss).
Needles to say, the film did not perform well commercially despite the lighthearted German title change; the Spanish must have somehow envisioned this inevitable flop as they didn't bother to make changes but instead simply added a T at the end of the title. (The Pope Must Die T.)