I love how much subtle Persian humor Kayvan puts into the show through Nandor. It's awesome to see a mainstream modern show do something other than racist inaccurate stereotypes of terrorists for Persians.
Can I ask what jokes are specifically Persian? I love Nandors character. The fact that he forgot his own language, and misremembered his horses name, جهان, anglicised as John, is the most elaborate joke ever, and I love it.
No problem, I finished the series a while ago but I can remember a few points of Persian humour off of the top of my head! - The horse's name in the human spirit episode is Jahan which is Persian for "the world" but Nandor kept calling him John, as you know. However, the joke goes to a deeper level for two other reasons. Firstly, the manner in which human Nandor keeps calling for his horse Jahan is a reference to to the Persian Shahnameh or "Book of Kings" which is a historical account of when the country became conquered by Islam told as a an epic through poetry. It's really important to Persian culture. It featured the warrior Rostam and his horse "Rakhsh". One section features the Rostam looking for his horse after Rakhsh was stolen and keeps repeating the same phrases that human Nandor was using about Jahan/John. It's a pretty cool reference to a very important cultural book, but then human Nandor basically tells vampire Nandor to suck it with a very immature but satisfying insult in Persian when he realized he won't help him find the horse. - Then you have a pretty sassy insult aimed at the Persian expats community in human Nandor's Persian dialogue as well. Human Nandor at one point insults vampire Nandor by basically saying he's pathetic for moving abroad and pretending to forget his own language. It's a very common stereotype to make fun Persian expats moving to US/California and suddenly pretending they only speak English so it was a pretty spot on insult for anyone familiar with the culture. -His speech at the city council was full of Persian mannerisms. Him angrily pointing up then pounding his fist to his heart for emphasis is every Persian person ever when they're giving an impassioned speech about smth, which is often lol. It'd equivalent to the Italian hand gestures while talking stereotype. - The ascension day celebrations also showed them all twisting their hands when dancing, which is another common Persian stereotype about them using their wrists to dance as if they're changing light bulbs. - I think there was some joke at the border patrol scene dialogue as well but I can't quite remember it properly rn. If I remember I'll update though!
I am not a pop culture fan but this show has grabbed me and won't let go. The entire cast is great but Kayvan is stellar. I have a lot of close experience with Persians so his character is so funny to me. When I heard this opening for the Ascension episode, I nearly fell off the couch. Brilliant!
Could someone provide and translate the lyrics, please? Just curious how similar they are to the original or if there are any good jokes in it? Love this show. Nandor is the best!
@@herizzi I guess its one of those things that to people who don't speak a certain language, other languages can sound a like even though to people who actually speak those languages cthey an tell straight away that they're very different and sound nothing alike haha 😂