Dominik Kuhn

Dominik Kuhn (2012)

Dominik Kuhn (pseudonym: Dodokay; born September 16, 1969) is a German producer, language artist, comedian, director and musician.[1] He is the owner of media production company STARPATROL Entertainment.

He became famous in Germany with Swabian fandub videos, dubbing over, among others, the Dalai Lama or Barack Obama in Swabian German dialect.

Biography

Dominik Kuhn was raised in Reutlingen and took his Abitur in 1989. While still in school, he founded a rental company for event technology and, at the same time, worked at a local radio station as music editor, DJ and sound technician. Later, he also worked as an independent audio engineer and started producing radio commercials and music, before he went on to producing films. He produced some commercials and low-budget films and worked as an actor, especially in regional productions.[2][3]

He translated some science fiction novels for Dino Verlag in Stuttgart, among others for the Star Wars series and the German version of Magic: The Gathering.[4] Kuhn speaks Dutch and English.[4]

Using a pseudonym, Dodokay, Kuhn became famous with various Swabian fandub videos, which have been published on various video sites such as YouTube, Clipfish and MyVideo. In 2007, a Star Wars parody about viral marketing in Stuttgart found hundreds of thousands of fans. Despite some copyright conflicts, he gained fame with mainstream media and quickly received offers to do such spots professionally.[5] In the case of the Star Wars video, Kuhn also made a version in "Swabian English".[6]

In 2008 he started to produce a fandub news parody, called Die Welt auf Schwäbisch (The World in Swabian), for one of Germany's public broadcaster SWR's TV channel SWR Fernsehen. The original text is not translated but completely changed. Among the news report clips featured were Windows 'Swabian edition' with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy explaining software features and Hillary Clinton doing the weather report.[7] Kuhn found new tasks coaching various celebrities and actors in Swabian and was asked to work and lecture on viral marketing campaigns.[7][8] A B2B video for IBM, about the "LAN-Ball", an allegedly remote-controlled football, is among his professional campaigns.[9] Dodokay also created fandubs of Barack Obama's 2009 and 2013 Berlin speeches; in both version he placed Obama in front of an assembly of home owners in a Stuttgart mansion.[10]

Similarly, rather Swabian problems with neighbors cleaning the car at 5:30 in the morning were used for a fandub of the Dalai Lama. German public broadcaster ZDF used Kuhn's fandub of a Romney-Obama TV discussion to start reporting about the outcome of the 2012 US presidential election.[11][12][13][14] Another German public broadcaster ARD had a Silvio Berlusconi phone call leading to embarrassment during a NATO summit 2009 fandubbed by dodokay.[15]

Kuhn is a jury member for the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for German science fiction.

Awards

He received the Friedrich-E. Vogt Medal for his work promoting the Swabian dialect.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Dominik Kuhn's Website
  2. ↑ Official website, TV series Laible und Frisch
  3. ↑ FAQ on dodokay.com
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Interview on StarWars-Union.de
  5. ↑ Star Wars dub sends jobbing ad man into orbit, By Dave Graham Reuters STUTTGART, Germany Thu Oct 14, 2010
  6. ↑ Dominik Kuhn. Viral Marketing on Death Star Stuttgart (in Swabian English). Event occurs at 1. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kuhn's website biography
  8. ↑ Members list of the band Welcome To The Pleasuredome, retrieved May 31, 2010
  9. ↑ Reality Bites - Best Practices & Erfolgsfaktoren im B2B-Marketing
  10. ↑ Gebrauchsanweisung für Stuttgart Elisabeth Kabatek Piper Verlag, 17.09.2012
  11. ↑ "Obama gegen Romney auf Schwäbisch" [Obama versus Romney in Swabian]. Südkurier (in German). 6 November 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  12. ↑ ""Dr Mitt hot halt koi Ahnung!" YouTube-Hit: Obama vs. Romney auf Schwäbisch" ["Mitt doesn't get it", Obama versus Romney in Swabian]. Merkur (in German). 8 November 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Dominik Kuhn. Dodokay Romney und Obama streiten auf Schwäbisch [Dodokay Romney and Obama argue in Swabian] (in Swabian). Event occurs at 1:34. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  14. ↑ "Romney und Obama streiten auf Schwäbisch - Dodokay". Kress Mediendienst. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  15. ↑ Dominik Kuhn. Die Welt auf Schwäbisch [The world in Swabian] (in Swabian). Event occurs at 1:45. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  16. ↑ Mundartgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg e.V.

External links