A very brief post!

During the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct, there was a scene with a gag involving Nintendo of America’s President Doug Bowser and the character Bowser.

Immediately I (and some others) thought: “How did that joke work in Japanese?” After all, his name in Japanese is not Bowser, but “Koopa.”

It’s pretty straightforward actually. Looking at the Japanese version of the presentation, they just added a note in the overlay that is not present in the English version:

The overlay says: “Bowser (Koopa’s English name)” and “Doug Bowser (NoA President).

So, the joke is actually presented exactly the same/with the same script, just with these added notes for context.

While explaining the joke with these subtitles may lessen the impact to those already “in” on it, it was probably necessary for this specific context.

That being said, if you could think of an alternative way to present Doug Bowser and Koopa in a case of English to Japanese localization, that may be a fun exercise!