Question

سر و و ضعش تماشایی بود(انگار طرف توی گل افتاده بود)

Answer 1

He was all covered in / with mud; It was a must-see !

must-see : http://goo.gl/14GrPg

http://goo.gl/urPt7p

Comments

Hi

I think must-see has a positive connotation and its application here is not correct.

Awaiting your comment...

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I think you're right! I can neither remember another answer nor a context in which it's been used negatively right now. I try to find a better answer or at least a reference another day. Thanks

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Hi again dear MehdiP

I thought about it and searched for and asked ... . Anyway, I make some changes in my answer. (It's better to use "It" instead of "He" because "must-see" usually refers to things (here, the situation) , not people!)

As you said "must-see" has a positive connotation! But consider that "تماشایی" is also positive ! It brings to mind that something (here the person in mud) is some sort of attraction! While the situation (having fallen in mud) is not positive; it's negative! So, I think there's some irony here and the speaker refers ironically to the situation.(I don't know what the context is! Maybe: Hey you should've been there and see him all covered in mud ! ha ha ...) How can we translate the sentence in a way that the ironical part of the meaning be kept? I, personally think in this situation, "must-see" can be a proper translation (Though there can be other nice equivalences and I'll be happy if other friends can suggest better ones.); Unless we change the sentence and say:

"He was a sight not to be missed! All covered in mud."

or just simply say "You should have seen him! ..."

(As most of us know, we can't always translate word-by-word.)

We can also say "He was an eyesore! All covered in mud (from head to toe). You should have seen him!" But "eyesore" is something bad that people don't want to see, so it's not "تماشایی"! 

(Maybe we can say "Hey you should've been there and see him all covered in mud ! ha ha ... That was a freak show!" but as it sounds derogatory, we'd better not use it.)

Thank you again.

I'm awaiting for better suggestions.

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Hi

As you mentioned what matters here is the ironical meaning implied from the word تماشایی. Therefore I used sight based on a Webster definition to convey the desired concept: 

Someone or something that is strange, funny, messy, etc

He was all dressed up as a pirate. It was quite a sight (to see)!

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Yeah, you're right.

Though we should know being funny or strange (being a sight) is totally different from the bad happening (falling into the mud) and it's not funny at all, unless the speaker finds it funny in a way! (I don't know how it can be interesting!)

Regards

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The word I'm ficusing on in the definition is not funny but messy. As you see it is bolded. What do you think now?A good choice? 

Answer 2

How about this one:

He looked as if he had fallen in mud. It was quite a sight (to see.)

 

Webster 

Answer 3

Covered in filth(after falling into puddle), he was a sight.

: (informal, especially BrE)  a person or thing that looks ridiculous,untidy,unpleasant,etc