Humor in Subtitling

Rather difficult task, no matter the approach Humor: that quality which appeals to a sense of the

ludicrous or absurdly incongruous; the mental faculty of discovering,

expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous;

something that is or is designed to be comical or amusing (Via Merriam Webster’s Webster’s Online Dictionary)

From a scholarly point of view, the matter presents great difficulties which have determined many linguists, psychologists and literary critics to abandon their quest for an all-encompassing definition (J. Vandaele 2002: 153)

Functional definition: related to the causes and consequences of humor ; humor can originate in wordplay, parody, irony, or simply the unexpected and it becomes tangible in the form of laughter and/or amusement;

When translating humorous audio-visual material by means of subtitling, working translators as well as those in the field of translation criticism are confronted with a series of problematic factors that impede a successful rendering of SL text into the TL;

1) Time Frame Consideration (TFC) - translators must consider if the ST contains references to very recent events that have not yet entered the cultural conscience of the target audience

2) Social Class and Education Considerations (SEC) ; for instance, a joke about the Kierkegaard existentialism will

not elicit any response from a ‘moderately’ educated audience, while a male vs. female type of joke will reach a much larger public;

1) Cultural Awareness Decision (CAD) : the translator must decide upon the cultural compatibility of the SL and the TL an d operate the necessary changes upon the humorous remark;

Three main categories of jokes:

1)Linguistic jokes;2)Cultural jokes;3)Universal jokes.

Definition: the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound (Via Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary)

Characteristics: - there is a conflict between what is expected

and what it occurs in the pun;- This conflict is caused by an ambiguity on

some linguistic level;- The punch line is surprising.

PUN ⇒ PUN (pun rendered as pun): the ST pun is translated by a TL pun PUN ⇒ NON PUN (pun rendered as non-pun): a non-punning phrase which

may retain all the initial senses (non-selective non-pun), or a non-punning phrase which renders only one of the pertinent senses (selective non-pun), or diffuse paraphrase or a combination of the above

PUN ⇒ RELATED RHETORICAL DEVICE [pun rendered with another rhetorical device, or punoid (repetition, alliteration, rhyme, referential vagueness, irony, paradox etc), which aims to recapture the effect of the ST pun]

PUN ⇒ ZERO (pun rendered with zero pun): the pun is simply omitted PUN ST = PUN TT (ST pun copied as TT pun, without being translated) NON PUN à PUN (a new pun introduced): a compensatory pun is inserted,

where there was none in the ST, possibly making up for ST puns lost elsewhere (strategy 4 where no other solution was found), or for any other reason

ZERO ⇒ PUN (addition of a new pun): totally new textual material is added, containing a wordplay as a compensatory device

EDITORIAL TECHIQUES: explanatory footnotes or endnotes, comments in translator's forewords, 'anthological' presentation of different, complementary solutions etc.

Table 1. Translation Methods of Puns (Delabastita, 1993:192-226; Delabastita, 1996:134)

Lexical puns: a great number of sub-categories ( homonyms, playing with

idioms/connotations/collocations)1) Playing with idioms (sequence taken from 3rd Rock from

the Sun, S01E01) : chew the fat vs. chew your fat

2) Playing with famous quotes (sequence taken from 3rd Rock from the Sun, S01E03)

- Unexpected altering of a paragraph in an established work.

3) Homonyms (sequence taken from 3rd Rock from the Sun, S01E02) : pick smbd up : a) to take hold of and lift up ; b) to take passengers into a vehicle;

Graphological puns (homophones , anagrams, playing with word boundaries)

Homophones/Paronyms :1 ) Die vs. dye (sequence taken from 3rd

Rock from the Sun S01E03)

2) retard vs. retired (sequence taken from the movie Borat (1996) with Sacha Baron Cohen)

Cultural jokes rely on stereotypical descriptions of nation, ethnicity, social group, political and religious affiliation in order to cause amusement/laughter;

They can be harmless or highly offensive:1) The stereotypical portrait of the white, middle-class

American family during the 1950s (sequence taken from 3rd Rock from the Sun, S01E04)

2) The backwardness and sexual promiscuity/miscegenation of the American South (sequence taken from 3rd Rock from the Sun, S01E04): the line also alludes to the American TV series, The Beverly Hills Hillbillies (1962-1971) who tells the story of Jed Clampett and his family)

Boeder, Linda. 2007. Translating Humor. The Problems of Translating Terry Pratchett. Master’s Thesis, University of Utrecht.

Spanaki, Katia. “Translating Humor for Subtitling’’. In Translation Journal. Volume 11, No. 2, April 2007. Available at: http://translationjournal.net/journal//40humor.htm

Vandaele, J. "(Re-) Constructing Humor: Meanings and Means." In The Translator, Volume 8, No. 2, 2008

Young, T.S. ‘’Towards a Humor Translation Checklist for Students of Translation’’. In Interlinguistica. No. 17, 2007