Humor translation PowerPoint Presentation

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28 1 Humor, Translation, and Bilingual Issues by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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28 2 Problems in Translating Jokes “Before the joke can be discharged in all its swiftness there is much to be apprehended about cultural and social facts, about shared beliefs and attitudes, about pragmatic bases of communication.” “We share our humour with those who have shared our history and who understand our ways of interpreting the experience. There is a fund of common knowledge and recollection, upon which all jokes draw with instantaneous effect.” (Nash [1985]: 9; Chiaro [2008]: 585)

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28 3 Translation in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction VINCENT: You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in Paris? JULES: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? VINCENT: No man; they’ve got the metric system; they don’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is! JULES: So what do they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese?

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28 4 VINCENT: They call it a Royale with cheese. JULES: Royale with cheese. VINCENT: That’s right. JULES: What do they call a Big Mac? VINCENT: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac only they call it Le Big Mac JULES: Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper? VINCENT: I don’t know. I never went to a Burger King. You know what they put on French Fries instead of Ketchup? JULES: What? VINCENT: Mayonnaise. (Chiaro [2008]: 586)

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28 5 A Riddle If you are Swedish, you stroke it. If you are Spanish you beat it. If you are German, you cover it in food. If you are British, you use it as an excuse not to have sex. What is it? A Personal Computer. NOTE: PCs in Spain often suffer violence, with 57 percent of owners admitting to hitting them. Germans are unamused by PCs; only one in six has enjoyed a laugh with their PC. (Davis [2008]: 561)

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28 6 Untranslatable Canadian Joke “Je suis allé dans un magazin ‘Newfie’ et j’ai demandé un robe de chambre. Le ‘Newfie’ m’a demandé: “Quelle grandeur la chambre?” (Davies [2008]: 163)

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28 7 FRENCH What has fifty legs and cannot walk? Half a centipede. (Laurian & Nilsen 6) TRANSLATION: Qu’est-ce qui a cinq cent pattes et qui ne peut pas marcher? La moitié d’une mille-pattes NOTE: A French centipede is a “mille-pattes” (thousand-feet). (Chiaro [2008]: 575-576)

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28 8 Formal Equivalence vs. Connotative Equivalence Werner Koller would say that translating the English “centipede” into the French “mille-pattes” is apt in terms of reference, but becomes inept when the English and French words are analyzed because “mille-pattes” is more hyperbolic than is “centipede.” (Chiaro [2008]: 576)

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28 9 An English Sick Joke in France “Mummy, Mummy, is it still a long way to France?” “Shut up and keep swimming!” “Maman, Maman, est-ce que l’Angleterre est loin?” “Tais-toi et continue à nager!”

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28 10 Discussion Notice that in the translation, “England” is substituted for “France.” As one of Delia Chiaro’s French colleagues pointed out to her, “Why would someone French want to go to England?” (Chiaro [2008]: 587)

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28 11 German Humor Between 1931 and 1936 The Jack Pearl Show was on radio. Baron von Munchausen was the central figure in a running skit. The Baron spoke with a strong German accent that contrasted with the ordinary language of Charlie (Sharlie).

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28 12 BARON: Und dere in frundt of me wuz a green elephant. SHARLIE: Now wait a minute, Baron; do you mean to tell me you actually saw a green elephant? BARON: (with great indignation) Vas you dere, Sharlie?

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28 13 Irish and Jewish Humor “Since Irish humor developed out of the oral tradition (the telling of jokes and stories in Irish pubs), it is very epiphinal in nature.” “Like Jewish humor, Irish humor developed out of pain and tragedy that resulted in a diaspora.” (D. Nilsen Humor in Irish Literature xv)

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28 14 “Irish humor, like Jewish humor, contains much wordplay, and like Jewish humor, much of Irish wordplay is bilingual and/or bicultural, relating to both the Gaelic/Celtic and to the English language and culture.” Many Irish, like many Jews, “are trying to reestablish their roots, and it is the humor in Irish written and oral literature that is helping them to do so.” (D. Nilsen Humor in Irish Literature xv)

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28 15 Italian Humor In the late 1970s, comedian Don Novello spoke with an Italian accent and dressed in clerical garb when doing comedy skits about Father Guido Sarducci. He was a hit on Saturday Night Live and on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but when he went to the Vatican to pose for publicity photos he was arrested for impersonating a priest.

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28 16 An Irish Joke in Italy What do they write on the bottom of Guinness bottles in Ireland? Open at other end. TRANSLATION: Che cosa scrivono sul fondo delle lattine di Coca Cola che si trovano nei distributori di bibite nelle caserme dei carabinieri? Aprire dall’altro lato. (Chiaro [2008]: 583)

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28 17 Discussion The Irish are the butt of English stupidity jokes, so a different stupidity group needs to be used in Italian. In Italy, the stupidity group is not ethnic, but is professional—the carabinieri (one of Italy’s police forces). There is no national drink in Italy. Furthermore, Italians consume alcohol usually at meals and from glasses, not bottles. So “Coca Cola” is used instead of Guinness. Finally, Italians see a bottle as having a top and a bottom, so “bottle” had to change to “can.” (Chiaro [2008]: 583)

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28 18 Now reread the joke and the translation! What do they write on the bottom of Guinness bottles in Ireland? Open at other end. TRANSLATION: Che cosa scrivono sul fondo delle lattine di Coca Cola che si trovano nei distributori di bibite nelle caserme dei carabinieri? Aprire dall’altro lato. (Chiaro [2008]: 583)

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28 19 ITALIAN What’s black and white and red all over? A newspaper. TRANSLATION: Che cosa è nero, bianco e rossa ovunque? A. L’Unità, or (a Communist newspaper) B. Una zebra con l’abronzatura (a zebra with a sunburn) NOTE: The first “red” retains the “read” association, while the second “red” does not. (Chiaro [2008]: 580)

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28 20 Neither of these translations encapsulate the semantic ambivalency attached to the words “red/read.” “Nevertheless, solution A does capture the ‘read’ element of the original riddle coupled with the metaphorical value of the colour term ‘red’ attached to a popular left wing newspaper L’Unità.” Since this is a children’s riddle, the first answer is inappropriate because children wouldn’t know about L’Unità. Furthermore the second answer has the kind of silliness that would be found in a children’s riddle. (Chiaro [2008]: 580)

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28 21 JAPANESE JACOB MEY: Is there a toilet around here? ATTENDANT: You want to use? JACOB MEY: (somewhat astonished): Sure I do. ATTENDANT: Go down the steps. NOTE: In Japan there are Western toilets and Japanese toilets. There are also male toilets and female toilets (Mey 264-265)

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28 22 NATIVE AMERICANS In American conversations, when the speaker is ready to relinquish the floor, he usually waits about one and a half seconds. In Athabaskan conversations, silence is used to organize thoughts and develop effective sentence structure.

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28 23 So when an Athabaskan is talking with a non-Indian, the Athabaskan never gets the floor. “The Athabaskan feels he has been interrupted and the English speaker feels the Athabaskan never makes sense, never says a whole coherent idea.” (Scollon and Scollon 25)

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28 24 Polish Jokes in America Do you know why they don’t give Poles a coffee break? It takes too long to retrain them. What is stamped at the bottom of Coca Cola bottles in Poland? Please open at the other end. (Dundes (1987): 135)

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28 25 Russian Humor Russian immigrant yakov Smirnoff entertained Americans through the cold war and beyond with such jokes as, “I have a Russian Express Card. It says, ‘Don’t Leave Home!’” and “One of the biggest differences between America and Russia is that in America you can always find a party, but in Russia, the party always finds you.”

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28 26 “The editors of a Soviet newspaper were arrested and possibly executed because they published Stalin’s name as “Sralin,” which in Cyrillic means “shit.” Was this a Freudian slip… Or an accident… Or a slur? (Davies [2008] 171)

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28 27 Scandinavian Humor Garrison Keilor exploits Scandinavian stereotypes in his “Lake Wobegon.” “Swedish flu is the usual flu with chills, fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and achiness…, but it’s accompanied by on overpowering urge to put things in order.”

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28 28 Scottish Humor What’s the difference between a poor Scotsman, a rich Scotsman, and an old Scotsman? A poor Scotsman has a can o pee under his bed. A rich scotsman has a canopy over the bed. And an old Scotsman can na’ pee at all. (A Sandra Nagy Joke)

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Chinese Translation of “My Blackberry’s Not Working Here is the web site for "My Blackberry's Not Working" with Chinese subtitles. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPGePuyR-E They translate both meanings with 2 lines (the first line is the mobile phone-related meaning, the second the literal translation about fruits). 28 29

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28 30 BILINGUAL HUMOR WEB SITES GADDAFI’S BEST SPEECH EVER (ON CONAN O’BRIEN SHOW): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF6tipZDs4k&feature=related INTERNATIONAL AND CROSSCULTURAL HUMOR: DANISH HUMOR RESOURCES (JOSEF WEITEMEYER): www.humor.dk HUMOR IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION (WENDY LAWSON): www.beyondajoke.co.uk INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR HUMOR STUDIES (MARTIN LAMPERT): www.humorstudies.org

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28 31 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN HUMOR RESEARCH (WILLIBALD RUCH): http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MathNat/Ruch/SecretaryPage.html ITALIAN TIME: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETz0elhKvkM RUSSELL PETERS--INDIAN ACCENT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw6RgIf6epQ&feature=related TRANSLATION STUDIES BIBLIOGRAPHY (JOHN BENJAMINS): http://www.benjamins.com/online/tsb/topbar.html

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28 32 Related PowerPoints African-American Humor Indian Humor Jewish Humor Spanish-American Humor

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28 33 References (2000-2012): Antonini, Rachele. “The Perception of Subtitled Humor in Italy.” in Chiaro (2005): 209-225. Asimakoulas, Dimitris. “Towards a Model of Describing Humour Translation: A Case Study of the Green Subtitled Versions of Airplane and Naked Gun.” META: Journal des Traducteurs/META: Translators’ Journal 49.4 (2004): 822-845. Badarnach, Muhammad A. “Carnivalesque Politics: A Bakhtinian Case Study of Contemporary Arab Political Humor.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 24.3 (2011): 305-328. Brzozowska, Dorota, and Wladyslaw Chlopicki, Eds. “Polish Humor. Humor and Culture 2: Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies. Krakow, Poland, 2012. Bucaria, Chiara. “The Perception of Humour in Dubbing vs. Subtitling: The Case of ‘Six Feet Under’” ESP Across Cultures 2 (2006): 36ff.

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28 34 Bucaria, Chiara. “What’s in a Title? Transposing Black Comedy Titles for Italian Viewers.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 331-358. Carretero-Dios, Hugo, and Willibald Ruch. “Humor Appreciation and Sensation Seeking: Invariance of Findings across Culture and Assessment Instrument?” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 23.4 (2010): 427-446. Chey, Jocelyn, and Jessica Milner Davis, eds. Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Tranditional Approaches. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. Chiaro, Delia. “Cultural Divide or Unifying Factor? Humorous Talk in the Interaction of Bilingual, Cross-Cultural Couples.” in Humor in Interaction. Eds. Neal Norrick and Delia Chiaro, Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins, 2009, 211-232.

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Chiaro, Delia, ed. “Humor and Translation.” Special issue of Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18.2 (2005), 135-234. Chiaro, Delia. “Found in Translation: Crosstalk as a Form of Humour.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 29-52. Chiaro, Delia. “The Implications of the Quality of Verbally Expressed Humour and the Success of Screen Comedy.” Antares Umorol-O Nouva Stiinta (2003): 14-20. Chiaro, Delia. “Investigating the Perception of Verbally Expressed Humour on Italian TV.” ESP Across Cultures 1 (2004): 35-52. 28 35

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Chiaro, Delia. “The Effect of Translation on the Humour Response: The Case of Dubbed Comedy in Italy.” in Translation Studies: Doubts and Directions. Eds. Yves Gambier, Miriam Shlesinger, and Radigundis Stolze. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins, 138-152. Chiaro, Delia. “‘Servizio Completo?’ On the (Un)translatability of Puns on Screen.” in La Draduzione Multimediale: Quale Traduzione per Quale Testo? Eds. Rosa Maria Bolettieri Bosinelli, Christine Heiss, Marcello Soffretti, and Silvia Bernardini. Bologna, Italy: CLUEB, 2000. Chiaro, Delia. “Verbally Expressed Humor and Translation” in Chiaro (2005): 135-146; also in Raskin (2008) 569-608. Coromines I Calders, Diana. “Intensification, Reduction or Preservation of Irony? Günter Grass’s “Im Krebsgang” and Its Translation into English.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 143-170. 28 36

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28 37 Davies, Christie. “The Comparative Study of Jokes.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 47.1 (2010): 147-160. Davies, Christie. “European Ethnic Scripts and the Translation and Switching of Jokes.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 18.2 (2005): 147-160. Davies, Christie. “European Ethnic Scripts and the Translation and Switching of Jokes.” in Chiaro (2005): 147-160. Davies, Christie. “Undertaking the Comparative Study of Humor.” in Raskin [2008]: 157-182.

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28 38 Davis, Dineh. “Communication and Humor.” in Raskin [2008]: 543-568. Davis, Jessica Milner, ed. Understanding Humor in Japan. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2006. Davis, Jessica Milner, and Jocelyn Chey, eds. Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches. Hong Kong, China: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. Delabastita, Dirk. “Cross-Language Comedy in Shakespeare.” in Chiaro (2005): 161-184. Díaz Pérez, Francisco Jabier. “Wordplay in Film Titles: Translatilng English Puns into Spanish.” Babel 54.1 (2008): 36-58.

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28 39 Dore, Margherita. “The Audiovisual Translation of FEI-Based Puns.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 361-386. El-Hussari, Ibrahim A. “Foolery as a Means to Personal Safety: The Comic Apprehension of Power Relations in Emile Habibi’s ‘The Pessoptimist.’” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 269-288. Eschholz, Paul, Alred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. Language Awareness. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Fuentes Luque, Adrián. “Shopping Around: Translating Humour in Audiovisual and Multimedia Advertising.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 387-406.

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28 40 Herzog, Rudolf. Heil Hitler; das Schwein ist tot! Lachen unter Hitler—Komik und Humor im Dritten Reich. Berlin, Germany: Eichborn, 2006. Ippolito, Margherita. “Translating Humour in Comics for Children: A Donald Duck Comic Strip and its Italian Translation.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 407-418. Kammoun, Roudha. “Humor and Arabs.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 245-268. Kazarian, Shahe S. “Humor I the Collectivist Arab Middle East: The Case of Lebanon.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 24.3 (2011): 329-348.

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28 41 Kersten, Kristin. “Humor and Interlanguage in a Bilingual Elementary School Setting.” in Humor in Interaction. Eds. Neal Norrick and Delia Chiaro, Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins, 2009, 187-210. Kitazume, Sachiko. “Do the Japanese Have a Sense of Humor?” Society 47.1 (2010): 35-37. Kobayashi, Seki, and Shinko Kagaya. “Ky?gen in the Postwar Era.” Asian Theatre Journal 24.1 (2007): 144-177. Litovkina, Judith Sollosy, Peter Medgyes and Dorota Brzozowska, Eds. “Hungarian Humor.” Humour and Culture 3: Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies. Krakow, Poland, 2012. Mey, Jacob L. Pragmatics: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2001. Nadales Ruiz, Marta. “A Humorous Portrait of the English Culture: Julio Camba’s London.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 289-2310.

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28 42 Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood/Oryx, 2000. Oda, Shoukichi. “Laughter and the Traditional Japanese Smile.” in Understanding Humor in Japan. Ed. Jessica Milner Davis. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2006, 15-26. Ramanathaiyer, Sundar, and Nancy Hudson-Rodd, eds. Tragic Idiom: O. V. Vijayan’s Cartoons and Notes on India. Kottayam: DC Books, 2006. Raskin, Victor. The Primer of Humor Research. New York, NY: Mouton de Gruyter, 2008. Salavert, Jorge. “Pitfalls, Impossibilities and Small Victories in Translating Humour: A Case Study Based on Tim Winston’s Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 311-331.

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28 43 Santana López, Belén. Wie Wird das Komische Übersetzt? [How is Humor Translated? Berlin, Germany: Frank and Timme, 2006. Schmitz, J. R. “Humor as a Pedagogical Tool in Foreign Language and Translation Courses.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 15.1 (2002). Takekuro, Makiko. “Conversational Jokes in Japanese and English.” in Understanding Humor in Japan. Ed. Jessica Milner Davis. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2006, 85-98. Tamer, George, ed. Humor in Der Arabischen Kultur/Humor in Arabic Culture. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, 2007.

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28 44 Vaid, Jyotsna. “New Approaches to Conceptual Representation in Bilingual Memory: The Case for Studying Humor Interpretation.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3.1 (2000): 28-30. Vandaele, Jeroen, ed. “Translating Humour.” Special Issue of The Translator 8.2 (2002): 303 ff. Vincent, Heather. “Roman Satire and the General Theory of Verbal Humor.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 417-450. Von Ahnen, Helmut. Das Komische auf der Buehne: Versuch einer Systematik. Muenchen, Germany: Herbert Utz Verlag GmbH, 2006. Wagner, Manuela, and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi. “The Use of Humor in the Foreign Language Classroom: Funny and Effective?” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 24.4 (2011): 399-434.

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28 45 Ying, Cui, and Zhao Jing. “Humour in Advertisement Translation.” in Dimensions of Humor: Exlorations in Linguistics, Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation. Ed. Carmen Valero Garcés. València, Spain: Universitat de València, 2010, 453-471. Yoshida, Mistuhiro. “Joking, Gender, Power, and Professionalism among Japanese Inn Workers.” Ethnology 40.4 (2001): 361-369. Yue, Xiao Dong. “Exploration of Chinese Humor: Historical Review, Empirical Findings, and Critical Reflections.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 23.3 (2010): 403-420. Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. “Humor and Translation—An Interdiscipline.” HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 18.2 (12005): 185-197.