Subtitling Humor In Sitcoms

Using the bilingual subtitle SCG Group made for Friends as a case, this study looks into problems involved in humor subtitling in sitcoms. Basically using the analysis framework developed by Dong Hai Ya, the researcher looks into problems subtitlers might encounter when handling humor in sitcoms and possible solutions.The researcher classifies sitcom humor into four types according to its communication channel:nonverbal visual humor, verbal visual humor, nonverbal acoustic humor and verbal (acoustic) humor. The researcher demonstrates how the four types of humor are presented in Friends and how SCG subtitlers handled them, evaluates the effectiveness of the Chinese subtitle, and gives suggestions on how the humor might be rendered more effectively. It is found that nonverbal visual humor and nonverbal acoustic humor sometimes also take knowledge about foreign culture to understand, but the SCG subtitle does not provide any explanatory information where it is needed. The subtitle uses punctuation to highlight paralanguage features, which are part of nonverbal acoustic humor. The subtitle provides subtitle for all the verbal visual information, and the effect is mostly sufficient. Verbal (acoustic) humor, which is where the bulk of subtitlers’work lies, is categorized into binational/universal humor, wordplay-dependent humor and culture-specific humor. The study finds that the subtitlers of SCG subtitle workshop adopted a minimal-intervention approach (non-translation) when translating the sitcom Friends. The subtitlers saw verbatim translation as the default procedure. The resultant Chinese TT is so close to the English ST that it is not natural or colloquial enough, not entirely up to the criteria of functionally-adequate subtitle. But the strategy does manage to convey most of the. binational/universal humor, though it is not so effective in translating wordplay-dependent humor and culture-specific humor.The researcher finds that Friends adopts at least12wordplay forms, much more than the few types mentioned in previous literature. The study examined SCG subtitlers’handling of several typical forms of wordplay. It is found that the SCG subtitlers made little effort to preserve the playfulness of the ST language. The subtitle tends to keep the sense of the dialogue while sacrificing the humor created with sound features or meaning ambiguity. In some cases, since the sense of the dialogue is humorous in itself, the loss of the wordplay only undermines the humorous effect and does not create puzzlement to the TT viewer. But in some cases the coherence of the dialogue is destroyed and the resultant TT is unintelligible. The researcher, in an attempt to provide her own translation in cases where the SCG subtitle is deemed insufficient, finds that it is easier to keep the wordplay in the TT when it is on person or place names, for those terms could be transliterated and the sound association could be preserved. In other cases, it needs more creativity to create new wordplay that both fits the context and tallies with the image. In many cases to keep the coherence of the dialogue often means sacrificing the wordplay, but there are always ways to compensate for the humor by other means.Based on a nine-procedure model the researcher develops on the basis of other researchers’ taxonomies, the study finds that eight procedures (except for gloss) are used to render the144humor-related CSRs in the sample. Literal translation (retention and official equivalence included) is used in most of the cases. Even when viewers are graduate Chinese students who generally know more about foreign cultures, about half of the literally translated CSRs are insufficient to convey the humor. In these cases, viewers, faced with a totally strange cultural reference, will not be able to interpret the message and will only be mystified by the laugh track. The SCG subtitlers rarely used explanatory or creative approach, and when they did, the effect is not necessarily sufficient. The researcher gave alternative translations to CSRs deemed to have been rendered in an insufficient way, and found only when at least51%of the CSRs are rendered in an explanatory or creative way could the resultant subtitle be sufficient for graduate students to get most of the culture-specific humor. If the target audience is average Chinese population., more explanatory and creative handling is going to be needed.The study proposes several supplements and adjustments to Dong Hai Ya’s analysis framework in examining sitcom humor subtitling. In wordplay-dependent humor, the researcher proposes that from the perspective of translators and subtitling studies the distinction between punning based on homophony and other wordplay based on sound similarity is a distinction without difference. With regards the subtitling of culture-specific humor, the researcher develops a clear definition for culture-specific reference and a new nine-procedure model for the analysis. It’s found that s.olution-type models developed by previous studies are often overlapping and non-exhaustive, not always applicable to quantitative analysis. In addition, the study brings up the issue of target audience and level of acculturation in effectiveness evaluation, which is often overlooked by previous researchers.