Analysis Of Humor Translation In American Talk Show The Daily Show

In the field of translation, there is a saying that humor translation is no less difficult than poetry translation, and sometimes, it even cannot be translated. Humor is a universal language phenomenon, which comes from our daily lives. Humor plays an important role in the same and different language communities. In recent years, humor translation has been attracting more and more attention of many scholars. However, most studies on humor are from the perspectives of psychology, linguistics and literature. Only a handful of studies on humor have focused on translation. Because humor has cultural connotation, some types of humor cannot be translated, or even if translated, it loses the original humorous effect.With the continuous cultural exchange among countries, more and more foreign television programs are presented in front of the Chinese audience. The American talk show is one of the very important program types. The great attraction of talk shows lies in its humor in a relaxed atmosphere and conveying information by means of making the audience laugh. This thesis selects The Daily Show as a case to study the humor translation in American talk shows. In addition to the reason that the show is very popular among Americans, the other reason is that the show hosted by Jon Stewart has become one of the main sources of many young Americans to get political news and views. Therefore, humor translation in the talk show plays a crucial role in making the domestic audiences enjoy the program.Skopostheorie is the core theory of the German functionalist school. In this thesis, humor translation in talk show will be explored and studied from the perspective of Skopostheorie. The readers are considered as the center in the humorous text, which aims to create joyful laughter. Therefore, it is a vocative text. The Skopos theory believes that any act of translation has a certain purpose. The translation purpose is the key factor to determine the activity of translation. This view is fully applicable to guide the humor translation of talk show, because this kind of translation has clear purposes. The translation of talk show has three main purposes:First, it aims to transmit information. It makes viewers of target language jump across the language barrier and get the exact information of the show. Therefore, the translator should try their best to achieve the purpose to the maximum limit under the limited range of time and space. Second, it has the purpose of cultural transmission. The language involved in translation itself is a part of the culture, so the translation of talk show has the function and purpose of cultural transmission. Third, it has the purpose of introducing of foreign culture. Understanding the foreign politics, culture, customs and habits is one of the purposes of the audience, so the translator should adopt proper translation strategies to achieve the goal. On the basis of the three principles, the Skopos principle, the coherence principle and the fidelity principle, this thesis will analyze the different types of humor and the corresponding translation strategies.