The Delivery of the Sense of Humor in the Translation of Jokes in Friends

徐恩惠

【Abstract】In the course of cross-cultural communication， the translation of humorous language is attached huge importance by so many scholars. Some people think that humor can barely be translated well just like poem. However， its undoubtedly that humor is translatable as long as proper translating strategies are adopted. In this way， people with different nationalities are entitled to share the humor together. In this paper， the author analyzes the American sitcom Friends and the humorous dialogue subtitling with compensation strategies under the Theory of Functional Equivalence.

【Key words】Friends； Humorous dialogue subtitling； Functional Equivalence

【摘 要】幽默语言的翻译在跨文化交际中受到了许多学者的重视。但有些人认为，幽默像诗歌一样是不可译的。本文认为，毫无疑问幽默是具有可译性的。只要采取恰当的翻译策略，不同国家的人们就能够共享幽默。该文以美国情景喜剧《老友记》为研究对象，以“功能对等”理论为知道理论，同时又依托补偿策略对情景剧中幽默对白字幕翻译进行分析研究。

【关键词】《老友记》；幽默的对白字幕；功能对等

1 Introduction

Sitcoms are a series of comedic melodramas which take place under specific situation and character relationships. Many scholars think that the plots of sitcoms are of no social values and they dont deserve analysis and study. By contrast， many sitcoms rightly own profound connotations. Sitcom can reflect the so many contradictions， conflicts， confusion， hopes and aspiration with its special means.

Friends is a sitcom winning great success around the world. “In the recent 10 years， Friends has almost become a repertoire on the nomination list of American Emmy Awards for comedic TV plays； and it always keeps within the top ten on the ranking list of NBC ”.

2 Humors Origin and Definition

What on earth the humor is？ It is considered to be a kind of language form as well as a kind of artistic method. Actually， the Greek word Humere is the real source of humor. The master of Chinese culture Lin Yutang introduced “humor” to China， therefore it is used more frequently. In the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English， it is defined as： 1. “the quality in something that makes it funny”； 2. “the way that a particular person or group finds certain things amusing”. Humor is amusing， inherent and meaningful.

3 Humorous Subtitling Translations in Friends

Friends is a representative of US TV series. The classic dialogues which are full of “American humor” and fascinating plots are reactions of American culture， social life， mode of thinking and national practices. With the assistance of this sitcom， we are able to develop a better understanding of “American humor”.

Eg. （The 15th episode in season 1）

Chandler： it doesnt matter. I just dont want to be a guy who sits in his office until 12 oclock at night worrying about the VENUS.

钱德勒：没关系，我不想成为一直坐在办公室直到午夜担心“VENUS”的人。

Rachel： the “VENUS？”

瑞秋：VENUS？

Chandler： weekly estimated net usage system. Its a processing term.

钱德勒：“每周估量净值使用系统”，这是个电脑处理的术语。

Rachel： oh， that “VENUS”

瑞秋：哦，是那个“VENUS”

The key point of humor lies in “VENUS”. In English， “VENUS” can refer to the goddess “venus”， but what Chandler talks about is a processing term. People dont know the term and mistake it for the goddess “venus”. They cant understand the relationship between “venus” and his work. That is where the bursting point is. In fact， “VENUS” can simply be translated into Chinese “wei na si”， which is acceptable for most Chinese viewers. The translator dont need to explain who is “wei na si” because Chinese viewers know it as a common sense.

钱德勒：我不在乎，我不想成为坐在办公室里直到午夜一直在担心“维纳式”的人。

瑞秋：维纳斯？

钱德勒：就是维持系统正常运转纳入量程式，这是一个数据处理的术语。

瑞秋：哦，那个“维纳式”。

The analysis of Functional Equivalence Theory in Friends

In fact， in sitcoms subtitling translation， functional equivalence serves as an effective instructing theory. Functional theory is the core of Nidas translation theory. Different languages can communicate with each other through looking for appropriate translating equivalent sentences. However， no matter what it is， in language communication or interlingual communication， there is no absolute equivalence between two different discourses. The only thing a translator can do is to find “a proper natural equivalence”， this is functional equivalence.

The humorous dialogues in Friends are placed under the western environment， involving politics， economics， and culture etc. So the American may laugh but the Chinese may not. Therefore， simply literally translating scripts with no mistake still cant bring the humor in sitcoms to Chinese viewers. By contrast， Chinese viewer are able to feel the real humorous atmosphere if the translator change his translating way， language structure or vocabulary from time to time.

Eg. （The 5th episode in season 1）

Phoebe： are you gonna go over there？

菲比：你想去那儿吗？

Joey： no. Yean. No. Okay， but not yet. I dont wanna seem too eager. One Mississippi， two Mississippi…three Mississippi. That seems pretty cool.

乔伊：不，我不。我不想显得太想过去了。一个密西西比，两个密西西比，三个密西西比。看起来真是酷。

Actually， “one Mississippi， two Mississippi， three Mississippi” is a counting method used by football players before kick-off. But Chinese viewers have no idea of the background of Mississippi. So if we translate it to “一、二、三”，the chances are that we get a better humorous effect.

4 Conclusion

This paper takes American sitcom Friends as the chief source， paying a lot attention to the humorous dialogues subtitling translation and the usage of compensation strategy in translation. The eastern humor is implicative， while the western culture is open and hospitable. The difference of language， culture and mode of thinking lead to some vacancy of source language definition， resulting in Chinese viewers failure in accepting original humor. But it does not mean humors untranstability. On the contrary， translation can be done well with the help of various methods， especially the compensation strategy.

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