1. Translating Humor: Achieving the Universal
Chuckle
This article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.
Category: Translator's Corner, Culture
Here‘s a challenge for all of you who speak
more than one language. Pick one of your
favorite jokes in your native tongue, one that
usually gets a good laugh, and recount it in
another language without embellishing the
humorous elements. Limited success? Not a
surprise. Humor is so very hard to translate.
If you've ever watched a subtitled comedy in
a movie theater with natives, you know
exactly what I‘m talking about. I remember watching an American comedy in a movie theater in
Bordeaux a few years ago, and feeling rather sheepish when my hysterical, resounding laughter
met total silence. Finally, towards the end of the film, I had grown so embarrassed (it seemed I
was distracting quite a few individuals from enjoying the film), I attempted to stifle my cackling
with a scarf, to no avail. Now one could deduce from this scenario that I have a very strange
sense of humor, but (luckily) the film was a huge success in the States, leading me to believe
that it‘s more of a lost-in-translation issue. I walked away from the cinema with two
observations: that the level of (American) English in that movie theater was modest at best,
and that the subtitles were poor renditions of American humor.
The “funny factor” is the result of a complex mélange of cultural and linguistic references
(customs, taboos, allusions to local persons, places and things) using idioms, jargon and codes
that the out-of-towner will find hard to decipher. Humor tends to be loaded with references to
aspects of the source culture that often don‘t have equivalents in the target language. What
tickles the funny bone of an American may not even make a Frenchman from Bordeaux crack a
smile. And even within a given language, local culture has an impact on what is considered
funny — which is perhaps why ―The Office‖ has both an English and American version. So when
attempting to translate humor, is it more important to stick to the literal content of the
message, or can a little artistic license be employed in the hope of achieving the intended effect
— teasing a chuckle out of the target audience?
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2. Let‘s consider three types of jokes: universal (subjects that are incongruent, unexpected,
exaggerated, etc.), cultural (ethnic jokes, etc.), and linguistic (puns).
1. Universal humor needs the least amount of adaptation. The oldest known jokes date
back to 4,000 years ago and are so visceral that they would still get a laugh in most
cultures today (favorite topics included body odor and physical ailments). Just as certain
gestures and facial expressions seem to make a baby smile in any country, these basic,
often bodily themes are an unwavering source of laughter across the globe.
2. Cultural jokes, while often outrageously hilarious, are usually inappropriate and
offensive and should, in general, be avoided in the context of both dinner parties and
your ad campaigns, whether for domestic or international markets. Unfortunately, two
of the richest sources of humor - politics and religion – fall into this category. Humor
that is deeply rooted in culture does present numerous translation challenges but we‘ll
skip over that here as this humor is not relevant.
3. Puns are probably the most difficult to translate; they are also the most prevalent in ad
campaigns and creative marketing material. For example, imagine the following pun on
a billboard advertising computer e-learning software: “Talking to her about
computer hardware, I made my mother board.” It just so happens that in English,
―board‖ and ―bored‖ are pronounced the same way (homophones). I venture to say that
the majority of Americans would get this pun; many would even find it mildly funny.
However, if I were to translate this into Italian, bored would be written annoiata and
motherboard schedamadre; the sentence still makes sense but it has completely lost
the funny factor. So how can a translator reconcile these differences and create an
equivalent phrase that conveys roughly the same meaning while remaining humorous?
The most important element to consider is the desired outcome – which is a clever, witty
message that makes readers (or listeners) laugh and also strikes a memory chord so that they
will remember the product or service advertised. Finding the words to do this in the target
language can be tricky, but with a little artistic permission, an equivalent can usually be crafted.
Because of the ‗crafting‘ part, this can be considered trans-creation — the content in the
culturally and linguistically-adapted message is not just a massaged version of the original copy
— it is fresh and original.
Due to the technical challenge of translating humor, two linguists are often required to come up
with the new message – the first would be an expert and native in the source language, and
the second, an expert and native speaker of the target language (though ideally the linguists
would speak both languages). The icing on the cake would be that both linguists also have an
acute sense of humor.
So as you are looking to go global with an ad campaign, website or marketing message of any
sort, make sure your translation partner is committed to preserving the inherent humor in your
slogans and creative copy across all target languages. It may take a gifted team of
linguists, language leads, translators, editors, reviewers and testers to make your message
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3. funny across the globe, but with the right resources, you can rest assured that the chuckle
will not be lost in translation!
Photo attribution: ~*Gillian*~
About Acclaro: Acclarois an international translation and localization company that
helps the world‘s leading brands succeed across cultures. We specialize inwebsite
translation, marketing campaigns, documents and software localization to give clients
an authentic voice in key language markets.
North America: 1-866-468-5106 Worldwide: +1-914-468-0222
www.acclaro.comsales@acclaro.com
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