Khóa luận translation of humor in the dubbed version of the sitcom “how i met your mother” in vietnamese

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

TRANSLATION OF HUMOR
IN THE DUBBED VERSION OF THE SITCOM
“HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER”
IN VIETNAMESE

Supervisor : Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy, MA
Student

: Nguyễn Thị Hòa

Course

: QH2014.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – 2018


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁCH DỊCH YẾU TỐ HÀI HƯỚC TRONG
BẢN LỒNG TIẾNG PHIM HÀI TÌNH HUỐNG

“KHI BỐ GẶP MẸ”

Giáo viên hướng dẫn

: Th.S Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy

Sinh viên

: Nguyễn Thị Hịa

Khóa

: QH2014.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – 2018


ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Hòa (QH14.F1.E20), being a candidate for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of
the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper
deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the
care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Date

May 4th, 2018


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I feel grateful beyond measure for the patient
guidance that my supervisor, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy has shown me over
the past few months. Without her critical comments and timely support, this
paper would not be finished.
In addition, I would like to express my sincere thanks to 80 students
from class 15E12, 15E13, 15E14 and 15E16 at the University of Languages
and International Studies who eagerly participated in the research. Their
kindness helped me to overcome some difficult times and restored my faith in
the ability to complete this paper on time.
Last but not least, my thanks go to my friends and family who stood by
me all this time, cheered me on and inspired to never give up. This paper is
dedicated to all these wonderful people who in some way gave me the support
during the process of conducting this research.

i


ABSTRACT

Translation of humor in general and in audiovisual contexts in particular
is challenging to even experienced translators, yet it has not attracted enough
attention in the research field. In addition, translation of audiovisual products
have unique characteristics requiring the collaboration between the audio and
visual channel and undergoing a complicated editing process before being

aired. This paper aims at discovering the translation of humor in a well-known
sitcom named “How I met your mother” which has been dubbed by Vietnam
Television network and the audience’s reception of that translation to enrich
the materials in the field of screen humor translation. In order to collect the
data on the types of humor available in the sitcom and the strategies used to
translate the humor, the researcher used the method of observation of
documents. Regarding audience’s reception, 80 students were asked to
complete the questionnaire in which they showed their reaction to humorous
excerpts from the dubbed version. After that, data was processed using
numerical analyzation. The results presented that among eleven types of humor
present in the chosen episodes of the sitcoms, irony, wordplay and teasing were
the primary source of humor. Meanwhile, literal translation and explicitation
were the dominating strategies used by the translators to render almost every
type of humor present in the corpus. The reaction of 80 participants from
FELTE, ULIS towards excerpts showed that most of them had a preference for
literal translation over explicitation although students who watched sitcoms
frequently had a more positive opinion towards explicitation than those who
rarely did.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................ i
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ ii
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. v
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
1.1 Background..................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Statement of research problem and questions ................................................ 3
1.2.1 Research problem ........................................................................................ 3
1.2.2 Research questions ...................................................................................... 4
1.3. Scope of research ........................................................................................... 5
1. 4. Significance .................................................................................................. 5
1.5. Organization .................................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................... 7
2.1 Humor ............................................................................................................. 7
2.1.1 Definition ..................................................................................................... 7
2.1.2 Humor theories ............................................................................................ 8
2.1.3 Classification of humor ............................................................................. 11
2.2 Translation of humor .................................................................................... 13
2.2.1 Constraints ................................................................................................. 13
2.2.2 Translation strategies ................................................................................. 14
2.3. Audiovisual translation ................................................................................ 19
2.3.1 Definition ................................................................................................... 19
2.3.2 Modes of AVT ........................................................................................... 19
2.3.3 Dubbing and constraints ............................................................................ 20
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 21
3.1. Sampling ...................................................................................................... 21
3.2. Data collection ............................................................................................. 22
3.2.1 Observation of documents ......................................................................... 22

iii


3.2.2 Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 23
3.3 Data analysis ................................................................................................. 25
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................... 27
4.1 Categories of humor present in 10 selected episodes of the series “How I

met your mother” ................................................................................................ 27
4.2 Strategies according to Díaz-Cintas and Remael (2007) used to translate
these humorous elements into Vietnamese in the dubbed series ....................... 29
4.2.1 The use of translation strategy in general .................................................. 29
4.2.2. The use of translation strategies by categories of humorous elements .... 34
4.3. Audience’s reception of the translation ....................................................... 37
4.3.1 Irony .......................................................................................................... 37
4.3.2 Wordplay ................................................................................................... 38
4.3.3 Teasing ...................................................................................................... 38
4.3.4 Jokes .......................................................................................................... 39
4.3.5 Catchphrases .............................................................................................. 39
4.3.6 The relationship between the frequency of watching sitcoms and
reception of the translated products.................................................................... 40
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 42
5.1. Summary of main findings and implications .............................................. 42
5.2. Limitations ................................................................................................... 43
5.3. Suggestion for further research ................................................................... 44
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 45
APPENDIX 1: CATEGORIES OF HUMOR AND TRANSLATION
STRATEGIES APPLIED ................................................................................ 48
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................ 73

iv


LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1. Student’s response to the translation of irony ................................... 37
Table 4.2. Student’s response to the translation of wordplay ............................ 38
Table 4.3. The proportion of rating of translation by two group of students (A:
students who never watch or watch less than once a month; B: those who watch

from once a month and more) ............................................................................ 40

v


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1. Available categories of humor in the selected episodes .................. 27
Figure 4.2. Translation strategies applied in rendering humor in selected
episodes .............................................................................................................. 29
Figure 4.3. Translation strategies applied by categories of humor and their
frequency ............................................................................................................ 34
Figure 4.4. Translation strategies used in translating wordplay ......................... 36
Figure 4.5. Students’s general reception of translated humor ............................ 37
Figure 4.6. Student’s response to the translation of teasing ............................... 38
Figure 4.7. Student’s response to the translation of jokes .................................. 39
Figure 4.8. Student’s response to the translation of catchphrases ...................... 40

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VTV

: Vietnam Television

FELTE

: Falcuty of English Language and Teacher Education

ULIS

: University of Languages and International Studies

vii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the recurring issues prompting the need to conduct a
research in the field will be presented, along with rationalization, scope and
significance of the research.
1.1 Background
Audiovisual translation or screen translation is a branch of translation
studies which focuses on the transfer of audiovisual texts within or among
languages. It poses certain challenges for translators because the subject of
translation, audiovisual texts, is the constant combination of acoustic and visual
channels (Chaume, 2013). The two primary modes of audiovisual translation
available are subtitling in which audio is translated and presented as texts on
screen and re-voicing in which the original audio is transferred and voiced by
dubbing actors. According to Gambier and Gottlieb (2001), the translation of
audiovisual products in general and re-voicing in particular entails complex
processes besides the mere transfer of language or verbal translation. Revoicing covers several subtypes, among which dubbing and voiceover are most
commonly used in translating multimedia products. The constraint of dubbing,
as suggested by Sánchez, D (2004) is that the translators have little control over
the final products because the translation undergoes a complex process before
it can be published. After the translator submits the translated script, it will be
proof-read, then adjusted by the dubbing director and finally modified during
synchronization. In post-synchronization, Chaume (2013) proposed that the

audio must be synced in terms of lip movement, body movement and timing of
utterances.
In Vietnam, all popular modes of audiovisual translation such as
subtitling, dubbing and voice-over are present in the media. However, the
predominant mode varies depending on different factors: broadcasters, targeted
audiences, political influence and budget to name a few. Vietnam Television or
VTV in short is the national broadcaster of Vietnam whose majority of
products are re-voiced possibly because it offers service to a wide range of
1


audience of different classes, ages, genders, education backgrounds et cetera.
Vietnamese audience now have the chance to get access to a world of
multimedia entertainment products, either domestically or internationally
made. Both public and private broadcasters import films from a variety of
countries such as China, Korea, India and notably Anglophone countries. The
audience’s enormous demand for the translated products remains conspicuous
to broadcasters in the film market. Over the years, the popularity of American
culture has led to the import of numerable TV series which have left significant
memory in audience’s mind such as “Charmed”, “Sabrina the teenage witch”
and “Desperate housewives” et cetera.
VTV’s recent copyrights purchase of the highly popular sitcom “How I
met your mother”, which was originally aired on CBS for ten years from 2005
to 2014 is an intelligent move of the agency because the fame of the comedy
ensures a certain amount of audience. “How I met your mother” was created by
Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, starring Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie
Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan. The series surrounds the
life of five young people since their early 20s, narrated by Ted, one of the five
main characters in the form of future Ted recounting to his future children.
While he claims to tell the children of how he met their mother, the underlying

theme is much broader, featuring the struggle to find love, maintain friendship
and establish themselves in the society of young people. The series is highly
acclaimed by both critics and the general public with 25 wins and 90
nominations of rewards in total, according to the IMDb website.
The sitcom is shown on VTV2 at 10:40 p.m during weekdays aiming at
the segment of adult audiences, translated by Kim Oanh and Thu Trang and revoiced by Ace Media’s dubbing actors Tien Dat, Quang Tuyen and Ngoc
Tuyen under dubbing director Tien Dat. Despite the popularity of the original
series, the re-voicing poses several risks at the same time because the large fan
community has already been acquainted with the subtitled version of this series
by non-profit subtitle groups such as Kites.vn and phimmoi.net. The
burgeoning popularity of fan-subbing and fan-dubbing due to the development
2


of technology has brought the translated media products to the audience long
before the official broadcasters do.
1.2 Statement of research problem and questions
1.2.1 Research problem
A sitcom is a typical example of humor to be examined because
different sources of humor such as incongruity and superiority are displayed, as
Daniela (1999) proposed. Humor in many cases is culture-specific, which is
claimed to be untranslatable to some extent thereby tackled by such strategies
as omission, literal translation, generalization, and explication. (Pettit, 2009 as
cited in Leshkovich, 2016). Moreover, humor translation encounters hard-tosurmount challenges because even if linguistic and culture-specific elements
are rendered correctly, there are chances that recipients do not have sufficient
knowledge related to understand or they simply find it not funny (Gambier and
Gottlieb, 2001). This is, therefore, a hard puzzle for translators. Although
research has been done on translation of humor in literature, there remains a
gap to be filled in the study of humor translation in audiovisual contexts,
particularly English-Vietnamese transfer in the context of increasing demand

for translated products. Such a substantial difference between Anglophone
countries (in this case, America) and Vietnam’ culture is that the translation of
humorous elements, especially culture-specific ones in the sitcom “How I met
your mother” is no easy feat.
Chiaro (2010) suggested that translators usually adopt one among four
strategies to transfer verbal humor, including keeping the verbal humor
unchanged, replacing the verbal humor with a new stance of verbal humor,
replacing it with idiomatic expressions and finally ignoring the wordplay. The
choice of translation strategies depends on various factors, one of which is how
source-oriented or target-oriented the works allowed to be, who the targeted
audience is, which mode of audiovisual translation being used and which
channel the work is aired on.
In order to establish a theoretical framework for audiovisual translation,
Cintas (2004) reviewed available approaches as well as pointed out their
3


limitations. Descriptive translation studies proposed by Holmes (1972) though
are successful in research field, somehow restricted to literature. After that,
Cintas (2004) highlighted the advantages of the Polysystem theory by EvenZohar (1078) which takes into consideration not only linguistic aspect but also
socio-cultural and professional aspects. According to this theory, the translation
is not judged correct or incorrect but assessed according to equivalence instead.
This is also the approach I deem appropriate in this research.
The study of dubbing translation of humor in the series “How I met your
mother”, therefore attempts to figure out which strategies used in this mode of
audiovisual translation and whether there are patterns of using certain strategies
for different types of humor elements. In addition, the objective of surveying
audience’s response towards the translated product is to confirm their
satisfaction of the humor rendered.
The study aims at identifying the strategies applied in translating

humorous texts from English to Vietnamese of the re-voiced version of the
series “How I met your mother” and evaluating audience’s reception of the
translation. As a result, the study to some extent can contribute to the research
pool of audiovisual translation, serving as future reference for translators and
other concerned researchers. It is expected to be of help to the improvement of
humor translation in this sitcom as well as the products of the same genre in the
near future.
1.2.2 Research questions
The study is intended to address these following research questions:
a.

What are categories of humor present in 10 selected

episodes of the series “How I met your mother”?
b.

What are the strategies according to Díaz-Cintas and

Remael (2007) used to translate these humorous elements into
Vietnamese in the dubbed series?
c.

How does the third year students of the Faculty of English

Language Teaching Education at the University of Languages and
International Studies receive this translated product?
4


1.3. Scope of research

The study will look at the translation of verbally expressed humor in ten
episodes of the series “How I met your mother”. Specifically, only the humor
elements which are followed by canned laughter to signal the intended
humorous effects are examined. The ten chosen episodes are top ten highestrated episodes given over 9 on a scale of 10 of the series as shown by the
website IMDb; therefore, I believe it is guaranteed of the humorous aspect for
the study. To answer the question of how third year students at ULIS receive
the translated products, 80 students have been asked to complete the
questionnaire featuring some short quotes from the translated script. The
number of students surveyed are equivalent to that of 4 classes, which is quite a
sizeable amount even though overgeneralization will be avoided because they
cannot represent the whole audience of the series. However, the results can
serve as the reference to how a segment of intended audience reacts to the
translation of the series.
1. 4. Significance
Once completed, the research can provide a pattern if possible of
strategies in dubbing translation of humor elements of the sitcom, from which
translators can make improvements and adjustments in future products with
similar characteristics. In addition, the reception from audiences surveyed can
bear evidence to the effectiveness of those strategies to a certain extent.
Although the practice of re-voicing television shows is not new to the
audience, that practice in a situation comedy is relatively scarce due to the
challenging nature of this genre, which is to provoke laughter. The re-voicing for
the series by the national television network is undoubtedly a step further
towards bringing audience closer to the culture of the country which exports this
product. This is the official version conducted by a professional crew,
undergoing a long process of editing and censoring, therefore the final product
will be definitely affected by this. This research is expected to be of help to the
improvement of humor translation in this sitcom as well as the products of the
same genre in the near future once completed by serving as a source of reference.
5

1.5. Organization
The research is organized into five parts as follows.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The primary purpose of this chapter is to provide logical justification for
conducting a research in this topic, besides offering the specific angles from
which the research deals with the issue, as well as the extent and significance
of the research.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter presents the key concepts pertaining to the subject matter
including humor, audiovisual translation, dubbing. In addition, a thorough
review of the findings of research conducted in the translation of humor in
audiovisual contexts, in particular regarding typology of humor and translation
strategies of humor is provided.
Chapter 3: Research methodology
In this chapter, the procedure to undertake the research is mapped out
concerning sampling, data collection and data analysis. Indeed, how the
subjects and participants are chosen and how to collect the data through
questionnaires and analyze the results are subsequently demonstrated.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
This chapter will deliver the answers to research questions proposed in
the first chapter, including the classification of humor present in the selected
episodes and the strategies applied in the process of translating these elements
in the dubbed product and the audience’s reception towards the selected scripts.
Besides, the potential reasons for these results will be discussed.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
This final chapter offers the possible implications from this research along
with admitted limitations, from which further study can improve and develop.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, I will review the currently available materials on humor,
translation of humor and audiovisual translation to gain a thorough overview of
what has been done in this field, setting the theoretical framework for the
analysis of translation of “How I met your mother” in the dubbed version in the
next chapter.
2.1 Humor
2.1.1 Definition
Humor is an indispensable part of human life, a recurrent theme in
everyday conversations and entertainment products. As Raskin (1985)
eloquently put it, humor is a “universal human trait”. This phenomenon has
been a topic of interest for academic researchers since the days of Plato and
Aristotle and never ceased to intrigue scholars to investigate it from different
angles such as psychology, sociology, linguistics et cetera. People laugh every
day because of various reasons. What seems to be witty and amusing to an
individual may be considered as tedious or bizarre by others. Understanding
humor and its mechanism will give way to applying appropriate strategies and
techniques to the translation of those elements. During the evolution of humor
research, countless definitions of humor have been provided; yet, there seems
to be an absence of consensus among those researchers on what is denoted by
humor. Vandaele (2013) defined humor in a simple and straightforward way as
a stimulus that arouses amusement, smile and laughter. According to Oxford
dictionary, humor is “the quality in something that makes it funny or amusing
or the ability to laugh at things that are amusing”. When discussing the relation
between humor and communication, Davis (2013) offered a psychological
perspective on humor and claimed this as sudden sense of joy or exhilaration in

response to comical catalysts. It is clear that these researchers investigate
humor under different lights, which view humor as stimuli or outcomes of
stimuli. This research will adopt the definition of Vandaele (2013) since it
corresponds with the objectives to analyze mechanism of what causes people to
find things amusing.
7


2.1.2 Humor theories
Numerous theories of humor have been proposed in an attempt to
analyze and decipher what makes people laugh, among which sociopsychological and linguistic approach are the most widely recognized.
Regarding the former approach, incongruity, superiority and relief theories are
three prominent classes of humor theories.
2.1.2.1 Incongruity theory
Ruch (2008) claimed that incongruity is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for humor. "The cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden
perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real objects which
have been thought through it in some relation, and the laugh itself is just the
expression of this incongruity" (Kant 1819a, 76 as quoted in Raskin 1985). In
his article on humor and translation, Vandaele (2013) commented on
incongruity theory as a cognitive approach in which the hearers of humor
experience two stages in getting the humor. The first stage is that they have to
notice the incongruity or discrepancy between the expectations set up
beforehand in their head versus the reality turns out. The second stage, serving
a more important role is that there is a logical and understandable analysis
underlying that seemingly incongruity or else the humor fails and hearers are
puzzled. The incongruity has to be resolved for humor to be perceived. Indeed,
the incongruity theory dissects humor into contiguous steps in cognitive
processing of human brains. However, it explains unsatisfactorily the simple
forms of humor such as slapstick and clownish humor.

2.1.2.2 Relief theory
Freud’s relief theory of humor stated that humor is the manifestation of
unconscious mind’s repressed desires, a way to emancipate humans from
restraints (Attardo, 1994). According to this theory, when people encounter
situations in which negative feelings are usually anticipated, they joke to vent
these psychic effects into laughter. However, this theory was criticized by
Morreall (2011) as “no use in building a theory of humor” because the idea of
saving of psychic energy to repress thoughts and feelings is unverifiable.
8


2.1.2.3 Superiority theory
Superiority theory has been used to explain humor dating back as early
as Plato. Plato adopted a very negative view of comedy, or rather humor, which
is that laughter arises when a person derives joy from others’ misery and enjoys
the feeling of superiority to the subject of humor (Shelly, 2003). These
borrowed words from Hobbes (1651), one of the pioneers putting forth this
theory, are epitome of this theory. “Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory
arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by
comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.”
This theory is also known as aggression, hostility or disparagement
theory. Proponents of this theory support the view that there exists a victim in
humor, the butt of the joke, someone to be laughed at and ridiculed so that the
receivers of humor feel better about themselves. Vandaele (2013) elaborated
that the superiority theory touches on the social angle of humor in that it breeds
a sense of in-group (among people who understand humor) and out-group
(people who fail to get that humor). The superiority theory emphasizes the
victim, also called the butt of the jokes as an indispensable part to construct
humor. This view is supported in the variety of jokes that makes fun of a
certain group of people. As in the case of “How I met your mother”, the

character Robin Scherbatsky comes from Canada, which becomes a recurrent
source of humor for her group of American friends.
2.1.2.4 Script-based semantic theory of humor
In addition to looking from social and psychological aspects, researchers
have attempted to analyze humor from linguistic angles with two prominent
hypotheses that are script-based semantic theory of humor proposed by Raskin
in 1985 and general theory of verbal humor proposed by Attardo and Raskin in
1991. These theories complements each other to offer a multifaceted
understanding of mechanism of humor.
In his book “The semantic mechanisms of humor”, Raskin (1985)
provided a very comprehensive study on the semantic approach of humor
studies. He suggested that the necessary and sufficient conditions for a text to
9


be considered funny is that the text must contain two overlapping and opposite
scripts.

He

classified

oppositions

into

three

categories:

real/unreal,

normal/abnormal and possible/impossible. While the title entails the broad
concept of humor, the content of the book, including the hypothesis and
examples only employ jokes when referring to humor in general without
further analysis.
What is noticeable from this theory is that it shares quite similarities
with incongruity theory despite being construed under different perspectives. In
fact, the overlapping and opposition of the texts satisfy the condition of
incongruity and resolution for them to be humorous. In addition, the taxonomy
of opposition is not perspicuous when there are many borderline cases which
can simultaneously fall into different categories, admitted by the author
himself. By offering another way to classify script opposition including sexual,
ethnic and political, Raskin (1985) made the subject more comprehensible, yet
complicating the audience once more. This taxonomy is relatable to the relief
theory (sexual script opposition) and superiority theory (ethnic script
opposition).
2.1.2.5 General theory of verbal humor
The general theory of verbal humor was revised from the script-based
semantic theory of humor and learned from aforementioned theories of humor
with the introduction of six knowledge resources: script opposition, logical
mechanism, situation, target, narrative strategy and language (Attardo, 1994).
This theory is deemed the most comprehensive because it covers the
components existing in other theories. While script opposition is included in
script-based semantic theory of humor, logical mechanism is equivalent to the
resolution stage of incongruity theory; target is the victim of humor to some
extent, an inevitable factor of superiority theory so on and so forth. The
analysis of humorous texts in these six knowledge resources will help the
translators understand the joke beyond the linguistic levels, thereby producing
a more successful translation. For example, this is a joke by character Barney

Stinson: “There are only two reasons to date a girl you’ve already dated: breast
10


implants.” This jokes can be interpreted under the general theory of humor as
follow: (1) script opposition: Barney listed one reason mistakenly versus
Barney intentionally listed fully two reasons already; (2) logical mechanism:
breasts have two parts, which answers the question of two reasons; (3)
situation: advising friends not to look up ex-girlfriends; (4) target: women; (5)
narrative strategy: one-liner; (6) language: manipulating the word “two” to
arise humor in listeners.
2.1.3 Classification of humor
While humor is a broad concept, there is a tendency that it is used
interchangeably with other terms such as jokes, puns, funniness, wit. The
categorization of humor by scholars relies on the humor techniques employed.
Cicero’s taxonomy of humor includes referential and verbal humor, which is
later coined linguistic humor by Raskin (1985) (Attardo, 1994). The former is
considered more universal while the latter is very language-specific and
culture-specific, therefore the question of feasibility of translation is raised.
Verbal humor is the prime subject of humor translation despite all these
barriers because the difficulties press researchers into finding the way to render
correctly this type of humor.
Humor can also be categorized into three sub-classes, which are
linguistic, universal and cultural (Raphaelson-West 1989 as cited in Jabbari &
Ravizi, 2012). This way of classifying is similar to that of Cicero in the way it
distinguishes between the linguistic (verbal) one and other types of humor.
In an attempt to provide a taxonomy of humor in audiovisual context,
Buijzen and Valkenburg (2004) has conducted an inclusive research and
introduced seven categories of humor as follows, ranking hierarchically
according to ascending complexity: slapstick, clownish humor, surprise,

misunderstanding, irony, satire, and parody. The first four types entail visual
and physical stimuli which require no verbal explanation, leaving no room for
translation while the rest require certain knowledge to proceed the funniness.
Zabalbeascoa (1996) shared a similar interest in the classification of
humor on screen; however, his taxonomy was from a translator’s point of view
11


assessing the viability of translation of these types of humor. According to his
model, there are six sub-groups of jokes present in audiovisual products, which
are international/binational, national-culture-and-institutions, national-sense-ofhumor, language-dependent, visual and complex jokes. This taxonomy bears
striking resemblance to that of Raphaelson-West (1989), in which the universal
humor is similar to international/binational or cultural is related to nationalsense-of-humor. It is obvious that there is no clear distinction among several of
these groups; for instance, humor can fall into national-culture-and-institutions
and binational at the same time, not to mention it is difficult to distinguish
universal humor from national one.
This research, however, will adopt Alharthi (2016)’s classification of
humor based on forms because it is claimed to be most commonly used in
sitcoms, the subject of this research. Alharthi proposed thirteen types of humor
falling under this umbrella term: jokes, wordplay (pun), irony, parody, satire,
sarcasm, spoonerism, self-denigrating humor, retort, teasing, banter, register
clash and catchphrases. The analysis of humor in “How I met your mother”
will rely on selective types from the mentioned taxonomy based on their
frequency in the show.
Jokes, according to Oxford dictionary, are things that people tell to
evoke amusement, laughter and not to be taken seriously, especially ending
with a punchline. Ritchie (2004) defined jokes more broadly as short texts
whose primary purpose is to create humorous effect on listeners over a wide
range of situations. Jokes have two components, which are the build-up and
punch line, resolving the opposition to cause amusement (Dynel, 2009).

Delabastita (1996) suggested that wordplay appears where linguistic
expressions with similar forms and different meanings are intentionally used to
place certain effects on the audience. Wordplay covers a wide range of subtypes such as puns, rhyme et cetera.
Irony happens when the meaning is contrary to the word (verbal irony)
or the situation (situational irony). Gibbs & Colston (2014) defined irony as the
disparity between expectations and reality.
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While it is easy to mistake irony for sarcasm, one major different of
these two are people who use sarcasm intentionally mean the opposite of what
they say with a view to ridiculing the other speaker (Haiman, 1998).
Parody is an act of imitating the original work to make fun and create
comical effect. This phenomenon requires the audience’s knowledge of the
original work to perceive the funniness.
Self-denigrating humor is considered as the act of making the speaker at
the center of verbal playing. The purpose of this type of humor is to bridge the
gap between speakers and listeners and make them more intimate and
approachable. (Boxer, 2002).
While retort is simply the response to accusation and remarks with
amusing purpose, teasing and banter share similar characteristics because while
teasing is the act of a speaker towards the other, banter is the exchange of these
witty remarks between the two or more interlocutors.
According to Attardo (2001), register clash happens when a register
which is specific to one type of text and subject matter is used to describe a
totally different register, causing a clash for example apply philosophical
register to represent sexual intercourse.
Catchphrase is a very common type of humor in sitcoms where most
main characters have some catchphrases which are their signature. In “How I
met your mother”, Barney Stinson is the character with the largest number of

catchphrases which appear frequently such as “legend - wait for it – dary”.
2.2 Translation of humor
2.2.1 Constraints
The translation of humor is regarded as a conundrum encountered by
translators because it involves two highly controversial aspects of translation
studies: equivalence and translatability (Chiaro, 2008). Chiaro went on to
compare the insurmountable challenge facing translators of humor to that of
poetry. Since the differences between the two language systems are obvious, it
is impossible to render exactly the formal equivalence from source text to
target text. In this case, as long as equivalence or the effect provoked on
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recipients or pragmatic function remains, deviations from the original are
acceptable. While a film is a poly-semiotic entity, the only aspect that
translators can exert influence on is the dialogue, leaving other components
unchanged such as music, actor’s movements, facial expressions, background
settings et cetera. This puts an enormous pressure on translators to create the
laughter – the desirable effect of humor when it relies on all of these factors to
generate funniness.
Vandaele (2013) cited Diot (1989)’s opinion about the unfeasibility of
translating humor, likening it to the translation of poetry as Chiaro (2008) and
attributed this dilemma to linguistic and cultural reasons. Vandaele (2013)
suggested that humor is “a social play” therefore possessing in-group and
culture-specific characteristics. As a result, it is an arduous task to retain humor
in target language because the audience of the target language may be
unfamiliar with this type of humor and do not find it funny, leading to the
failure of the translation. For example, the “knock knock” joke is very common
in American culture but strange to Vietnamese readers. As for the linguistic
cause, denotation and connotation raise problems when the item denoted is

specific to a certain language or has different values from its equivalent in the
target language. This triggers the pessimistic tendency of assuming that humor
is “untranslatable”.
2.2.2 Translation strategies
According to Venuti (1998), translation strategy involves "the basic
tasks of choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a method to
translate it." However, the translation strategy Venuti refers to deals only with
domestication and foreignization, and translation problems on the text level.
Although this research includes a wider range of strategies and focuses on the
translation of humor, the aforementioned definition is not to be ignored entirely
because it mentions the act of choosing on the translators’ part. By and large,
this research adopts the definition of Krings (1986) which agreed that
translation strategy is "translator's potentially conscious plans for solving
concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task".
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This definition lays emphasis on the both translator’s choice and the nature of
the translation problem which in this case is to humor into Vietnamese.
Added to that, according to this definition, a strategy is the pattern-based
and recurrent way in which the translator handles a particular translation
problem. With that in mind, it is easier to draw a line between translation
strategy and translation procedure. A translation procedure deals with the
translation on word level while we refer to a translation strategy when a
translation procedure is applied in a conscious and recurrent way to deal with a
particular problem.
Given that the research deals with translating cinematic products,
Gottlieb’s translation strategies in subtitling could as well be a compatible
reference point. Gottlieb (2000) came up with 10 translation approaches to
subtitling, that is, expansion, paraphrase, transfer, imitation, transcription,

dislocation, condensation, decimation, deletion and resignation. However, these
proposed typologies involve a relatively large scope, that is to say, they are
suggestions for solving translation problems in general. Therefore, the research
requires a more condensed typology with especially focus on translating
humorous elements.
Delabastita (1996) dealt with the translation of wordplay and pun with
seven distinctive strategies: (1) pun to pun, which replaces the original
wordplay with target language wordplay; (2) pun to non-pun in which the
wordplay is displaced by non-pun phrase; (3) pun to related rhetorical device
which uses irony, sacarsm, rhyme to reproduce the desirable effect anticipated
by the pun; (4) pun to zero, which omits completely the text containing pun; (5)
non-pun to pun, which introduces pun where is absent in the original as a way
to compensate for the loss of pun in other section; (6) zero to pun which pun is
added to non-pun position and (7) editorial techniques such as footnotes,
endnotes, comments. It is apparent that this model is originally applied to the
translation of wordplay in literary context since such a strategy as editorial
techniques are impractical in audiovisual contexts due to time and space
constraints. However, the rest of the strategies are undoubtedly applicable in
screen translation.
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