Types of humour in Seinfeld and the problems they pose

This section aims at presenting the different types of humour found in the analysed data. In addition, it sheds light on some of the difficulties involved in subtitling these categories of humour. The section tries to answer the first research question:

1.   What are the types of humour in Seinfeld and what problems do they pose for subtitlers?

The analysis of the selected data revealed a number of types of humour used in Seinfeld. As shown in fig 4, there are eight main types of humour, namely wordplay (paronymy, homonymy, initialisms, & spoonerisms), satire (language-based & culture-based), irony (verbal & situational), sarcasm, self-denigrating, register clash, retorts, and catchphrases. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, five types of humour found in the data have not previously been discussed in the literature on subtitling humour in the Arabic context. These types include self- denigrating, register clash, retorts, spoonerisms, and catchphrases.

Fig 4. Types of humour in selected episodes from Seinfeld

Some of the types of humour discussed in chapter 5 pose problems for the Arab subtitler, especially those that rely heavily on the linguistic aspects of the ST. This is evident in the subtitling of the different categories of wordplay: paronymy and homonymy. These two types have a very complicated mechanism that, in many instances, does not exist in Arabic. In other words, in paronymy two words share close resemblance in spelling and sound; homonymy involves using two words that have the same spelling and sounds, but different meaning.

The difficulties involved in subtitling wordplay and its different types is related to the huge linguistic gap between English and Arabic. The two languages have different linguistic and semantic systems which do not allow an adequate translation of the wordplay in the ST. However, despite these differences, the Arab subtitler managed to translate some instances of wordplay, because these instances could be tackled using some interventional strategies, as in the translation of “gipple” in Example 2.

In the translation of initialisms, the subtitler did not face any problematic issues because the mechanism of creating initials in English could be adopted in Arabic. However, in one particular instance (see Example 11), the humorous effects of using initials could not be achieved

Types  of  humour

Retorts Catchphrases Wordplay   Paronymy Homonymy Initialism Spoonerism Satire Language-­‐based   Culture-­‐based Irony Verbal Situational Self-­‐denigrating Register  clash Sarcasm

Main  character  targets   guest  character Main  character   targets  another  main  

character Main  character   targets  individuals  or  

a  group

Main  character  targeted   by  a  guest  character

because the name of companies could not be modified in Arabic - companies’ names are usually translated directly into the TL.

Subtitling spoonerisms into Arabic was the easiest task for the Arab subtitler because this type of wordplay could be easily recreated in Arabic. In other words, the subtitler created new words in Arabic to achieve the sense of spoonerism. This is evident in Example 12.

In terms of subtitling satire, one interesting finding is the simplicity involved in rendering language-based satire (except for wordplay); with one exception, instances that contain language- based satire were rendered successfully into Arabic using some interventional strategies. The absence of cultural references and wordplay in these instances allowed the Arab subtitler enough freedom to achieve the sense of satire in Arabic. Example 16, however, is problematic because satire contains wordplay: the double meaning of sound. However, despite the fact that the same wordplay could not be achieved in Arabic, the subtitler managed to preserve the sense of satire by using the strategies of substitution and official equivalent.

In contrast, subtitling culture-based satire was problematic for the subtitler because this type of satire involved using some cultural references that have no equivalent in Arabic. The difficulties involved in rendering culture-based satire are evident in the subtitler’s utilisation of the strategy of retention. It is worth mentioning that the temporal and spatial constraints of subtitling had a powerful effect upon the subtitler’s choices - no further explanations of the cultural elements were possible.

In some cases, the cultural references (monocultural elements) used in satire were retained in Arabic because they are central to the joke, and modifying them might lead to confusion amongst the TT audience. These references, as stated before, can only be translated using the strategy of retention or official equivalent.

Unlike the use of monocultural ECRs in satire, some instances of sarcasm contained some transcultural ECRs, which could be understood by the Arabic-speaking audience. These cultural references have official equivalents in Arabic and do not require the application of interventional strategies. Moreover, one interesting finding is the subtitler’s creativity in rendering some instances of sarcasm that contained monocultural ECRs. This is evident in the translation of the cultural reference (George “The Animal” Steele) in Example 45.

The analysis of the examples containing self-denigrating humour and irony showed that these types of humour did not pose problems to the Arab subtitler because of the simplicity of the language used by the characters. The majority of the examples which included self-denigration and irony were translated into Arabic using the strategy of official equivalent. However, some

instances of self-denigration and irony required applying the strategy of paraphrase in an attempt to achieve the humorous effect in Arabic.

Similarly, the translation of register clash was not a complicated task because of the simplicity and straightforwardness of the language used in most instances. This is evident in the subtitler’s use of the official equivalent. It is worth mentioning that the overlap between the character’s utterances, facial expression, and voices made the subtitler’s task of rendering register clash easier, as in Example 73. Moreover, in some cases, there was a need to paraphrase the ST in order to achieve the register clash in Arabic.

With regard to the difficulties involved in the subtitling of retorts in Seinfeld, some examples contained some new terms, which do not have an official equivalent in Arabic. To overcome this difficulty, the Arab subtitler managed to paraphrase these terms in order to achieve the humorous effects of the retorts. This is evident in the translation of “leg man” into Arabic (see Example 86). Furthermore, the challenging task of the subtitler was to render retorts into Arabic so that they could be natural and humorous at the same time. This task was not easy because humour can be lost when it is paraphrased into another language.

The translation of catchphrases into Arabic was indeed challenging for the Arab subtitler. This is because this type of humour relies heavily on the use of neologisms or ambiguity and require a thorough understanding of the show and its plotlines. Moreover, neologisms were difficult to translate because they do not have preformed equivalents in Arabic, forcing the subtitler to find a close equivalent that can create the same humorous effects. Furthermore, some catchphrases have cultural connotations and require a good knowledge of American culture, as in Example 102.