Humor, Translation, and
Bilingual Issues
by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen Pace Nilsen
1
Problems in Translating Jokes
• In tellilng a joke we must understand a great deal
about about cultural and social facts, about shared
beliefs and attitudes, and about practical bases of
communication.
• We best understand the humour of those who have
shared our history and who understand our ways of
interpreting the experience.
• Nevertheless, there is a fund of common knowledge
and recollection, upon which all jokes draw rely.
2
Translation in Quentin
Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction
• VINCENT: You know what they call a Quarter
Pounder with cheese in Paris?
• JULES: They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with
cheese?
• VINCENT: No man; they’ve got the metric system;
they don’t know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is!
• JULES: So what do they call a Quarter Pounder with
cheese?
3
• VINCENT: They call it a Royale with cheese.
• JULES: Royale with cheese.
• VINCENT: That’s right.
• JULES: What do they call a Big Mac?
• VINCENT: A Big Mac’s a Big Mac only they call it Le Big Mac
• JULES: Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?
• VINCENT: I don’t know. I never went to a Burger King. You
know what they put on French Fries instead of Ketchup?
• JULES: What?
• VINCENT: Mayonnaise.
4
A Riddle
–
–
–
–
If you are Swedish, you stroke it.
If you are Spanish you beat it.
If you are German, you cover it in food.
If you are British, you use it as an excuse not to
have sex. What is it?
• A Personal Computer.
• NOTE: PCs in Spain often suffer violence, with 57
percent of owners admitting to hitting them.
Germans are unamused by PCs; only one in six has
enjoyed a laugh with their PC.
5
Arabic Humor (Unintentional)
GADDAFI’S BEST SPEECH EVER (ON CONAN O’BRIEN SHOW):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF6tipZDs4k&feature=related
6
Untranslatable Canadian Joke
• Je suis allé dans un magazin “Newfie”
et j’ai demandé un robe de chambre.
• Le “Newfie” m’a demandé: “Quelle
grandeur la chambre?”
7
FRENCH
• What has fifty legs and cannot walk?
• Half a centipede.
• TRANSLATION:
• Qu’est-ce qui a cinq cent pattes et qui ne peut pas
marcher?
• La moitié d’une mille-pattes
• NOTE: A French centipede is a “mille-pattes”
(thousand-feet).
8
Formal Equivalence vs. Connotative
Equivalence
• Werner Koller would say that
translating the English “centipede” into
the French “mille-pattes” is apt in
terms of reference, but becomes inept
when the English and French words are
analyzed because “mille-pattes” is
more hyperbolic than is “centipede.”
9
An English Sick Joke in France
• “Mummy, Mummy, is it still a long way
to France?”
• “Shut up and keep swimming!”
• “Maman, Maman, est-ce que
l’Angleterre est loin?”
• “Tais-toi et continue à nager!”
10
Discussion
• Notice that in the translation,
“England” is substituted for “France.”
• As one of Delia Chiaro’s French
colleagues pointed out to her, “Why
would someone French want to go to
England?”
11
German Humor
• Between 1931 and 1936 The Jack Pearl
Show was on radio. Baron von
Munchausen was the central figure in a
running skit.
• The Baron spoke with a strong German
accent that contrasted with the
ordinary language of Charlie (Sharlie).
12
• BARON: Und dere in frundt of me wuz a
green elephant.
• SHARLIE: Now wait a minute, Baron; do
you mean to tell me you actually saw a
green elephant?
• BARON: (with great indignation) Vas
you dere, Sharlie?
13
Russell Peters: Indian Accent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpw34gt5gY0
14
Irish and Jewish Humor
• Since Irish humor developed out of the
oral tradition (the telling of jokes and
stories in Irish pubs), it is very
epiphinal in nature.
• Like Jewish humor, Irish humor
developed out of pain and tragedy that
resulted in a diaspora.
15
• Irish humor, like Jewish humor,
contains much wordplay, and like
Jewish humor, much of Irish wordplay
is bilingual and/or bicultural, relating to
both the Gaelic/Celtic and to the English
language and culture.
• Many Irish, like many Jews, are trying to
reestablish their roots, and it is the
humor in Irish written and oral literature
that is helping them to do so.
16
Italian Humor
• In the late 1970s, comedian Don Novello
spoke with an Italian accent and dressed in
clerical garb when doing comedy skits about
Father Guido Sarducci.
• He was a hit on Saturday Night Live and on
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but
when he went to the Vatican to pose for
publicity photos he was arrested for
impersonating a priest.
17
An Irish Joke in Italy
• What do they write on the bottom of
Guinness bottles in Ireland?
• Open at other end.
• TRANSLATION:
• Che cosa scrivono sul fondo delle lattine di
Coca Cola che si trovano nei distributori di
bibite nelle caserme dei carabinieri?
• Aprire dall’altro lato.
18
Discussion
• The Irish are the butt of English stupidity jokes, so a different
stupidity group needs to be used in Italian.
• In Italy, the stupidity group is not ethnic, but is professional—
the carabinieri (one of Italy’s police forces).
• There is no national drink in Italy.
• Furthermore, Italians consume alcohol usually at meals and
from glasses, not bottles.
• So “Coca Cola” is used instead of Guinness.
• Finally, Italians see a bottle as having a top and a bottom, so
“bottle” had to change to “can.”
19
Now reread the joke and the
translation!
• What do they write on the bottom of Guinness
bottles in Ireland?
• Open at other end.
• TRANSLATION:
• Che cosa scrivono sul fondo delle lattine di Coca
Cola che si trovano nei distributori di bibite nelle
caserme dei carabinieri?
• Aprire dall’altro lato.
20
ITALIAN
• What’s black and white and red all over?
• A newspaper.
•
•
•
•
TRANSLATION:
Che cosa è nero, bianco e rossa ovunque?
A. L’Unità, or (a Communist newspaper)
B. Una zebra con l’abronzatura (a zebra with a
sunburn)
• NOTE: The first “red” retains the “read” association,
while the second “red” does not.
21
• Neither of these translations encapsulate the
semantic ambivalency attached to the words
“red/read.” Nevertheless, solution A does capture
the ‘read’ element of the original riddle coupled with
the metaphorical value of the colour term ‘red’
attached to a popular left wing newspaper L’Unità.
• Since this is a children’s riddle, the first answer is
inappropriate because children wouldn’t know about
L’Unità.
• Furthermore the second answer has the kind of
silliness that would be found in a children’s riddle.
22
ITALIAN TIME:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETz0elhKvkM
23
JAPANESE
• JACOB MEY: Is there a toilet around here?
• ATTENDANT: You want to use?
• JACOB MEY: (somewhat astonished): Sure I do.
• ATTENDANT: Go down the steps.
• NOTE: In Japan there are Western toilets and Japanese toilets.
There are also male toilets and female toilets
24
NATIVE AMERICANS
• In American conversations, when the
speaker is ready to relinquish the floor,
he usually waits about one and a half
seconds.
• In Athabaskan conversations, silence is
used to organize thoughts and develop
effective sentence structure.
25
• So when an Athabaskan is talking
with a non-Indian, the Athabaskan
never gets the floor.
• The Athabaskan feels he has been
interrupted and the English speaker
feels the Athabaskan never makes
sense, never says a whole coherent
idea.
26
Polish Jokes in America
• Do you know why they don’t give Poles
a coffee break?
• It takes too long to retrain them.
• What is stamped at the bottom of Coca
Cola bottles in Poland?
• Please open at the other end.
27
Russian Humor
• Russian immigrant yakov Smirnoff entertained
Americans through the cold war and beyond with
such jokes as,
• “I have a Russian Express Card. It says, ‘Don’t
Leave Home!’” and
• “One of the biggest differences between America
and Russia is that in America you can always find a
party, but in Russia, the party always finds you.”
28
• The editors of a Soviet newspaper were
arrested and possibly executed because
they published Stalin’s name as “Sralin,”
which in Cyrillic means “shit.”
• Was this a Freudian slip…
• Or an accident…
• Or a slur?
29
Scandinavian Humor
• Garrison Keilor exploits Scandinavian
stereotypes in his “Lake Wobegon.”
• “Swedish flu is the usual flu with chills,
fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and
achiness…, but it’s accompanied by on
overpowering urge to put things in
order.”
30
Scottish Humor
• What’s the difference between a poor
Scotsman, a rich Scotsman, and an old
Scotsman?
• A poor Scotsman has a can o pee under his
bed.
• A rich Scotsman has a canopy over the bed.
• And an old Scotsman can na’ pee at all.
31
Chinese Translation of “My Blackberry’s Not Working
Here is the web site for "My Blackberry's Not Working"
with Chinese subtitles. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sPGePuyR-E
They translate both meanings with 2 lines (the first line is
the mobile phone-related meaning, the second the literal
translation about fruits).
32
Amy Walker: 21 Accents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k
33