Humour is a complex concept which tends to build on the ambiguity of
language. When converting a humoristic program into a different
language, the translator thus faces many challenges. One of these is the
translation of cultural aspects of the TL (target language). Since every
culture contains its unique form of humour, understanding the humour
within a culture and all its cultural elements is essential to producing
an adequate translation. The study at hand focuses on the translation of
the British comedy-sketch show Little Britain analyzing how it has been
converted from its SL (source language), which is English, to its TL,
which in this study will be Spanish. It proved to be highly constructive
for the purposes of this research as the humour is often very
culture-specific and thus difficult to translate. For the benefit of the
reader, the first part of this dissertation is going to discuss various
theories of humour. Moreover, it will discuss how humour is created in
the comedy sketch show Little Britain. As subtitles will be used for the
analysis of the case study, limitations and constraints will be
discussed as the translator cannot merely focus on the linguistic
features and possible problems like she/he would do in any other form of
translation. Using Attardo's theory (1994), the study aims to explore
aspects that create difficulties during the translation process, always
in relation to humour that is seen in a comedy sketch show. It explores
the translation of humour, examining potential problems that translators
need to overcome and expands on this by investigating the difficulties
that arise when translating culture-specific issues. In addition, as
this is an audiovisual translation, potential problems that become
relevant in the case study are highlighted. The study highlights the
difficulties a translator faces within the process and, where relevant,
possible alternative strategies that the translator could have applied
in the translation process.
