%0 Journal Article %1 Low2011 %A Low, Peter Alan %D 2011 %I Taylor & Francis Group %J Perspectives %K humor juego_de_palabras traducción %N 1 %P 59-70 %R 10.1080/0907676X.2010.493219 %T Translating jokes and puns %U http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0907676X.2010.493219 %V 19 %X Abstract If a joke is not translated as a joke, the translation is bad. This article asserts that almost all verbally expressed humour is translatable, given appropriate strategies and reasonable criteria for success. It focuses on two problem areas, language-specific jokes (in particular puns) and culture-specific jokes, distinguishing these from more manageable kinds of humour. A brief survey of research on puns is given, followed by practical advice to increase the translator's responses to wordplay, and a systematic way to proceed instead of just waiting for inspiration. Translators of humour (like writers of humour) have a licence to use language creatively, and this enlarges the options for handling outrageous jokes. There follows a shorter discussion of culture-specific jokes and how they differ from ‘universal humour’. Some light must be shed on obscurity, yet obviousness is a killer of humour.

@article{Low2011, abstract = {Abstract If a joke is not translated as a joke, the translation is bad. This article asserts that almost all verbally expressed humour is translatable, given appropriate strategies and reasonable criteria for success. It focuses on two problem areas, language-specific jokes (in particular puns) and culture-specific jokes, distinguishing these from more manageable kinds of humour. A brief survey of research on puns is given, followed by practical advice to increase the translator's responses to wordplay, and a systematic way to proceed instead of just waiting for inspiration. Translators of humour (like writers of humour) have a licence to use language creatively, and this enlarges the options for handling outrageous jokes. There follows a shorter discussion of culture-specific jokes and how they differ from ‘universal humour’. Some light must be shed on obscurity, yet obviousness is a killer of humour. }, added-at = {2015-12-11T19:01:29.000+0100}, author = {Low, Peter Alan}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22628a068e2c48eb035459460ce46f936/albalf}, doi = {10.1080/0907676X.2010.493219}, interhash = {29d69bd6601237db5cf85791441ea1ca}, intrahash = {2628a068e2c48eb035459460ce46f936}, journal = {Perspectives}, keywords = {humor juego_de_palabras traducción}, language = {EN}, mendeley-tags = {Jokes,Puns,Translation,Wordplay}, month = mar, number = 1, pages = {59-70}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis Group}, timestamp = {2015-12-12T12:12:31.000+0100}, title = {Translating jokes and puns}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0907676X.2010.493219}, volume = 19, year = 2011 }