Slide 1

Humour is a specifying characteristic of humanity. If we were to define strictily the term would not be to
easy. A set of straightforward definitions taken from MSN Encarta's entry on the word 'humor' are

funny quality: the quality or content of something such as a story, performance, or joke that

elicits amusement and laughter;

ability to see something as funny: the ability to see that something is funny, or the

enjoyment of things that are funny;

funny things as genre: writings and other material created to make people laugh;

Humour is something that makes you laugh or smile (Ross, 2005:1). Academics highlight that this is
the case when referring to humoour. However is there an absolute theory as to why we laugh? Morreal
(1983:1) argues that there is no general theory for laughter and that we laugh in such diverse situations
that it seems difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a single formula that will cover all cases of
laughter.
Functional definition: related to the causes and consequences of humor ; humor can originate in
wordplay, parody, irony, or simply the unexpected and it becomes tangible in the form of laughter and/or
amusement;
Incongruity theory of humour
The most popular theory of why we find jokes funny revolves around the concept of incongruity.
The idea is that we laugh at things that surprise us because they seem out of place. Its funny when clowns
wear outrageously large shoes, people have especially big noses or politicians tell the truth.
In the same way, many jokes are funny because they involve ideas that run against our expectations. A
bear walks into a bar. Animals talk. And so on.
But there is more to this theory than such simple forms of incongruity. In many jokes, there is an apparent
incongruity between the set-up and the punch line. The punchline is a center of energy of a joke and
recipient expects it sooner or later.
The punch is the point at which the recipient either hears or sees something which is in some way
incongruous with linguistic or semantic environment in which it occurs but which at first sight had not
been apparent (Chiaro, 1992:48).
Take the following joke:
Two fish in a tank.
One turns to the other and says: Do you know how to drive this?

The set-up line leads us to think about two fish in a fish tank. But the punch line surprises us why
should the fish be able to drive a fish tank? Then, a split second later, we suddenly realize that the word
tank has two meanings, and that the fish are actually in an army tank.
Scientists refer to this as the incongruity-resolution theory. We resolve the incongruity caused by the
punch line, and the accompanying feeling of sudden surprise makes us laugh.
The superiority theory also explains why we laugh at certain types of jokes. Many jokes make us feel
superior to other people. In these types of jokes, people appear stupid because they have misunderstood
an obvious situation, made a stupid mistake, been the hapless victim of unfortunate circumstance or have
been made to look stupid by someone else. According to the theory, these jokes cause us to laugh because
they make us feel superior to other people.

Here is a classic superiority joke:

A woman goes into a cafe with a duck. She puts the duck on a stool and sits next to it. The waiter comes
over and says: Hey! That's the ugliest pig that I have ever seen. The woman says: Its a duck, not a
pig. And the Waiter says: I was talking to the duck.
According to one theory of humour, we laugh because these types of situations make us feel superior to
other people. The person who tripped over the banana skin, or was the recipient of the custard pie, has
been made to look silly and that makes us feel good. In fact, it makes us feel so good that we laugh.
Forms of verbal humour
Linguistic jokes
. Whats a baby pig called?
A piglet
So whats a baby toy called?
A toilet
Do you serve frogs legs? (meant as direct object)
We serve anyone whos able to pay.
Cultural jokes
Two immigrants arrive in the United States and are discussing the difference between the Old Country
and the U.S. One of them says that he's heard that people in the U.S. eat dogs, and if they're going to fit
in, they better eat dogs as well. So they head to the nearest hot dog stand and order two 'dogs.' The first
guy unwraps his, looks at it, and nervously looks at his friend.
"What part did you get?"

Universal Jokes
Do you serve frogs legs?
We serve anyone whos able to pay.
Puns
The word puns designates those kinds of wordplay that exploit the ambiguities of words or phrases.
Since the majority of puns have a humorous intent, they form a subset of jokes. But puns pose special
problems for translators because, unlike most kinds of verbally expressed humour, they use the specific
features of a particular language.
A pun is a play on words that takes advantage of similarities between words or phrases
Translating Jokes and Puns techniques
Several classifications of wordplay translation techniques have been put forward by scholars who have
engaged in empirical research. Again, the one most widely known and used is Delabastitas, which
includes the following techniques (1996: 134):
1.
pun pun: the ST pun is translated by a target-language pun, which may differ more or less
widely from the ST pun in terms of formal or semantic structure or of textual function;
2.
pun non-pun: the ST pun may be replaced by a non-punning phrase which can relay both
meanings of the source pun or just one;
3.
pun related rhetorical device: the ST pun is replaced by a wordplay-related rhetorical device
(repetition, alliteration, rhyme, irony, paradox, etc.) in order to recreate the effect of the ST pun;
4.

pun : the ST fragment where the pun occurs is omitted;

5.
pun ST = pun TT: the translator relays the ST pun in its original formulation, i.e. without actually
translating it;
6.
non-pun pun: the translator introduces a pun when translating a ST passage where none
occurred, possibly in order to compensate for a previous or subsequent loss, or for some other reason;
7.
loss;

pun: new textual material is added which includes a pun, probably also to compensate for a

8.
editorial techniques, such as explanatory footnotes or endnotes, translators comments in a
prologue or foreword, etc..
Analyzing the next pun ,considering the SL English this time and TL Romanian can lead to the next
translation:
Example 1
I tried asking my dentist out but she brushed me off. Don't worry it was her floss.

Am ncercat s-i dau ntlnire dentistei dar mi-am luat-o n frez. Nu-i nimic, a fost

pierderea ei.

In this case we have a fixed expression, i. e. idiom to brush me off carrying the meaning to collect or
dispose of something by a using a brush.
The translation method proposed for this pun, is omission when the idiom is preserved in terms of its
contents but with the loss of wordplay. Hence, the meaning of the idiom is explained in translation instead
of transferring the idiom itself.
Example 2
Proper punctuation can make the difference between a sentence that's well-written and a sentence that's,
well, written.
Punctuaia corect poate face diferena dintre o propozi ie bine scris i o propozi ie, bine, scris.
This example illustrates wordplay ; resemblance of the words well written vs. well, written provides us
difference in a punctuation sign which changes the meaning. The translator applies one of Delabastitas
suggested methods:
->PUNPUN when the source text pun is translated by a target-language pun, which may be more orless
different from the original wordplay in terms of formal structure, semantic structure, or textual function.
In TL(Romanian language), pun translation has the same meaning with the SL (English), same changes
of punctuation were made in TL as well.
Example 3.
- Why are families like fudge?
- They are mostly sweet with a few nuts in it.
Considering the above joke as a family joke, an analysis reveals the following lexico-grammatical
choices. The clause structure illustrates that it is an informal situation that uses the interrogative. This
interrogative (Why?) is an imperative in the sense of Let me tell you a joke! or Let me tell you why
families are like fudge. There is no problem in translating this interrogative into Romanian. But there is a
difficulty at the lexical level. The English joke playfully compares families and fudge. The English
word fudge, meaning a so creamy light brown sweet made of sugar, milk, butter, is encoded in the
English semiotic system and belongs to British culture. This feature cannot be realised in Romanian. Two
other lexical items also limit the lexical elbow-room for a Romanian translation: they are sweet and
nuts, which define the semantic content of fudge. A possible choice in Romanian would be cozonac
(pound cake), which is quite sweet and has nuts in it. Yet this is not adequate: nuts is a key element in
the English joke, which plays on the ambiguity between nuts that belongs to a cooking frame of reference
and nuts that represents a mental state.
In order to transfer the jokes function, it seems that there are two possible solutions: (a) to transfer the
semantic content of the word nuts in Romanian, but use it in the singular and re-arrange the grammatical

structure of the sentence so that it follows from the word order that nut (nuc) is a metaphor for lunatic
like in:
n general dulce dar mai are i cte o nuc.
[Mostly sweet but it also has some nut(ty characters)]
This translation into Romanian uses the co-ordinating but, because the two clauses, which are
contrasting in meaning, do not exclude each other. In other words, the use of nuc in the singular (at the
lexical level) and the use of the coordinating conjunction dar (but) (at the syntactical level) in Romanian
are meant to make up for the non-existence of a lexical and semantic equivalent of the polysemous
English word nut. A possibility of translation is to render only the communicative meaning and disregard
the semantic and syntactical content of the source joke altogether. In that case, we would have to find
something that works naturally both at the language level (embedded in the lexical system) and at the
cultural level (being cultural specific and playing on a well-known idiom). A possible solution might then
be:
Care e asemnarea dintre o familie i o turm de oi: majoritatea sunt albe dar mai scap i cte una
neagr.
[Why is a family like a flock of sheep? Its mostly white sprinkled with a few black ones].
It should be mentioned that, like in English, to be the black sheep of the family is a set phrase in
Romanian. However, this second solution is open to criticism: it does not render the originality,
spontaneity, and sparkle of the source-language text. So, although the Skopos of a translation may be
attained in joke translation, many commonly known solutions cannot convey the source texts ability to
cause laughter, as was just illustrated in the flock of sheep translation , in which the idea of black
sheep in a family is not funny because the comparison has been overused. This leads on to another
important point: good translators of humour must also be aware of the genre potential of a particular
culture.