The translatability of French humour in ‘Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre’ in the English subtitled version of the movie

Abstract

This study aims to explore how French humour in the movie ‘Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre’ was rendered in the English subtitles. It provides insight into humour in general and humour related to audiovisual translation (AVT), in addition to an understanding of humour translation strategies and taxonomies. Some of these taxonomies were applied to identify and analyse three humour types in the movie: wordplay, culture specific references, and neologism. A comparison of humour between the source text, the movie script in French, and the target text, the English subtitles, demonstrates how it can be rendered and by which means. This comparison also indicates the role that culture plays when it comes to humour translation. The discussion reveals how although the ratio of humour transfer in the movie varies between one humour type to another, with instances where translation strategies were unreliable, humour was preserved in most of the analysed examples of the film. Lastly, this study highlights how AVT shall shift its focus toward the commercial aspects of the audiovisual industry.