Transferring the Humour Load in Asterix Conquers America into Sinhala

Abstract

Humour in animated films presents numerous challenges when they are dubbed into another language. The aim of the study is to examine how humorous elements are rendered from one language to another, in dubbed animated films. The animated film Asterix conquers America (1994) and its Sinhala dubbed version are chosen for the present study. The taxonomy proposed by Martínez-Sierra which includes eight elements, is applied to determine the humour load of the examples. Twenty-five humorous instants are selected from the film to be analysed qualitatively. In these examples, the study examines if all the identified humour elements are transferred either completely or partially or the humour elements are eliminated in the Sinhala dubbed version. The results show that a loss of humour is noted mainly because the linguistic element is not reproduced in the target language. Along with the loss of the linguistic element, other elements too can be lost. Though a loss of humour is detected in certain examples, it is compensated in certain others. As a strategy, domestication approach is preferred at times, by the translators to substitute humour elements. Their efforts to recreate humour that can be understood and appreciated by the target audience are highlighted and discussed.