Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English-language Translation

Bc. Veronika Wiesnerová

Czech Dubbing of the Gilmore Girls TV-show: Audiovisual Translation of

Humour Master’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová

2016

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

Acknowledgement I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, PhDr. Jarmila Fictumová, for her invaluable

comments and supportive attitude throughout the entire process. Without her guidance this

thesis would never be written. My family has also earned my gratitude not only by supporting me but also by assisting me with both transcribing some parts of the dialogue and by helping

me find the humour when I could not see it myself.

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7

1. Audiovisual Translation .................................................................................. 9

1.1. Audiovisual Text ....................................................................................... 9

1.2. Audiovisual Translation ......................................................................... 10

1.3. Dubbing .................................................................................................... 12

2. Humour ........................................................................................................... 19

2.1. Theories of Humour ................................................................................ 20

2.2. Types of Humour .................................................................................... 26

3. Analysis ........................................................................................................... 37

3.1. Material .................................................................................................... 37

3.2. Methodology ............................................................................................ 38

3.3. Season 1 Episode 1 .................................................................................. 39

3.4. Season 2 Episode 5 .................................................................................. 49

3.5. Season 3 Episode 13 ................................................................................ 56

3.6. Season 4 Episode 22 ................................................................................ 65

3.7. Season 7 Episode 16 ................................................................................ 74

4. AVT of Humour – Guide ............................................................................... 88

Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 91

Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 94

List of Tables and Figures

Table 1: Typology of translation ...................................................................................... 9

Table 2: The four components of the audiovisual text ................................................... 10

Table 3: Poly-semiotic nature of audiovisual products .................................................. 11

Figure 1: Dubbing films in Europe ................................................................................. 14

List of Abbreviations

AVT Audiovisual translation

AV Audiovisual

TS Translation Studies

SL Source language

TL Target language

ST Source text

TT Target text

GG Gilmore Girls

Eng English

Cz Czech

CP Cooperative principle

RT Relevance theory

SSTH Semantic Script-based Theory of Humour

GTVH General Theory of Verbal Humour

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Introduction

The topic of this thesis is Czech Dubbing of the Gilmore Girls TV-show: Audiovisual

Translation of Humour. Audiovisual translation is a field which has existed since the very

birth of cinema and yet had not seen any real research or theoretical study until the 1980s.

Since the digital revolution, the spread of television, videos and later DVDs and online

streaming services, the field has been gaining more and more attention and it now has its

own place within Translation Studies.

First it is explained what audiovisual text and audiovisual translation are and what falls

under the term. Dubbing in the world and in the Czech Republic is introduced

and the advantages and disadvantages of dubbing and subtitling are briefly discussed.

The second part of the thesis deals with humour. Humour is a universal human trait

and there are many different approaches to be taken to the study of it. The preliminary

aim of this thesis is to investigate the existing theories of humour and its translation

in order to find a method for identification, categorisation and subsequent translation

of humorous sequences.

Once the methods have been established I apply them to my chosen material, the Gilmore

Girls TV-show. The primary aim is a critical analysis of the Czech dubbing of selected

episodes of the Gilmore Girls TV-show with a focus on humour. The first step is to

acquire both the audiovisual material and the transcripts. As only the English transcripts

are available online, it means transcribing them by ear from the Czech dubbing. In each

of the five episodes all the instances of humour are identified, analysed and categorised.

In my analysis several examples for each of the categories from the individual episodes

are chosen and assessed, and where needed, my own translation solutions are offered. As

almost every episode of the five was translated by a different translator, various

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approaches to the translation of humour are observed. The result of this analysis is a

critical assessment of the quality of the dubbing of humour, an exploration of possible

improvements of the dubbing and the practical application of the theories to specific

material.

Based on the results of the analysis, there is a secondary aim to create a simplified guide

consisting of rules and recommendations for audiovisual translation of humour which

could aid translators in transferring humour from audiovisual material in source language

into target language.

Finally, my findings are summarised by stating how my thesis contributes to the research

in audiovisual translation and ideas for topics that occurred in the course of my work on

the thesis are mentioned that could be explored by other students interested in this field.

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1. Audiovisual Translation

Our society is greatly influenced by media; the new technologies bring with it new kinds

of international and intercultural communications as there is a need to find a way to

translate the products of media from one country (and/or culture) to another. Matkivska

defines Audiovisual translation (AVT) as “the transfer from one language into another of

the verbal components contained in audiovisual works and products” (Matkivska, 2014,

p. 38).

1.1. Audiovisual Text

Audiovisual texts fall under multimodal texts, which are texts “whose meanings

are realized through more than one semiotic code” (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006,

p. 177). Audiovisual translation encompasses audio-description, closed captions,

surtitles, interpreting, subtitles, voice-over and dubbing. Table 1 shows the typology

of multimodal texts and their translations according to semiotic composition and time

element.

Table 1: Typology of translation

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The word “audiovisual” according to the Cambridge Dictionaries Online means

“involving the use of recorded pictures and sound, or the equipment that produces them”

and the word itself speaks to the interconnection of these two communication channels

through which further communication takes place either verbally or nonverbally (see

Table 2). This then denotes the poly-semiotic character of the texts. All four components,

that is audio-verbal, audio-nonverbal, visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal, form one

complicated interwoven system. According to Zabalbeascoa (2008) even cartoons,

pictures or other ‘texts’ with no words whatsoever have the character of an AV text. Even

in these types of communication we find the standards of textuality (cohesion, coherence,

intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality).

Table 2: The four components of the audiovisual text

1.2. Audiovisual Translation

“There are three fundamental issues in the AV field, namely, the relationship between

verbal output and pictures and soundtrack, between a foreign language/culture

and the target language/culture, and finally between the spoken code and the written one.”

(Gambier 2003 p. 172)

Audiovisual translation (AVT) is a specific kind of translation where the source

information is conveyed through both the visual and the audio channel at the same time.

The term encompasses all types of multi-semiotic translation intended for any medium

(Orero, 2004). Delia Chiaro (2009) includes types of translation such as media translation,

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multimodal translation and screen translation under the term “Audiovisual translation”.

Screen translation encompasses dubbing, subtitling and voice-over.

Chiaro defines the products translated through dubbing and/or subtitling as poly-

semiotic, which means that the overall meaning is communicated through verbal as well

as various kinds of nonverbal semiotic systems and it is important to take all of these

semantic elements into account while translating. The poly-semiotic nature

of AV products is shown in Table 3 below (Chiaro, 2009).

VISUAL ACOUSTIC

NON-

VERBAL

Scenery, lighting, costumes, props,

etc.

Also: gesture, facial expressions;

body movement, etc.

Music, background noise, sound

effects, etc.

Also: laughter; crying; humming;

body sounds (breathing; coughing,

etc.)

VERBAL Street signs, shop signs; written

realia (newspapers; letters;

headlines; notes, etc.)

Dialogues; song lyrics; poems, etc.

Table 3: Poly-semiotic nature of audiovisual products

It is this poly-semiotic nature that most sets the AVT apart from literary

translation. A translator of AV material has to pay particular attention to detail

so as to identify and define all the semantic elements encoded in the semiotic systems.

The work of a literary translator is thus made slightly easier because the entire meaning

is contained within the written text only. It is important to note that the most challenging

AV material, as far as poly-semiotics is concerned, are films in which costume, intonation

or background music influence the overall meaning of what is said and it is therefore

impossible to rely on the understanding of the language alone.

For many years Audiovisual translation was ignored by academics and has only

started gaining attention and finding its place within the Translation studies (TS) since

the 1980s. Since 1995, which was the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of cinema,

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due to the advances in technology (digital revolution) AVT has gained in recognition and

importance (Pardo, 2013). While the term “Audiovisual translation” is the most used

these days, alternative titles still exist and the terminology remains un-formalised. “Film

translation”, “screen translation” or “multimedia translation” are some of the terms used

as alternatives to AVT (Gambier, 2006). Many academic studies have been published on

the topic in the last twenty years, but the theory remains fragmented, not central or

integral. There are still several debates going on about whether AVT even belongs within

the TS. Some argue that AVT is not translation proper as it is too limited by the medium

(both temporal and spatial limitations) and refer to the process as adaptation.

1.3. Dubbing

The arrival of sound film brought with it a problem of how to make a film recorded in one

language available to all viewers. One solution was to film several versions, in two or

three languages and even one silent version. In 1930 in the USA the film Anna Christie

(based on the play of the same name by Eugene O’Neill) was recorded in English,

German and Swedish versions. The cost of this solution, however, was disproportionately

high.

Another solution was the implementation of subtitles. At first nobody gave much

thought to the aesthetic of the translation, a new particularity, which differentiated it from

intertitles in silent films.

Yet another solution to make foreign language films understandable was to re-

record the original dialogue. For the best understanding of the foreign-language film it

was necessary to supply the film with dialogue in local language in such a way

that as many details of the original artistic intention as possible were preserved.

This technique is called dubbing.

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We are able to recognise approximately ten different kinds of audiovisual

translation; these can be compounded into two larger subgroups: revoicing and subtitling.

Matkivska (2014) defines revoicing as a “complete or partial cover of the text of the

original product by the new text of the target language”. Revoicing can be divided into

voice-over, narration, free commentary, audio description and dubbing.

Dubbing is an interlinguistic AVT which completely replaces the SL soundtrack

with a TL soundtrack, while making sure that the TL sounds are synchronised (as closely

as possible) with the lip movement of the actors, so that the TL audience could feel as if

the actors were speaking their language (Diaz Cintas, 2009).

Whether a country chose dubbing or subtitling was dependent on cultural,

economic, political and even the literacy rate of the population, although in most cases it

was a combination of these factors. Dubbing could be used to censure the cumbersome

influence of “enemy” cultures. Nationalist regimes tended to be closed and they rejected

or limited outside influence emphasizing domestic culture and tradition. It is therefore not

surprising that dubbing was most used and in the end ended up being the preferred form

of AVT in Germany, Italy and Spain. Benito Mussolini for example hated all things

foreign and wished to hear only Italian form the cinema screens as a form of propagation

of the nation and its language. He did not even tolerate the original names of the actors

and so Italians went to the cinema to watch Carlo Chaplin (Zawadská a Plachý, 2014).

In Figure 1 (source: Wikipedia.org) below you can see which countries choose

dubbing and for which purposes.

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Figure 1: Dubbing films in Europe

Dubbing only for children, otherwise solely subtitles

Mixed areas: Countries using occasional multiple-voice voice-overs on broadcast

TV, otherwise solely subtitles.

Voice-over; countries using usually two or more voice actors, otherwise the

original soundtrack remains such as Poland and Russia. This method is used in TV

broadcasting, but dubbing is also used in these countries.

General dubbing: countries using exclusively a full-cast dubbing for films and TV

series, although in Polish, Czech and Slovak cinemas only children’s movies are

usually dubbed.

Countries which produce their own dubbings, but often use dubbed versions from

another country whose language is sufficiently similar so that the local audience

understands it easily (French and Dutch for Belgium and Czech for Slovakia.)

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The history of dubbing in the world is delineated in short below.

In Germany dubbing began to really spread after the Second World War,

when many American films, at that time already famous overseas (e.g. Citizen Kane,

Casablanca), were quickly being voiced over, as during the war they were forbidden

by Hitler. Hitler himself had many films dubbed and Germans thus became used

to German in films and were now requiring it. During the separation into East and West

Germany dubbing evolved independently in the two countries and some films which were

dubbed before the reunification exist in two different versions.

Italy, Germany, Spain and also France kept to dubbing even after the war. In Spain

under the rule of General Franco in the 1930s all reginal languages, such as Catalan,

Galician and Basque, were forbidden from appearing in films. Dubbing was one of the

tools used to enforce a unified language, culture and sense of self. This censure in Spain

was abolished in 1977 by which time dubbing was firmly rooted in the country.

France chose dubbing even though it did not have an authoritarian regime. It has

always attempted to keep the purity of its culture and language and defend it from

the spread of foreign influence, as the French have always been incredibly proud of their

language and French was a successful tool for keeping a cultural and political unity.

An interesting situation was in the USSR where one might expect the same as

in other totalitarian regimes, but dubbing here never asserted itself in the same measure.

Instead one voice voice-over became the norm. Full cast dubbing only started to develop

after the fall of the USSR and even then only on state TV channels, in cinemas and DVDs.

Cable TV channels and the ever prospering pirate market still maintain the demand for

voice-over.

The USA could really be sorted into a category of their own but are usually

included with dubbing countries. An average American wants to hear English only, he/she

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does not even want to read subtitles. At the same time they try to adapt the product to

their own pop-culture and world perception. For this reason Americans usually end up

creating something which cloud be called “absolute dubbing” as they choose to rerecord

the entire film with their own American version. In this they are practically going back to

the times when films were made in several different versions. As an example we could

name the classic multi-part horror film Ring which was originally Japanese (Zawadská a

Plachý, 2014).

Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway or Finland, only dub cartoons

and other films intended for children, everything else is subtitled. The same is true for the

United Kingdom were most foreign-language films are subtitled and only production for

children is dubbed (either into English or sometimes also into Welsh and Scottish Gaelic).

It would be difficult, or perhaps even impossible, to change these rooted forms of

AVT in any free countries, such an authoritative step would not be appropriate in today’s

democracy and would only be possible back in the times when each country was evolving

towards one form or another.

Dubbing in the Czech Republic

The dramatic changes brought about by the Velvet Revolution in Czech society

after the fall of communism in 1989 also significantly affected Czech dubbing.

The market opened up to foreign companies, new television channels were launched,

thousands of video rental stores were established and there was a huge spread

of advertisement. All of this lead to an enormous demand for Czech dubbing.

It became obvious practically immediately that the hitherto existing production

capacity – compliant with the limited demand dictated by the regime for both political

and economic reasons – will no longer suffice.

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First attempts at satisfying this demand through subtitling were met with firm

opposition from the audience. In a country where the population has little to no language

skills, such opposition is understandable. Subtitles often cover only about a third of the

dialogue. This increases the danger of creating inaccurate or unintelligible translations

which can alter the meaning of the dialogues and as a result deprive the viewer of truly

experiencing the work. This was the reason why many new dubbing studios were

established.

Dubbing vs Subtitling

While the form of AVT used is usually down to tradition, each has its advantages

and disadvantages. The argument used most often in favour of subtitling is that it does

not rob the audience of the enjoyment of hearing the actors’ actual voices. In countries

where dubbing is the preferred form of AVT, however, people see subtitles as distracting.

Subtitling has always been cheaper and faster to produce. But the translator has to

condense the source dialogue into one or two lines of about a maximum of thirty-five

Roman characters which last for about six seconds. The estimation is that somewhere

between forty and seventy-five percent of the original dialogue is lost to enable the

audience to watch the film effortlessly (reading subtitles without losing track of what is

happening on screen). This is somewhat compensated by the fact that the audience still

has access to the original soundtrack (Tănase, 2014).

Dubbing is a more laborious activity as it involves far more people and requires

not only the translation but also the rerecording of the dialogue. It is more expansive and

time consuming than subtitling. The issue most often emphasised is lip synchronisation

though mostly the focus is to start and finish speaking at the same time as the actors in

the source material. The advantage of dubbing is that it is easy to follow and it (ideally)

creates a feeling of natural production to the audience.

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The choice between dubbing and subtitling should not really revolve around

which one is better or worse but around the individual requirements of a given audience.

Subtitling would be the obvious choice for the deaf or hard of hearing. Dubbing

on the other hand is ideal for the poor-sighted or the illiterate. The choice is also largely

dependent on the genre which is being translated. In the case of the Gilmore Girls which

is incredibly fast paced and verbose, dubbing is the superior choice as we are able to hear

words at a much faster pace than we are able to read them. This means that with

semantically dense films the subtitles provide only a summary and need to make serious

cuts to dialogue (Zabalbeascoa, 1994).

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2. Humour

The Cambridge Dictionaries Online definition of humour is: “the ability to find things

funny, the way in which people see that some things are funny, or the quality of being

funny”.

Defining what is or is not humour proves to be more problematic than one would

expect. What can be said about humour without any hesitation is that humour is

a specifically human characteristic and it is entirely subjective. According to Raskin

(Raskin 1985), humour is a universal human trait and while “different people will not

necessarily find the same things equally funny […] the ability to appreciate and enjoy

humour is universal and shared by all people.” One definition of humour is: “something

that makes a person laugh or smile” (Ross, 1998, p. 1). The problem with this definition

is that laughter may also occur as a physical reaction (e.g. to tickling or sometimes stress

or hysteria). Another definition speaks of intent, saying that what was intended to be

humorous counts as humour, whether it produced laughter or not. This definition is

adopted from Bremmer and Roodenburg (as cited in Schröter 2005, p. 58), who say: “we

see humour as any message – transmitted in action, speech, writing, images or music –

intended to produce a smile or a laugh.” The problem with this definition, however, is

that there is also unintended humour. We could perhaps simply say that humour is

anything which is funny with or without intent. But then we would have to come with a

definition of what “funny” is.

Humour has two main characteristics – it is a social phenomenon and much of it

is culture-specific. It is a social phenomenon because there is always at least one producer

and at least one receiver. Even if the ‘producer’ is an inanimate object such as television

or literature and the only human being is the receiver, two parties are still involved. The

other reason, why humour is a social phenomenon is that a person is always more likely

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to laugh when in company than when he/she is alone (Zabalbeascoa, 2005). Another

characteristic of humour is that much of it is culture-specific. It is this characteristic which

is often remarked upon and it is also often cited as the reason why humour is either

partially or entirely untranslatable. The basic supposition is that to fully comprehend a

humorous element we must share the same cultural background. Delia Chiaro (1992)

writes that there are linguistic, diachronic, geographical, sociocultural and personal

boundaries to what people find funny.

There have been many theories of humour over the years, most of these, however,

focus on the philosophical, physical or psychological aspects of humour and not so much

on the linguistic one. Nevertheless works dealing with the language of humour have

started to appear (e.g. Delia Chiaro’s The Language of Jokes: Analyzing Verbal Play;

Walter Nash’s The Language of Humour; Walter Redfern’s Puns and Their Kin; etc.).

2.1. Theories of Humour

Humour theories are most often grouped together into a number of broader types.

Most often there are three categories, which are called incongruity theories,

superiority/aggression theories and relief/release theories.

Relief/release theories are most often linked with Sigmund Freud; the release here

may be of energy, tension or even from conventions and inhibitions. Release theory can

be seen as more of a theory of laughter as it speaks of a “psychic energy” which builds

up in the body as a result of supressing feelings in taboo areas and is then released. This

theory provides no explanation for why we find certain things funny (Mulder and Nijholt,

2002).

Superiority means basically laughing at someone; the one who laughs feels

some sort of superiority over the ‘victim’ of the joke. This theory was used by Plato,

Aristotle and Hobbes. According to Hobbes (cited from Mulder and Nijholt, 2002)

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humans are in constant competition with each other and that in humorous situations there

is always a winner and a loser. This theory does not identify any sort of uniqueness of

humour, it does not help us sort humorous instances into categories. It also does not

account for wordplay and absurdities as there is no ‘loser’ in either of those.

The Gilmore Girls does not employ much superiority, below is an example of both

superiority and national-sense-of-humour jokes (see chapter Types of Humour below)

from the sixth episode of the third season. The ‘victim’ of the joke here are the British

which makes it a case of superiority and the tendency to make fun of the British is typical

to the Americans (and the French, among others) which makes it a national-sense-of-

humour joke or perhaps even a bi-national joke though not in relation to the Czech

Republic as it is not customary to make fun of the British here.

Example: Season 3 Episode 6 (0:05:02 --> 0:05:19)

MISS PATTY: What’s he protesting, Taylor?

TAYLOR: Well, that’s not indicated here, but it doesn’t matter, because protesting

is not allowed in the town square, period. It’s un-American.

LUKE: You mean like the Revolutionary War?

BABETTE: And Rosa Parks?

TAYLOR: That’s different. They were against the British and buses. No one likes

the British or buses.

Incongruity may be described as the reaction to the contradiction between

expectation and reality. Incongruity theory is the ‘reigning’ theory and has to do mainly

with the object of humour; this theory “sees humour as a response to an incongruity,

a term broadly used to include ambiguity, logical impossibility, irrelevance,

and inappropriateness.” (Smuts in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy IEP).

The incongruity theories are the most linguistic in nature as they are most concerned with

the mechanics or structure of jokes.

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An example of incongruity in Gilmore Girls can be seen below. It is from the first

episode of the first season and the incongruity is created by the two women being in a

kitchen (and one of them being a chef), the question “Is something burning?” sets up a

certain expectation which is not met as the expectation is that the thing burning will be

somehow food related.

Example: Season 1 Episode 1 (0:13:37 --> 0:13:41)

(They both giggle and hug)

LORELAI: Is something burning?

SOOKIE: My bangs, earlier. Go on, go on, go on.

The approach to linguistic humour may be syntactic, pragmatic and/or semantic.

The semantic approach to verbal humour has most notably been used by Attardo

and Raskin. Their most important theories are Victor Raskin’s Script-Based Semantic

Theory of Humour (SSTH), and The General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) which is

a result of their joint work based on the incongruity theory.

While both superiority and incongruity theories (and really any other theories

of humour) often present themselves as opposing and each as the only theory of humour,

the truth is that most humorous elements are a combination of all or at least most of the

theories. These theories concentrate on the object of humour, the target of humour, the

effect of humour, etc. What they do not do is explain what humour is, how we are able to

recognise that an element is humorous or does one determine which humorous element is

more funny than the other.

However, there are theories which attempt to do this. Although Grice’s

cooperative principle and the maxims of conversation and the Relevance theory are both

theories of conversation rather than humour itself, they provide a good foundation

for pragmatic study of humour.

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In 1975 Paul Grice came with the concept of the cooperative principle which was

a set of presumptions on the part of the listener as to what conversational rules will be

followed. These rules are also called Gricean conversational maxims and in an ideal world

it is expected that all the participants in a discussion will follow the maxims so as to make

the conversation as effective as possible. These maxims are: maxim of quality (be

truthful; do not share false or unjustified information), maxim of quantity

(be as informative as required, not more, not less), maxim of relation (be relevant)

and maxim of manner (be perspicuous; avoid obscurity, ambiguity, be brief and orderly).

The maxims allow the listener to draw conclusions from that which is not explicitly

communicated in the text itself (Abdalian, 2005). Grice calls these conclusions

implicatures (not to be confused with the formal logical implications). Gricean

implicatures are broad and not meant for the study of humour alone but rather for general

conversational use. However, they provide a good start for identifying humorous

elements as many jokes depend on the listener expecting that the speaker will adhere to

Gricean maxims only to be disappointed. The listener is first “set up”; he/she is allowed

to fill in the non-explicit information through implicatures only to be surprised when the

punchline reveals that the speaker was actually intentionally violating one of the maxims.

While the cooperative principle and the maxims provide a good basis for the study of

humour, they in themselves are not enough to determine whether an utterance is

humorous as the violation of the maxims can simply lead to confusion and not humour.

Example: Season 2 Episode 5

LORELAI: Nothing? You just all of sudden woke up this morning and decided you

were gonna buy every food item in the world that you don't actually eat?

LUKE: It's not for me.

LORELAI: Well who's it for?

LUKE: Someone who's not me.

LORELAI: Like who?

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[cut to inside apartment]

LUKE: Like my nephew.

LORELAI: Oh, your nephew's coming to visit.

LUKE: No, he's coming to stay.

LORELAI: You're sister's moving here?

[they start picking up the spilled food in the hallway and bringing it inside]

LUKE: Nope.

LORELAI: Well, I'm sorry, I don't get it.

In the example above Luke is violating several of the maxims and yet it does not make

the utterance humorous. This is still the better option as a disregard of the maxims can

lead to a completely nonsensical conversation. Such as: “Where is John?” – “The flowers

in the garden are starting to bloom.”

Relevance theory (RT) is a cognitive theory of human communication which was

developed by Sperber and Wilson in the 1980s. The theory states that humans pay

attention to and process information which is potentially relevant to them, while

at the same time filtering and rejecting the potentially irrelevant information (Yus, 2006).

RT is a post-Gricean theory and takes Grice’s cooperative principle as a starting point but

revises it and reduces the maxims to a single principle of relevance. Wilson (cited in Yus,

2008) summarizes the basic concepts of RT in four statements: “(a) every utterance has a

variety of possible interpretations, all compatible with the information that is

linguistically encoded; (b) not all these interpretations occur to the hearer simultaneously;

some of them take more effort to think up; (c) hearers are equipped with a single, general

criterion for evaluating interpretations; and (d) this criterion is powerful enough to

exclude all but one single interpretation, so that having found an interpretation that fits

the criterion, the hearer looks no further”. The author of the humour can predict and

manipulate which interpretation of the joke the listener will choose as the most relevant

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(usually the most overt interpretation) only to later reveal that there was another covert

interpretation which is actually the correct one and thus creating the humour.

Conclusion

While many studies have been made since the Roman Empire concerning what humour

is and what it does, each theory only seems to account for a portion of the problem. Both

the Gricean maxims and the relevance theory relate strongly to incongruity theories and

while many jokes may be based on incongruity, it does not then follow that all incongruity

is humorous, there is not a direct correlation between them. Superiority faces the same

problem, while some humour may employ it, not all statements coloured with superiority

are humorous. Even combining all the existing theories and then applying them to a text

in hopes of finding all the humorous elements, would most probably not yield success. In

an ideal world, of course, we could simply ask the author, as he/she is the one who created

the text and would therefore know where humour was intended (although even in this

case there would still remain the question of unintentional humour). Another alternative

(just as idealistic) would be that each text would be parsed by a native speaker of the same

cultural background as the ST and he/she would mark the occurrences of humour. As

neither of these is an option, we must choose a different approach. The most decisive

factor in humour, at least in my opinion, is that it is a social phenomenon. I reached this

conclusion after hours of scouring the material and finding very few instances of humour.

Nothing seemed very funny anymore. As for identifying humour then I would

recommend watching the SL material with friend/s with the script in your hand and

marking down all the times you and/or your friends laughed, chuckled or even smiled.

While there is no doubt that you all share the same cultural/social background and

therefore might not be the most heterogeneous group, this method seems to be most

accessible, least time consuming and seems to produce the most satisfying results.

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2.2. Types of Humour

Once the humorous element has been identified it is necessary to analyse and categorise

it. Since there is no clear definition of what humour is, there cannot be any clear

subdivision of humour. The types of humour will always depend on the criteria we set up

and as such could number into infinity. The simplest division would be between humour

which is dependent on language and that which is not. The most relevant to this thesis,

however, is the division based on how the humorous elements lend themselves to

translation. Zabalbeascoa (2005) in his 2005 article – Humour and Translation – An

Interdiscipline outlines the most important distinctions in translating humour from the

viewpoint of the translator:

a) Unrestricted, inter-/bi-national – such jokes are ‘unrestricted’ because

the items in the jokes are internationally known and understood, or at least bi-

nationally between two specific countries/cultures, and can, therefore,

be translated more or less literally without any adaptation or substitution. The

source and target cultures need to have shared knowledge, tastes

and/or values. Such inter-/bi-national items may include the names of famous

film and singing stars, politicians or historic figures, well-known places and

sights, artists or even events which appeared in news worldwide.

Example: Season 1 Episode 1 (0:17:21 --> 0:17:27)

LORELAI: Sookie, there are several chapters from a Stephen King novel I'd

reenact before I'd resort to that option.

Stephen King is an American horror writer well known all over the world and

as such serves as a great example of an unrestricted international joke.

b) Restricted by audience profile traits – the focus here is on the target audience,

on their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of certain items, types of

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humour or genres. The restriction lies, therefore, not in an objective issue in

translatability of a given item, be it linguistic or thematic, but with the target

audience’s ignorance or inexperience with such item.

Example: Season 1 Episode 1 (0:03:09 --> 0:03:19)

JOEY: So...daughter. You know, I am traveling with a friend.

LORELAI: She's sixteen.

JOEY: Bye.

LORELAI: Drive safe.

This joke is restricted by the target audience as the fact that Rory is sixteen

years old and therefore underage is only relevant in the USA (and even there

in particular states).

c) Intentionality – intentionality is an important feature both on the side of

the author and of the translator. This issue is also closely connected to the one

mentioned before it as the same sentence may be an entirely normal run of the

mill utterance when stated in the source culture but may cause laughter in the

target culture due to the differences between the two. In such a case the

comedic quality was unintentional on the part of the translator. It is especially

important to avoid such unintentional humour in texts of sensitive nature as in

the example of Bible translation given by Zabalbeascoa (2005, p. 8). The two

sentences in this example, ‘David was hit by a rock and knocked of his

donkey.’ and ‘David was stoned of his ass.’, are linguistically equal as

throwing rocks at someone may be called stoning and a donkey may be called

an ass. The second sentence, however, has also amore colloquial meaning of

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being exceedingly intoxicated and is therefore entirely inappropriate for the

given situation. It is crucial for translators not to pun unintentionally.

d) Improvisation – humour may be well-thought out and planned or it may be

spontaneous. Both can present a problem for the translator. An intricate joke

or one with an elaborate rhetoric is problematic if the translator wishes

to capture not only the more obvious aspects of the text but also the innuendo

and nuances. Spontaneous jokes present the biggest problem to interpreters as

they have no way of preparing for them neither of backtracking.

e) Signals (of the intention of the joke) – this particular feature is connected to

explicitation in translation. Translators seem to often feel the need to change

covert subtle forms of humour into much more overt forms. This may be

caused by several factors: it could be that the translator was not successful

in transferring the joke effectively and wants to draw attention to the fact that

there was an attempt at humour; or it could simply be because the translator

feels that the joke is too subtle and may be overlooked. The problem with this

is that some humour depends on subtlety, such as allusion, irony or tongue-in-

cheek, and the more overt translation thus subtracts from it. Other times the

author may be using very covert and allusive signals because he/she wishes to

escape censorship.

f) Private (or in-group) jokes – this type of jokes is usually considered

a bit of a nightmare to translators. It falls under the restricted jokes

and requires specific knowledge. The group may be constituted of the people

of one nation, region, village, social class, minority, interest, etc. Such group

may have their own dialect, sociolect or language awareness. The biggest issue

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here is when the group in the source culture does not have its equivalent group

in the target culture.

Example: Season 2 Episode 5 (0:18:43 --> 0:18:49)

JESS: Tell her I gotta take another crack at that closet. You know, I think

I hung my Tool T-shirt next to my Metallica T-shirt and they don't really get

along.

Both Tool and Metallica are bands in the rock/metal genre and the reference

will only make sense to those familiar with both bands’ production.

g) Wordplay v. Narrative (linguistic v. textual) – jokes may be a form

of a wordplay, e.g. puns, witticisms, one-liners, or they may be narrative

twists that are dependent on a phrase, sentence or even a paragraph far

removed from the sentence being translated. Zabalbeascoa suggests here that

the solution to these may be compensation of either kind or place.

By compensation of kind he means using different means than those in the ST

to achieve the same effect in the TT. Compensation of place means that the

item from the ST is placed on a different place in the TT to avoid losing

meaning, function, effect or intention.

Example: Season 2 Episode 5 (0:39:28 --> 0:39:37)

LUKE: He's fine. He's wet. I just, I lost it, you know. You were right. I am in

so far over my head that I can't see my own hat.

LORELAI: Try turning it around.

This is an example of a one-liner wordplay joke.

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h) Target – superiority, as mentioned above, depends on the feeling of self-

importance over someone else. Much of humour requires a ‘victim’

or a target, which may be represented by one person or a group of people who

share one characteristic, be it nationality, race, belief, institution or some

physical aspect. Victimless jokes may be either childish (or childlike) or they

may be intellectual (meaning games, riddles, linguistic awareness, etc.). The

problem here is that different groups or nations view these differently and as

such may prove difficult when being translated. A perfect example of this are

jokes about politicians, which are very popular and considered funny in the

UK, but considered inappropriate in the USA. Victimless humour may be just

as problematic to translate as it is often in-group related.

Example: Season 1 Episode 1 (0:08:01 --> 0:08:04)

LANE: Koreans never joke about future doctors. So, I guess you're not going,

huh?

The target of the joke (and of numerous other jokes throughout the series) are

Koreans, in this particular case their aspiration for either having a child

become a doctor or at least marry a doctor.

i) Meaning – while it is always important to grasp meaning in any kind

of translation, the translation of humour is specific in that it may rely on

double meanings, on some sort of metaphorical or symbolic meaning,

on ambiguity or even absurdity.

j) Optionality and familiarity (regarding theme, genre, etc.) – in certain

situations an instance of humour is expected so much that it is practically

required, other situations may, on the other hand, need be entirely devoid

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of humour. It is the job of the translator to determine to what extent the given

genre or social situation requires humour and determine what will result

if he/she decides to include/exclude the humour despite its presence/absence

in the ST.

k) Taboo (embarrassment, offence, etc.) – while the concept (and presence)

of taboo is universal, its instances are unquestionably culture-bound.

Zabalbeascoa mentions (Zabalbeascoa, 2005) that taboo may either be

an external factor of humour or its component. The first one refers to jokes

which are about aspects of society connected to taboo or handle with

these aspects in a light-hearted manner. The second refers to such situations

when the joke itself or its kind are taboo. Since taboo is different in

each culture, the translator must carefully evaluate, which types of humour

may be translated into his/her target culture with little or no alteration.

l) Metalinguistic humour – metalinguistic humour is such humour that deals

with language and its aim is language awareness. It includes all forms

of wordplay, such as puns, anagrams, witticisms, rhymes, etc. As the point

of translation is the transference from one language to another, this kind of

humour may prove to be especially problematic as it often requires

the translator to completely substitute the joke. At the same time he/she should

keep the function of that particular wordplay in mind, in case function is more

important than form. A function of wordplay may be entertainment,

educational, phatic, image-enhancing, etc.

Example: Season 3 Episode 13 (0:09:27 --> 0:09:31)

RORY: And how is Sookie supposed to plan a Beanie Baby menu?

LORELAI: Lots of beans.

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Beanie Babies are a kind of stuffed toys filled with plastic pellets, also called

“beans”, which allowed for the toys to be flexible. Despite what the name may

suggest they have nothing in common with beans the food.

m) Verbal and non-verbal combined, or iconic representation of idiom

and metaphor – this is specific for AV production where humour often

combines the verbal and non-verbal. The translator may be required to

compensate for culture-bound items expressed non-verbally in the ST

and could lead to confusion in TT.

n) The forms of humour (and contrastive studies) – here Zabalbeascoa simply

emphasizes the necessity of understanding the author’s intention and his/her

reasons for choosing a particular form of expression and the importance

of carefully thinking out the changes the translator may decide to implement.

These distinctions are an overview of what the translator should keep in mind and

they help distinguish the separate types of jokes. The classification of jokes based on how

they lend themselves to translation appeared in Zabalbeascoa’s Translating Jokes for

Dubbed Television Situation Comedies (1996). There he recognized six categories

(Zabalbeascoa, 1996):

a) Inter-/bi-national jokes – in international jokes the humorous effect is not

dependent on either language-specific wordplay or on the familiarity with

specific aspects of the source culture and are therefore generally easier

to translate. As Zabalbeascoa points out, however, what counts

as an international joke in one country may not in another and he therefore

proposes to refer to specific pairs of cultures and/or languages and use the term

bi-national jokes.

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b) National-culture-and-institutions jokes – it is necessary to adapt the specific

national, cultural and/or institutional references in the source to maintain

the humorous effect in the target.

c) National-sense-of-humour jokes – this refers to jokes which appear to be more

funny in some countries or even communities than in others. The ‘national

sense of humour’ may refer to the fact that one country may like to make fun

of itself while another does not. Or that the country likes to joke about its

politicians (such as the Czech Republic or the UK) or it does not (such as the

USA).

d) Language-dependent jokes – these jokes are dependent on the features

of the source language such as homophony (different words or phrases sound

the same), polysemy (a word or a phrase has two or more meanings)

and zeugma (one word refers to another but is differently understood in

a different context). In the cases where the SL and TL are close, these jokes

are rather easy to translate as one can translate more or less word for word.

However, in those which are not close, these jokes must often be radically

substituted or otherwise shifted.

e) Visual jokes – if a joke is purely visual (non-verbal) it does not pose much

challenge to the translator. If, on the other hand, it is a combination of verbal

and non-verbal humour, it becomes more problematic. In such cases

the translator usually attempts to find such words which will fit with the visual

which cannot be altered.

f) Complex jokes – this type of jokes combines any two or more of the other

categories.

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Jorge Diaz Cintas (2003) added a seventh category, which he called “aural jokes”.

Seeing as these are usually noises, such as a sighs, cleaning of the throat, snort, humming,

etc., just as with the visual jokes they usually do not require translation.

Popular culture references

References made to other works, events or people could be depending on the situation

sorted under international, national-culture-and-institutions or language-dependent jokes,

however due to their high frequency use in the Gilmore Girls TV-show they ought to be

mentioned as a separate category. Attardo (cited in Schröter, 2005) calculated that

referential jokes outnumber verbal jokes by about 4:1.

Several web sites are devoted to counting the exact number of references made in

Gilmore Girls. According to Vulture (www.vulture.com) and their tally of all references

made from pilot to finale the numbers are:

Movies, which were watched, referenced, or mentioned: 284

TV-shows which were watched, referenced, or mentioned: 168

TV-show referenced most often: Happy Days (5)

Books Rory is seen reading or mentions reading: 339

Plays or musicals watched, referenced, or mentioned (that aren’t also movies, TV-shows,

or books): 6

Songs heard on Gilmore Girls: 396

Musicians, bands, or songs otherwise referenced or mentioned: 359

Cultural references can be used not only in humorous situations but even to

emphasize a dramatic or emotional event or make a social or political commentary.

The above list contains all instances of popular culture references in Gilmore Girls

of those, however, only a portion is humorous. Below you can see an example of cultural

reference which is not humorous:

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Example: Season 2 episode 5 (0:30:28 --> 0:30:33)

LORELAI: Rory, this was a bad one, okay? This was not Nick and Nora, this was Sid and

Nancy, and I'm not going in there.

Lorelai is talking about a fight she and Luke had. Nick and Nora, Sid and Nancy

is also the name of the episode and it refers to two couples: Nick & Nora – Dashing,

martini-sipping husband and wife characters from The Thin Man film series

and Sid & Nancy – Not so dashing, heroin imbibing bass player in The Sex Pistols and his

equally besotted girlfriend (source: "Guide to Gilmore-isms" Season 2). The reference

here is used not to amuse but to emphasize and accurately illustrate how bad the fight

was.

Gilmore Girls’ humour

The humour used in the Gilmore girls television series is often complex and overlaps the

different categories, which makes it even more difficult to translate. The show is known

for its fast-paced dialogue and witticisms. One of the most important aspects of the

shows’ humour are cultural references (see above). The references may be to literary

works, film, music, politics, etc., and appear both in the form of explicit and implicit

references. A priority mentioned by Zabalbeascoa (1996) in translating humour is the

transference of the humorous element and retaining its “funniness”. One might then argue

that the deciding factor would be that the humour must be understood by the audience.

This is where the translation of the Gilmore girls’ humour becomes problematic. Their

references are incredibly widespread, they touch upon both modern actors and classical

literature, both political figures and cartoon characters. Realistically no one person can

actually understand all the references even in the SL; the creators of the show even

acknowledge this by providing a guide to the “gilmorisms” to each season’s DVD, where

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they explain every reference made. If the translator then decides to translate the material

in a way that the audience will understand, it may be argued that while yes, he/she is

doing the job, but at the same time he/she may be “watering down” the humour. It is after

all one of the specific features of the series that one must be quite knowledgeable about a

wide variety of issues to understand even just a half of the references.

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3. Analysis

3.1. Material

“Gilmore girls” is an American television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino.

It falls into the category of “dramedy”, which is a combination of the words drama

and comedy and it refers to a specific kind of television series. In a dramedy unlike

sitcoms there is no “canned laughter” and episodes generally last anywhere between thirty

and sixty minutes. If it is closer to thirty minutes, the show is more comedic with the

drama only present to move the storyline forward. Those which last closer to sixty

minutes, tend to be more dramatic and they use humour to either lighten the situation or

emphasize specific scenes. The show first appeared in October 2000 and it was cancelled

in May 2007. The show is now coming back on Netflix with an eighth season which is

supposed to appease the fans of the show who were deeply disappointed with the seventh

season both for its plot and for leaving many issues unresolved. The eighth season will

only have four episodes each of which will be about ninety minutes so that they are more

like four short films. Almost all the actors from the original season have agreed to come

back and take their role on once again.

As the show’s title suggests, the focal point of the show are women with

the surname Gilmore. The main drama of the show happens in between these three

women, who consequently represent three different generations and upbringings. Lorelai

Gilmore is a single mother who was raised by wealthy upper-class parents with a strict

social code. When she was sixteen she got pregnant and refused to marry the baby’s

father, Christopher Hayden. This decision created much discord between Lorelai and her

parents, Richard and Emily. The main friction between them, however, stems from the

fact that when Rory, Lorelai’s daughter, was one year old, Lorelai packed her things and

38

ran away from home, leaving behind just a letter. She was underage, alone, with a baby

and unemployed and she needed to learn how to live on her own.

All of these facts are slowly learned throughout the series; it really begins when

Rory is sixteen and gets accepted into a private institution, Chilton Preparatory School,

which her mother cannot afford. Lorelai and Rory live in a fictional small town

in Connecticut called Stars Hollow. This town is populated by incredibly colourful

and eccentric characters who help create the comedy of small-town life and its everyday

drama. Lorelai must ask her parents for the money for Rory’s school, which they agree

to under one condition – every Friday the family gets together for dinner. This is

the premise of the show – mother and daughter, work and school, small-town life and the

weekly dinner with grandparents.

3.2. Methodology

The first step consisted of accessing and watching (or rather re-watching as I was already

familiar with the material) each of the chosen episodes in both the SL and TL. The

transcripts for the English version are easily accessible online and it was, therefore, only

necessary to transfer them into .doc format. The Czech version shown on TV Nova,

however, has no existing transcripts and I had to transcribe them myself. The episodes

were chosen more-or-less randomly: they constitute some of my favourite episodes, they

are (almost) each translated by a different person and they are not one of the several

episodes in the series dedicated to one specific topic or movie/show.

First all the humorous elements in the English version were identified

(see conclusion in chapter Theories of Humour), the same is done for the Czech version

and then the resulting numbers are compared. This way I arrive at the conclusion of how

much of the humour was lost in translation. Afterwards all the instances of humour in the

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English version are categorized according to Zabalbeascoa’s classification. Each example

sorted into the six categories is in the form of a table and it includes some brief context

and/or background, the original English text and the Czech translation employed by TV

Nova. Beneath this table I analyse the example itself, explain why it falls under that

particular category and what the suggested strategy of translation for this category is. The

Czech translation is analysed and it is determined whether the humour was transferred,

which strategy was used in the translation, whether the transference was successful and,

where necessary, I provide my own alternative translation with the explanation of my

choice. Seeing as visual and aural jokes do not require a translation, they are left out of

the analysis. Only short extracts from the episodes actually appear in the analysis, the full

transcripts are available on the attached CD.

3.3. Season 1 Episode 1

Synopsis

Rory is accepted to the private Chilton Preparatory School but Lorelai cannot afford

to pay the tuition. She must therefore ask her parents for a loan even though she barely

speaks to them. They agree to lend her the money but there are strings attached – Lorelai

and Rory must come every Friday night to dinner. Rory also meets a cute new boy at

school, Dean, and starts to question her decision to leave Stars Hollow High.

a) International jokes

Example 1: (0:01:25 --> 0:01:31)

Lorelai is sitting at her table drinking coffee and a man comes to talk to her.

JOEY: Yeah, I've never been here before. Just

passing through on my way to Hartford.

LORELAI: You're a regular Jack Kerouac.

JOEY: Tady jsem nikdy nebyl.

Vlastně, projížděl jsem při cestě do

Hartfordu.

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LORELAI: Jsi jak Jack Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac is a world known author, who is especially renowned for his novel

On the Road (in Czech Na cestě). The book is about travelling; when Lorelai likens Joey

to Jack Kerouac, she is making fun of him – Kerouac travelled all over America, while

Joey is going to Hartford which is barely half an hour away. The joke falls under

international jokes as Jack Kerouac is well known everywhere in the world and the item

is understandable in all cultures. The translation is therefore quite adequate.

Example 2: (0:02:34 --> 0:02:38)

Luke is scolding Lorelai for ordering another coffee, she defends herself with

the argument that it is not for her, but for her daughter.

LORELAI: Look, Officer Krupke.

She's right at that table, right there.

LORELAI: Podívej, tyrane. Je támhle

u stolu. Přímo támhle.

I had some trouble deciding which category this joke should belong to. Officer

Krupke is a character in West Side Story. Though the musical itself is well known, officer

Krupke himself, while of course present in the Czech version of the musical (seržant

Krupke), may not immediately bring to mind the musical and his role within it. This is

the reason why at first I wanted to place this joke under culture-bound jokes or perhaps

under national-sense-of-humour jokes. In the end it was placed within thiscategory due

to the fact that in my opinion even in English this joke is more obscure and many people

may not make the connection. This is the case with much of the Gilmore girls humour;

they often refer to films, music or people, which are not exactly mainstream and require

quite a bit of pop-culture knowledge. The translation is not adequate as it does not seem

humorous to me at all. I would either leave “seržant Krupke” in to make people realize

that there is a reference and they might need to look it up if they are unfamiliar with it, or

if we decide to cut the reference out, it would still be better to replace the word “tyran”

with “strážník”. “Strážník” as someone observing proper conduct and someone who has

the right to question others is, in my opinion, perfect for this sequence.

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Example 3: (0:07:33 --> 0:07:41)

Rory and Lane are walking to school, Lane is putting on a Woodstock '99 shirt over

the one she left home in and Rory asks, why Lane hasn’t told her parents about her

preference in music.

LANE: Rory, if my parents still get upset

over the obscene portion size of American

food, I seriously doubt I'm gonna make any

inroads with Eminem.

LANE: Rory, dokud budou moji

rodiče nazývat porci americkýho jídla

obscénní, vážně pochybuju o tom, že

jim představím Eminema.

Another great example of international jokes, as both the large portions of food in

the USA and the singer Eminem are easily understood. This particular translation also

deserves praise for handling the structure of the sentence so well while keeping all the

references.

As both Zabalabeascoa (1996) and Diaz-Cintas and Remael (2007) point out,

some jokes could be sorted into more than one category and therefore it is difficult

to determine the exact distribution of jokes in the separate categories. It is, however, safe

to say that more than a half (approx. 49) of the humorous elements in the first episode fall

into this category (inter-/bi-national jokes).

b) Culture-bound jokes

Example 1: (0:02:15 --> 0:02:18)

Rory asked Lorelai for lip gloss. Lorelai pulls out several bags with make-up.

RORY: God, RuPaul doesn't need this

much makeup.

RORY: Nikdo nepotřebuje tolik

make-upu.

RuPaul is a famous American drag queen. A drag queen is a person, usually male,

who dresses in the clothing of the opposite sex, while exaggerating certain aspects such

as make-up. While drag is very much associated with gay men and gay culture, there are

drag artists of all sexualities. The point here is that RuPaul uses an incredibly large

amount of make-up. It is obviously a culture-bound joke as RuPaul is only known within

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America and even there probably only within a specific group. The Czech translation is

inadequate, the joke is completely lost. While it would be possible to replace the culture-

specific item with one which would be understood by the Czech audience, any name

chosen, would be too long for this scene. My own alternative solution would be: “Ani

klaun nepotřebuje tolik make-upu.”. While it does not keep to the strategy of replacing

one culture-bound item with another, it does maintain the humour of this element by

bringing up a person who wears too much make-up and it is short and thus fits within the

time limit of this particular scene. Another possible solution here would be to employ one

of the six principles of lexical simplification – the use of superordinates (Laviosa-

Braithwaite, 1998). RuPaul is a drag queen and we could therefore use the words “drag

queen” to substitute the name, however, as that is still too long for this particular sequence

I would suggest a different solution: “Ani transka nepotřebuje tolik make-upu.” The word

“transka” may be seen by some as almost pejorative but I think it works in the context.

Example 2: (0:03:09 --> 0:03:18)

Lorelai has just informed Joey that Rory is her daughter.

JOEY: So...daughter. You know, I am

traveling with a friend.

LORELAI: She's sixteen.

JOEY: Bye.

JOEY: Tak… dcera. Víš, cestuju

s kamarádem.

LORELAI: Je jí šestnáct.

JOEY: Ahoj.

I have opted to include this particular exchange in culture-bound jokes as it,

at least in my opinion, refers to the age of consent in Connecticut at the time (it is sixteen

but the other person must not be more than three years older than the sixteen-year-old1).

Since changing Rory’s age to fit our own laws is not advisable (as her age appears several

1 https://www.age-of-consent.info/states/Connecticut

43

times in the show), the way to translate this and keep the humour would be to say, “Je

nezletilá.”

Example 3: (0:22:35 --> 0:22:46)

Rory is enthusing about her new school to her friend Lane.

RORY: And we get to wear uniforms.

No more having people check you out to

see what jeans you're wearing 'cause

everyone's dressed alike in boring clothes

and just there to learn.

LANE: OK, there's academic-minded

and then there's Amish.

RORY: A musíme nosit uniformy.

Už nikdo nebude koukat, jaký máš džíny.

Protože všichni mají stejné oblečení

a v tom chodí do školy.

LANE: Prima, to je akademické

myšlení nebo sektářské?

I was unsure whether to place this example with the international jokes or here

with the culture-bound ones. While there is no doubt that the Amish are specific to North

America, one could argue that they have become, through both news and various popular

TV-shows, quite well known. In the end this sequence was placed here because while I

am aware of who the Amish are and how they dress (which is the relevant information

here) I do not think it is an international joke as of yet and it requires cultural background

knowledge. There is no doubt that some may be offended by the use of the word “sekta”

when translating the Amish church, especially since in Czech the word seems to carry a

negative connotation. Be that as it may it is an appropriate translation in this case. The

translator needed a group of people, who all dress the same and have no interest in fashion

– the word “sekta” fits quite well here.

The final count would suggest that there are ten humorous elements which could

be categorized as culture-bound. However, as mentioned above, some jokes could be

sorted into more than one category. That being said, I think that it is interesting that in

a show, which is often accused of being too culture-bound to be translated, for the reason

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that it contains too many references to be successfully transferred, only about thirteen

percent (at least in the case of this episode) of the jokes are culture-specific.

c) Language dependent jokes

Example 1: (0:07:04 --> 0:07:08)

Lorelai has asked Michel (who is French) to check Rory’s French homework.

LORELAI: (in a French accent) Oh, please,

Michel. Pretty please with sucre on top. I will

stop talking like this.

LORELAI: („francouzským“ přízvukem)

Ale, prosím tě, Micheli. Pěkně a sladce tě

prosím. Už nebudu takhle mluvit.

Accents may cause a problem when it comes to translation, but Zbyšek Pantůček,

who dubs Michel in the Czech version of the Gilmore girls, manages quite nicely to

preserve the French accent. Here Lorelai is mocking his accent and to strengthen this she

uses the word “sucre” which is French for sugar. It is also a play on the idiom “cherry on

top”. The translation manages the mocking well enough, but does not deal with the

emphasizer or the idiom. In Czech the idiom usually translates as “třešnička na dortu”,

the real problem comes when one tries to fit the idiom into the sentence. In my opinion,

the best solution here would be to abandon the idiom but keep the emphasizer and say for

example, “Pěkně, prosím, Micheli. Sladce s extra sukrem. Přestanu takhle mluvit.” For

those speaking French there is enough left of the word to identify it and even for those

who don’t the unusual pronunciation of “cukr” with the S at the beginning emphasizes

the French accent. In similar situations I would certainly not abandon both the idiom and

the emphasizer, I would try to keep at least one of them if both are not possible.

Example 2: (0:13:19 --> 0:13:35)

Lorelai reads the acceptance letter to Sookie.

LORELAI: I know. Look. (reads from the

letter) 'Dear Ms. Gilmore, We are happy to

LORELAI: Hele, poslouchej: (čte

dopis) Milá paní Gilmorová, je nám

45

inform you that we have a vacancy at Chilton

Preparatory starting immediately. Due to your

daughter's excellent credentials and your

enthusiastic pursuit of her enrollment --' I

offered to do the principal to get her in -- ' we

would be happy to accept her as soon as the first

semester's tuition has been received.'

potěšením Vám oznámit, že máme

volné místo na soukromé škole

Chilton. Vzhledem k vynikající

referenci Vaší dcery a Vašemu

nadšenému přístupu, navrhla jsem

řediteli ji přijmout. Budeme šťastni,

když nastoupí hned, jak obdržíme

školné za první semestr.

Here I am unsure whether the translator missed the joke or did not know how to

transfer it or perhaps if it was later cut out due to time and spatial difficulties. “I offered

to do the principal to get her in.” is a clear innuendo. To use the verb “to do”

in combination with a person rather than an object or action denotes either to imitate

someone (which does not make sense here) or to engage in sexual intercourse

with someone (which is obviously the case here, and even if it were not obvious,

one of the following scenes makes it absolutely clear). The whole joke actually includes

the sentence before as well, “enthusiastic pursuit” is combined with the offer to “do

the principal”, which the translation does not reflect at all. There are several possible

solutions here, I personally like, “Nabídla jsem se řediteli.” Language play is very

important in Gilmore girls and it should definitely not be overlooked.

Example 3: (0:15:39 --> 0:16:48)

Lorelai is on the phone trying to sort out Rory’s tuition.

LORELAI: I'm holding for Miss Bell.

I've been trying to get a hold of her all day.

(pause) Lorelai Gilmore. (pause) Hi! Oh,

hi, hi. Yeah, uh, my daughter Rory has

been accepted -- yay. (pause) Thank you,

and I got the invoice for your enrollment

fee. Wow, that is a lot of zeros behind that

five. (pause) Uh-huh. OK, well, I guess

LORELAI: Chci mluvit se slečnou

Bellovou. Celý den ji sháním. (odmlka)

Lorelai Gilmorová. (odmlka) Dobrý den.

Ah, ano. Dobrý den. Ano, ehm, moji dceru

Rory právě přijali. Ano. (smích) Děkuji. A

já jsem dostala fakturu za přijetí. Páni za

tou pětkou je ale hodně nul. (odmlka) Aha.

Chtěla jsem se zeptat, zda byste nepřijali

46

what I'm wondering is if you couldn't take,

say, part of it now, just to get her going?

(pause) Well, but she's supposed to start

Monday. It just doesn't give me a lot of

time to pull a bank job. (pause) Well,

never mind, I was just kidding. (pause)

No, a bank job is robbing a bank but --

(pause) (pause) Uh-huh. Oh, no. No, no,

no. I don't want you to give up her space.

I'll just -- I'll have to figure it out. (pause)

OK. No, thank you. It's been a real treat

talking to you. (pause) Yeah. Bye-bye.

zatím jen část a nechali mou dceru chodit

do školy. (odmlka) Ale měla by začít v

pondělí. Což není dost času, abych udělala

banku. (odmlka) To nevadí, to byl jen vtip.

Ne, udělat banku znamená vyloupit ji.

(odmlka a povzdech) Aha. To ne. Ne, ne,

ne. Já nechci, abyste ji vyškrtli. Já jen …

budu to muset promyslet. (odmlka) Dobrá.

Ne, moc děkuji. Velice ráda jsem s vámi

hovořila. (odmlka) Ano. Nashle.

In this particular case the language-dependent joke was actually surprisingly bi-

national as Czech has a very similar way of expressing the robbing of a bank.

The equivalence is perfect and I would have no complaint toward this sequence if it were

not for the last part. While perhaps the tone of voice could theoretically belong into the

aural jokes category, I think that the use of sarcasm should belong here with the language-

dependent jokes. In the original the sentence “No, thank you. It's been a real treat talking

to you.” is said very sarcastically and bitingly, but in the Czech translation it is in normal

pleasant tone of voice – I am assuming that this happened in the dubbing studio and the

translator therefore cannot be blamed for this.

d) Complex jokes

Example 1: (0:06:44 --> 0:06:50)

Rory arrives at the inn wearing a very long baggy sweater.

LORELAI: Take them. What's with the

muumuu?

RORY: Stop.

LORELAI: Vezmi si je. Copak to

máme na sobě?

RORY: Přestaň.

47

LORELAI: No, I'm just saying. You couldn't

find one made of metal in case anyone has X-ray

eyes?

LORELAI: Nejsou ani potřeba

rentgenové oči, aby ti všichni viděli

někam.

This joke was placed under complex jokes because it employs both sarcasm

(language dependent jokes) and a pop-culture reference (in this case international jokes).

X-ray eyes which can see through anything except lead or in this case metal are connected

with Superman or sometimes perhaps even other superhero characters. The translation

perhaps attempts to employ sarcasm by completely turning the joke around, they were,

however, not successful in my opinion. You cannot really clearly see what Rory is

wearing (it could be that the sweater has very loose weave and therefore we can see

everything) and the Czech version does not maintain the joke of the mother telling her

daughter that she is dressed too decently. While there is no one-word translation for the

word “muumuu” and the first part has to stay as we see in the translation, the second one

could be adjusted easily. My own solution would be: “Příště si vem svetr z olova, kdyby

měl někdo rentgenové oči.”

Example 2: (0:10:55 --> 0:11:31)

Lane and Rory arrive at Kim’s antiques where Lane lives with her mother.

LANE: Mom, we're home. (to Rory) Did

you hear something?

RORY: I'm not sure.

LANE: Mom? Are you here?

MRS. KIM: (from far away) We're open!

Everything‘s half off!

LANE: We have contact. (calls out)

Mom?

MRS. KIM: (calls out) Lane?

LANE: (calls out) Mom?

MRS. KIM: (calls out) Lane?

LANE: (calls out) Mom, where are you?

LANE: Mami, jsme doma. (k Rory) Slyšíš

něco?

RORY: Nejsem si jistá.

LANE: Mami? Jsi tady?

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (křičí z dálky) Máme

otevřeno. Všechno je za polovinu

RORY: Už máme kontakt.

LANE: (volá) Mamii!

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Lane?

LANE: (volá) Mami?

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Lane.

LANE: (volá) Mami, kde jsi?

48

MRS. KIM: (calls out) Lane, where are

you?

LANE: (calls out) Back here!

MRS. KIM: (calls out) Over here!

RORY: I think she's that way.

LANE: (calls out) Are we closer?

MRS. KIM: (calls out) I'm by the table!

RORY: She's kidding right?

LANE: (calls out) Look, we'll meet you in

the kitchen!

MRS. KIM: (calls out) What?

RORY: (calls out) The kitchen!

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Lane, kde jsi?

(Lane a Rory bloudí po plném obchodě a

snaží se následovat hlas paní Kimové.)

LANE: (volá) Tady vzadu.

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Já tady!

RORY: Myslím, že je támhle.

LANE: (volá) Už jsme blíž?

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Jsem u stolů!

RORY: To má být vtip, co?

LANE: (volá) Hele, sejdeme se v kuchyni.

PANÍ KIMOVÁ: (volá) Cože?

RORY: (volá) V kuchyni.

This slightly longer sequence as well as another one about five minutes later are

complex jokes based on the visual humour (the space is unbelievably cluttered with many

tables and chairs), aural humour (we, the audience, can hear everything unlike the

characters) and the sentence “we have contact” is from the now famous and often used

“Houston, we have contact”, which could be placed under international or perhaps

culture-bound jokes as I think that the one more internationally used is “Houston, we have

a problem”. The translation is well rendered except for this one sentence which I admit is

easily overlooked but could have been transferred easily enough as “Navázali jsme

kontakt.” I think that this way both the SL sentence and the TL sentence are subtle and

covert and could work as both a casual everyday statement and the reference to the Space

Centre Houston.

Summary

It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of humorous elements in any of the episodes

as that may differ according to opinion of what is humorous, but also due to the fact that

49

some parts of the dialogue could be counted as one, two or sometimes even three separate

elements. By my count there were approximately seventy-five humorous elements in the

English version and approximately fifty-five in the Czech translation. If a joke was used

repeatedly, it was only counted the first time it appeared. These numbers would seem to

suggest that the translation managed to transfer about seventy-three percent of the

humour. One must however also take into account whether the transfer was successful.

By the word “successful” I mean whether the translator managed to retain the

“funniness”, whether the humour is on the same level in the TL as it was in the SL (see

above about “watered down” humour) and whether the translator managed to keep to the

intent of the author – in other words, whether there is an equivalence between the

intentionality in the SL segment and the TL segment. As it would not be realistically

possible for me to include all seventy five elements in my analysis, I instead chose several

examples for each of the categories (those that appear in the episode). This episode was

translated by Tereza Urbánková (source: dabingforum.cz) who translated the entire first

season. On the whole I rate the translation done by Tereza Urbánková as the best of the

series as she keeps to the style of humour so typical to the Gilmore Girls TV-show and

only rarely uses normalisation or standardization. She also, as the only one of the

translators who worked on the series, paid real attention to the distinctive style of each

character’s manner of expressing him/herself. The following seasons tended more toward

a unified style of expression for all characters, which is shame as with many of them you

could intuit what kind of person they are simply by the way they expressed themselves.

3.4. Season 2 Episode 5

Synopsis

A new character arrives into Stars Hollow, Luke’s rebel seventeen-year-old nephew Jess.

Lorelai’s advice falls on deaf ears and she and Luke end up having a big fight. Luke

50

realises that Jess may be more trouble than he had anticipated and Jess and Rory find out

they share their love of books and music.

a) International jokes

Example 1: (0:02:50 --> 0:02:56)

Luke appears annoyed after a phone call and Lorelai asks him what is wrong.

LUKE: Do you have a sister?

LORELAI: Um, no.

BOY 1: I do.

LUKE: You have my sympathies.

BOY 1: Thanks. I appreciate that.

LUKE: Máš sestru?

LORELAI: Uh, ne.

KLUK 1: Já jo.

LUKE: Tak to tě lituju.

KLUK 1: Dík, vážím si toho.

This is an example of an unrestricted international joke as it is easily understood across

cultures and languages. Both the translation and the dubbing (the intonation) are most

adequate.

Example 2: (0:06:45 --> 0:06:56)

Luke is blowing up an inflatable bed for Jess.

LORELAI: Luke, um, that's not a bed, that's

a raft, which is fine if you're gonna build a

moat around the diner but…

LUKE: It's fine.

LORELAI: Luke, the kid needs a bed. If

you want to get him something inflatable,

make it a blonde.

LORELAI: Luku, umm to není postel. To je

raft. Jestli chceš stavět vodní kanál kolem

bistra, …

LUKE: Stačí.

LORELAI: Jo, ale Jess potřebuje postel.

Chceš-li něco nafukovacího, sežeň mu

blondýnu.

Another example of an unrestricted international joke which requires only a more-or-less

direct transfer from SL into TL without any major alterations.

Example 3: (0:43:22 --> 0:43:45)

Rory and Jess meet on the street and discuss books before saying goodbye.

51

RORY: I thought you said you didn't read

much.

JESS: Well, what is much? Goodnight

Rory.

RORY: Goodnight Dodger.

JESS: Dodger?

RORY: Figure it out.

JESS: Oliver Twist.

[Rory smiles and nods. They both walk

away.]

RORY: Říkals, že moc nečteš.

JESS: A co je to moc? Dobrou, Rory.

RORY: Dobrou, Dodgere.

JESS: Dodger?

RORY: Přemýšlej.

JESS: Oliver Twist.

[Rory se usměje a pokývá hlavou. Oba

odcházejí.]

Many of the Gilmore Girls cultural references, especially those said by or in other way

associated with Rory, are literary in nature. This particular joke shared by two bookworms

was rather inexpertly transferred. Oliver Twist is a well-known novel by Charles Dickens

and several of the characters have had their names translated in the Czech version. The

Artful Dodger is an incredibly skilled and cunning pickpocket who teaches Oliver his

tricks. In Czech his entire nickname (his proper name is Jack Dawkins which in Czech

for some strange unexplainable reason became John Dawkins) is “Ferina Lišák”. While

this solutions is somewhat longer than the SL, it would, in my opinion, not pose a problem

in the dubbing. The top priority here was to not only to transfer the humour of the situation

but also the literary reference, which the translation would have failed to do. One could

also consider the possibility of this being a complex joke as it may also be playing with

the meaning of “dodger” from the verb to dodge which means to avoid or evade, which

Jess is clearly doing.

b) Culture-bound jokes

There are surprisingly few culture-bound jokes in this episode, while there are several

sequences of culture-specific references, they either do not contain a humorous element

52

at all or if they do, the humour does not rest on the reference itself. As such it was

calculated that there is only one instance of culture-bound jokes.

Example 1: (0:10:48 --> 0:11:11)

Luke is showing Jess the apartment.

LUKE: Well, here we are. It's pretty simple.

You know, this is the room. That's my bed,

that's your, uh, bed for now, but the sheets

are new. There's the bathroom, there's the

closet, there's the dresser, the phone, and

over there is the kitchen. I've got Frosted

Flakes.

JESS: Wow, that's gr-r-reat.

LUKE: A jsme tady. Je to jednoduchý, víš?

Tohle je pokoj. Moje postel, to je tvoje postel

– prozatím, ale deky jsou nový. Tam je

koupelna, komora, tady je skříň. Telefon, a

támhle je kuchyň. Mám vločky s polevou.

JESS: Páni, to je super.

Frosted Flakes or Frosties are a type of breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg Company,

they are now available (have been since 2015) in the Czech Republic but were not when

the Gilmore Girls first appeared. Since the product is even now not localised the fact that

it is now known to the Czech audience would not have helped here. The mascot of the

cereal is Tiger Tony and he is the one to say the slogan: “They’re gr-r-reat.” The “R” is

drawn-out to suggest a growl. In the case of culture-bound jokes the prescribed strategy

is to replace the culture-bound item in the SL with a culture-bound item in the TL, after

much thought and several hours of scouring the internet I, however, arrived at the

conclusion that it is not customary in the Czech Republic for cereal mascots to have any

sort of slogan. One might therefore give it up as untranslatable and leave it as the

translator did in the example above, leaving the sarcasm but eliminating the reference.

Another possibility would be to replace the cereal with another breakfast item for

children, such as Granko. The exchange would then be “Luke: Mám Granko. Jess: Jak

ho mám rád.”, with the sarcasm of course. The solution is not ideal, especially as at the

beginning of the episode the Frosted Flakes are already mentioned once and we can

clearly see the box in Lorelai’s hand.

53

c) Language dependent jokes

Example 1: (0:39:29 --> 0:39:37)

Luke comes into Lorelai’s house agitated and he tells her that he had just pushed Jess into a

lake.

LUKE: […] I just, I lost it, you know. You

were right. I am in so far over my head that

I can't see my own hat.

LORELAI: Try turning it around

LUKE: […] No, zkazil jsem to. Mělas pravdu.

Mám toho až nad hlavu, že si už ani nevidím

na čepici.

LORELAI: Hm, zkus ji obrátit.

This joke was placed into this category due to the idiom and word play, it could have been

placed with the international or as is the case here binational jokes as the idiom does have

an equivalent in Czech. To be in over one’s head is an idiom meaning to have more

difficulties than one can manage. Here it was connected to “that I can’t see may own hat”

which took the words in the idiom in a literal way and thus playing with them. The

translation is adequate in my opinion, the only minor thing which could perhaps make

even better would be to add the word “tak” before the comma. This would denote the

measure expressed by “so far … that” and would still fit within the time constraints of the

scene.

Example 2: (0:20:46 --> 0:21:25)

Madeline and Louise discuss the latest gossip after which Madeline turns to Paris to

ask whether she could write a gossip column.

MADELINE: I know. Hey Paris, what do

you think about me writing a gossip

column for The Franklin?

PARIS: Huh. I don't know. That's a hard

one. I mean, this is The Franklin, a

newspaper that's been around for almost a

hundred years. There have been at least

ten former editors of The Franklin that

MADELINE: Já vím. Ty Paris, co

kdybych psala do Franklinu sloupek drbů?

PARIS: Ah, já nevím. To je těžký. Totiž,

tohle je Franklin, noviny, které vycházejí

skoro sto let. Nejmíň deset šéfredaktorů

Franklinu pokračovalo v redakci New

York Times, šest odešlo do Washnigton

Post, tři nyní přispívají do New Yorkeru,

54

have gone on to work at the New York

Times. Six have gone onto the

Washington Post. Three are contributing

editors at the New Yorker. I think one

even went on to win the Pullitzer Prize.

But never mind them. I could be the first

editor in the history of The Franklin to

introduce a column exclusively devoted to

who Biffy's boffing today. Quandary. You

know, I'm gonna have to get back to you

on that one.

MADELINE: Okay.

jeden snad dokonce vyhrál Pullitzerovu

cenu. Ale to nevadí. Já bych mohla být

první redaktorka v historii Franklinu,

která by zavedla sloupek věnovaný tomu,

koho dneska Biffy zfackovala. Těžká věc.

Ještě se k tomu musíme vrátit.

MADELINE: Dobře.

This particular example could be placed with the international jokes as both the Pullitzer

Prize and the publications mentioned are well-known, or it could possibly be placed with

the complex jokes as it is a combination of the international and language dependent, the

reason it was placed into this category is because it is heavily dependent on sarcasm and

because it contains one of my favourite word plays of the entire show – “who Biffy’s

boffing today”. While the rest of the sequence is handled expertly, this part is entirely

overlooked. Boffing is a slang expression meaning sex, it originates in British English

but is becoming increasingly more popular in American English as well. Biffy is not a

particularly common name and was, at least in my opinion, chosen for its similarity to the

verb. In Czech there are various ways of dealing with this, one could keep the name and

chose for example “s kým Biffy bouchá”, or one could change the name to suit the verb

“koho/s kým Terka trká”, or perhaps leaving the name out entirely “kdo koho klátí” where

each word starts with the letter “K”. I am personally partial to the second solution with

changing the name but I would welcome any attempt at keeping the word play in the

translation.

d) Complex jokes

55

Example 1: (0:03:57 --> 0:04:16)

Luke walks towards the diner carrying several shopping bags. He drops a bag on the sidewalk.

Lorelai is walking by and stops to help.

LORELAI: Hey.

LUKE: Hello.

LORELAI: What are you doing?

LUKE: Ah, just redecorating the sidewalk.

LORELAI: Oh, it looks nice.

LUKE: Yeah yeah yeah, you don't think too

much blue?

LORELAI: No, just enough.

LUKE: Yeah, well, thanks for the input. You

can go now.

LORELAI: Need some help?

LUKE: Nope.

LORELAI: Need some help?

LUKE: Nope.

LORELAI: Need some help?

LUKE: Nope.

LORELAI: So do you need some help?

[Luke sighs.]

LORELAI: Ahoj.

LUKE: Nazdar.

LORELAI: Co děláš?

LUKE: No, trochu zdobím chodník.

LORELAI: Vypadá hezky.

LUKE: Nezdá se ti, že je tý modrý moc?

LORELAI: Akorát.

LUKE: Jasně. Dík za názor, můžeš jít.

LORELAI: Nechceš pomoct?

LUKE: Ne.

LORELAI: Nechceš pomoct?

LUKE: Ne.

LORELAI: Pomoct?

LUKE: Ne.

LORELAI: Tak chceš pomoct?

[Luke si povzdechne.]

This complex joke combines visual with language-dependent and aural humour. The

transfer was not complicated and was well transferred. The only issues that could have

arisen was that the exchanges are very fast (even by GG standard) and that it is important

in this scene to keep the exchange as dry and sarcastic as in the original.

Example 2: (0:23:34 --> 0:23:51)

Sookie and Jackson are in the kitchen cooking.

SOOKIE: Maybe I should make grilled

cheese.

JACKSON: But you're making pot roast.

SOOKIE: But not everybody likes pot roast.

SOOKIE: Udělám smažený sýr.

JACKSON: Ale děláš dušené maso.

SOOKIE: Dušené maso každému nechutná.

56

JACKSON: Well, then they can have the

chicken wings, the mashed potatoes, the four

different kinds of salad that you're making in

addition to the pot roast.

SOOKIE: Yeah, I guess you're right.

JACKSON: So I should start slicing the

cheese?

SOOKIE: Would you? Oh, that'd be great.

JACKSON: Tak si dá kuřecí křidélka, kaši a

čtyři druhy salátu, které děláš kromě

dušeného masa.

SOOKIE: Jo, asi máš pravdu.

JACKSON: Uh, takže můžu začít krájet sýr?

SOOKIE: Vážně? To by bylo fajn.

Most situations involving Sookie are instances of complex jokes as her clumsiness and

general neurosis serve as visual humour which is then combined with other type of

humour. These sequences usually do not pose much challenge unless they contain a

culture-bound reference which this sequence does not.

Summary

This episode was translated by Markéta Šerá (source: dabingforum.cz) who translated ten

out of the total twenty-two episodes in the second season. There were approximately

thirty-five humorous elements in the English version and approximately twenty-nine in

the Czech version, which would suggest a staggering success of almost eighty-three

percent of transferred humour. This translator leaned a lot more towards normalisation, it

is shocking that such a large number of jokes were preserved (whether successfully is

another question) when the translator has such a tendency to eliminate any specific or

unusual instances in the original dialogue rather than to deal with them.

3.5. Season 3 Episode 13

Synopsis

Sherry, Christopher’s girlfriend, goes into labour and asks Rory to be with her at the

hospital. Through flashbacks we see Lorelai remembering the time she got pregnant when

57

she was sixteen, telling her parents, giving birth to Rory and finally leaving her parents’

house with her new baby leaving behind only a note.

a) International jokes

Example 1: (0:01:43 --> 0:01:55)

Lorelai and Rory have just told Richard and Emily that they will backpack through

Europe and sleep in hostels.

LORELAI: Kids do this all the time.

EMILY: Yes, but you’re not a kid, you’re

a grown woman. What are people going to

think when they see a grown woman

bunking down with a bunch of twenty-

year-olds?

LORELAI: Well, if the twenty-year-olds

are cute, they’ll probably think, "Lucky!"

LORELAI: Mládež to dělá běžně.

EMILY: Ano, ale ty nejsi mládež, jsi už

dospělá. Co si lidé pomyslí, když uvidí

dospělou ženu nocující společně

s dvacetiletými?

LORELAI: Pokud ti dvacetiletí budou

milí, nejspíš si pomyslí: „Má kliku.“

This is an international joke as it contains no culture-specific items or national sense of

humour. It is not transferred as well as it could have been as the combination of “bunking

down with”, “cute” and “lucky” is suggestive and the choice of “milí” in Czech is not a

fortunate one. Its meaning in English is “nice”, which weakens the humour in the

situation. Words such as “roztomilí”, “přitažliví” or “pohlední” would be more ideal in

this instance, if the choice was due to time constraint then I would suggest leaving out the

“dvacetiletí” in Lorelai’s answer as the sentence would be quite clear even without it. The

tone of “má kliku” was also rather weak in the Czech version. On the whole, many of

Lorelai’s feelings and meanings are expressed purely in her tone, which the Czech version

does not always reflect.

Example 2: (0:17:44 --> 0:17:57)

58

Lorelai comes into the diner and wants to order coffee but Luke is not there. Luke walks

down from upstairs.

LORELAI: Oh, thank God. Hey, I

desperately need a massive cup of coffee

to go and – what happened to your face?

LUKE: What do you mean?

LORELAI: It’s visible.

LUKE: Oh, I shaved.

LORELAI: You going to the bank?

LUKE: No.

LORELAI: Funeral?

LUKE: No.

LORELAI: Drag club?

LUKE: Let’s get you your coffee, shall

we?

LORELAI: Á, díky bohu. Hele zoufale

potřebuju pořádný hrnek kafe. A … co to

máš s obličejem?

LUKE: Co jako?

LORELAI: Je … vidět.

LUKE: Oholil jsem se.

LORELAI: Jdeš do banky?

LUKE: Ne.

LORELAI: Na pohřeb?

LUKE: Ne.

LORELAI: Kam tedy?

LUKE: Přinesu to kafe, ano?

The first part of this humorous situation is handled well, suggesting that the only reason

why Luke would shave is for a formal occasion such as a visit to the bank or to attend a

funeral. The second part, however, is completely abandoned, which is a shame as it truly

brings the joke together by comparing Luke’s shaving his face with drag queens donning

female clothing and make-up. Both the terms “drag klub” and “trans klub” are known in

Czech and could therefore have been used here. Why the latter part of the joke was

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abandoned is unfathomable to me as it greatly weakens the joke and was not necessitated

here.

Example 3: (0:30:14 --> 0:30:29)

Lorelai came to the hospital to try to calm Sherry down.

SHERRY: I’m scared.

LORELAI: I know. It’s scary, and it hurts

like hell. And remember, when it comes

out not to look at it too hard until they give

it a good cleaning, or you’ll think you gave

birth to phlegm. But, um, once they give it

a good scrub, it’s just unbelievably cool.

SHERRY: Mám strach.

LORELAI: Já vím. Máš strach. A pekelně

to bolí. Pamatuj si, až to vyleze ven, moc

se na to nedívej, dokud to pořádně

neumyjou. Nebo si budeš myslet, žes

porodila hlen. Ale jakmile to vydrhnou, je

to velká krása.

This instance of humour is fairly straightforward and poses no challenge for translation.

The transfer is well done, abandoning none of the humour found in the original which is

based on the incongruity of everyone claiming that all babies are cute/beautiful when they

are born and a mother stating that a fresh born baby looks more like a slimy substance

than anything else.

b) Culture-bound jokes

Example 1: (0:05:00 --> 0:05:06)

Dean comes into the diner with an order from Tom’s crew and addresses Jess who is

working behind the counter.

DEAN: I gotta place an order.

JESS: Talk into the clown.

DEAN: I am.

DEAN: Chci si objednat.

JESS: Promluv si s klaunem.

DEAN: To mluvím.

“Talk into the clown” refers to drive thru dining and the box one talks into. In the USA

both McDonalds and one other less known fast food restaurant, called Jack in the box,

had a clown shaped box into which you talked when you placed your order. Jess is

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therefore suggesting, Dean leave and order food from a fast food restaurant. Dean

counters with “I am” and is thus insulting Jess by both calling him a clown which in itself

is an insult and by comparing him to the lifeless box which serves no other purpose than

to stand and accept people’s orders. As no such box exists in Czech culture, this joke is

rather difficult to transfer. While the translation managed to retain the insult (or at least

part of it) the exchange as such is nonsensical as in Czech Jess suggesting, that Dean talk

to a clown makes no sense whatsoever. Unfortunately, even after much deliberation I was

unable to come with a solution that would satisfyingly reflect all the aspects of this joke.

Example 2: (0:09:30 --> 0:09:41)

Rory and Lorelai are walking towards their house and Rory is expressing her thoughts

on a grown man throwing himself a retirement party with a Beanie Babies theme.

RORY: I think this is ridiculous.

LORELAI: Angel face, you need to learn

that there are going to be times in your life

when you have to do ridiculous things for

money. If you’re Adrian Zmed that

includes everything that ever happens in

your whole career.

RORY: Podle mě je to směšný.

LORELAI: Andílku, musíš se naučit, že

v životě jsou okamžiky, kdy musíš dělat

směšný věci pro peníze. Jo, a když jsi

Adrian Zmed, patří do toho všechno, co se

ti stalo za celou kariéru.

Adrian Zmed is an actor, singer and TV personality who starred on T.J. Hooker and

hosted Dance Fever. While there may be some Czechs familiar with his actor, the joke

here rests primarily on these two roles. Dance Fever was a fairly popular show in the USA

and ran for nearly ten years and the reference is therefore a more or less common one in

English, but by keeping the same name in Czech instead of replacing it with a different

culture-bound item the Czech reference is much vaguer. Either Adam Sandler or Ben

Stiller would be better in this instance.

Example 3: (0:10:56 --> 0:11:15)

In the past, young Lorelai and Christopher enter the Gilmore residence.

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LORELAI: Oh, that’s right. Mom, it’s me,

Lorelai, I’m home! I’m home and I’m

taking my sweater off. I’m taking my

sweater off and dropping it on the floor.

I’m dropping it on the floor and walking

away from it. I’m walking away from it

and leaving it on the floor, and in two

years I’m gonna register Democrat. Looks

like no Emily.

LORELAI: To je pravda. Mami, to jsem

já, Lorelai. Jsem doma. Jsem doma a

svlékám si svetr. Svlékám si svetr a házím

ho na podlahu. Házím ho na podlahu a

odcházím od něj. Odcházím od něj a

nechávám ho na podlaze. A asi za dva

roky se přihlásím k demokratům. Emily tu

zřejmě není.

This sequence could be sorted into this category, national sense of humour jokes category

or even among complex jokes. The humour in this situation is in the fact that Lorelai

makes more and more outrages statements which her mother if she were home would

certainly react to. While the first ones are understandable, the final one which is supposed

to be the most outrages may sound a bit hollow within Czech culture. Unlike the USA we

do not have the Democratic and Republican Party and Lorelai’s statement, which is very

humorous and clear within American culture, makes no sense. The Republican Party is

the more conservative and all the high class rich families are Republican. A child joining

the more progressive Democratic Party is a real slap in the parents’ faces. Also “přihlásit

se” to a political party is a rather strange collocation in Czech. Even if we decided to keep

the democrats, it would be better to say “a za dva roky budu volit demokraty”.

c) Language dependent jokes

Example 1: (0:27:11 --> 0:27:17)

Rory is begging Lorelai over the phone to come to the hospital where Sherry is about

to give birth.

LORELAI: Tell Sherry to keep her legs

crossed ‘til I get there.

LORELAI: Řekni Sherry, ať si dá nohy

křížem.

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RORY: Does that work?

LORELAI: No. Bye.

RORY: Zabere to?

LORELAI: Ne. Čau.

This is a play on the idiom “to keep your fingers crossed” which means to hope for good

luck. Lorelai changed it to “legs” to humorously suggest that Sherry both hopes for good

luck and tries to keep the baby inside until Lorelai gets there, but Rory is so stressed that

she does not get the joke. In Czech the idiom is “držet palce/pěsti” which is a bit more

difficult to incorporate into this situation. One must unfortunately choose to either keep

the idiom, and translate the joke with something like “a drž Sherryiny pěsti”, or to keep

the allusion to keeping the baby inside, which is what the translator here opted to do.

Example 2: (0:20:35 --> 0:20:43)

Lorelai is at her mother’s house alone for Friday night dinner because Rory is with Sherry at

the hospital.

EMILY: So Rory’s at the hospital?

LORELAI: Uh, yeah. She’s gonna see her new

half-sister fresh from the oven.

EMILY: Well, that’s about as unpleasant a

description as I’ve ever heard.

EMILY: Rory je v nemocnici?

LORELAI: Ano, uvidí svou nevlastní sestru

čerstvě vytaženou z trouby.

EMILY: Tak ošklivý popis jsem ještě

neslyšela.

This humorous situation also contains a play on an idiom, in this case “to have a bun in

the oven”, which means “to be pregnant”. In Czech this idiom is “být v tom” or “být v

jináči” or “být zbouchnutá” but none of these refer to a place a baby could be fresh out

of. As a pregnant belly is sometimes called “buben” in Czech the sentence could perhaps

be “čerstvě vytaženou z bubnu”. Another option would be using one of the

aforementioned terms and saying “čerstvě vybouchnutou” or abandoning the idiom

entirely and saying “čerstvě vylíhnutou/vyklubanou”. Whichever way one choses to go I

63

do not think that the idiom should be translated word for word from the original keeping

the word “oven” because it does not carry the same meaning in Czech.

d) Complex jokes

Example 1: (0:09:21 --> 0:09:30)

Rory and Lorelai are walking from the car carrying a box full of Beanie Babies.

RORY: I just need to go on record that a

grown man should not throw himself a

Beanie Baby retirement party.

LORELAI: Just hold your breath this one

actually takes.

RORY: And how is Sookie supposed to

plan a Beanie Baby menu?

LORELAI: Lots of beans.

RORY: Dospělý chlap nemá pořádat

večírek na odchod do důchodu ve stylu

plyšových medvídků.

LORELAI: Tenhle styl už bude konečnej.

RORY: A jak má Sookie naplánovat

plyšácký menu?

LORELAI: Spoustu plyše.

Beanie Babies are a kind of stuffed toys filled with plastic pellets, also called “beans”,

which allowed for the toys to be flexible. Despite what the name may suggest they have

nothing in common with beans the food. It is both a culture-bound item and wordplay

(language dependent joke) and is therefore incredibly difficult to transfer. In Czech the

only option for “beanie babies” is “plyšoví medvídci” but to include “plyš” in the menu

makes no sense. I would therefore try to play with the second rather than the first word.

In Czech it could be “spoustu zvěřiny” which is not particularly funny or “spoustu

medíku” which both explores the bears and what they like to eat and it sounds very similar

to “medvídků”. The word “medík” is also a diminutive and a bit cute and childish which

is ideal as Lorelai’s tone is cute and childish in this scene.

Example 2: (0:08:12 --> 0:08:45)

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Lorelai is stressed planning a party so Rory decides to cheer her up by reading her an

invitation she received.

RORY: I have been cordially invited to

Sherry Tinsdale’s C-section.

LORELAI: No way!

RORY: [reads from invitation] Friday,

February seventh, six o’clock p.m. Join

the girls for a toast, a hug, a wave to the

mommy as they wheel her off, dinner at

Sushi Sushi, and then back to the hospital

for a formal viewing of brand-new baby

Georgia. RSVP at your earliest

convenience. P.S. -- gifts are not

necessary, but always appreciated.

LORELAI: I don’t even know where to

start.

RORY: I knew you would like it.

LORELAI: You have to RSVP to a C-

section.

RORY: And bring a gift.

LORELAI: I wonder if Laura Mercier

makes Demerol.

RORY: Já jsem srdečně zvána na císařský

řez Sherry Tinsdaleový.

LORELAI: Ó, to snad ne!

RORY: [čte z pozvánky] V pátek sedmého

února v osmnáct hodin. Přijďte s ostatními

děvčaty připít mamince, obejmout ji a

zamávat, až ji budou odvážet. Večeře

v Sushi sushi a potom návrat do

nemocnice na oficiální předvedení čerstvě

narozené Georgie, a to co nejdříve. Moc se

těším. P. S. dary nejsou nutné, avšak jsou

vítané.

LORELAI: Ani nevím, kde začít.

RORY: Tak se ti to líbí.

LORELAI: Musíš potvrdit účast na

císařském řezu.

RORY: A přinést dárek.

LORELAI: Jestlipak Laura Mercier

vyrábí Demerol.

This humorous sequence consists of mocking, sarcasm, language dependent humour

(RSVP) and a culture-bound item (Laura Mercier). RSVP is an abbreviation of the French

“répondez s’il vous plaît” meaning “please respond”. It is used a lot in the show as it is a

very short and to the point, is does not actually carry the humour in this scene, however,

65

if the translator decides to omit it, she should also leave out the second part of that

sentence “a to co nejdříve” as that is not connected to anything after leaving out the RSVP.

The mocking and sarcasm are based purely in tone of voice so they are not the concern

of the translator. Laura Mercier is a famous French make-up artist who became a world

known brand. Cosmetics are often considered an appropriate gift for a woman, but Lorelai

is suggesting that the only appropriate gift for a birthing mother is Demerol. Demerol is

the trade name for Meperidine, a synthetic opioid and one of the most commonly

medically used narcotics with analgesic effects. In my opinion both of these are

international items and may therefore be left. I myself know who Laura Mercier is, if the

translator felt that it was not an international joke, he/she could replace it with either the

name of some cosmetics/chemist’s or with the name of some gift items shop.

Summary

This episode was translated by Markéta Brožková (source: dabingforum.cz) who

translated the entire third season as well as several episodes from the second, fourth, fifth

and seventh. While in some ways this translator was better than the one before because

she did not eliminate as much, she did mostly opt to leave the item in the translation

without difference no matter which category it belongs to and not to alter the item at all,

which means that the whole sequence was then nonsensical.

3.6. Season 4 Episode 22

Synopsis

A test run is taking place at the Dragonfly to which many of the residents of Stars Hollow

are invited. Lorelai invites her parents in order to either get them to reconcile or to admit

to the separation. Luke continues to woo Lorelai following the rules he found in a self-

66

help book. Everything is going well on the professional level at the inn, but then the

personal drama truly kicks in.

a) International jokes

Example 1: (0:14:45 --> 0:14:59)

Kirk is sitting on Luke’s couch and asking for his help.

KIRK: […] Anyhow, I'm a little

concerned about this invitation, because

Lulu and I have never spent the night

together.

LUKE: Oh well, this is not a comfortable

area for me.

KIRK: I mean, we've had sex -- lots and

lots of sex.

LUKE: And this is even more

uncomfortable.

KIRK: […] Nicméně, no zkrátka mně to

pozvání dělá trochu starost, protože …

jsme spolu ještě nikdy nestrávili noc.

LUKE: No, to pro mě není moc příjemný

téma. Víš já…

KIRK: Počkej. My jsme spolu měli sex.

Spoustu sexu.

LUKE: Tohle je ještě nepříjemnější.

This could possibly be a language dependent joke, but seeing as it is entirely bi-national

in this case, I decided to sort it here. The humour of two meanings of “spend the night

together” was transferred well here.

Example 2: (0:15:01 --> 0:16:33)

Kirk is explaining to Luke why he has never spent the night with Lulu.

KIRK: I have night terrors.

LUKE: Night terrors?

KIRK: Basically, I freak out at beddy-bye.

About an hour after I fall asleep, I wake up

KIRK: Trpím nočními děsy.

LUKE: Nočními děsy?

KIRK: Vyděsím se vždycky, když si

zdřímnu. Asi tak hodinu po té, co usnu, se

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in panic. Everything around me seems

threatening, scary, out to get me. Two

nights ago, I was suddenly gripped with

the overwhelming feeling that there was

an assassin in my house.

LUKE: Jeez.

KIRK: I had to get out of the room before

he got me, so I jumped out of bed and

locked my pillow in the bathroom.

LUKE: Why?

KIRK: Because it was a bomb.

LUKE: Of course.

KIRK: After neutralizing my pillow, I ran

up the stairs, climbed out the bathroom

window, scaled the trellis up the side of

the house, and hid on the roof…

LUKE: Huh.

KIRK: Completely naked.

LUKE: Aw, jeez!!

KIRK: The worst part of night terrors is it

always ends up with me on top of the roof

completely naked or running down the

street completely naked or swimming in

probudím a panika. Všechno kolem mi

připadá děsivé. Strašidelné. Jde na mě

hrůza. Předevčírem jsem se třeba probudil

naprosto přesvědčený, že je v domě vrah.

LUKE: Ježiš.

KIRK: Musel jsem honem z pokoje, než

mě dostane. Tak jsem vyskočil z postele a

zamkl jsem svůj polštář v koupelně.

LUKE: Proč?

KIRK: Byla to bomba.

LUKE: Jasně.

KIRK: Když jsem zneškodnil polštář,

vyběhl jsem schody, vyskočil jsem z

koupelnového okna, vyšplhal po mříži a

schoval jsem se na střeše. Úplně nahý.

LUKE: Ah Ježiš.

KIRK: Nejhorší na těch děsech je, že

vždycky skončím na střeše úplně nahý.

Nebo vyběhnu na ulici úplně nahý. Nebo

plavu v městském bazénu úplně nahý. To

bylo, jak jsem myslel, že hořím.

LUKE: Kirku, to je hrozné.

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the community-center pool completely

naked. That was the time I thought I was

on fire.

LUKE: Kirk, that's terrible.

KIRK: Well, I'm used to it now, so it's

kind of second nature to me, but Lulu -

LUKE: Right, Lulu.

KIRK: How is she going to take it? I

mean, I could scare her or ninja-kick her

and lock her up with a pillow. I think I love

her, Luke, and I haven't even told her that

I love her. I spelled it out in chocolate-

covered Oreos once, but she was really

hungry, and I'm not sure if she read it first.

I can't assault her before I tell her I love

her.

LUKE: What do you want me to do about

it?

KIRK: I called the Dragonfly and had

them put me and Lulu in the room right

next to yours. That way, if you hear

anything -- screaming or Russian -- you

can come in and pull me off of Lulu.

LUKE: Oh.

KIRK: No, už jsem si na to celkem zvykl.

Je to moje druhá přirozenost. Ale Lulu…

LUKE: Jasně. Lulu.

KIRK: Jak to přijme? Vždyť ji můžu

vyděsit. Nebo jí třeba uštědřím kopanec a

zamknu ji s polštářem. Asi ji miluju, Luku.

A ještě jsem jí neřekl, že ji miluju. Jednou

jsem jí to vyskládal z lentilek, ale měla

hrozný hlad a myslím, že si to ani

nepřečetla. Nemůžu jí ublížit dřív, než jí

řeknu, že ji miluju.

LUKE: A co chceš ode mě?

KIRK: Hele, volal jsem do Vážky a

požádal je, ať mně a Lulu dají pokoj vedle

tvého. Jestli něco uslyšíš, výkřiky nebo

ruštinu, tak přijdeš a odtrhneš mě od Lulu.

Leda, že by se ti nezdálo, že bys mě měl

odtrhovat.

LUKE: Kirku,

KIRK: Řiď se vlastním úsudkem.

69

KIRK: Unless, when you come in, it looks

like you shouldn't pull me off of Lulu.

LUKE: Kirk.

KIRK: You can use your judgment on that

one.

This exchange is transferred well enough except perhaps for the choice of “odtrhl mě od”.

I personally would replace it with the more suggestive “strhl mě z” which is closer to the

original “pull me off of”. The situation contains no culture or language specific items and

as such is clearly a case of international joke.

Example 3: (0:17:49 --> 0:17:58)

There are no doors to the rooms at Dragonfly and Lorelai is freaking out.

TOM: [voice on walkie-talkie] I got 'em.

LORELAI: Doors? You got the doors?

TOM: They're on their way up. My guys will

be standing by to get them on.

LORELAI: Tom, I'm loving you like a two

dollar whore.

TOM: Terrific. I'll tell the wife.

TOM: [z vysílačky] Mám je.

LORELAI: Dveře? Takže už jsou?

TOM: Už je vezou. Kluci jsou připravený je

hned vsadit.

LORELAI: Miluju vás jako dolarová děvka.

TOM: Bezva. Řeknu to svý ženě.

This international joke is transferred well, the word “dolarová” could perhaps have been

substituted with “levná” but the meaning is clear in both.

b) Culture-bound jokes

Example 1: (0:03:38 --> 0:03:45)

Kirk is supplying the Dragonfly with fire wood and Lulu is accompanying him.

70

LORELAI: Going with Kirk on his rounds

again, Lulu?

LULU: Uh-huh. I just love it when he

looks like the Brawny paper towel guy.

LORELAI: It is a good outfit.

LORELAI: Doprovázíš Kirka na

pochůzkách?

LULU: Líbí se mi, když vypadá jako

reklama na podpalák.

LORELAI: Má pěknej obleček.

Brawny is a brand of paper towels which has a muscular man dressed in flannel shirt on

the cover. The brand is well known in the US and the reference is thus easily understood.

The Czech version, however, is not very clear. I am honestly confused as to what the

meaning was supposed to be as my search online turned up zero results for the word

“podpalák”. The word “podpal” could possibly make some sense seeing as Kirk is taking

care of the fire wood, however, how it would fit in with the way he looks (he is wearing

the exact same outfit as the man on the paper towels) is unclear. Here I would suggest

either replacing the culture specific item in the SL with another one in the TL. For

example, “líbí se mi, když vypadá jako reklama na Fiskars (sekery)”. Fiskars is a company

supplying consumer products for the household, garden and outdoor activities. In their

advertisements for forestry tools, such as axes and saws, muscular men in flannel appear.

The issue of whether enough people would be familiar with this reference, however,

remains. Or one could remove the reference and simply say “líbí se mi, když vypadá jako

dřevorubec”. If this solution were too short for the time sequence in this scene one could

also add “mužný” in front of “dřevorubec” which when referring to Kirk is a joke in itself.

Example 2: (0:21:53 --> 0:22:09)

Lorelai has just informed Miss Patty that they need everyone to be extra critical so that

they could work out all the possible issues before they open.

TAYLOR: Well, you can count on me for

my feedback, Lorelai. I promise you that.

TAYLOR: Buď si jistá, že u mě se na

kritičnost můžeš spolehnout. To ti slibuju.

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In fact, I've already got fourteen

complaints written down.

LORELAI: Oh!

TAYLOR: Most of them are small

infractions, but it's the little things -- the

details -- that distinguish the Barbra

Streisands from the Roslyn Kinds.

LORELAI: Absolutely, Taylor.

Už jsem si zapsal čtrnáct stížností. Jsou to

jen drobné nedostatky, ale právě

maličkosti, detaily jsou to, čím se Barbra

Streisandová liší od ostatních.

LORELAI: Jo, jasně, Taylore.

Roslyn Kind is a popular nightclub singer and the younger half-sister of Barbara

Streisand. Barbra Streisand is incredibly popular all over the world and a reference to her

is easily understood. Roslyn Kind is not as popular or well-known but that is in my

opinion the point of this joke and I would therefore leave it even in the TL. If one were

truly determined to replace it, the possibility here would be for example “liší od Arethy

Franklinové” who while popular and called the queen of soul had a much rockier life and

career and was never as popular as Streisand.

c) Language dependent jokes

Example 1: (0:32:38 --> 0:32:42)

Rory is trying to figure out what kind of music she should choose to bring to the inn.

DEAN: I hear Taylor's a big hip-hop fan.

RORY: Oh, he hops with the hippest of

them.

DEAN: Slyšel jsem, že Taylor fandí hip

hopu.

RORY: Na ty nejprovařenější hity tancuje.

Hip-hop is a music and dance style and the joke here depends on the fact that each of the

words also has its individual meaning. “Hip” means trendy or fashionable, while “hop”

means to jump. “Hop” could possibly be transferred as “hopsat” and “hip” as “hipster”.

The sentence would then be “Jo, ten hipster pořád hopsá.”

72

d) Complex jokes

Example 1: (0:08:38 --> 0:08:48)

Rory enters Luke’s bistro for lunch with Lorelai and wants to know why her mother let

her sleep until noon.

RORY: I can't believe you didn't wake me

up.

LORELAI: Me and what army?

RORY: I only have so much time off. I

don't want to waste it all sleeping till noon.

LORELAI: There was no waking you up.

You were completely out of it. We're

talking Farrah on "Letterman." Hey.

RORY: Proč jsi mě nevzbudila?

LORELAI: Zkoušela jsem to.

RORY: Hm, víš dobře, že nechci

promarnit svůj volný čas tím, že budu spát

do oběda.

LORELAI: Jenže tebe vzbudit nešlo.

Bylas naprosto nevzbuditelná, chápeš?

Hele.

This is a combination of a language dependent and a culture-bound item. “You and

what/whose army” is an idiom the meaning of which according to cs.urbandictionary.com

is “expression of disbelief in and/or contempt for another's motivational capability.

Communicates the attitude that the other person is utterly incapable of forcing anyone to

do anything without the assistance of a large, heavily-armed force behind him.” Lorelai

is employing this idiom to emphasize the fact that she was incapable of waking Rory on

her own powers alone. Since there is no such idiom in Czech it is necessary to find a

different solution. “Zkoušela jsem to” is not funny at all, while it is not a particularly

strong joke even in the original, it should not be abandoned entirely. My solution would

be to use “A to jako jak?” or “A jak asi?” said in the right tone of voice. Then there is the

culture specific item, as we can read in the Guide to Gilmore-isms for that season it is a

“Reference to Farrah Fawcett’s infamous 1997 appearance on The Late Show. Her

behavior was unaccountably bizarre.” As both the reference and the language item were

abandoned in the translation, there is no humour in the Czech version. My suggested

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solution to the latter part would be “Jenže tebe vzbudit nešlo. Bylas jak Bernie o víkendu”.

Weekend at Bernie’s is a very famous film and in the film Bernie is dead and the two

main characters attempt to pretend and convince everyone that he is still alive. Comparing

Rory to Bernie would mean that she was completely dead and that Lorelai could have

done anything to her and she would not wake up. Either way some attempt should have

been made to maintain at least some of the humour in this situation.

Example 2: (0:13:55 --> 0:14:03)

Lorelai and Rory are leaving the Gilmore residence and walking towards their car.

LORELAI: I'm going to lock those two in

a room, and they are either coming out

reconciled or in a body bag. Believe you

me, I'm fine either way.

RORY: Well, look who died and made

you Hayley Mills.

LORELAI: Zavřu je na pokoji, a buď

vyjdou smíření, nebo v pytli na mrtvoly.

Vyhovují mi obě možnosti.

RORY: Jo, umřou a z tebe bude Hayley

Millsová.

In this particular humorous sequence there is an international item, the one about the body

bags, which was transferred very well and a reference which was a) left as is without any

adaptation and b) obviously not researched at all. All that was needed was a quick search

online to find out that Hayley Mills played the twins in The Parent Trap, a film about

sisters trying to bring their parents back together. Even if we kept the reference, the way

it is used in the sentence makes no sense at all. As Hayley Mills was trying to bring her

parents back together (Lorelai is attempting the same) it makes no sense to say that after

the parents die Lorelai is going to be Haley Mills. The options here are to either keep the

name but change the sentence, “Podívejme, z koho je Hayley Millsová.”, or to make the

reference clearer to the TL audience and say “Podívejme, kdo chystá past na rodiče.” In

Czech the title of the film was “Past na rodiče” and, as it has been since remade (in 1998

starring Lindsay Lohan), it would be easily understood by the audience.

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Summary

This episode was translated by Petra Pleskotová (source: dabingforum.cz) who translated

the entire sixth season and several episodes from fourth, fifth and seventh season. This

and the next episode included in the analysis were both translated by the same person and

in my opinion the weakest of the translators involved in the translation of the series. The

summary is therefore common to both episodes. Not only is there almost no attempt to

transfer the specific humorous elements but there are also many other mistakes. In several

of the cases, as I illustrated in my analysis above, all that was necessary was a quick

google search to realize the significance of a given element. In other cases the translator

for some inexplicable reason failed to translate commonly used phrases such as “who

died and made you…” or “me and what army”. She also used words or combinations of

word which once again a quick search showed either do not exist in the Czech language

at all or are not used together (see “podpalák” above or “poznávačka” below).

3.7. Season 7 Episode 16

Synopsis

Rory gets the opportunity to meet with an editor from the New York Times. Because she

has no time to prepare Lane’s baby shower she lets Lorelai do it for her. Lorelai takes

over and has to mediate between Lane and her mother who are fighting about how to raise

the unborn twins. Luke decides to make some changes in his life and sell the boat his

father had left him. Logan finally admits to Rory his business failure but instead of

manning up to it and talking to his father he decides to run off to Las Vegas with his

75

friends. Lane is put on bed rest and it appears that the baby shower will have to be

cancelled, but Lorelai Gilmore always figures something out.

a) International jokes

Example 1: (0:03:19 --> 0:03:33)

Rory is nervous about a New York Times interview and Lorelai is trying to calm her down.

RORY: […] God, I need to prepare. I mean

he's gonna expect me to ask him really

intelligent questions.

LORELAI: Honey you've been asking

intelligent questions since you were 3.

RORY: Yeah I know, he's probably expecting

something a little more sophisticated.

LORELAI: Than "what is a color?" ‘cause that

one, like, blew my mind.

RORY: Mm. Something a little more

newspaper-related, at the very least.

RORY: […] Bože musím se připravit, on čeká,

že mu budu klást inteligentní otázky.

LORELAI: Zlato, kladeš inteligentní otázky

od tří let.

RORY: Jo, ale čeká něco sofistikovanějšího.

LORELAI: Třeba „co je to barva“? To mě

zrovna napadá.

RORY: Hmm, něco, co se týká novin,

přinejmenším.

As there are no culture specific or language dependent items this is an international joke.

It is, however, not transferred particularly well. The first part of this sequence is translated

adequately but in the second part the meaning shifted and lost its humour. In the Czech

version Lorelai is offering a suggestion “třeba ‘co je to barva’?” and then states that it is

the first thing that came to her mind. In the English version Lorelai is asking what could

possibly be more sophisticated than the question “what is a color?” as that completely

stunned her. “To blow one’s mind” according to TheFreeDictionary

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/) means “to affect with intense emotion, such as

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amazement, excitement, or shock”. In Czech this could have been simply transferred as

“Než ‘co je to barva?’ To mně třeba vyrazilo dech.”

Example 2: (0:14:56 --> 0:15:03)

Logan is very hungover and his head hurts.

RORY: [Sighs] It's after 12:00. Is anyone

alive in there?

LOGAN: I'm alive, but I think my brain is

dead.

RORY: I'll alert the transplant team.

LOGAN: You gave away my organs?

RORY: They're waiting on the roof with a

cooler.

LOGAN: Ha-ha.

RORY: Take these.

[Hands Logan some aspirin and water]

LOGAN: I do will I wake up in a bathtub

full of ice with no kidneys?

RORY: If you did, would you feel better

or worse?

LOGAN: About the same.

RORY: [povzdechne si] Hele je 12 pryč,

jsi naživu?

LOGAN: Žiju, ale mozek mi myslím

odumřel.

RORY: Uvědomím transplantační tým.

LOGAN: Ty daruješ mé orgány?

RORY: Už čekají s chladícím boxem.

LOGAN: Hahaha.

RORY: Vem si tohle.

[Podává Loganovi aspirin a vodu]

LOGAN: Jo a probudím se ve vaně s

ledem bez ledvin.

RORY: A cítil by ses líp nebo hůř?

LOGAN: Tak stejně.

This international joke is perfectly transferred with no issues.

Example 3: (0:21:57 --> 0:22:16)

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Luke is calling his daughter, April.

LUKE: How was swim practice?

APRIL: Drills, drills, drills. Coach Scott made

us swim with our fists closed.

LUKE: What does that do?

APRIL: Probably nothing -- just looks funny.

Oh I did get to work on my backward racing

start.

LUKE: How'd that go?

APRIL: Not so good. I think I ended up with

half the pool up my nose.

LUKE: Eh, you'll get better.

APRIL: Can't get much worse.

LUKE: Jaké bylo plavání?

APRIL: Dřina, dřina, dřina. Učí nás plavat se

zaťatými pěstmi.

LUKE: K čemu to je?

APRIL: Nejspíš k ničemu a musela jsem

zapracovat na svém startu na znak.

LUKE: Jak to šlo?

APRIL: Moc ne, nabrala jsem si do nosu tak

půl bazénu.

LUKE: Oh, to se zlepší.

APRIL: Horší to být nemůže.

This is without a doubt an international joke as it contains no culture or language specific

items. There are, however, two separate items to be seen. The first one was completely

lost in the translation. “Probably nothing – just looks funny.” was rendered as “Nejspíš k

ničemu”, which is not at all humorous. If the problem here was lack of time/space, it could

have been compensated later on in the sentence which is unnecessarily long. The word

“musela” was unnecessary (and inaccurate) and the exchange could have been: “Plavali

jsme se zaťatými pěstmi.” – “A to dělá co?” – “Vypadá (to) směšně. Mohla jsem ale

trénovat svůj start na znak.” The second joke in this situation is rendered well.

b) Culture-bound jokes

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No culture-bound jokes (at least not purely culture-bound, see the Complex jokes

category) were found in this episode, proving once again that the show is not as culturally

specific as is generally assumed.

c) Language dependent jokes

Example 1: (0:01:55 --> 0:02:11)

Lorelai and Rory are enthusiastically talking about Rory’s New York Times interview.

LORELAI: Don't even answer. I mean if I

was the New York Times, I would be like,

"get me Rory Gilmore on the phone, stat."

RORY: "Stat"?

LORELAI: Whatever the equivalent of

"stat" is in the news.

RORY: "Now"?

LORELAI: No! At the New York Times,

the language is very fancy. You say

"promptly," "presently," "two shakes of a

lamb's tail." Why did they call you?

LORELAI: Ne, neodpovídej. Hele byl to

New York Times. Sežeňte mi Rory

Gilmorovou, statim.

RORY: Statim?

LORELAI: Nevím, jaký ekvivalent se

používá v novinách.

RORY: Hned?

LORELAI: Ne! V New York Times

hovoří vybraně. Řekněme promptně,

neodkladně, v okamihu. Proč Ti volali?

As all the humour in this sequence is a case of wordplay it is obviously a language

dependent joke. Except for the absolute end of this exchange it is very well transferred

(at the beginning there is a slight shift in meaning but as it does not pertain to humour it

is disregarded). “Stat” is a term used in the medical field and it means immediately. In

Czech we use the original Latin “statim” and it was well chosen by the translator. What

baffles me is the use of the Slovak word “okamihu” especially as a translation for the

English idiom “two shakes of a lamb’s tail”. The meaning of the idiom is “very quickly”

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and it was popularized by Uma Thurman in the famous film Pulp Fiction. In Czech we

have a rather charming word/phrase “vcukuletu” which is perfect here both for its brevity

and expressive form. There is a possibility that what the translator meant was “v oka

mihu” meaning in the blink of an eye but as the translation is meant for Czech audience

who are well versed in Slovak language it was not an ideal choice. If the translator wished

to express “in the blink of an eye” it would have been better to use “v mžiku (oka)”.

d) Complex jokes

Example 1: (0:00:01 --> 0:01:01)

Lorelai and Rory are leaving the Stars Hollow baby shop carrying bags.

RORY: Are you sure we got enough plain

onesies?

LORELAI: Let me see. 40 people have

RSVPed yes to Lane's shower, and we

bought 60 onesies for them to decorate. I

don't want to go all "Beautiful Mind" on

you, but according to my calculations...

RORY: Yes, Mr. Nash, but you are

forgetting about the first-pancake

phenomenon.

LORELAI: Eh?

RORY: Yes the first pancake – you know

you always throw it out. What if people

start decorating their onesies and they hate

what they do, so they want to start over

and we don't have enough onesies because

we only estimated one each?

RORY: Určitě máme dost baby body?

LORELAI: Kouknu se... 40 lidí potvrdilo

účast na Lanině večírku a my jsme koupily

60 body, aby ozdobily. Nechci Tě

unavovat čísly, ale podle mých výpočtů…

RORY: Ano pane Nashi, ale zapomínáš na

fenomén prvního lívance. Ano, ten co

vždycky vyhodím. Co když lidi začnou ty

baby body zdobit a nebude se jim líbit, jak

to udělali a budou chtít začít znova a my

jich nebudeme mít dost?

LORELAI: Proč vyhazuješ první lívanec?

RORY: Protože pánev je horká, spálí se.

LORELAI: Oo panebože, napřesrok

žádné výmluvy, přihlásím tě mezi mistry

vařečky.

80

LORELAI: Why do you throw out the first

pancake?

RORY: Well the griddle's too hot. It gets

burned.

LORELAI: Oh, my god. Next year, no

excuses. We are making you that audition

tape for "Top Chef."

RORY: This is pretty basic stuff.

LORELAI: Do you do it with hamburgers

and waffles, too?

RORY: No, it's pancake-specific.

LORELAI: Oh, my goodness. Well, that's

good news, because onesies are the exact

opposite of pancakes. They're totally

impossible to screw up. You can slap

anything on a onesie and it looks cute.

RORY: Anything?

LORELAI: Yeah. Alligator, fried egg,

tools -- these are not generally considered

cute items.

RORY: "I'll take the adorable Phillips-

head --" not something you hear normally.

RORY: To je úplně základní věc.

LORELAI: Ale děláš to i s hamburgery a

taky s vaflemi?

RORY: Ne, je to jen s lívanci.

LORELAI: Oh, pane bože… No to je

dobrá zpráva, protože baby body jsou

protiklad lívanců. Nezkazí se. Můžeš na

ně namalovat cokoliv a bude to roztomilé.

RORY: Cokoliv?

LORELAI: Jo. Aligátora, smažená vejce,

nářadí. Což se obecně nepovažuje za

roztomilost.

RORY: Já na ně namaluju Philipsovu

hlavičku, to se nevidí.

LORELAI: Ale když bude na body tak…

RORY: Máš pravdu, bude to roztomilé.

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LORELAI: [In a high pitch voice] But you

put that on a little onesie…

RORY: You're right – it's pretty damn

cute.

This could have possibly been separated into several shorter jokes, however, I think that

it best makes sense as a whole. The first joke rests on the reference to the film A Beautiful

Mind (in Czech Čistá duše), first it is mentioned outright and then Rory reacts by calling

Lorelai “Mr. Nash” who is the main character of the film. A Beautiful Mind is a

biographical drama film about the Nobel Laureate in Economics, John Nash. The first

reference could have and in my opinion should have been left in even in the translation.

“Nechci tě unavovat čísly” and “Nehrála jsem sice v Čisté duši” are about the same length

(if needed it could be shortened) and Rory’s response makes more sense that way. “Top

Chef” is a culinary show and to Lorelai basically any information about cooking

(including how to turn the oven on) is enough to guarantee a spot on a cooking show. As

there are several international cooking shows known to the Czech audience the translator

could have used the name of one of those (such as MasterChef). The pancake

joke/reference permeates the entire episode but as it is international it poses no challenge.

When Lorelai is naming all the things which are not usually cute she mentions tools. Rory

reacts with “’I'll take the adorable Phillips-head –‘ not something you hear normally.”

Phillips-head is a type of screwdriver and it has its own designation in Czech, “křížový

šroubovák”. “Phillipsova hlavička” does not mean anything in Czech. The meaning of

the entire sentence is changed and is not funny. My alternative solution would be “Jeden

rozkošný (křížový) šroubovák, prosím – to se často neslyší.” To save space/time I would

leave out the word “křížový” as I do not think it actually serves a purpose and in the

original they also did not use the entire phrase. Even though it does not pertain to humour

I have to comment on the rather odd choice of “baby body”; I have never heard this term

82

used for an onesie and a search online revealed that such a combination is not used in

Czech at all, therefore the better term would be either “bodýčko” or “dupačky” as in a

later scene we can see that there is no pant leg, the most suitable here would be “bodýčko”.

Example 2: (0:18:30 --> 0:19:02)

Rory is waiting for the man she is meeting and calls Lorelai.

RORY: How bald do you have to be to be

bald?

LORELAI: Is this a Zen call? You know I hate

those.

RORY: Does it mean completely bald, or does

it count if there's no hair on top but a little on

the sides?

LORELAI: Well, in my experience, if a man

describes himself as bald, there is nary a hair.

RORY: Nice use of "nary."

LORELAI: I'm trying to get you in the New

York Times mood, use some fancy language.

RORY: Well, I will remember that if I can ever

find the guy. Who knew New York was the

bald-guy capital of the world?

LORELAI: Well I think that's on their license

plate.

RORY: Jak plešatý musí člověk být?

LORELAI: To je zenový kóan? Nesnáším je.

RORY: Znamená úplně holohlavý, když nemá

žádné vlasy nahoře jen po straně?

LORELAI: No, tak podle mě je člověk

plešatý, když nemá na hlavě ani vlásek.

RORY: Hezky řečeno.

LORELAI: Snažím se tě jen dostat do

Newyorktimesovské nálady.

RORY: Připomenu si to, jestli ho vůbec najdu.

Nevěděla jsem, že New York je hlavní město

všech plešatých.

LORELAI: Myslím, že to mají na

poznávačkách.

RORY: To ti povím. Jsou všude. A protože

nevím, který z nich je A.J., usmívám se na

každého, kdo vstoupí.

LORELAI: Nech mě hádat. Usmívají se taky?

83

RORY: I'm telling you, they're everywhere,

and since I don't know which one A.J. Is, every

time one walks in the door, I just smile at him.

LORELAI: And let me guess -- they're all

smiling back.

The entire exchange is humorous and most of the humour is international with a few

exceptions. The translator deserves high praise for the handling of the beginning of this

exchange about Zen. The use of the word “kóan” is brilliant here as the meaning of this

word is a question, story or statement used in Zen practice to provoke thought and check

the student’s progress. An example of a kōan is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

The reference to licence plates is very common in American humour. In the USA licence

plates contain staples, cultures or slogans associated with the issuing jurisdiction. In the

Czech Republic this is not the case and the joke is therefore culture-bound. The translation

of licence plate in Czech is “SPZ (=státní poznávací značka)”. While I understand that

there is not much the translator could do with the culture-bound item as we have no

equivalent of such an item in the Czech Republic, I think the more common way to

expressively say “on licence plate” is “na SPZce” rather than “na poznávačce” which

could be quite confusing to the reader as “poznávačka” sounds as if it were derived from

the word “poznávat” and therefore it could be some sort of gathering where you meet

people, it does not immediately bring to mind a licence plate. On the whole this entire

sequence is well transferred.

Example 3: (0:29:31 --> 0:30:27)

Luke is working in the diner when Kirk walks in.

KIRK: Word on the street is you want to

sell your boat.

LUKE: I called you Kirk.

KIRK: Povídá se, že chceš prodat svůj

člun.

LUKE: Volal jsem ti, Kirku.

84

KIRK: Yeah but I was on the street what I

got that call and to be honest with you, I

was a little surprised to hear about this turn

of events.

[They start walking out to the boat.]

LUKE: It’s not a turn of events Kirk. I just

want to sell my boat.

KIRK: But you’ve always been really

attached to this boat. Hell I thought you’d

take it to your grave with you, maybe

you’d row yourself across the River Styx.

LUKE: Yeah well turns out I’m not using

it, you interested?

KIRK: [Kicking the trailer tires] It does

suit me and it would be great for water

skiing. Lulu loves water skiing. She also

loves carriage rides. You’re not selling a

carriage are you?

LUKE: Just the boat Kirk.

KIRK: Hmmm.

LUKE: You interested or not?

KIRK: How much we talking?

LUKE: $600.

KIRK: Jo, já byl mezi lidmi, když si volal.

A upřímně řečeno, byl jsem trochu

překvapen obratem událostí.

[Jdou ven směrem ke člunu.]

LUKE: Není to obrat, prostě chci prodat

svůj člun.

KIRK: Vždycky ti na tom člunu tak

záleželo. Myslel jsem, že si ho vezmeš do

hrobu, že tě převeze přes řeku Styx.

LUKE: No, nepoužívám ho. Máš zájem?

KIRK: No, hodil by se mi. Bude na vodní

lyžování. Lulu ho totiž miluje. Taky ráda

jezdí v kočáře, kočár neprodáváš?

LUKE: Jen člun, Kirku.

KIRK: Hmmm.

LUKE: Tak máš zájem?

KIRK: Kolik za něj?

LUKE: 600 dolarů.

KIRK: Myslel jsem tak 300.

LUKE: Má cena je pevná.

85

KIRK: I was thinking more around three.

LUKE: Price isn’t negotiable.

KIRK: Okay 400.

LUKE: None negotiable $600 price

includes everything Kirk, even the trailer.

KIRK: 590.

LUKE: $600, Kirk.

KIRK: 595 and you throw in a life

preserver and a captain’s hat?

LUKE: 600 and you buy your own

captain’s hat.

KIRK: But you’ll throw in a life

preserver?

LUKE: Deal. Just have it out of here

A.S.A.P.

[Luke goes back in the diner]

KIRK: Sucker.

KIRK: Dobře, 400.

LUKE: Pevná cena. 600 dolarů včetně

všeho Kirku, i přívěsu.

KIRK: 590.

LUKE: 600 dolarů, Kirku.

KIRK: 595, záchranný pás a kapitánskou

čepici.

LUKE: 600, kup si svou čepici.

KIRK: Přidáš záchranný pás?

LUKE: Dohodnuto, ale odvez si ho hned.

[Luke se vrací do bistra]

KIRK: Trouba.

Basically any scene in which Kirk appears is humorous. He is such a colourful, eccentric

and kooky character that even a simple everyday conversation with him is incredibly

funny. The sequence begins with a wordplay – Kirk arrives at the diner saying “word on

the street is…” which means a rumour going around or something everybody is talking

86

about. When Luke refutes this statement by saying that he called Kirk and it was therefore

not “word on the street”, Kirk counters with “well I was on the street when I got the call”.

The Czech version really missed an opportunity here, as the language dependent joke here

could have been transferred easily enough. “Mezi lidmi se povídá, že chceš prodat svou

loď.” – “Já ti volal, Kirku.” – “Já ale byl mezi lidmi, kdyžs volal.” The translation

attempted to reflect the language play but was not successful as the connection between

“povídá se” and “já byl mezi lidmi” is not clear or explicit enough and the exchange makes

no sense. The part about River Styx is international and is transferred adequately, the only

small cosmetic adjustment I would suggest is to reflect the use of the word “row” in the

SL. The boat is clearly not one that needs rowing to propel it forward and it is therefore

an extension of the River Styx reference. The only way to get across the mythical River

Styx into the world of the dead is to be rowed by the ferryman, Charon. When Kirk says

that he assumed that Luke would keep the boat until death and then row himself across

the river he is not suggesting that the boat requires rowing but that Luke would not even

need the ferryman and that he would keep the boat even beyond death. Instead of “a

převeze tě přes řeku Styx” I would use “a převezeš se jím přes řeku Styx”. It is only a

small adjustment but in my opinion it works better with the reference. Then there is the

haggling which is an international joke and one often repeated throughout the series as

Kirk thinks of himself as an expert haggler but is actually never successful. The only issue

I have with this exchange is the rather strange translation of “life preserver” as “záchranný

pás”. Where exactly did the translator imagine the belt would go on a boat I do not know,

but the translation of “life preserver” is of course either “záchranná vesta” or “záchranný

kruh”.

Conclusion

87

Once we have identified (see above) a humorous sequence it is necessary to analyse it, in

other words to find the specific element upon which the humour in that particular situation

rests. This element is then sorted into the appropriate category. Each category has a

recommended translation strategy which should be applied. Due to time and spatial

limitations in dubbing it is not always possible to apply the prescribed strategy and it is

therefore necessary to use a different strategy abandoning the equivalency

while retaining the humour.

88

4. AVT of Humour – Guide Throughout the thesis there were several mentions of the appropriate steps to be taken

when translating humorous AV material for dubbing. As Kostovčík (Kostovčík, 2009, p.

176) says: “an instance of humour needs to be correctly identified, analysed, categorised

and only then translated.” In the first chapter I introduced the AVT, its forms, focus and

place within the TS. It was only in the next chapter where the first step was explored. The

theories of humour were examined for their potential as far as identification of humour.

The chapter on types of humour delineated the factors a translator should be aware of

when translating humour and the categories humorous elements can be sorted into, thus

covering both the analysing and categorising of the humorous instance (at least in theory).

Finally, through the next chapter I was able to attempt this analysis and categorisation

first hand and see what it meant for the translation. Here these steps are summarized into

a simplified guide.

The Guide to AVT of Humour for Dubbing

1) Identify the humorous sequences in your material. When translating AV material

it is essential to have access to both the AV media as such and a transcript as

working with just one or the other is not enough to fully grasp the meaning of the

AV text. As the theories of humour themselves are not enough to identify the

humorous sequences, as mentioned above I recommend watching the SL material

in a group (of two or more) and making a mark by each part of the dialogue where

you and/or your companions laugh, chuckle or smile.

2) Analyse the humorous sequences and attempt to find the humorous element upon

which the humour of the sequence rests. Make a mark by each case of superiority

as that is easy to recognise and it will later aid you in categorising.

3) Categorise the humorous elements according to the categories presented by

Zabalbeascoa (1996) and Cintas and Remael (2007). In such cases where there is

89

a doubt about into which category the element ought to be sorted, mark the

element as belonging to all the categories you are considering – one joke may thus

be sorted into several categories. This will aid you in the translation as you may

have to decide which strategy to use based on the time and spatial limitations of

your medium. In this instance you should look at all the instances of superiority

you marked during the previous step and decide whether they are national-sense-

of-humour jokes or inter-/binational jokes as it will always be one or the other

depending on whether the SL culture and TL culture share some common cultural

background.

4) Translate the element according to the method prescribed for that given category.

With the inter-/binational jokes the translation is fairly straightforward as the

element itself is not dependent on language-play or knowledge of the source

culture. As foreshadowed in the previous step the national-sense-of-humour jokes

are tied to the superiority theories and it will be necessary to alter them. This

should be done according to the preferred strategies in the specific country (or for

that specific genre) either through foreignization or domestication. The choice

between the two is dependent not only on the general preference of that given

audience but also on the nature of the source material, as for example in my

material the TV-show Gilmore Girls frequently refers to the fact that the plot takes

place in the USA and as such no matter the cultural preference it is not

recommended to domesticate these humorous elements. Culture-bound jokes

should be translated by replacing the culture-bound item of the SL with one in the

TL, just as with language-dependent jokes where the SL feature needs to be

altered or replaced with TL feature. Complex jokes combine one or more of the

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other categories and as such the recommended strategy is to transfer as many of

the elements in the complex joke as possible.

5) Check the synchronisation of your solution with the SL picture. If your solution

does not fit, attempt to either adjust your solution (add/remove words) or in such

cases where the time and spatial limitations are too constrictive replace the

humorous element with one of different category (see my solution to the RuPaul

sequence), thus eliminating the equivalence but keeping the “funniness”.

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Conclusion The topic of this thesis was Czech Dubbing of the Gilmore Girls TV-show: Audiovisual

Translation of Humour and the aim was to explore the existing theories of humour and

its translation in order to find a method for identification, categorisation and subsequent

translation of humorous sequences. The main aim, however, was to apply these methods

to a specific audiovisual material, the Gilmore Girls television series, and critically

evaluate the quality of humour translation in the Czech dubbing. Based on the result of

the analysis I created a simplified guide consisting of rules and recommendations for

audiovisual translation of humour which could aid translators in transferring humour from

audiovisual material in source language into target language.

First it was explained what audiovisual text and audiovisual translation are and

what falls under the term. Dubbing in the world and in the Czech Republic was introduced

and the advantages and disadvantages of dubbing and subtitling were briefly discussed.

The conclusion was that neither is better than the other in of itself but rather that the

method should be dependent on the type of material. In the case of the Gilmore Girls

dubbing is the only possible method as it is so semantically dense that it would lose too

much through subtitling. It would, however, be incredibly interesting if another student

were to explore the fan subtitles of this television series (there are no “official” subtitles)

and compare the results to see how substantial the difference was/was not when it comes

to the loss of humour.

The second part of the thesis dealt with humour. The preliminary aim of the thesis

was to investigate the existing theories of humour and its translation so as to find a method

for identification, categorisation and subsequent translation. This aim was only partially

achieved as there were several methods for categorisation of humour found from which

ones relating to the translation of the humorous sequences were chosen. Although many

theories of humour were explored, no method on how to identify humour was established

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as all the theories seem to concentrate on analysing and taking apart the instance of

humour but not provide any clue as how they came to the conclusion that this particular

instance was humorous. It was therefore necessary to rely on one of the main

characteristics of humour, the fact that it is a social phenomenon and identify the humour

by assessing the material in group.

The primary aim of the thesis was a critical analysis of the Czech dubbing of

selected episodes of the Gilmore Girls TV-show with a focus on humour. To do this it

was necessary to transcribe by ear from the Czech dubbing as only the English transcripts

were available online. In each of the five episodes all the humorous instances were

identified, analysed and categorised. In the analysis several examples for each of the

categories from the individual episodes were chosen and assessed and where needed my

own translation solutions were offered. As many translators in turns worked on this series

and almost every episode of the ones chosen in this thesis was translated by a different

translator various approaches to the translation of humour were observed. The result of

the analysis was that the translation was uneven. Some translators truly understood the

type of humour found in the Gilmore Girls and attempted to reflect this humour in their

translations, while others leaned rather heavily towards normalisation and

standardisation. Where it was possible, other solutions were offered to illustrate that it

was not necessary to abandon nor to temper the humour in that given situation. While

there was no information on how much time or what material the translators had available,

in certain scenes it almost seemed as if they were translating from the audiovisual material

only without a transcript which is most unusual for this type of work.

Based on the analysis where the theories were applied and based on the result of

the analysis a simplified guide consisting of rules and recommendations from audiovisual

translation of humour was created in hopes it would aid translators in transferring humour

93

from audiovisual material in source language into target language. This guide can be

condensed into five steps: identify, analyse, categorise, translate and check. Although it

may seem that the method described in my thesis takes too much time and would therefore

be impossible to implement during an actual professional translation, once the translator

fully grasps the individual steps and applies them, the translation of humorous situations

becomes a much faster and much less daunting experience. It would be interesting to see

how these guidelines could be applied to the translation of humour for subtitling or even

literary translation.

My thesis contributes to the research in audiovisual translation and at the same

time illustrates that there are still areas which are not satisfactorily explored. One issue I

came across and thought would make an unusual but interesting topic for research was

the translation or localisation of cereals and other food products. After the online search

carried out in attempt to find a translation for a culture-bound joke, I visited a supermarket

and perused the cereal aisle only to realize that approximately eighty to ninety percent of

the cereals have all the information found on the front size, the name, the slogan and the

nutrition facts, in English. Another interesting study to be undertaken would be to

compare the quality of dubbing in one type of audiovisual product throughout the years,

as it was discovered even on my limited sample that the quality is slipping. It would be

seminal to determine whether this was isolated to the material examined in this thesis or

if it was a more general trend and direction in which Czech dubbing was heading.

94

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Résumé The topic of audiovisual translation had largely been neglected until about twenty years

ago and although it is gaining more attention it remains largely divided and unexplored.

This thesis deals with the Czech dubbing of the dramedy TV-Show Gilmore Girls. The

aim was to analyse selected episodes based on an investigation of the existing theories of

humour and its translation, to assess the translation of humorous situations employed by

TV Nova, propose alternative solutions and based on the result of the analysis formulate

simplified rules and guidelines for the translation of humour for dubbing.

The first chapter explains what audiovisual translation is and what it encompasses.

Dubbing in the world and in the Czech Republic is introduced and the advantages and

disadvantages of dubbing and subtitling are briefly discussed so as to arrive at a

conclusion of which is more appropriate for the given material.

The next part deals with humour. The existing theories of humour and its

translation are examined in order to find a method for identification, categorisation and

subsequent translation of humorous sequences.

These methods are then applied to the chosen material, the Gilmore Girls TV-

show. The primary aim of this thesis is a critical analysis of the Czech dubbing of selected

episodes of the Gilmore Girls TV-show with a focus humour. First the author transcribes

by ear from the Czech dubbing as the transcripts were only available in English. In each

of the five episodes all the instances of humour are identified, analysed and categorised.

In the analysis several examples for each of the categories from the individual episodes

are chosen and assessed and where needed alternative translation solutions are offered.

Based on the results of the analysis a simplified guide consisting of rules and

recommendations for audiovisual translation of humour is created so as to aid translators

in transferring humour from audiovisual material in source language into target language.

101

Finally, the findings are summarised by stating how the thesis contributes to the

research in audiovisual translation and ideas for topics that occurred in the course of the

work on the thesis are mentioned that could be explored by other students interested in

this field.

102

Resumé Audiovizuální překlad byl dlouhou dobu přehlížen, a přestože je mu v posledních dvaceti

letech věnováno více pozornosti, zůstává tento obor značně rozpolcený a v mnoha

ohledech neprozkoumaný. Tato diplomová práce se zabývá českým dabingem

dramaticko-komediálního televizního seriálu, Gilmorova děvčata. Cílem práce bylo za

použití existujících teorií humoru a jeho překladu analyzovat vybrané epizody, zhodnotit

překlad humorných situací použitý TV Nova, navrhnout alternativní řešení a na základě

této analýzy zformulovat základní pravidla a doporučení pro překlad humoru pro dabing.

První kapitola vysvětluje co je audiovizuální překlad a co vše pod něj spadá.

Následně je představen dabing ve světě a v České republice, jsou uvedeny jeho výhody a

nevýhody a je krátce srovnán s titulkováním za účelem zjistit, která metoda je pro daný

materiál vhodnější.

Následující část se zabývá humorem. Jsou zkoumány existující teorie humoru a

jeho překladu, proto aby byla nalezena metoda pro identifikaci, kategorizaci a následný

překlad humorných sekvencí.

Tyto metody jsou aplikovány na zvolený materiál, televizní seriál Gilmorova

děvčata. Primárním cílem této diplomové práce je kritická analýza českého dabingu

vybraných epizod televizního seriálu Gilmorova děvčata se zaměřením na humor.

Nejprve jsou jednotlivé epizody v češtině z náslechu přepsány, protože dostupné jsou jen

přepisy epizod v angličtině. V každé z těchto pěti epizod jsou humorné situace

identifikovány, analyzovány a kategorizovány. U každé epizody je pro jednotlivé

kategorie vtipů vybráno několik příkladů, které jsou zhodnoceny a tam, kde to je

nutné/možné, jsou navrhnuta alternativní řešení.

Na základě výsledků analýzy jsou zformulována základní pravidla a doporučení

pro audiovizuální překlad humoru, aby pomohla překladatelům při převádění humoru

z audiovizuálního materiálu ve zdrojovém jazyce do jazyka cílového.

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V závěru jsou shrnuty výsledky a způsob, jakým tato diplomová práce přispívá

k výzkumu audiovizuálního překladu, a jsou prezentovány nápady na témata, která se

objevila v průběhu psaní diplomové práce a která by mohla inspirovat další studenty

zajímající se o tento obor.