Humor in Dubbing

Translating humor is especially difficult because it must cross both linguistic and cultural barriers. When a show is dubbed for release in another country, the translators often will replace the cultural references with others more easily recognized by the particular new target audience. Many times they will translate some of the jokes directly into their own native language.

(...cont'd from newsletter) Often, the result is that the jokes lose their humor and original meaning because the translator is not familiar with the pop culture and expressions in the original language.

The translation of the American animation cartoon comedy series, The Simpsons, is a typical example of the challenges involved in translating humor cross-culturally. The Simpsons show has been dubbed into several different languages and has been broadcast to audiences worldwide. While jokes commonly get “lost in translation” during any dubbing process, some dubbed versions of The Simpsons are especially known for changing the meaning of the original jokes.

The German version of the show, Die Simpsons, which is broadcast in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, is a particularly good example of “bad translation”. Although most of the actual animation of the show remains the same, much of the humor has been changed. For example, Homer's catch phrase (a meaningless interjection in English) "D’oh!" has been translated to "Nein!" meaning "No!" in German. In addition, the German translators frequently use more curse words than the English version of the show.

Another dubbing of the show was done in Arabic. The Arabic version, called Al Shamshoons, was significantly changed to accommodate Middle-Eastern values and Islamic culture. In the Arabic show Homer is known as Omar, Bart is known as Bahr, and Marge as Mona. Duff Beer was changed to an Arab soft drink, hot dogs are Egyptian beef sausages, and donuts are popular Arab cookies called "kahk". Voices are provided by leading actors including an Egyptian film star in the part of "Omar". The Simpsons hometown of "Springfield" is called "Rabeea" (meaning Spring in Arabic) is made it look like an American town with a predominantly Arab population. On the other hand, “Omar Shamshoon” still says "D’oh!"