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Chapter 6. Humour, language variation and self-translation in stand-up comedy

  • Margherita Dore
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Humour in Self-Translation
This chapter is in the book Humour in Self-Translation

Abstract

This chapter concentrates on self-translation, humour and language variation in Marsha De Salvatore’s stand-up routines. She is a professional Italian American comedian whose one-woman shows talk about her chronic illness (i.e., Beta-Thalassemia Major) and her life in Italy as a “half-expatriate”. By comparing the original English scripts and the Italian scripts she self-translated, this study explores the mechanisms at work in creating humorous scripts in two different languages. The textual analysis is supported by De Salvatore’s answers during a semi-structured interview. The findings show that when discussing her chronic illness, De Salvatore consciously mixes tragedy and comedy to defy stereotypes about sick people, win over her audience and persuade them to donate blood. In her show about her life, she relies mostly on disparaging humorous comments targeting herself, her friends and her Calabrian family. Interestingly, her scripts in English are mainly constructed on the opposition between English and Italian (and Calabrian) language and culture. Conversely, her self-translated scripts recast this opposition between Italian and Calabrian, albeit retaining some English, since her audience normally has a good grasp of it. Besides, the Italian versions appear tamer when dealing with topics such as sex, which may depend on the fact that this culture is generally more sensitive to taboo humour. However, localising and compensatory strategies make the Italian scripts as effective as the English versions in triggering humour and successfully creating comedian-audience affiliation.

Abstract

This chapter concentrates on self-translation, humour and language variation in Marsha De Salvatore’s stand-up routines. She is a professional Italian American comedian whose one-woman shows talk about her chronic illness (i.e., Beta-Thalassemia Major) and her life in Italy as a “half-expatriate”. By comparing the original English scripts and the Italian scripts she self-translated, this study explores the mechanisms at work in creating humorous scripts in two different languages. The textual analysis is supported by De Salvatore’s answers during a semi-structured interview. The findings show that when discussing her chronic illness, De Salvatore consciously mixes tragedy and comedy to defy stereotypes about sick people, win over her audience and persuade them to donate blood. In her show about her life, she relies mostly on disparaging humorous comments targeting herself, her friends and her Calabrian family. Interestingly, her scripts in English are mainly constructed on the opposition between English and Italian (and Calabrian) language and culture. Conversely, her self-translated scripts recast this opposition between Italian and Calabrian, albeit retaining some English, since her audience normally has a good grasp of it. Besides, the Italian versions appear tamer when dealing with topics such as sex, which may depend on the fact that this culture is generally more sensitive to taboo humour. However, localising and compensatory strategies make the Italian scripts as effective as the English versions in triggering humour and successfully creating comedian-audience affiliation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgement vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Chapter 1. Humour in self-translation 1
  6. Part 1. From poetry to the screen
  7. Chapter 2. Mockery and poetic satire 15
  8. Chapter 3. Punning herself 41
  9. Chapter 4. From traduttore, traditore to traduttore, creatore 63
  10. Chapter 5. “Humourizing” the theatre of the absurd through reworking and (self-)translation 87
  11. Chapter 6. Humour, language variation and self-translation in stand-up comedy 113
  12. Chapter 7. Humour and self-interpreting in the media 141
  13. Part 2. Reflections and experimental approaches
  14. Chapter 8. iTranslate or iWrite? 179
  15. Chapter 9. Lost and found in humour self-translation 195
  16. Chapter 10. How funny am I? 215
  17. Chapter 11. Multimodal strategies of creation and self-translation of humorous discourse in image-macro memes 233
  18. Epilogue
  19. Chapter 12. Second thoughts about second versions 257
  20. Index 275
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.11.06dor

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgement vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Chapter 1. Humour in self-translation 1
  6. Part 1. From poetry to the screen
  7. Chapter 2. Mockery and poetic satire 15
  8. Chapter 3. Punning herself 41
  9. Chapter 4. From traduttore, traditore to traduttore, creatore 63
  10. Chapter 5. “Humourizing” the theatre of the absurd through reworking and (self-)translation 87
  11. Chapter 6. Humour, language variation and self-translation in stand-up comedy 113
  12. Chapter 7. Humour and self-interpreting in the media 141
  13. Part 2. Reflections and experimental approaches
  14. Chapter 8. iTranslate or iWrite? 179
  15. Chapter 9. Lost and found in humour self-translation 195
  16. Chapter 10. How funny am I? 215
  17. Chapter 11. Multimodal strategies of creation and self-translation of humorous discourse in image-macro memes 233
  18. Epilogue
  19. Chapter 12. Second thoughts about second versions 257
  20. Index 275
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