Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.

2 (2008): 215-240 215

DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

Chiara Bucaria
Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna at Forlì

DUBBING DARK HUMOUR:

A CASE STUDY IN AUDIOVISUAL TRANSLATION

Abstract
In an attempt to analyze the ways in which dark humour travels
cross-culturally in audiovisual translation, the present study takes
into consideration the processes involved in dubbing humour from
English into Italian as observed in the English- and Italian-language
versions of ten British and American dark comedies from the 1940s
to the 2000s. In order to identify some of the main mechanisms of
the dark humour genre, the humorous content of the films was
analyzed in terms of the elements on which specific scenes are
based, mainly the non-verbal and verbal components. In the cases in
which verbal elements were involved, i.e. the examples of verbally
expressed humour, the analysis was concerned with the translation
strategies adopted and with possible effects of alteration of the dark
humour content as a result of translation.

Keywords
Dark humour, audiovisual translation, dubbing, potentially
disturbing elements, manipulation.

1. Dark humour and audiovisual translation

The existence of a well-established tradition for dark comedy in North
American and British cinema is reflected in the number of films imbued with
dark/black humour, which range from the Ealing Studios comedies, the Monty
Python films and the works of directors such as Robert Altman, Danny Boyle, Joel
and Ethan Coen, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Frank Oz, Martin Scorsese,
Quentin Tarantino, and Billy Wilder, to quote but a few. Furthermore, the
increasing popularity of dark/black humour in recent TV productions, mainly from
the US, is hardly likely to have escaped the experienced TV viewer. Perhaps even
without specific awareness of what the phrase “dark/black humour” implies, a
tendency can be noticed for the more and more frequent use of “wicked,” cynical,
216 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

sometimes outrageous humour that takes pleasure in ridiculing even the most
sacred of society’s institutions and beliefs. Typical examples include Six Feet
Under, Nip/Tuck, Dead Like Me, South Park, The Sopranos, Californication,
Dexter, ’Til Death Do Us Part and other TV shows that have not (yet?) reached the
Italian screens, such as Family Plots, a reality show set in a family-run funeral
home, and Pushing Daisies, about a man who has the ability to bring the dead back
to life for just one minute. Although it would be too far-fetched to claim that
dark/black humour is a mainstream phenomenon in the Anglo-American lingua-
cultural context, the extent of its popularity is also reflected in its recurring
incursions in non-humorous and drama series, which have recourse to the
occasional cynical or dark/black humour remark as a sort of unexpected quip.
Whether the prevalence of this kind of humour is due to established cultural
inclinations or to a more recently developed commercial trend aimed, for example,
at revitalising traditional TV and film comedy by means of the shock value of
dark/black humour, an increased tolerance for humour addressing sensitive issues,
among which we find death, disease and disability, in Anglo-American culture
with respect to Italy seems to be observed. This scenario begs the question of how
this traditionally unsettling, and perhaps more sophisticated, kind of humour
travels outside national borders, and specifically to a country like Italy, in which
contemporary mainstream comedy privileges feel-good/family-oriented
entertainment or, alternatively, the erotic comedy genre, and in which the very
mention of death might still trigger superstitious reactions.1 Furthermore, from a
translational point of view, the increased popularity of dark/black humour in
Anglo-American culture raises the issue of whether the popularity of such products
is merely a question of taste or whether the way in which these audiovisual texts
are adapted for Italian audiences also influences their success.
In light of what has just been observed, the subject at hand appears to be of
particular interest for the field of cultural and translation studies, especially in
consideration of the lack of academic research on dark humour outside the realm of
literature. In fact, while the issue of the translation of humour and audiovisual
humour has been addressed with increasing interest over the last few years (e.g.
Delabastita 1989, 1996, 1997; Zabalbeascoa 1994, 1996; Chiaro 2005), the
dynamics at play in the transposition of humour when it involves potentially
disturbing or sensitive subjects and its obvious implications for censorship and
manipulation remain largely unexplored. In order to partially fill this gap, the
present study aims at analysing how dark humour as a cinematic genre travels
cross-culturally through a specific mode of audiovisual translation, i.e. dubbing. In
particular, the study takes into consideration the processes involved in dubbing

1
A popular one involves men touching their genitals whenever someone’s death is
mentioned in conversation or when a hearse with a casket inside passes by.
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 217
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

humour from English into Italian as observed in the English- and Italian-language
versions of ten British and American dark comedies from the 1940s to the 2000s.
In an attempt to identify some of the main mechanisms of the dark humour genre,
the humorous content of the films was analysed in terms of the elements on which
specific scenes are based, mainly the non-verbal and verbal components. In the
cases in which verbal elements were involved, i.e. the examples of verbally
expressed humour, the analysis was concerned with whether they were adapted
into Italian and to what effect.

2. The study
The study is based on the assumption that dark humour in general and as a
cinematic genre in particular is likely, for a number of complex, cultural and
possibly religious reasons, to be more widespread and appreciated in the Anglo-
American culture than in the Italian one. This is evident from the comparatively
higher number of not only literary works but also film comedies based on dark
humour elements produced over the years in the British, US and Italian cultural
systems.2
In the specific case of dark comedies, some issues concerning the way dark
humour is conveyed in audiovisual products appear of particular interest for the
field of both intercultural and translation studies: how is dark humour conveyed in
audiovisual products? Is it possible that one mode is preferred to the others (e.g.
non-verbal instead of verbal humour)? Will it be conveyed in the translated version
whenever this kind of humour is based on verbal elements? Given the potentially
disturbing nature of this kind of humour in the target culture, will some kind of
manipulation or censorship be applied?
The aim of the study is to investigate some of the issues highlighted above by
means of a sample of ten English-language dark comedies and their Italian dubbed
counterparts produced either in the UK or the US over the last few decades. More
precisely, a 60-year time span was selected, roughly from the mid 1940s to the mid
2000s. The analysis involved the two following parallel processes:

a) an analysis of the English language transcripts of the films to identify and

quantify the different kinds of dark humour (e.g. verbal vs. non-verbal);

2
The relevance of dark humour as a cultural phenomenon should, however, not let us forget
the likely connection between dark humour appreciation and individual sense of humour
(see for example Martin 1998 and Ruch 1998).
218 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

b) a comparative analysis of the Italian dubbed versions in order to assess if and how
the examples of dark humour involving a verbal component had been transposed
into the translated text.

However, for reasons of space the present paper will summarise only the results for
the second part of the analysis, i.e. the one concerning the translation of examples
of dark humour in the sample. The following subsection will provide further
insight into what is meant by dark humour throughout this study.

2.1. Operational definition of dark humour

One of the most evident aspects that can be noticed in approaching the study of
black/dark humour is the lack of a univocal definition for this term and the fact that
the attempts to define it in the literature have put a greater focus on what dark
humour is not rather than on what it actually is. Also, all the attempts at defining
black/dark humour belong to the field of literary criticism (e.g. Schulz 1973, 1978;
Winston 1972, 1978; O’Neill 1983; Pratt 1993) and refer almost without exception
(Colletta 2003) to the literary trend of the 1960s known as Black Humor. To the
best of my knowledge, no further effort has been made to define black/dark
humour as an all-encompassing phenomenon involving not only literature but also,
for example, the audiovisual media.
In view of the slant of this particular study, one of the preliminary and
necessary stages of the investigation was, therefore, to identify the main features of
what, for the purposes of this study, we consider dark humour and to establish an
operational definition of the term. A set of randomly collected standard definitions
of black and dark humour showed to have been consistently influenced by the
traits formally associated with the 1960s literary phenomenon. As a consequence,
none of these readily available definitions seemed specific enough to be able to
narrow down the idea of what black/dark humour is as intended in everyday
parlance that is as a mixture of humour about death and possibly sick humour. For
this reason, paired with the fact that the phrase black humour still seems to be
occasionally used to refer to African-American comedy, it was decided to opt for
the term dark humour, which will therefore be used from now on in this paper.
Moreover, a more “concrete,” albeit seemingly simplistic, definition of dark
humour was created:

With the expression dark humour we refer here to the more or less explicit and
sacrilegious representation of humour that has as its aim that of making fun of
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DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

situations usually regarded as tragic, such as death, sickness, disability, and extreme
violence, or of the people involved or subject to them.3

Based on the above definition of dark humour, a dark comedy comes to indicate
a feature film whose plot revolves entirely on one or more of the elements included
in our definition of dark humour, and not films that are usually categorised as
black comedies because of their surreal or absurd humour elements. More practical
criteria for the selection of the dark comedies that have been included in the sample
for this study will be discussed below.
As a result of the general observations on the culture-specificity of dark
humour and of the focus of the present study, which is explicitly both cultural and
linguistic, a two-fold research hypothesis was formulated. The first part concerned
the ratio of non-verbal vs. verbal dark humour to be found in the sample, with the
former being hypothesised as the most frequent kind. As a consequence of the
highly contextual nature of dark humour, it was also hypothesised that the
examples of dark humour present in the dark comedies in the sample will be found
to involve, for the most part, lesser translating effort when transposed into Italian;
however, the verbal component might still be subject to manipulation in its
potentially disturbing elements.
Verifying the first hypothesis involved a quantitative analysis of the films’
English language transcripts in order to concretely identify and categorise the
different kinds of dark humour (e.g. verbal or non-verbal). The second part of the
research hypothesis, on the other hand, required a qualitative, comparative analysis
of the English and Italian versions in order to examine the rendering of the
examples of verbal dark humour in the target language (TL), identify translational
strategies or possible recurring patterns, and cases in which the source text (ST)
had been clearly manipulated or censored as a result of the dubbing process. As
already mentioned, the following paragraphs will offer a detailed report of the
results for the second part of the analysis.

2.2. The sample

A preliminary list of dark comedies was compiled by means of the online

database The Internet Movie Database, which, however, yielded thousands of hits.
Further skimming of the list of titles led to keep only US and UK feature films in
English, produced from the 1940s onwards. Additional criteria for selection were

3
Needless to say, this operational definition, which purposely leaves out any reference to
the absurd and existentialistic nature of black humor, was designed exclusively for the
purposes of this study and is not aimed at replacing already existing definitions of the phrase
which refer primarily to the literary phenomenon.
220 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

the films’ plots and storylines, which had to be in line with our working definition
of dark humour (see above), production year, and availability on the Italian market
in their dubbed versions (preferably on digital support). Only after watching the
films available on DVD was the final selection made. According to the above-
mentioned criteria, the following ten English-language dark comedies were
selected for the analysis together with their respective Italian dubbed versions.4
Table 1 shows the films’ English and Italian titles and the abbreviations which will
be used from this point onwards.

Table 1. English titles and their Italian translations used in this study

English title Italian title

Arsenic and Old Lace (AOL) Arsenico e vecchi merletti

(Frank Capra, USA 1944)
Monsieur Verdoux. A Comedy Monsieur Verdoux
of Murders (MV)
(Charles Chaplin, USA 1947)

The Ladykillers (LK55) La signora omicidi

(Alexander Mackendrick, UK
1955)
The Loved One (LO) Il caro estinto
(Tony Richardson, UK 1965)

Harold and Maude (HAM) Harold e Maude

(Hal Ashby, USA 1971)

Throw Momma From the Getta la mamma dal treno

Train (TMFT)
(Danny DeVito, USA 1987)
I Love You to Death (ILYD) Ti amerò… fino ad
(Lawrence Kasdan, USA ammazzarti
1990)
Passed Away (PA) Saluti dal caro estinto
(Charlie Peters, USA 1992)

4
Unfortunately, reasons of space make it impossible to provide detailed information
concerning each of the films’ plots and main characters, for which the reader is referred to
the IMDb website (http://www.imdb.com).
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 221
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

The Ladykillers (LK04) Ladykillers

(Joel and Ethan Coen, USA
2004)
Keeping Mum (KM) La famiglia omicidi
(Niall Johnson, UK 2005)

After selecting the sample of dark comedies to be analyzed, the English and Italian
versions of the films were completely transcribed. It was decided to adopt an
orthographic transcription method, i.e. to report the exact words pronounced on
screen by means of the standard English and Italian spelling conventions. The
transcriptions also contain an indication of the speaker or speakers, as well as
descriptions of the setting, music and action in scenes without dialogue.

2.3. Categories of humour

During and after the transcription phase, examples of dark humour within the
ten comedies were identified with the help of native speakers of English. The
examples of humour were subsequently labelled according to a purpose-built
taxonomy of dark humour based on the intersections of the components present in
such complex, polysemiotic texts as audiovisual products. In particular, Delabastita
(1989), Gottlieb (2005) and subsequently Chiaro (2006 and forthcoming) see the
polysemiotic nature of audiovisual products as a result of the intersection of
different levels: verbal/non-verbal (e.g. dialogue and street signs vs. music and
facial expressions) and visual/acoustic (e.g. settings vs. sound effects). Therefore,
slightly revising Delabastita’s taxonomy (1989) and Chiaro’s (forthcoming)
diagram by taking into consideration only the humorous elements in the sample,
the categories of dark humour (DH) shown in Table 2 were obtained.5

5
It should be noted that this taxonomy is knowingly imperfect and merely created for
descriptive purposes. In particular, it is evident that, because of its very nature, the visual
aspect is obviously all-pervading in audiovisual products and that, as a consequence, it can
never be completely separated from the other categories. In other words, it would be
impossible to extract every trace of the visual component from a scene in which, for
example, a character utters a humorous line (obviously relying on verbal elements), since
other elements might also have to be taken into account, such as his/her facial expression,
tone of voice, etc.
222 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

Table 2. Categories of dark humour (DH)

Non-verbal 1. Non-verbal visual – NV-VIS

DH:
2. Non-verbal acoustic – NV-AC

Verbal DH: 3. Verbal-acoustic – V-AC:

a. Purely linguistic – V-AC (PL)
b. Culture-specific – V-AC (CS)
c. Linguistic and culture-specific – V-AC (PL+CS)
d. Nn-sp VEH – V-AC (Nsp VEH)
4. Verbal-visual – V-V:
a. Verbal humour + visual elements – V-V (V+VE)
b. Verbal humour + visual anchor – V-V (V+VA)

2.3.1. Non-verbal vs. verbal DH

The following sections will be mainly concerned with the results of the study as
far as the rendering of verbal dark humour is concerned. However, a few
preliminary distinctions between what is meant by non-verbal and verbal DH are in
order.
By non-verbal dark humour we refer to examples of dark humour mainly
revolving around the visual or context-based dimension rather than on the verbal
one. For instance, this includes cases in which humour is conveyed through the
presence on screen of elements such as coffins, dead bodies, hearses, blood, etc.,
which are not normally associated with humorous situations and/or the
participants’ amused reactions, but that take on humorous undertones because of
their contextual juxtaposition with contrasting elements. As far as the two
subcategories of non-verbal DH identified, examples labelled as NV-VIS dark
humour are not based on verbal elements and may therefore be considered as
purely visual. In instances of NV-AC dark humour, on the other hand, humour
simultaneously relies on non-verbal and acoustic elements (usually music or sound
effects).
The category of “verbal dark humour” comprises cases in which humour is
mainly expressed through the verbal channel. The subcategory of “verbal acoustic”
dark humour, in which humour is conveyed through dialogue, includes four types
of humour: purely linguistic dark humour or V-AC (PL), culture-specific dark
humour or V-AC (CS), linguistic and culture-specific dark humour or V-AC
(PL+CS), and non specific verbally expressed dark humour or V-AC (Nsp VEH).
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 223
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Examples of purely linguistic dark humour are found when the humorous lines
are based on linguistic devices such as wordplay, alliteration, homophony, and
paronymy. This category also includes jokes that rely for their efficacy on the
alteration of pre-constructed strings of text (e.g. idioms, sayings, set phrases) and
on rhetorical devices such as rhyme, without specific recourse to cultural
references or allusions. The line below, uttered by an unknowing Walter (Rowand
Atkinson) in KM about Mrs. Parker (Liz Smith), who has just died of a heart
attack, is a case of wordplay based on the idiom’s literal and figurative meanings:

(1) Walter: Oh, good God, that committee. I swear it will be the death of her.

Culture-specific dark humour includes lines and jokes characterised by more or

less explicit allusions to culture-specific SL elements, such as institutions, famous
characters, food, personalities, etc., used for humorous effect. In most cases of this
kind that were found in our sample the darkly humorous connotation is not carried
by the culture-specific element itself but by its contextual juxtaposition with other
verbal elements. Linguistic and culture-specific dark humour combines the
characteristics of V-AC (PL) and V-AC (CS) and was found in only one case in the
sample. Finally, in examples of “non-specific verbally expressed humour” (Nn-Sp
VEH) is conveyed through “good lines” (Chiaro 2006) rather than by means of
wordplay or culture-specific elements. The example below from AOL is a typical
example of N-sp VEH involving dark humour, which also shows how this kind of
humour might perhaps be considered as relatively easier to translate that the other
forms of verbal humour discussed above.

(2) Johnny: Mr. Spenalzo and he will get along fine together. They’re both dead.

The macrocategory of verbal dark humour also includes cases in which verbal
humour is mixed with visual elements (V-V). This category includes dark humour
conveyed by a combination of verbal elements uttered by the characters taking part
in the scenes and visual elements simultaneously appearing on screen and closely
linked to the verbal message. The two subcategories of verbal and visual dark
humour are “verbal humour + visual element” or V-V (V+VE) and “verbal humour
+ visual anchor” or V-V (V+VA). In the cases labelled V-V (V+VE), a darkly
humorous comment is accompanied by a visual element on screen. The latter may
be a gesture made by one of the characters in the scene, an object, a prop, or any
visual element appearing on screen and connected to the verbal message being
delivered. In these cases the visual element clearly contributes to the comic effect
of the verbal message by enhancing its darkly humorous potential. In one example
at the beginning of AOL Mortimer (Cary Grant) opens the window seat in which
the dead Mr. Hoskins is hidden and then closes it immediately without thinking.
After a few moments, he goes back, opens and closes the window seat again.
224 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

Starting to realise what he has just seen, Mortimer sits on the window seat and after
a pause lifts the top again and utters the following line:

(3) Mortimer: Hey, mister?

The window seat, together with Mortimer’s typically screwball comedy body
language and facial expressions, represents the visual component, whereas
Mortimer’s naive verbal attempt at checking if the man is alive is the verbal
component.
Examples of V-V (V+VA) humour rely on the verbal and visual channels
simultaneously, but, unlike in the previous category, the visual element acts as an
“anchor” which makes the verbal and visual elements inextricable. AOL once again
offers a typical example, in a scene in which Abby and Martha appear in gloomy
dark dresses and veils, ready to officiate Mr. Hoskins’ funeral. While hastily
leaving the house to attend to Teddy’s committal to Happy Dale, Mortimer
addresses his aunts as follows:

(4) Mortimer: And for heaven’s sake, get out of those clothes! You two look like a
double blackout!

The line plays on the hyperbolic and slightly nonsensical parallelism between
the sight of the two women dressed in black and standing next to each other and,
possibly, the equally dark effect of a blackout (since there are two aunts, the
blackout is “double”). The visual element on screen, i.e. Abby and Martha dressed
in black from head to toe, anchors the verbal one, which is in fact heavily
dependent from it. Needless to say, examples of V-V (V+VA) are likely to be
particularly challenging for audiovisual translators, for whom the visual anchor
works as a further constraint forcing them to manipulate the TL lines in order to
integrate the visual element into the dialogue while at the same time trying to keep
the core meaning of the ST.

3. Results
The quantitative analysis of the ten dark comedies revealed a total of 429, the
large majority of which (366 or 85.3%) were classified as verbal dark humour,
whereas 63 or 14.7% belonged to the category of non-verbal dark humour. AOL
clearly presented by far the highest number of examples of dark humour (95),
while in LK55 only 20 examples of dark humour were found. Figure 1 details the
percentages for each of the subcategories of DH identified in the sample.
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 225
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

Figure 1. Percentages of the different kinds of dark humour in the ten films

This section is concerned with an analysis of the strategies adopted in the

transposition of SL dark humour relying on verbal elements into Italian through
dubbing, with the two-fold aim of a) assessing the rendering of the verbal
humorous elements in the Italian version and b) identifying cases of manipulation
or censorship occurred during the dubbing process. However, such analysis does
not claim to offer a comprehensive qualitative assessment of the adapted
audiovisual texts on the basis of their word-by-word “fidelity” to the ST. In fact,
this study is aimed not so much at an analysis of how good the Italian adaptation is
in general but, rather, specifically focuses on the rendering of dark humour. A
functional approach6 to the translation of humour in general will be adopted as a
frame of reference for the translation of dark humour specifically. In other words,
if an SL film contains dark humour in a specific line of dialogue or scene, the TL
version will be expected to be functionally equivalent to the SL text, not just in the
sense that it should contain humorous elements in general, but that it should be
perceived by viewers as a darkly humorous one.

6
For an overview of this translational approach see, for example, Nord 1996 and Vermeer
1997.
226 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

The following translational strategies, which were identified for an analysis of

the translation of potentially disturbing elements in recent mixed-genre TV series
(Bucaria 2007), will be adopted for a description of some of the most significant
instances:

i. complete omission: in examples in which this strategy was applied, the dark
humour element has been completely deleted and often substituted with a totally
neutral comment;

ii. weakening: cases characterised by a weakening strategy typically present a dark

humour element that has been rendered with a diluted, “harmless” equivalent in the
dubbed version;

iii. close rendering: the target language version manages to successfully convey the
darkly humorous content by keeping the ST elements intact;

iv. increased effect: some cases occur in which the pragmatic intensity of a
disturbing dark humour element has been increased in the target version. Whether
this is due to misinterpretation or to conscious compensatory strategies on the part of
the translators/adaptors is not easy to assess.7

As Table 3 shows, all the four translational strategies outlined above were
adopted for the rendering of the 366 examples of verbal dark humour in the films.
In general, in the majority of examples (80.4%) dark humour was rendered in a
way that remains close to the original, i.e. the impact on viewers is expected to
have been left approximately intact. In 12% of cases, verbal dark humour was
weakened as a result of its adaptation into Italian. 4.9% of examples show an
increased impact in the TL version, whereas only 2.7% of verbal dark humour
elements were completely omitted.

Table 3. Strategies in the transposition of dark humour

Strategy Number of occurrences %

complete omission 9 2.5%

weakening 44 12%
close rendering 296 80.9%
increased effect 17 4.6%
Total 366 100%

7
It is to be noted that the possibility of human error, i.e. of misunderstandings or
comprehension mistakes on the part of the translators/adaptors, should always be considered
as a significant factor influencing the rendering of humour, not only in audiovisual texts.
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 227
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Furthermore, Table 4 shows the four different translational strategies adopted for
the adaptation of the various kinds of dark humour at hand.

Table 4. Strategies adopted for each category of dark humour

complete weakening close increased TOT

omission rendering effect
V-AC (PL) 4 8 7 2 21
(19%) (38.1%) (33.3%) (9.5%)
V-AC (CS) 3 5 6 1 15
(20%) (33.3%) (4%) (6.7%)
V-AC 0 1 0 0 1
(PL+CS) (0%) (100%) (0%) (0%)
V-AC (Nsp 1 22 198 13 233
VEH) (0.1%) (9.4%) (84.9%) (5.6%)
V-V 2 6 85 0 93
(V+VE) (2.2%) (6.4%) (91.4%) (0%)
V-V 0 2 0 1 3
(V+VA) (0%) (66.6%) (0%) (33.3%)
TOT 9 44 296 17 366

As far as the distribution of the strategies in the ten dark comedies is

concerned, the close rendering strategy consistently appears as the most common
throughout all the films. While no specific patterns were noticed for the categories
of weakening and increased effect, the nine examples of complete omission were
found only in the first four dark comedies in chronological order: AOL, MV, LK55
and LO. This might perhaps be ascribed to a stronger impact of censorship in Italy
until the 1960s. Most examples of omission regard purely linguistic humour. The
fact that most examples of Nsp VEH have been translated close to the ST might be
seen as confirming that this kind of dark humour requires the least translational
effort.

3.1. Complete omission

228 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

Four out of the nine instances of complete omission found in the sample
concern the deletion of darkly humorous elements expressed through purely
linguistic devices.8

(5) Mr. Starker: You’ll be the death of me yet, Mr. Barlow.

Mr. Starker: Ah, che ammirevole forza d’animo, signor Barlow.
Mr. Starker: Ah, your strength is commendable, Mr. Barlow.

(6) O’Hara: Ok. This opening will kill you.

O’Hara: Perché è una grande commedia. Vi piacerà molto.
O’Hara: Because it’s a great play. You’ll like it very much.

More precisely, humour is conveyed through the ambiguity present in the

saying “to be the death of someone” (5) and in the polysemy of the verb “to kill”
(6). The Italian adaptation chooses to ignore the darkly humorous undertones
conveyed in these examples by the play between figurative and literal senses,
although it is not clear whether the omissions are the direct result of an attempt to
tone down the SL content or simply to the objective complexity of rendering the
humour through similarly ambiguous elements in the TL. As a consequence, in (5)
and (6) the two darkly humorous elements are normalised to the point that the TL
version does not carry any reference to death or killing. However, the fact that an
equivalent Italian expressions would have been available to the translator (e.g.
“mi/la farà morire dal ridere” / “you make me die from laughing”) perhaps
indicates a conscious attempt to avoid any mention of potentially disturbing
elements concerning death.
Three examples of omission were found as far as culture-specific dark humour,
or V-AC (CS), is concerned. The following is a case in point:

(7) Mortimer: I can see the headlines now. “Murder Incorporated Rides
Again” right across the front page.
Mortimer: Ah, è la fine. Già mi vedo sui giornali in prima pagina.
Mortimer: This is the end. I already see myself on the newspaper’s front
page.

(7) from AOL includes an allusion to the criminal organization Murder Inc.,
which was omitted in the Italian dubbed version and replaced by Mortimer’s
concern about having his reputation ruined because of his involvement with his
aunts’ murders.

8
The examples from the sample are presented first in their English ST language, then in
their Italian dubbed version (in italics) and finally a rough back translation of the TL
solution is also provided in bold italics.
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 229
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

Example (8) from AOL is the only case of complete omission concerning Nsp-
VEH, in which mention of the cemetery is replaced by a completely different line:

(8) Doctor: In the cemetery?

Mortimer: Yeah, that’ll be nice. In the cemetery.
Doctor: Qui?
Mortimer: Sì, faccio venire Teddy.
Doctor: Here?
Mortimer: Yes, I’ll fetch Teddy.

It is interesting to note how the verbal reference to the cemetery was deleted
despite the fact that Mortimer and the doctor are clearly standing in a graveyard
while speaking. It could be hypothesised that since the visual component was
obviously impossible to delete, the toning down of this exchange occurred by
modifying the verbal message, which is especially irreverent in its implication that
a cemetery is a nice place to be.

3.2. Weakening

44 cases of weakening of darkly humorous elements were found in the sample.

Among the instances of V-AC (PL) whose effect was diluted in the TT are the
following examples:

(9) Mortimer: Look, you wait here, make yourself comfortable. Pull up a
tombstone. I’ll be right back, doctor.
Mortimer: Potete star qui, accomodatevi. Scoperchiate una tomba,
intanto.
Mortimer: You can stay here, make yourself comfortable. Open up a
tomb, in the meantime.

(9) plays on the English popular idiom “to pull up a chair/seat,” used as an
invitation for someone to make themselves comfortable, by replacing it with the
contextually relevant “pull up a tombstone.” Since a similarly modifiable
expression does not exist in Italian, the dubbed version offers “scoperchiare una
tomba” (“to open up a tomb”), which does not imply the idea of using a tomb as a
seat, but implies the slightly nonsensical suggestion to open up a tomb as a
pastime. Furthermore, interestingly enough, the idea of opening up a tomb is a
more sacrilegious action than simply sitting on it and therefore can be seen as
increasing the dark undertones of the ST, although perhaps not its funniness.
The one example of V-AC (PL+CS) in the corpus was rendered as follows:

(10) Grace: Oh, Mr. Brown’s on holiday.

230 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

Gloria: Is he? Where has he gone?

Grace: I think she said Down Under.
Grace: Il vecchio signor Brown è in vacanza.
Gloria: Ah, sì? Dove è andato?
Grace: All’altro mondo - eh, dall’altra parte.
Grace: Old Mr. Brown is on holiday.
Gloria: Oh yeah? Where has he gone?
Grace: To the other world - er, to the other side.

In this complex example from KM, Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) is talking
about Mr. Brown, her neighbour and owner of the dog whose insistent barking had
been keeping her awake. Unfortunately, Mr. Brown and his dog have been killed
by her housekeeper Grace (Maggie Smith), who in this way wanted to help Gloria
have more restful nights. When the woman wonders about the whereabouts of Mr.
Brown, in an attempt to clear her suspects Grace offers the quip in (10). The line
relies on the linguistic ambiguity of the expression “Down Under” and of its
figurative vs. literal meanings. The dubbed version makes an attempt at using the
Italian phrase “andare all’altro mondo” (literally “to go to the other world”), which
could have been quite an effective solution in consideration of its compliance with
the motion requirement implied in Gloria’s question “Where has he gone?”
However, the phrase “andare all’altro mondo” is monosemous in Italian, since its
only meaning is “to die.” Hence the translator/adaptor’s choice to include a self-
repair strategy in the TT, in which Grace instinctively answers the truth, i.e. that
Mr. Brown is dead, and then tries to compensate for her slip by adding “dall’altra
parte” (“to the other side”). Unfortunately, despite employing a potentially
effective approach, the adaptation is not completely successful. In fact, the segment
added as a repair strategy is not a phrase or an unambiguous string of text but a
vague expression that hardly provides an answer to Gloria’s question or justifies
the fact that in the scene she seems to believe Grace’s claim without any further
comments.
The following is one of the three cases in which the weakening of darkly
humorous elements occurs as far as Nsp VEH is concerned:

(11) Owen: Mama! You’re alive! [to the police officers] Old people. You
have to reassure them.
Owen: Mamma! Sei viva! [to the police officers] È vecchia e malata, mi
preoccupa sempre.
Owen: Mum! You’re alive! [to the police officers] She’s old and sick,
she always worries me.

In (11) from TMFT, Owen (Danny De Vito) is surprised to see that his mother,
Mrs. Lift (Anne Ramsey), is still alive because he thought that Larry (Billy
Crystal) would have killed her by that time. In order to make up for his slip in front
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 231
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of the police officers that are in the house, he acts as if his comically excited
attitude was intended for the benefit of his elderly mother. The Italian adaptation,
however, shifts the focus from Mrs. Lift to Owen himself, who claims with a slight
non sequitur that his old and sick mother always worries him.
Example (12) illustrates the weakening of verbal and visual dark humour:

(12) Harry: What do you say, gang? Last guy in the box is a bad boy.
Harry: Che ne dite? A chi arriva per ultimo, gli tolgo il dolce.
Harry: What do you say? No dessert for the last one there!

(12) from LO illustrates an example of V-V (V+VA) in which dark humour was
weakened as a result of the translation process. In this scene, the Blessed Reverend
(Jonathan Winters), in an attempt to convince the air force to grant their support to
his plan to launch dead bodies into space, has provided the military men with the
company of skimpily dressed and friendly young women who suddenly appear out
of the caskets. Harry (Jonathan Winters), the Reverend’s brother who also works
with him, encourages the men not to waste any time by saying “Last one in the box
is a bad boy,” in which “the box” refers to the caskets appearing on screen, i.e. the
visual anchor. The Italian translation offers “A chi arriva per ultimo, gli tolgo il
dolce,” in which no allusion is present to the potentially sacrilegious idea of sexual
activity taking place in the caskets themselves and appears therefore less darkly
funny. Moreover, the Italian version appears to have been toned down also as far as
the sexual ambiguity of the word “box” is concerned, which in this context might
be interpreted as a slang term indicating the female genitalia.

3.3. Close rendering

In 296 (80.9%) of the total number of examples, verbal dark humour was kept
for the most part intact as a result of the translation process. Examples (13) and
(14) illustrate some of the cases in which purely linguistic dark humour was
rendered in a similar way to the ST:

(13) Mortimer: Dale. “D” like in “dig.” You know when you dig a lock? That’s
right. “A” like in “arsenic.” Got that?
Mortimer: Dale. D dome delitto. Sì, sì, il delitto, l’assassinio. Ecco, già, A
come arsenico, capito?
Mortimer: Dale. D as in “delitto” [murder]. Yes, yes, the murder, the
assassination. Here you go, yeah. A as in arsenic, do you
understand?

(14) Walter: Oh, good God, that committee. I swear it will be the death of her.
Walter: Oh, santo cielo, quel comitato. La farà morire.
232 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

Walter: Oh, Good Heavens, that committee. It will make her die.

In most of these cases, the effective result of the translation is guaranteed by

similarities between the lexical items or syntactic structures in the SL and TL. In
(13) from AOL Mortimer is talking to the telephone operator in order to find the
number for the Happy Dale Sanitarium. The fact that he is spelling the name using
the first words that come to his mind, such as “murder” and “arsenic” because of
the particular circumstances around which the film revolves is the source of the
hilarity in this scene. The Italian version exploits the same exact device and utilises
words that coincidentally happen to be in the same semantic area of the ST lexical
items and also to begin with the same letter of the alphabet. The ambiguity
between the literal vs. figurative meaning of the idiom in (14) has already been
commented on above (2.3.1). Similarly to the ST, the Italian adaptation features the
expression “fare morire,” which, apart from the literal meaning of “to cause the
death of someone,” can also convey the hyperbolic idea of someone being in great
physical or psychological pain. This way the reference to death and dying is
maintained in the dubbed version.
The close rendering strategy was also occasionally adopted in transposing dark
humour featuring culture-specific elements or V-AC (CS). Needless to say,
internationally known cultural references and those which have an already
established equivalent in Italian were clearly the ones less likely to create
translational difficulties. Example (15) below from AOL is a particularly
interesting case:

(15) Doctor: But it’s Halloween…

Mortimer: Oh, don’t worry about Halloween, the pixies won’t be out until
after midnight.
Doctor: Ma è il giorno dei morti…
Mortimer: Oh, non pensate ai morti. I fantasmi non passano fuori che dopo
la mezzanotte.
Doctor: But it’s the day of the dead…
Mortimer: Oh, don’t think about the dead. The ghosts don’t come out
until after midnight.

Although it could reasonably be hypothesised that today the reference to

Halloween would be transposed literally into Italian, when AOL reached the Italian
screens in 1945 moviegoers in this country were probably not very familiar with it.
Therefore, the reference was replaced with the closest celebration in the Italian
calendar, “il giorno dei morti” (“the day of the dead”), with “the pixies” also being
domesticated to a more easily recognizable “i fantasmi” (“the ghosts”). Despite the
fact that the day of the dead in Italy is meant as a day for remembering the dead
and none of the fearsome connotations of Halloween are attached to it, it seems
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 233
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reasonable that the doctor in the scene might be anxious about standing alone in a
cemetery during this particular night. Therefore, the result of the translation
process in this case can be seen as successful.
As noted above, because of their very nature examples of Nsp VEH are
hypothesised to be among the easiest ones to translate from an SL to a TL.

(16) Nadja: Oh, no, Rosalie. Don’t think of them like drug addicts. Think of
them as killers.
Nadja: Oh, no, ti prega. Non pensa di loro come di drogati. Pensa come
di assassini.
Nadja: Oh, no, please. Don’t think of them as drug addicts. Think of
them as killers.

As shown in the back translation for examples (16) from ILYD, minimum
translational effort was employed in the rendering of these examples of Nsp-VEH.
In this case, an increased humorous effect is obtained by the rendering of Nadja’s
(Joan Plowright) speech not only through the use of a thick Slavic accent as in the
English-language film (since she is originally from Yugoslavia), but also by adding
grammatical mistakes (concerning, for example, subject-verb agreement, the use of
articles, etc.) that are typically found in the speech of native speakers of a Slavic
language speaking Italian. However, although this strategy can be seen as
increasing the humorous impact of her lines, it cannot be said to work as an
intensifier of their darkly humorous contents.
Another frequent device used to express Nsp VEH in the sample is irony.9
Since irony is often conveyed through intonation, once again these examples do
not seem to require major translational effort on the part of the translator/adaptor.
Example (17) from MV, which is representative of a series of similar instances, is a
case in point. Uxoricide Henri Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin) is trying to kill one of
his wives, Annabella (Martha Raye), by taking her out on a “romantic” boat trip.

(17) Annabella: Oh, pigeon. Not a soul anywhere.

Verdoux: Perfect.
Annabella: Ah, piccioncino. Non c’è un’anima in giro.
Verdoux: Perfetto.
Annabella: Ah, pigeon. There is not a soul around.
Verdoux: Perfect.

Finally, one of the most effective approaches to the adaptation of Nsp VEH is
found in the rendering of some names from LO from standard English into Latin-
sounding equivalents. For example, the luxury casket recommended by Mr. Starker

9
The enormous area of irony is beyond the scope of this study and will not therefore be
dealt with here. However, for a detailed review of this topic, see for example Giora 2003.
234 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

(Liberace), the “Emperor model,” becomes “modello Imperator” in the dubbed

version, whereas the “Shrangri-Lodge Tropicana,” the retirement city for senior
citizens that the Blessed Reverend wants to build, with a mixture of Spanish and
Latin becomes “il buen retiro Secunda Juventus.” This strategy seems particularly
successful, since it manages to convey the forced formality of the grandiose funeral
home Whispering Glades, while at the same time mocking it by means of a well-
established parodic device with which the Italian/European audience are already
familiar.10

3.4. Increased effect

In 17 cases out of 366, the dark humour impact of the ST was increased as a
result of the translation into Italian. In these cases, the disturbing potential of the
humorous line is increased either by reinforcing an already present reference or by
adding one that was not there in the ST. It is to be noted, however, that, on the one
hand, the reinforced effect is not always achieved in the dark humour sphere, and,
on the other hand, this does not necessarily produce a funnier result in the TT. As
some of the following examples will clarify, this is perhaps one of the most
interesting strategies, since it illustrates the sometimes contradictory attitude
towards cases of verbal dark humour in Italian.
(18) from MV is an example in which purely linguistic dark humour has an
intensified impact in the Italian dubbed version:

(18) Man: Tell me. What are you doing now?

Verdoux: Oh, a little of everything. Real estate, stock market.
Man: Really? You must have made a killing!
Man: Dimmi un po’, e che fai di bello ora?
Verdoux: Oh, ci si arrangia qui e là. Compravendita, borsa.
Man: Caspita, hai ammazzato qualcuno?
Man: Tell me, what are you doing now?
Verdoux: Oh, I manage the best I can. Real estate, stock market...
Man: Gosh, have you killed someone?

The idiom “to make a killing” was clearly not transposed with a similar
idiomatic expression in Italian. By contrast, the man’s direct question, which
unknowingly hints at Verdoux’s method of choice to earn his living, is the cause of
hilarity in the TT. However, the Italian version sounds much more abrupt than the
English one, precisely because the phrase “ammazzare qualcuno” is not ambiguous

10
See for example the popular comic books Astérix le Gaulois by René Goscinny and Albert
Uderzo and their translations.
 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 235
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in Italian and, unlike in the ST, no play is possible between figurative and literal
meanings.
The scene in (19) from PA portrays brothers Johnny (Bob Hoskins) and Frank
(William Petersen) commenting on their father’s body’s undignified appearance.
The example illustrates the increased dark humour impact produced by the choice
to replace a culture-specific element (singer and pianist Liberace) with a more
general reference (a transvestite). In fact, the comparison between Jack’s (Jack
Warden) appearance and that of a transvestite seems even more irreverent than the
association with Liberace, who was not a transvestite but simply liked to adopt a
playfully flamboyant style on stage.

(19) Johnny: Who is this? This doesn’t even look like dad.
Frank: He does look a little soft.
Johnny: Soft? He looks like Liberace.
Johnny: Ma chi è questo? Non somiglia neanche a papà.
Frank: Ha i tratti più delicati.
Johnny: Delicati? Sembra un travestito.
Johnny: But who is this? He doesn’t even look like dad.
Frank: His features are softer.
Johnny: Soft? He looks like a transvestite.

Example (20) illustrates an increased dark humour effect as far as Nsp VEH is
concerned:

(20) Mortimer: Look Aunt Martha, men just don’t get into window seats and
die!
Mortimer: Sì, ma la gente non va a mettersi dentro una cassapanca per
crepare!
Mortimer: Yes, but people don’t get inside window seats to kick the
bucket!

In (20) an increased dark humour effect is obtained by specific lexical choices

in the translation. Specifically, the neutral verb “to die” is replaced in Italian by the
slangy “crepare” (“to kick the bucket,” “to croak”). Similarly to other examples of
the same kind, it is evident how the contrast between the situational context and the
linguistic register used in the dialogue is the source of increased dark humour
effect.
Finally, an interesting example of V-V (V+VA) from TMFT is worth
commenting on. In this scene, Larry is trying to prevent Mrs. Lift from falling off
the train on which they are travelling. He is holding the woman by her legs, which
are open in the shape of the letter V. Having arrived later, Owen is wondering what
is happening:
236 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

(21) Owen: What are you doing to my mama?

Larry: Making a wish! What the hell do you think I’m doing, Owen?
Owen: Che fai alla mia mamma?
Larry: Che domande sono Owen? La sto stuprando, non vedi?
Owen: What are you doing to my mum?
Larry: What kind of question in that, Owen? Can’t you see I’m raping
her?

The verbal component is obviously a humorous reference to the tradition by

which two people make a wish by each holding a side of a Y-shaped chicken bone
(wishbone). The visual element (Mrs. Lift’s legs) is a clear allusion to the shape of
a wishbone. As a consequence of this interaction, the culture-specificity of Larry’s
comment, coupled with the presence of what we called “visual anchor,”
considerably complicates the task of the translator/adaptor, who not surprisingly
chose to eliminate the reference altogether. The Italian solution, on the other hand,
has opted for a much stronger allusion (rape) to convey Larry’s irony, which in
these circumstances takes on significantly darker undertones in the TT than in the
ST.
The translational strategy involving increased dark humour effect is also
closely related to the use of compensation strategies elsewhere in the same
audiovisual text. A few examples of compensation found in the sample include
“Come va la vita, signora Parker?” (“How’s life, Mrs. Parker?”–KM), asked by an
unknowing Walter to Mrs. Parker who has just died of a heart attack, and “Bel
modo di ammazzare il tempo…” (“This is a good way to kill time…”–TMFT),
pronounced by Larry who is walking on the ledge of Owen’s house in an attempt
to kill Mrs. Lift. In both cases the ST lines presented no dark humour content. (22)
below from LO is a further example of the insertion of darkly humorous elements
in the TT, with Dennis (Robert Morse) mocking Mr. Joyboy’s (Rod Steiger)
profession instead of his last name:

(22) Dennis: Now you just have to make up your mind, Popjoy.
Dennis: Ora bisogna proprio che si decida, beccamorto.
Dennis: Now you really have to make up your mind, gravedigger.

A potentially significant correlation could also be observed between the use of

dark humour and sexual humour in the dubbed versions analyzed. In fact, as
already anticipated in example (21), in which the culture-specific reference to a
wishbone was rendered as an explicit allusion to rape, the sample contains a
number of cases in which explicit sexual innuendos are added in the Italian
version. (23) below from ILYD is another case in point:

(23) Joey: Mamma! Please, I got a bullet in my head.

 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 237
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

Mamma: You should have two bullets in your head! [she hits him]. Three
bullets, four bullets! [she hits him again twice]
Joey: Mamma! Per favore, c’ho una palla dentro la testa.
Mamma: Ce l’hai tutte e due le palle nella testa! Perché pensi con le
palle!
Joey: Mum! Please, I have a ball in my head.
Mamma: You have both balls in your head! That’s because you think
with your balls!

Towards the end of the film, Joey (Kevin Kline) is at the hospital recovering
from Rosalie’s (Tracy Ullman) attempts at having him killed and his mother, an
earthy, middle-aged Italian woman is literally hitting him on the head because of
his behaviour towards Rosalie. As can be seen from the back translation, the Italian
dubbed version adds a less than veiled sexual innuendo that was not there in the
ST. Based on the perhaps slightly forced ambiguity of the word “palla” (meaning
both “bullet” and “testicle”), the Italian “mamma” explicitly reprimands her son for
letting his genitals take control of his life. Similar insertions are observed in other
dark comedies as well, such as in (24) from LO, in which the female character’s
blatantly seductive behaviour towards a comically embarrassed Dennis is explicitly
verbalised in the TT:

(24) Sadie: Oh, I know the drill. I mean, I can make those scenes... [Now
both her legs are on Dennis’ shoulders. He’s visibly
embarrassed] ...when I want to.
Sadie: Oh, sono nata in teatro. Voglio dire, riesco a fare quelle scene...
[…] ...ma ora voglio fare all’amore.
Sadie: Oh, I was born in the theatre. I mean, I can act like that... [...]
...but now I want to make love.

Whereas the adding of emphasis on dark humour elements in other examples

could be easily justified in terms of compensation for cases of weakening or even
omission in other parts of the audiovisual text, the shift from dark humour to
sexual humour appears to suggest deeper cultural trends in terms of what is
considered appropriate in audiovisual products in Italy. Although further data
would no doubt be needed to make any generalised statements, it might however
be worth drawing attention to the hypothesis that humour based on sexual allusions
might be considered as less disturbing and therefore more acceptable than dark
humour. In fact, although, intuitively, both sex and death are potentially disturbing
subjects, the possibility could be explored that there exist cultural differences that
make humour based on these topics acceptable in varying degrees in different
lingua-cultural contexts. In this view, the translation/adaptation of audiovisual texts
would appear to be one of the ways in which “unsettling” humour is filtered and
accommodated through locally more acceptable forms of comedy. Needless to say,
238 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

however, a study of the relationship between dark humour and sexual humour in
translated audiovisual texts in a comparative perspective should obviously take into
consideration other factors as well, such as the audiovisual text in its entirety, the
possibility of diachronic changes in the acceptability of potentially disturbing
humour and the issue of translators’ subjectivity and individual sensitivity in the
translation/adaptation process. Specifically, the latter has been suggested to be
partly responsible for some of the inconsistencies found in the rendering of death
and sex related humour of a number of American TV series (see Bucaria 2007 and
Chiaro 2007).

4. Conclusions
By way of conclusion, it could be said that the part of the study aimed at the
analysis of the translation of verbal dark humour in the sample seems to have for
the most part confirmed the research hypothesis. More precisely, partially as a
consequence of the greater presence of Nsp VEH with respect to other kinds of
verbal dark humour, close rendering was found to be the most commonly adopted
translational strategy throughout the sample of dark comedies. Overall, however,
observation of the translational strategies and general trends employed in the ten
films taken into consideration here indicate inconsistency in the rendering of verbal
dark humour, which is most of the times rendered with a similar effect (close
rendering) to the ST, while at times it is even increased in its TL impact, perhaps
also as a result of compensation strategies.
As far as the presence of censorship/manipulation of the ST, the present study
does not seem to provide conclusive results. In fact, the considerable amount of
cases in which verbal dark humour was either omitted or weakened (for a
combined 14.4%) seems to indicate that a conscious effort was made to tone down
the darkly humorous elements, perhaps viewed as a potentially disturbing factor.
However, the fact that compensation for omitted or weakened darkly humorous
elements is indeed present in some cases might be interpreted as an indication that
no specific agenda exists for the diluting of dark humour and that the omission or
weakening of darkly humorous elements in Italian was due to objective
translational constraints in specific portions of the text. Furthermore, the question
was raised of potential differences between the acceptability of dark humour with
respect to sexual humour, in view of the occasional insertion of the latter in the
Italian dubbed versions.

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 Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 4.2 (2008): 215-240 239
DOI 10.2478/v10016-008-0014-2

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240 Chiara Bucaria
Dubbing Dark Humour: A Case Study in Audiovisual Translation

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About the author

Chiara Bucaria graduated in translating and interpreting from the
Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and
Translators of the University of Bologna (Italy) and received a
Master’s Degree in English from Youngstown State University
(USA), where her final dissertation focused on lexical and syntactic
ambiguity in humorous newspaper headlines. Chiara Bucaria holds a
PhD in English language, culture and translation from the University
of Bologna’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies on Translation,
Languages and Culture, where her main research interests involve
humour studies, audiovisual translation, and the teaching of
linguistic and cultural mediation. She also teaches at the University
of Bologna’s Advanced School of Modern Languages for
Interpreters and Translators and is a freelance translator.