Humor Across Tongues: A Study of Linguistic, Cultural, and Universal Resonance in the Hindi Dub of Country Comfort

Abstract

This study explores humor as a language art that appears in many parts of our everyday lives. The specific focus is on the "Country Comfort" series, aiming to identify the types of humor prevalent within it and assess the efficacy of translating the humorous effects into the target language. Employing a qualitative descriptive method, particularly content analysis, the researchers are the primary instrument to collect and analyze data, discerning humor types, features, and effects within the series. Raphaelson-West's theory on humor translation guides the data processing, while humor categories such as linguistic, cultural, and universal humor serve as lenses for presenting and examining the research corpus. Additionally, Translation decisions are analyzed using Peter Newmark’s strategies, including adaptation, extensive explanation, editorial techniques, and transcreation. The findings show that only 13 out of 24 wordplay (54%) instances and 1 out of 8 cultural references were successfully dubbed, leading to a noticeable loss of humor. However, all 10 examples of universal humor were effectively retained. This highlights the need for strategies like adaptation and transcreation to preserve humor in translation.