The Subtitling of Stand-up Comedies: Strategies and Challenges: The Case of “The American Dream” by Gad Elmaleh

Abstract

The current study aims to evaluate the translation strategies used in the subtitling of the stand-up comedy entitled “The American Dream,” performed by the Moroccan-French comedian Gad Elmaleh and broadcasted on Netflix. It is taken for granted that translation is needed to bridge communication between two languages and between cultures. Nowadays, however, digital translation has changed the way information is created and accessed to the extent that it is now consumed via the screen. Examining the difficulties of English-to-Arabic subtitling is another primary goal of this research. The task gets harder when the source text is a humoristic one because humour touches many areas of people’s lives. Humour is always difficult to subtitle as it is often linked to cultural and linguistic factors. Though humour is universal, some humour is culturally specific and cannot be funny if you are not part of the target culture. This paper identifies the main strategies translators use to render the source text into Arabic. It will also take a look at the linguistic, cultural, and technical challenges that may hinder communication. In the case of humour, the intended meaning is lost, and translation does not perform its tasks. Having some cultural references for this show will allow us to understand and analyse the translation and identify the challenges, losses, and inaccuracies.