The translation of humour in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory

This paper sets out to analyse one of the greatest difficulties encountered when dubbing audiovisual products, namely the rendition of humour, with specific reference to the popular television show The Big Bang Theory and its Italian translation. Starting from a more general look into the field of audiovisual translation, as well as a short historical outline, particular attention will be paid to the process of dubbing, with an overview on the various stages of the process and the main difficulties involved. The second chapter will focus on the translation of culture and cultural references as well as the rendition of different types of humour, with particular mention to the issues related to cultural humour and wordplay. The third and last chapter will consist of a case study on The Big Bang Theory, focusing on some of the key aspects related to humour and how it was dubbed into Italian. Attention will be paid to the highly debated translations of instances of universal humour in the first season, followed by a closer look at how humour is translated when based on cultural identities, and lastly by examples of successful and unsuccessful translation of wordplay throughout the show.