Analysis Of Humor Translation In Sitcom The Big Bang Theory In Light Of Skopostheorie

Humor is not only rooted in language and culture, but also an important part ofdifferent cultures and languages. Nowadays, the study on humor is mainly carried outfrom the perspective of literature, arts, and psychology. There is very little study onhumor from the angle of translation. Furthermore, because humor in differentlanguages or cultures possesses particular rhetorical and cultural characteristics, thetranslatability of humor is controversial, and some researchers even claim that humoris untranslatable.With the deepening communication between China and the Western world, moreand more foreign movies and TV plays are shown on Chinese screen, among whichare sitcoms. As a special audiovisual genre, English sitcom is featured by humor.Undoubtedly, the translation of humor plays a decisive role in creating the desiredeffect of the comedy in target language audience.Based on the core theory of functional translation approaches– Skopostheorie,this thesis presents a case study of the humorous language in the popular Americansitcom The Big Bang Theory by analyzing the strategies that the translator adoptswhen translating the humorous language in this sitcom. It is suggested in this thesisthat the translator should take the reproduction of the humorous effects of the sourcelanguage as the chief principle and choose adequate translating strategies so as tomake the target audience perceive the humor of the source language in accordancewith their expectations and the cultural customs of the target languages.