A Functionalist Approach To The Reception Of Humor In Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties

The successful reception of audiovisual productions, most notably the humor-studded ones, depends heavily on the quality of the translation of the audiovisual text. AV translation has been dealt with in depth by a number of studies in the past few years. However, most studies seem to have ignored the key question of reception. This paper aims to address this issue by analyzing some questions relating to the level of reception of AV translated humor in English. To this end, a case study of Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, one of the most popular cartoon films is presented. The different reception of humor by both native speakers of English and the Chinese viewers will be compared and analyzed from a functionalist approach.