The Reconstruction of French Humour in Turkish and Arabic Subtitles: A Comparative Analysis
Fatma Turkmen1* 
, Sezer Yılmaz2
Abstract. Humour constitutes a widespread and multilayered dimension of human communication, serving functions that facilitate social interaction, strengthen persuasive discourse, and render cultural subtleties visible. Nevertheless, the translation of humour presents a multifaceted area of difficulty, particularly when transfer takes place between linguistically and culturally distant contexts. This article examines the difficulties and possibilities involved in transferring French humour into Turkish and Arabic, specifically as it appears in Astérix et Obélix: Le Combat des Chefs (Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight). The selection of the Asterix and Obelix mini-series as the object of analysis is not coincidental; the production’s rich verbal, visual, and cultural texture of humour offers a suitable sample for evaluating the effectiveness of different translation methods. The process of translating humour requires not only the achievement of linguistic equivalence, but also a profound understanding of the sensitivities of the target audience, cultural references, and the specific features related to the timing and presentation of the comic element. In this study, the Turkish and Arabic translations of the production in question are analysed from a critical perspective; the methods employed, the difficulties encountered, and the effects of linguistic and cultural divergences on the successful transfer of humour are discussed. In this article, subtitles containing humorous elements selected from the source text and its translations are examined under three categories: humorous elements, wordplay, and general translation strategies. For the classification of humorous elements, Martínez-Sierra’s model of humour classification is employed. In the analysis of subtitles, Delabastita’s translation strategies are used for the translation of wordplay, while culture-specific and extralinguistic elements, as well as general humour translation transfer strategies, are examined within the framework of Jan Pedersen’s taxonomy. Pedersen’s strategies, which were specifically designed for subtitle translation and proposed for the translation of extralinguistic culture-bound references, have been applied to the translation of extralinguistic elements present in a literary work. Evaluations have been made by applying Pedersen’s strategies to the translations of extralinguistic elements in a literary work. The study attempts to determine which of the most fundamental approaches, defined as source-oriented or target-oriented, translators tend to adopt more prominently. As a result of the study, it has been observed that there are significant differences between the two compared target-language outputs in terms of their ways of transferring humour: Turkish subtitle translations are target-language-oriented, whereas Arabic subtitles are source-language-oriented.
Keywords: humour translation, translation studies, Asterix and Obelix, animation translation, audiovisual translation