Translation of jokes with culture-bound items in Deadpool 2

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the translation of jokes with culture-bound items in the Finnish subtitles of the movie Deadpool 2. The aim is to analyze the strategies used to translate the jokes from English into Finnish and to examine whether the strategies used more often are source language oriented or target language oriented. The research material consisted of the Finnish subtitles and the original English script of the movie, which contains a copious amount of culturally specific jokes. The translation strategies were categorized with Pedersen’s (2005) model which classifies seven translation methods into source language oriented and target language oriented strategies. The jokes were also classified into four categories based on the way they refer to American culture: 1) Society, 2) Celebrities, 3) Food and 4) Other. The findings indicate that the most used strategy in this case was source language oriented translation and more specifically retention was used the most. The use of retention was especially present when translating references to celebrities in jokes. The use of both strategies was clearly present and the mix of both strategies ensures a pleasant viewer experience for the Finnish audiences. This study highlights the challenges of translating films that are rich in cultural references and humor. The findings contribute to the ongoing discussion in audiovisual translation research, particularly on the role of translation strategies in a globalized media.