Broadcast Stand-up Comedy and its Translation: expanded results

The main objective of this study is to trace a descriptive profile of broadcast stand-up comedy performances and discuss subtitling and translation strategies employed in the texts, considering the way the jokes are delivered, how the build-up and punchlines impact its translation and whether stand- up performances are in need of tailored subtitling and translation guidelines. Consequently, the research intends to investigate and discuss subtitling guidelines and translation strategies for Italian. Despite not receiving much scholarly attention, stand-up performances are characterised by different features that are worth analysing and that can prove insidious in the context of interlingual translation. In stand-up, the linguistic style of the set is almost always informal: it aids in making the audience receptive to new pieces of information, which in turn helps the comedian deliver more elaborate punchlines, as well as successfully allowing the repeated use of catchphrases throughout the set. Different topics are usually chained together and knowledge for further jokes is shared by the performer via short story-telling passages, which serve as a build-up for jabs and punchlines, characterising the overall style as both conversational and anecdotal. Swearing and infringement of standards of decency are very common, and by some even encouraged. As above-mentioned, however, stand-up is hardly interactional. The discourse is presented as a monologue, albeit disguised as an everyday conversation, and non-laughter feedback emerges only when explicitly prompted (e.g.: “give us a cheer if...”, “has anyone ever done/heard/tried...”). Body language and props are involved, but the latter sees little use (some images can be shown behind the comedian, or passages from printed paper may be read). Gestures and facial expressions, however, serve multiple purposes, mainly to reinforce a punchline, deliver further information (astonishment, disgust, sarcasm etc.) or, along with prosody and voice modulation, to portray an impression. The textual analyses in this study will take into account these features along with further findings. This research will focus on translation of contemporary British stand-up comedy performances, in particular stage recordings of at least 20 minutes, to provide the study with sufficient material in terms of both joke delivery and punchline build-up. Limiting the scope to British performances puts a cap on the number of shows and performances available, providing the study with a consistent sense of humour to discuss, as it will deal mainly with British cross-cultural references and local idioms and their translations. Furthermore, the study aims to discuss subtitling guidelines and translation strategies specifically for Italian; its applicability to different target languages remains for future research.