Ethnolinguistics of Translating Jokes. Six Questions

Abstract

 

This paper will consider six fundamental questions that can be asked when jokes are compared and contrasted across languages or translated.

1. What jokes are going global?
2. How are parodies part of cultural rivalry and competition?
3. Can we compare parodies with mean jokes?
4. What jokes don’t translate?
5. Who laughs at Czech jokes?
6. Who laughs at Croatian jokes?

Discussing these questions should enable us to consider the targets of jokes, the cultural narratives that underpin them, and the strategies and logics behind them. It will encourage us to ask what jokes manage to migrate from one context to another, and what cultural and linguistic factors come into play when jokes go out of fashion or prove impossible to translate.