The Data

4.2 The Data

In Chapter 1 I have briefly introduced Friends and its world-wide success, referring in particular to its broadcasting in the U.S.A. and Italy. Furthermore, I have also reported some academic research on Friends carried out in different fields of study. In the following subsection I will describe my data in more detail. Subsequently, I will justify my choice of analysing this particular series.

4.2.1 Description of Friends As mentioned earlier, the data under investigation comprises two parallel datasets, the ST and the TT. The former contains the transcription of the original version of the first series of Friends. The latter consists of the transcription of its dubbed Italian version. I have noted earlier that Friends is a North American TV comedy programme created by Marta Kauffman and David Crane. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcast it weekly in the U.S.A. from 1994 to 2004, producing a total of ten series (Walte 2007: 55). Full details of each episode of the first series can be found in Appendix I, “List of Data”.

This sitcom revolves around the lives of six main young characters, namely Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, Phoebe and Rachel. Monica and Rachel share Monica’s flat while Chandler and Joey live together in a flat opposite Monica’s. Ross and Phoebe have their own flats. They all live and work in New York, U.S.A. and the usual settings for the funny and sometimes grotesque situations involving them are their flats and a coffee shop called Central Perk, where they meet on a regular basis. What seems to appeal to the audience this programme targets (late teens to mid twenties) are the themes developed in the series (interpersonal relationships, sex, work and, above all, friendship) and the language used (accessible everyday language, This sitcom revolves around the lives of six main young characters, namely Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, Phoebe and Rachel. Monica and Rachel share Monica’s flat while Chandler and Joey live together in a flat opposite Monica’s. Ross and Phoebe have their own flats. They all live and work in New York, U.S.A. and the usual settings for the funny and sometimes grotesque situations involving them are their flats and a coffee shop called Central Perk, where they meet on a regular basis. What seems to appeal to the audience this programme targets (late teens to mid twenties) are the themes developed in the series (interpersonal relationships, sex, work and, above all, friendship) and the language used (accessible everyday language,

As I mentioned in Chapter 2, TV comedies attempt to replicate everyday life and situations but they also distort them for humorous purposes. The characters in Friends can be s aid to be examples of ‘distorted’ or ‘exaggerated prototypes’ (Culpeper 2001: 88-89, cf. Section 2.6 for a definition). For example, Joey is generally perceived as over-confident but also absent-minded, often unable to grasp the implied meaning of other ch aracters’ utterances. In contrast, Chandler is quick-minded, witty, but also insecure and his turns are often extremely sarcastic. Ross is a sensitive, highly educated but also maladroit kind of man. The female characters are equally peculiar. Rachel is a sexy shopaholic while Phoebe is extremely eccentric and unpredictable. Finally, Monica is a perfectionist and extremely competitive woman, who is also obsessed with her weight (cf. also Ross 1998: 94; Walte 2007: 59-60).

The humour in Friends is directly linked to the general themes developed in the series and the way the six main characters deal with the situations they experience. In addition, it frequently revolves around various prejudices such as sexism and homophobia. For example, the si x main characters’ conversations are often gender- based discussions about sex, which exploit stereotyped ideas (e.g. men are womanisers and women fake orgasm). Similarly, homophobic comments are usually the result of biased opinions about sexuality and gender, which are exploited for humorous purpose. In other words, the humour of the series seems to derive in part from the fact that the scriptwriters often exploit the characters’ conversational The humour in Friends is directly linked to the general themes developed in the series and the way the six main characters deal with the situations they experience. In addition, it frequently revolves around various prejudices such as sexism and homophobia. For example, the si x main characters’ conversations are often gender- based discussions about sex, which exploit stereotyped ideas (e.g. men are womanisers and women fake orgasm). Similarly, homophobic comments are usually the result of biased opinions about sexuality and gender, which are exploited for humorous purpose. In other words, the humour of the series seems to derive in part from the fact that the scriptwriters often exploit the characters’ conversational

These aspects of the six main character’s personalities and the humour in the series will become more evident during the discussion of some excerpts in the data analysis.

4.2.2 Reasons for Choosing this Data As I have remarked in the introductory chapter of this thesis, Friends has had an enormous success both within and outside the boundaries of North American society and English-speaking countries. Hence, it is a good candidate for investigating the process of humour creation in audiovisual settings and, more importantly, its translation.

I have chosen the first series because it sets recurrent patterns about the themes developed in Friends . Moreover, it introduces the six main characters’ idiosyncratic features and the fictional world within which they act.

As mentioned earlier, I concentrate on wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphor in Friends. Firstly, I aim to understand how the production crew and the scriptwriters in particular exploited these devices so as to create humour. In Humour Studies, much research has focused on self-contained types of texts such as jokes. Only recently has more attention been paid to humour in longer texts (cf. Ch. 2 for a discussion). Consequently, this thesis seeks to contribute to the on-going research on the mechanisms at work in the production of potential humour in longer texts, such as conversational exchanges in comedy.

Secondly, I intend to verify what type of translation strategies the translators used in order to transfer potentially humorous wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphors into Italian. In TS, some scholars have tackled some of the problems Secondly, I intend to verify what type of translation strategies the translators used in order to transfer potentially humorous wordplay, culture-specific allusions and metaphors into Italian. In TS, some scholars have tackled some of the problems

Finally, I aim to unveil the differences between the two datasets regarding these three phenomena. In particular, I attempt to establish differences in terms of humour potential between the ST and TT due to translation. This can hopefully encourage future developments in the theoretical debate regarding the AVT of humour.