Humor translation: a case study on the loss of humorous loads in SpongeBob SquarePants

Audiovisual translation of humor has long been a challenge faced by translators. It is inevitable for translators to remove or reduce some the humorous effect in target language despite their endeavor preserve elements. This qualitative study aimed investigate reasons behind loss scenes from an American comedy cartoon, SpongeBob SquarePants. Sperber and Wilson (1986)’s Relevance theory Chaume (2004)’s Constraints Dubbing framework were adopted this study. The analysis was carried out comparing Zabalbeascoa (1993; 1996)’s loads each identified English Chinese dubbed version. findings indicated that community institution, sense linguistic elements are prone be lost type not merely due cultural asymmetry but also because synchronization constraints dubbing. found substitution strategy which preserved became ineffective new recreated translator may synchronized with actor’s lip movements, actions length utterance displayed on screen. Despite unavoidable untranslatable elements, maximum preservation visual non-marked can deciphered audience without making unnecessary efforts compensates loss, contributing popularity success product culture.