Translating Humor in the TV show BoJack Horseman (English to Spanish)

8/17/2019 Translating Humor in the TV show BoJack Horseman (English to Spanish)

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Translating Humor in the TV show Bojack Horseman

(English-Spanish)

By Paulina Mazur

In the world of adult animation sitcoms, Bojack Horseman is one of the recent

ones, and perhaps not as well-known as its predecessors (The Simpsons or Family Guy, to

name a few). The show premiered on August 22, 201, on !etfli", and its creators are the

cartoonist #isa $anawalt, %ill Arnett and &aphael 'o-%akserg. %ikipedia classifies

the show as Animated sitcom, Adult animation, ramed*, +atire and 'lack comed*.

!eedless to sa*, none of the genres mentioned are eas* to translate. Animation allows for

ridiculous situations that would e hard to pull off in real life, whereas comed* and satire

are fertile grounds for endless amiguities and wordpla*. I will ase m* anal*sis of the

translation of sutitles in the second season of the series. I will tr* to understand, ustif*

or discredit the translators choices, and at times offer m* own alternatie solutions.

In the first episode of season two, efore the opening credits egin to roll, there is

a dialogue which might hae presented a challenge to the translator. /ore than a

dialogue, it is a shouting match etween the protagonists mother and father. The father

comes home late, and his wife accuses him of eing unfaithful and starts reaking plates

in fur*. +he welcomes him with the words look at *ou, ig stud (translated ersion

3a*a semental) It helps to mention that all the memers of the famil* are

anthropomorphic horses, so the doule meaning of stud has a slightl* humorous effect

oth in 4nglish and the +panish ersion. The prolems start when the couple ickers

aout plates. It goes like this

$usand %h* do we een hae saucers5 we dont drink tea

%ife The*re for entertaining

$usand %ell, I am e"itaining (and he leaes the house).

The husands eral comeack utili6es the wifes own words and twists them a it,

which is what gies it a mocking effect. The husand forms a neologism to mirror the


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word entertaining, which is eas* to do in 4nglish * simpl* adding -ain and -ing.

!ot so in +panish. The translators solution is

– 78 por9ue tenemos platitos5 3nosotros no tomamos t:

– 4sos platitos son para entretenernos

– 7Ah si5 ;ues *o me o* a entretener.

The translator decided to presere the core purpuse of he wordpla*, which is to spite the

wife * mirroring her own language. The translator repeated the word entertain to

eoke a similar effect as in the original ersion. This is an


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– @h... I wrote down late, so it will come later.

The source of the misunderstanding etween ;rincess >arol*n and her assistant is

due paron*m*, or phonetic similarit* etween words. 4ither her pronunciation was off, or

he was too distracted to pa* attention to her e"act words. This is the official translators

solution

– Tu caf: llegara tardado, como t 9uerBas.

– die cargado.

– @h. 4scriB tardado, asB 9ue tardarC.

@nce again, the asics of the interaction D in this case, a misunderstanding aoutcoffee D hae een presered. Eranted it is harder to confuse tardado and cargado,

which slightl* takes awa* from erisimilitude of the dialogue, ut it is nonetheless a good

solution as the translator a) recogni6ed the comic mechanism (paron*m*) ) used the

same mechanism in T.#. while maintaining a similar general meaning.

In the following episode, there is a scene in which the protagonist, 'oack, spies

on his romantic rial, with the hopes of discoering some dirt* secret of his. Finall*, he

discoers that the other is a communist and sa*s


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This is 9uite acceptale, though one can see that the ulgarism (


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– !o, regular court

– 4h, oka*. ut also Im hungr* so i might ust stop * the regular court.

$ere the humorous effect is eoked * the pol*sem*, or multiple meanings, of the

word


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;ara morirse is a 9uirk* solution, surel* with an aim to prooke laughter in the

iewer. $oweer it leaes room for amiguit*. I possil* ma* hae written 4s para

morirse so that the remark is clearer, though para morirse might mean either

delicious or hilarious. +o in the light of all that, a 9uestion springs to mind was it

necessar* to pla* around with the te"t at all5 If the translator had written ;or la ida. #o

9ue nos matarC the effect would hae een clearer, and more faithful to the original.

#ater in the same episode, the ill director finall* dies, and some friends that

appear at the funeral egin to suspect that someone might hae killed him. @ne of them is

a distracted, confused and heail* drugged actress. +he is hardl* aware of the makeshift

inestigation in which she is taking part

'oJack I think that $er might hae een murdered

(all gasp)

Actress %hats going on5 +omething aout a merger5

The wordpla*, once again ased on paron*m*, is rather far-fetched, een in

4nglish. Its difficult to confuse murder with merger, unless someone is under the

influence, like the character in 9uestion. The translated ersion goes thus


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– >reo 9ue a $er le podrBan haer asesinado

– 7Kue pasa5 7Algo de un atentado5

The same principles hae een applied.


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#uckil*, there does e"ist an e"pression in +panish which means


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clothing moe. It is slightl* stretched ut it works. Another alternatie solution might

hae een Eracias Amanda, tu influencia tiene mucho peso. In this wa*, the remark is

clearer and ruder, and therefore ma*e een a it funnier.

The ne"t e"ample is more low-row than the rest. The aforementioned iane has

gotten herself into troule * pulicl* accusing a famous person, and now she is

receiing death threats from the star?s angr* fans. +he takes one of the man* letters that

pile her kitchen tale and reads aloud

– 8ou can?t, *ou stupid ugl* can?t.

– 8eah...that doesn?t sa* can?t. (comments her husand who is sitting ne"t to her

as she reads).

The wordpla*, ased on homon*m*, or similarit* of sounds, in the words can?t

and cunt, is so emedded in the 4nglish language that it needs no e"planation. %hen

iane?s husand sa*s that it doesn?t sa* can?t the real meaning of the message is

oious to the iewers. !ow, as for the +panish ersion, the translator presents the

+panish audience with the following

– T cepilla, cepilla fea * estupida.

– *a, no pone capulla.

I hae to disagree with this translation. First of all, it does not make much sense,

as the husand does not and should not reeal what the actual insult is. And een if so, it

should e *a, pero allB pone capulla. In general, I think it would hae sufficed to

simpl* write *a, pero allB no pone cepilla and most +panish iewers would make the

implied association in their minds.

As some e"amples hae alread* shown, translating idiomatic e"pressions is

trick*, and I am aout to descrie another instance of that. iane is punished for stepping

out and fairl* accusing a famous star. +hes talking to her husand on the phone who tells

her that her newl*-gained, ad reputation is now all oer the internet. The husand tells

her what is written on some wesite called


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+he replies


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In episode O of the series, ;rincess >arol*ns colleague confesses his attraction to

her and asks her to moe town with him. +he is not coninced, and so tr*ing further to

conince her, he sa*s

- >arol*n, *ou are m* gritt*, witt*, sitt* kitt*, and I want *ou with me itt* itt*

>arol*n, eres mi gatita manita uranita. Kuiero 9ue engas conmigo de la manita.

The humorous silliness, once again is ased on rh*me and in this case the

diminutie ending


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Further challenges are also posed * homophones. $omophonic words are those

that sound the same ut are spelled differentl* and hae distinct meanings. Its eas* to see

that the* pae the wa* for humor due to the amiguit* the* introduce. In episode eleen

of BoJack Horseman, the main character is forced to make up an e"cuse for his presence

on the spot. +o to the 9uestion


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to stretch the te"t a it, as long as it is necessar* and as long as the solution does not

deprie the plot of sense, or is widel* inaccurate.

In the twelfth and final episode of the series, 'oJacks sidekick oins an impro

group and the okes, aleit poor 9ualit* ones, fl* right and left. After Todd tells his friends

something that makes them laugh, one of the friend replies


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matter of chance that the character was initing Todd to oin him on a sea ourne*. $ad

the conte"t een different, for e"ample if the initation was to go to the desert, he

translation wouldnt make sense. As a side note, it might e interesting to make as

comparatie stud* of idiomatic e"pressions in the 4nglishL+panish language comination

and tr* to see which idioms share a semantic field. That would surel* make the future

translators? o much easier.

The last e"ample of the anal*sis re9uires some ackground information to clarif*

the conte"t. Two emplo*ees of an agenc* decide to 9uit and set up their own compan*.

The plan is to tell off the oss and the future e"-coworkers and to walk awa*

ceremoniousl*. $oweer, once the* are aout to make an announcement, the* discoer

that the oss is in the hospital

– /r. %itherspoon is in the hospital. he had a stroke.

– %ell *ou know what *ou rat astards can can stroke5 /* ig, hair*....

This oscene and rude farewell is trick* to translate indeed. The humor is ased

on the pol*sem* of the word


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arious translation techni9ues. +he has aptl* used oli9ue translation especiall*

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Translating Humor in the TV show BoJack Horseman (English to Spanish)