Out of ordure. Shi(f)t(s) and fluidity in expelling (e)motion

The inclusion of scurrilous parody in both its visual and verbal representations of political satire is by no means new. From works of Jonathan Swift to the comedy of the Monty Pythons, across time British culture has been literally smeared with excreta and a variety of other bodily fluids. The present is no different. On social media, the term \u201cBrexit\u201d soon morphed into the word \u201cBrexshit\u201d mainly by the nation\u2019s so-called \u201cBremainers\u201d, and triggered a plethora of verbal banter, image macros (aka internet memes) gifs, vids etc. not to mention traditional cartoons often involving the presence of toilets, dung, and what I have labelled \u201cBrown humour\u201d. Similarly, in the USA, the politics of President Donald Trump prompted similar representations in the name of humour. Based on a robust sample of both verbal and visual content retrieved from the press and the internet, I set out to examine how political discourse has become contaminated with elements of disgust and discuss why this might be so

“Dubbing is the New Black? Exploring the notion of voice”

The extensive literature that is available on dubbing mainly focuses on the comparison of translational choices in specific language pairs, one of which will typically be English. While many studies are concerned with the issue of translating language variation, sociolects, ethnolects and accent, none focus on the notion of voice itself. Yet, the issue of “translated” voices is key because these voices seem to irritate audiences. This article explores the notion of voice in the three major turning points in screen translation, the birth and international flow of Hollywood movies in the 1920s and 30s, the prime of US movies and television series from the 1970s to the 1990s and the present-day expansion of non-linear platforms such as Netflix and Prime Video. These eras demanded the translation of innumerable products for ever-more demanding audiences. The latest turn in audio-visual translation involves products in languages other than English that are now available dubbed into “translated” English voices. Furthermore, the impact of artificial intelligence on the dubbing industry is revolutionizing not only the concept of “translation proper” but also voices

The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age

In this accessible book, Delia Chiaro provides a fresh overview of the language of jokes in a globalized and digitalized world. The book shows how, while on the one hand the lingua-cultural nuts and bolts of jokes have remained unchanged over time, on the other, the time-space compression brought about by modern technology has generated new settings and new ways of joking and playing with language. The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age covers a wide range of settings from social networks, e-mails and memes, to more traditional fields of film and TV (especially sitcoms and game shows) and advertising. Chiaro’s consideration of the increasingly virtual context of jokes delights with both up-to-date examples and frequent reference to the most central theories of comedy. This lively book will be essential reading for any student or researcher working in the area of language and humour and will be of interest to those in language and media and sociolinguistics

The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age

In this accessible book, Delia Chiaro provides a fresh overview of the language of jokes in a globalized and digitalized world. The book shows how, while on the one hand the lingua-cultural nuts and bolts of jokes have remained unchanged over time, on the other, the time-space compression brought about by modern technology has generated new settings and new ways of joking and playing with language. The Language of Jokes in the Digital Age covers a wide range of settings from social networks, e-mails and memes, to more traditional fields of film and TV (especially sitcoms and game shows) and advertising. Chiaro’s consideration of the increasingly virtual context of jokes delights with both up-to-date examples and frequent reference to the most central theories of comedy. This lively book will be essential reading for any student or researcher working in the area of language and humour and will be of interest to those in language and media and sociolinguistics

Fandom versus citizenship: the “weirdisation”of politics

This paper examines occurrences of humour in Twitter-fed celebrity-follower communities. Using a small, one-month sample of the Twitter feeds of 12 British celebrities, we examined political and humorous content of celebrity tweets and the first five responses from their followers. From this preliminary study, we found that the notion of “weirdisation” strongly emerges, together with the new conceptual tool of “shards of humour”.Keywords:fandoms

Not in front of the children?: an analysis of sex on screen in Italy

Despite the fact that both state owned (RAI) and privately owned (Mediaset) Ital-ian television channels habitually adopt scantily dressed women in provocative poses to fulfill a purely decorative function on daytime television, a closer look at Italian TV reveals that it is far less liberated than it seems. In fact, in stark contradiction to the apparent unrestraint of autochthonous studio productions, references to sex and sexuality in imported fictional products tend to be severely mitigated in their translated forms. Furthermore, it also appears that sexual behaviour beyond traditional male/female 'mainstream' sexual practices becomes in-creasingly taboo in translation, as they too are either toned down or totally eliminated. Relegated to cable and satellite channels or late-night/early morning viewing on one of the privately owned Mediaset channels, programs containing very explicit sexual content such as US produced 'Sex and the City' are moderated quite significantly for Italian audiences, not only in terms of the pervasive use of strong, taboo language, but also for explicit references to a variety of sexual practices.This paper will discuss the norms which govern the translation of 'adult' materials for Italian TV both from an examination of the linguistic content of the programs themselves and from the point of view of operators involved in the dubbing process

Film remakes, the black sheep of translation

Film remakes have often been neglected by translation studies in favour of other forms of audiovisual translation such as subtitling and dubbing. Yet, as this article will argue, remakes are also a form of cinematic translation. Beginning with a survey of previous, ambivalent approaches to the status of remakes, it proposes that remakes are multimodal, adaptive translations: they translate the many modes of the film being remade and offer a reworking of that source text. The multimodal nature of remakes is explored through a reading of Breathless, Jim McBride's 1983 remake of Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle (1959), which shows how remade films may repeat the narrative of, but differ on multiple levels from, their source films. Due to the collaborative nature of film production, remakes involve multiple agents of translation. As such, remakes offer an expanded understanding of audiovisual translation

The British will use question-tags, won't they? The case of Four Weddings and a Funeral

There are, in fact, so many American TV films, series, situation comedies and cartoons on the Italian screen that it is actually difficult to find much material which is dubbed into Italian from varieties of English other than US English, including British English itself.so many American TV films, series, situation comedies and cartoons on the Italian screen that it is actually difficult to find much material which is dubbed into Italian from varieties of English other than US English, including British English itself. If Italian television is being literally swamped by American programmes, the movie scene is hardly different. There is no doubt that the majority of films on the Italian circuits are produced in Hollywood

Aiutiamoli a casa loro

Un breve saggio su l'umorismo su i migranti in italia

Filthy Viewing, Dirty Laughter

This chapter sets out to identify the diverse types and functions of laughter occurring in "How Clean is your House" a lifestyle makeover program which ran for five series on UK TV Channel 4 between May 2003 and September 2009. While this \u2018before and after\u2019 format is instructive in terms of tips regarding household tasks, it is also very funny. In fact, rather than simply occurring in response to the shocking yet comical situations presented at the start of each episode, much laughter in the series conveys nervousness and embarrassment as well as residents\u2019/culprits\u2019 alignment and dis-alignment with Woodburn and Mackenzie\u2019s\u2019 laughter and/or admonishments. Laughter particles also occur in the speaker\u2019s voice-over therefore highlighting the program\u2019s importance of not being earnest. The chapter explores the diverse types and functions of laughter in six episodes of the series and investigated the attraction of such programmes on audiences around the world