The role of translators is never “on a break”. A contrastive analysis of Friends between the original and the Italian dubbed and subtitled versions

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the translation discrepancies between the English and the Italian versions of four episodes of the famous sitcom Friends. After reading some previous analysis on Internet, the attention has been focused on some extracts examined mainly in line with the theories of Iaia (2015), Taylor and Perego (2016) and Fusco (2012). The work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter provides a general overview of audiovisual translation with a focus on dubbing, subtitling and humour. The second chapter begins with the plot of Friends and then shows how Friends is currently perceived by the Millennials who have accused it for its lack of diversity and its tendency to popularise homophobia and sexism. The chapter also discusses humour and, in particular, the difficulties of conveying the original humour through audiovisual translation. Finally, its perception in Italy is examined in connection with the role of censorship in the 90s. The third chapter represents the core of this thesis. The focus is on the differences between the English text and the Italian one both in dubbing and subtitling and then compares the two versions to the solutions produced by myself by means of the audiovisual translation program Aegisub. The conclusion will include some considerations about the future of the translation profession and the importance of adapting texts to the current audience where the previous translations are now obsolete.