Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Purpose and Significance 1

1.3 Outline of the Thesis 2

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Domestication and Foreignization abroad 3

2.2 Domestication and Foreignization at home 4

2.3 Conclusion 4

3. American Late-Night Talk Show 6

3.1 Definition of American Late-Night Talk Show 6

3.2 Representatives and Features of American Late-Night Talk Show 6

3.2.1 Saturday Night Live 6

3.2.2 The Daily Show 6

3.3.3 The Colbert Report 7

3.3.4 Real Time 7

4. Analysis of Domestication Strategy in American Late-Night Talk Show 8

4.1 Wordplay 8

4.2 Trendy Words 10

4.3 Vividness 11

4.4 Cultural Humor 12

5. Conclusion 16

References 17

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background

On Feb 10, 2015, Jon Stewart, who’s been with The Daily Show for nearly 17 years, announced that he would step down later this year. A network from Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless read as follows: “For the better part of the last two decades, I have had the incredible honor and privilege of working with Jon Stewart. His comedic brilliance is second to none. Jon has been at the heart of the best talent in the industry, in front of and behind the camera. Through his unique voice and vision, The Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come. Jon will remain at the helm of The Daily Show until later this year. He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family.” 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is an American late-night talk show, which draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organizations etc. It is currently the second longest-running program on Comedy Central after South Park, and has won 18 Primetime Emmy Awards. By the end of 2013 The Daily Show’s rating hit 2.5 million viewers nightly. (WIKI)

Humor is the main reason these shows receive warm welcome in the United States. However, in order to let humor in these shows resonate in China, translation plays an essential role in transcending the quintessence of humor. On April 4th 2013, a video uploaded by Gudabaihua (a Weiboer) was overnight popular on the internet. It was a segment with his Chinese subtitle translation about Jon Stewart making jokes on North Korea threatening America in the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Then on May 6th 2013, CCTV used Gudabaihua’s another processed video of the Daily Show with his Chinese subtitle translation to broadcast a piece of American news. The spread of the Daily Show and other late-night talk shows in China is so wide that even CCTV finds it hard not to ignore it.

1.2 Purpose and Significance

The reason why Gudabaihua’s translation receives overwhelmingly warm applause is because his domestication strategy makes his translation native, funny and understandable to Chinese audience. Why he chooses domestication strategy instead of foreignization? 1. Because according to the main feature of late-night talk shows, most of the language hosts use includes wordplay/punning, allusions, verbal irony, slangs that involve cultural, religious, political, geographical or historical background, Chinese translation must be equivalent to the original, hence domestication is more suitable for this kind of translation for it can help break down cultural barriers to get the humor across Chinese audience. 2. Besides, since such television show translation is subtitle translation, which is instant and word limited, using forignization could hardly get Chinese audience across in such short time and limited words. 3. And since the targeted audience are well-educated Chinese intellectuals who command middle or high level of English, they are more eager to learn English-Chinese translation, it wouldn’t hurt to use domestication to help reshape the American value in a localized way to buffer the threat of American cultural invasion. With the aid of buzzword, domestication seems to be a good choice in casual and real-time updated late-night comedy show translation.