Multilingual humour in audiovisual translation. Modern Family dubbed in Spanish

Abstract

This commentary aims to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Dore (2019) with her articleabout multilingual humour in the Italian dubbed version of the series Modern Family. Shesuggested that the scenes included in the article could be analysed in other languages, so it wasan interesting proposal to carry out the analysis of the Spanish dubbed version, since the L2 inthe source text coincides with the target text language. Thus, this fact makes the translationprocess an arduous activity in these language combinations. Multilingualism is thereforeconsidered the central element in this study. It is a reflection of the current social movement andthe increase of multi-ethnic communities worldwide. This fact leads to citizens who use theirknowledge to assert their own identity; as a consequence, audiovisual producers are also awareof this situation and exploit this phenomenon. Modern Family is an example of this reality andintroduces characters, like Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, as a role model to show an increasinglycommon tendency, the use of multilingual and multi-ethnic characters that reflect this new socialsituation. Thanks to the selected examples, we will see whether the use of multilingualism as asource of humour is also transmitted to the Spanish dubbed version, as it did in the Italiandubbed version studied by the abovementioned scholar.