Broadcast Stand-up Comedy and Its Translation

Abstract

With the rise of new platforms of media consumptions, aided by new digital technologies, wider audiences and a growing demand for translated materials, new audiovisual transfer modes have surfaced and with them the field of AVT “has grown exponentially, parallel to the production, consumption, interaction with and general interest in audiovisual products” [Chaume 2018: 41]. Stand-up comedy usually thrives as a live form of art. However, digital consumption has allowed comedians to reach a global audience via recording and broadcasting of their performances, and by doing so, it warranted the translation of the genre. In this study, after investigating how the audiovisual format affects comedians’ performances and their subtitling into Italian, I propose new, potentially useful concepts for a translational analysis of broadcast stand-up. Included is a discussion of the presence of audiovisual elements in the streamed specials and an inquiry of the fictionality of the scripted dialogue.