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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 71:1 (2025) ► pp.81–108

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Subtitling strategies of swear words in the stand-up comedy Mo Amer: Muhammad in Texas

 | October University for Modern Sciences and Arts
Published online: 13 May 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00401.saw
Abstract
Stand-up comedies often employ swear words as a technique to create audience rapport and playful discourse. However, translators face significant challenges in subtitling swear words in these performances for conservative cultures, such as Arabic. This research uses a qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze the Netflix special Mo Amer: Muhammad in Texas to identify swear words, their Arabic subtitles, and the subtitling strategies used and their frequency, utilizing Ljung, Magnus. 2011. Swearing: A Cross-Cultural Linguistic Study, 1st ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar swear words’ classification and Khoshsaligheh, Masood, and Saeed Ameri. 2014. “Translation of Taboos in Dubbed American Crime Movies into Persian.” T&I Review 4 (2): 25–50.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar subtitling framework. The results revealed that among the 174 identified swear words, “fuck” and “shit” were the most frequently used, at 52% and 16% respectively. Translators employed euphemism, deletion, and taboo to non-taboo strategies, with euphemism emerging as the most predominant at 44%. The strategy of subtitling via taboo to taboo was not used when rendering swear words into Arabic, probably due to cultural considerations for the audience. The findings enhance cross-cultural subtitling practices for stand-up comedy and promote inclusive and engaging experiences for diverse audiences. Further implications are discussed.
Résumé
Dans le stand-up, les comédiens utilisent souvent des jurons pour créer un rapport avec le public et un discours ludique. Toutefois, les traducteurs sont confrontés à des difficultés considérables lorsqu’il s’agit de sous-titrer les jurons de ces spectacles pour des cultures conservatrices, telles que l’arabe. Cette étude utilise une approche qualitative et quantitative pour analyser le spectacle original Netflix Mo Amer : Muhammad in Texas pour identifier les gros mots, leurs sous-titres en arabe, les stratégies de sous-titrage utilisées et leur fréquence, en utilisant la classification des gros mots de Ljung (2011) et l’approche du sous-titrage de Khoshsaligheh et Ameri (2014). Les résultats ont révélé que parmi les 174 jurons identifiés, “fuck” et ’shit” étaient les plus fréquemment utilisés, avec respectivement 52 % et 16 %. Les traducteurs ont eu recours à l’euphémisme, à la suppression et à des stratégies de changement du tabou vers lenon-tabou, l’euphémisme apparaissant comme la stratégie la plus prédominante (44 %). La stratégie de sous-titrage de tabou à tabou n’a pas été utilisée pour rendre les gros mots en arabe, probablement en raison de considérations culturelles en lien avec le public cible. Les résultats de cette étudesous-tendent l’amélioration des pratiques de sous-titrage interculturel dans le cas des comédies stand-up et encouragent la création d’expériences inclusives et attrayantes pour des publics variés. D’autre retombées sont également examinées.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Studies on subtitling
    • 2.2Recent studies on the subtitling of swear words from English to Arabic
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1The stand-up special
    • 3.2The subtitles
    • 3.3The framework
      • 3.3.1The classification of swear words
      • 3.3.2Subtitling model
    • 3.4Procedure
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Frequency of swear words and their functions
    • 4.2The translations of the identified swear words into Arabic and their respective frequencies
    • 4.3Translation strategies used in subtitling swear words
      • 4.3.1Euphemism
      • 4.3.2Deletion
      • 4.3.3Taboo to non-taboo
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
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