Aportaciones del lenguaje no verbal a la comunicación.

According to Pierson (2001: 53), humour in Seinfeld relies heavily on the “social codes” and “manners” of the American urban lifestyle, which are normally elevated comically into highly absurd situations. These awkward situations are presented throughout the nine seasons of the show. For example, in the episode, “The Implant”, George’s disturbing habit of double dipping potato chips provokes disturbance during the funeral of his girlfriend’s aunt. In “The Parking Garage”, Kramer persuades Jerry and George to urinate in the parking garage and are arrested and fined. The series adopts and presents common social codes and manners which are, in many

instances, comprehensible and appreciated by both American audiences and different cultures around the world.

It can be argued that most themes and humorous situations in Seinfeld are not about important events experienced by the audiences; the main aim of the series as stated by Gracia (2000: 148-151) is to address commonplace occurrences and present them in a funny but relevant way. This may include discussing prickly issues that no one went near before, such as sex-related issues. For example, one of the funniest and most popular episodes is “The Contest”, which revolves around masturbation. This is a very taboo subject, which is rarely tackled on TV. The four main characters Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine compete in a contest to see who can resist the urge to masturbate for the longest period of time; the winner of the contest will be named the “Master” of his Domain. Kramer cannot refrain from practicing masturbation and quickly withdraw from the competition. Despite being a controversial episode because it addresses a topic that is not suitable for prime time television, “The Contest” is considered one of the best episodes of Seinfeld. Larry David who wrote that episode won an Emmy for best script (Petersen 2011). Jerry Seinfeld reportedly stated that the topic in the “The Contest” was not offensive, but he suggested using other words or phrases rather than mentioning the term ‘masturbation’ directly. This is illustrated in the following excerpt from the episode “The Contest”.

KRAMER: Oh. So, did you make it through the night? JERRY: Yes, I’m proud to say I did.

KRAMER: So, you’re still master of your domain.

Seinfeld has the ability to influence an audience with different cultures and backgrounds. Audiences have shown interests in using some of the various unusual and humorous catchphrases, which are used by characters throughout the show (Vassar 2006: 114). According to McFedries (2003:1), the comedy in Seinfeld is “language-based”, and the show generated many phrases and expressions that evoked laughter, including terms such as ‘yada yada yada’, ‘no soup for you’, ‘not that there’s anything wrong with that’, ‘sponge-worthy’ and ‘Festivus for the rest of us’. Moreover, throughout its 180 episodes, many new nouns were introduced to the audience. McFedries (2003:3) states that what distinguishes Seinfeld from all other TV sitcoms is the ability of its writers to forge new words. He highlighted some of the new verbs and nouns, which seem meaningless and incomprehensible to most non- American audiences:

Catchphrases are not the only aspect of Seinfeld that provoke laughter; parody is one of the most frequently used methods and sources of humour in the show. This type of humour involves ridiculing a character or an aspect of life. According to Konigsberg (1997: 288), there is a heavy focus in Seinfeld on ridiculing different aspects of life, such as romantic and dramatic films and detective stories. A living example of parody in Seinfeld is presented in the episode, “The Voice”, in which the confused and preoccupied Jerry, who has to decide whether he really wants to continue a relationship with his girlfriend, is sitting on a bridge imagining his beloved as a romantic song is played (Tripesová 2010: 51). Another type of parody used in Seinfeld is character-parody, which entails the four main characters imitating or ridiculing each other (“The Chicken Roaster”; “The Doll” and “The Bookstore”) or being mocked or ridiculed by guest characters as in “TheBizarro Jerry” in which Jerry; George; Kramer and the recurring character, Newman (played by Wayne Eliot Knight), are represented by another group of characters who are their polar opposites in terms of politeness, intelligence, responsibility, and intellectuality.

Another source of humour that distinguishes Seinfeld from other sitcoms is the stand-up comedy performed by Jerry in front of the audience at the opening and closing of more than two- thirds episodes. He usually addresses everyday topics such as fashion, sex, gender, social norms and dating, and he finds humour in these humourless topics. Moreover, Jerry asks the audience rhetorical questions and answers them, as he aims to engage them during the monologue. This is illustrated in the following closing monologue, taken from the episode “The Suicide”.

Seinfeld’s monologues usually contain various linguistic features such as wordplay, which occur regularly in joke telling and evoke laughter among the audience. He uses words that have

The Seinfeld writers had an absolute mania about forging new nouns, coining more than 100 of them in the show’s 180 episodes. The proverbial space limitations prevent me from giving you a complete list, but here are a few of my favorites: blow-off number, ‘a phone number other than one’s own that one gives to a suitor that one doesn’t want to see again’ (“The Strike,” Dec. 18, 1997); “I love you” return, ‘the “I love you” that another person says in response to being told “I love you’’’ (“The Face Painter,” May 11, 1995); kiss-hello program, ‘habitually kissing another person as part of a greeting’ (“The Kiss Hello,” Feb. 16, 1995); must-lie situation, ‘a situation in which lying is the only prudent course’ (“The Hamptons,” May 12, 1994).

The thing I don’t understand about the suicide person is the people who try and commit suicide [and] for some reason they don’t die and that’s it. They stop trying. Why? Why don’t they just keep trying? What has changed? Is their life any better now? No. In fact, it’s worse because now they’ve found out one more thing [they] stink at. Okay, that’s why these people don’t succeed in life to begin with. Because they give up too easy. I saw, pills don’t work, try a rope. Car won’t start in the garage, get a tune up. You know what I mean? There’s nothing more rewarding than reaching a goal you have set for yourself.

double meanings, literal and metaphorical, and tries to play on these words in a very amusing and clever way. The humour, in this case, arises from the conflict between what the audience expects and “the content of what is actually revealed by the punch line of the joke” (Schwarz 2010: 124). The most typical example of wordplay is represented in the closing monologue of the episode, “The Nose Job” in which Jerry uses the term “rhinoplasty”, as he plays with the two parts of the word in an attempt to draw the audience’s attention to the word “rhino” in the sense of a “rhinoceros”.

Physical comedy, which includes character’s movement, gestures, appearance, facial expressions and body language, is an additional and fertile source of humour in Seinfeld. The four main characters have their own special and unique physical acting, but Kramer is by far the best because he is tall, slim and clumsy, and he has a funny style of clothing and haircut, which sometimes make him clownish. What makes Kramer’s physical acting more humorous is his ability to create humour out of his movements and body language while keeping a serious face. An example of this can be seen in his entrance in all episodes of the show. Moreover, there are plenty of examples throughout Seinfeld, which illustrate Kramer’s comical physical skills. One example can be seen in the episode “The Van Buren Boys”, where he lands on the floor after slipping on golf balls. Another example is Kramer’s attempt to imitate an elegant model walk in the episode “The Barber”.

4.4

Methodology

As stated in chapter 1, this study provides a comprehensive classification of humour in sitcoms, especially those occurring in the American situation comedy Seinfeld. The study also explores the translation techniques used by Arab subtitlers to preserve humour in the target language and culture. Furthermore, the factors that might affect the subtitlers’ decisions are examined. This section will discuss the rationale for using Seinfeld as a corpus in this study. Then, it will describe the methodological approach adopted to analyse the data.