The Netflix Translation of Humour from the Egyptian Vernacular Dialect into MSA: the Case of “el-Limby” and “Illy Baly Balak” Films

Abstract

Humour is the infallible and never-outdated medium for creating intimacy and collective understanding among peoples of versatile interests and, sometimes, conflicting attitudes. It is the moment of catching the humorous effect that counts. Humour creation is not easy because the factors that would trigger laughter vary from one person to another. Creating humour on an international level demands distinguished abilities, as it is hard to accommodate all the factors that would motivate diverse peoples and social brackets to laugh at the same time for the same reason, due to national, historical and cultural factors. The hypothesis is based upon the assumption that the world societies speak the same language with the same dialect. Yet, the situation gets complicated if translation problems and techniques are considered, and it turns to exigently complex when the source dialect differs from that of the targeted audience. However, the latter case has never been a problem for the Egyptian drama, as the entire Middle Eastern societies can transcend the dialect barrier. Notably, the vernacular dialects in the Middle East region are fundamentally diverse to extent that they are, sometimes, incomprehensible altogether. Recently, along with the growing hegemony of the online streaming forums as well as their attempt to globalise the streamed content to attract more subscribers, an active process of subtitling and dubbing are initiated. In the process, all the problems of translation, subtitling and dubbing came to the fore. The article discusses the Netflix intralingual subtitling/dubbing of the Egyptian comedies from the Egyptian vernacular dialect into MSA with reference to the famous and hilariously comic Egyptian films “el-Limby” (2002)[20] and “Illy Baly Balak [You-Know-Who]” (2003)[21] starred by the Egyptian actor Mohamed S’ad. The article also seeks to underline the influence of the Netflix subtitled/dubbed MSA content upon the Middle East region.