Was that funny? Multi-modal wordplay translation and audience types

Abstract: In this paper I will set out to show what effect the intended audience of a text has on how one approaches the translation of word play as it appears in comic strips, and how one should analyze those translation. I will do this by analyzing a set of comic strips, all featuring an instance of wordplay which combines the visual and textual elements of the text, which I translated according to metrics proposed by the literature and my own audience types. This paper shows, in the opinion of the author, that audience type can in some instances supersede the visual/textual interplay in translation in certain cases where the humorous instance was directed at a specific audience.