Strategies used in fansubbing logical mechanisms in humour of the comedy movie Dumb and Dumber

This research explores the strategies for subtitling Logical Mechanisms in humour, particularly focusing on the fansubbing of the comedy movie Dumb and Dumber. The film is renowned for its extensive use of wordplay, puns, and culturally specific jokes, which causes a great deal of difficulty for the subtitler. Utilising a qualitative research methodology, the study employs the subtitling strategies presented by Gottlieb in subtitling Logical Mechanisms, one of the six Knowledge Resources offered in the General Theory of Verbal Humor. English subtitles of the comedy movie Dumb and Dumber that carry humour and parallel Sinhalese subtitles were gathered as primary data. Library sources and online sources were used as secondary data. Through a content analysis, this research identifies the strategies the subtitler has used to transfer the Logical Mechanisms that characterise thehumour in the original movie. Thus, the study assesses the effectiveness of various subtitling strategies, using the Logical Mechanism as a metric. Findings revealed that in addition to exaggeration being the most frequently used Logical Mechanism, fourteen instances were found where none of the Logical Mechanisms seem applicable. All those instances were related to name-calling, insulting, teasing, or wordplay. This emphasises the need for two Logical Mechanisms to refer to them that would help in humour studies. Also, the lack of awareness of the use of deletion strategy has caused unsuccessful transfers in humour. This research contributes to the translation studies field by providing insights into fansubbing and practical recommendations for subtitling humour in audiovisual media.