Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: Among the American TV series, FRIENDS (so called “Lao You Ji” or “Liu Ren Xing” in Chinese) must be one of the most classical ones. It’s popular by native American audiences as well as our Chinese Audiences. As we all know that the American Humor in FRIENDS is the shinning spot, so in this thesis, the translation of the American Humor in this TV series will be talked about. Hope that through this thesis not only know the American Humor can be known better, but also the American culture much better.

Key words: Translation; American Humor; American TV Series; FRIENDS

摘要：FRIENDS，也叫《老友记》或者《六人行》，在所有的美剧中可谓是最经典的作品之一。其不但很受美国观众欢迎，而且也很受中国观众的欢迎。正如我们所知，“美式幽默”一直都是《老友记》中的闪光点，所以将会讨论这部电视剧中“美式幽默”的翻译。希望通过这篇论文，不但能使我们更好地了解“美式幽默”，而且能够更好地了解美国文化。

关键词：翻译；  美式幽默；   美剧；  《老友记》

1. Introduction
Nowadays, more and more people like to enjoy themselves by watching foreign TV series. What’s more, they are becoming more interested in the original foreign TV series (those haven’t been dubbed). It is no wonder that the subtitles’ translation of TV series is being much more important than ever before. Subtitling, known as subtitles’ translation, is a kind of literary translation; however, it is not that like the normal literary translation. According to Professor Qian Shaochang, this is due to the five characteristics of Film Language: the need of careful listening; the need of comprehensiveness; the notice at any moment; the popularity of the words; the literary translation without notes.The Film Language needs us, the audience, to listen and watch without any notes in a short period of time to understand each scene. And the translations in it are not so easy to get, so good language ability is usually required when we want to watch the foreign TV series.
FRIENDS is one of the most famous American TV series. The plot of FRIENDS is close to the life of Americans. The stories in it are so attractive that we can’t help out watching. FRIENDS is famous for its unique American Humor, which reflects all aspects of American life. It seems to be a mirror of the USA. From the development of the stories, we can see the culture, society, daily life, and also the customs of the native people. So it is the most popular sitcom (situation comedy) lasting five years and it is considered as the milestone of American sitcom. Humor is very popular in western. It is said that a person cannot be outstanding if he cannot understand the humor. From that we can find everyone likes the person who has the sense of humor. It is likely that once the person understands humor, he can understand the life more deeply. The person can make his friends relax and happy. By watching FRIENDS is like you get such a friend.