Abstract
Under the guidance of the skopos theory, the present paper is intended as a case study on an episode of the American sitcom Friends with a focus on a general analysis of verbal humor mainly from pragmatic and rhetorical perspectives. The skopos theory claims that the translation strategy is determined by the purpose of the target text which is mainly fulfilled by the target audience’s demand with their cultural-specific knowledge and their expectations. So the discussions on humor subtitling strategies center on the assessment of whether or not the humorous effect has been produced both in the original text and in the translated Chinese version through translating processing.
Key words   humor   subtitling   Skopos theory   translation strategy

本文在功能主义目的论指导下，借助美国幽默情景喜剧《老友记》为例来分析探讨英语情景喜剧幽默字幕的翻译问题,尝试为情景喜剧幽默字幕的翻译研究开拓一个新的视角。目的论认为决定翻译目的最重要的因素是受众，是受众对原文的期待以及交际需求。本文从语用学和修辞学的角度出发，主要采用举例列举的方式对美国情景喜剧《老友记》中的部分幽默语言翻译策略进行分析，重点强调对原文和译文的文字处理加工的结果是否达到了预期目的，即是否顺利地将幽默传达给观众，以达到娱乐的目的。
关键词  字幕翻译   幽默   目的论   翻译策略

With an increasing number of foreign films and TV programs being introduced into China, translation from English to Chinese is needed to make Chinese audience to follow what is happening on screen. However, “there are three forms of audiovisual translation that can be chosen to function as a means of information transfer: dubbing, voice-over translation and subtitling” (Gottlieb, 2001: 244). Subtitling, as one of the major forms of screen translation, has occupied a significant position in cross—cultural communication. However, this demanding area has not yet received enough attention in the academic circle.