ABSTRACT
Anyone who has ever tried to translate an English joke into another language will know that it is no easy task. No matter how well the translator knows the target language, cultural references and polysemous items may well involve them in longwinded explanations, after which the recipient rarely reacts with a laugh. Similarly, when a joke in a foreign language is translated into English, results tend to be equally disastrous. Jokes, it would seem, travel badly.
