Tabust saab kommunikatsioon: dopinguteemaline huumor kultuuride dialoogis

The Internet affects the adaption and translation of humour through faster dissemination, but also by influencing the content. This influence is especially palpable in languages that recycle – adapt and translate – texts from mostly English-language jokelore and meme pools. This article gives an overview of humorous memes created in response to taboo and concealment of two doping scandals (Lance Armstrong in 2012, and cross-country skiers in February 2019). The authors compare the two corpora from a global and local perspective in order to pinpoint repeating and diverging patterns and to understand the mechanisms of humour. The two cases serve as an example of the process of cultural translation and express the tension of the local and the global. The analysis is informed by Limor Shifman’s approach to memes and Sara Cannizzaro’s cultural-semiotic translation theory, which see cultural adaptation as a folkloric and creative process. The study addresses the following questions: Which topics repeat globally and which are local? Which global and local popular cultural narratives are used in constructing the memes? How well do memes “translate” from global to local contexts? What are the main reasons for untranslatability? What mechanisms are frequently used to deliver a humorous effect? The replies to these questions will help explicate meme adaptation as an important element in the process of cultural translation. Overall, the authors propose that meme mechanisms have an equal potential in different languages, regardless of the number of people who speak the language.