It is harder to recreate the seductive humorous tone of a Dickens or a Twain — or for that matter, a Cosby or a Pryor — than it is to render a one-liner into Mandarin. To really make people snort milk out their noses, you need to earn their trust with a convincing persona that summons an atmosphere of ambient hilarity.
Jascha Hoffman asks what it really takes to translate humor. We especially appreciate the references to Shteyngart, roflaarp, and the revelation that “Renaissance poets managed to concoct lines that made sense in both Hebrew and Italian.”
