This paper analyzes the applicability of a formal approach to the translation of language intervention in humorous texts as opposed to a heuristic approach. A comparison is drawn between the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo, 2017) and the Complete Treatment to Verse Translation in Non-Literary Prose (Bianchinetta Benavides Segura, 2006) to undertake the translation of a musicalized piece chosen for its linguistic, cultural and thematic difficulty: “La yegua mia (triunfo/empate)” by Les Luthiers –as performed in 1976 in the show “Viejos Fracasos”. This analysis indicates that even though a formal method may prove useful at an early stage in the translation process, its full applicability may find itself at variance with the translator’s own experience-based approach in achieving an effective result.