Russian humour

Russian humour. For most of Russian history, laughing remained an expression of the human spirit that was treated with scepticism by the country's leadership. Under the ascetic dogmatism of the clergy in medieval times, human laughter seemed pagan and suspicious, while especially political satire was considered potentially dangerous under autocratic monarchies, as well as under communist rule. In spite of, or even because of its oppression, Russian humour flourished as a liberating culture and a means to counter and ridicule the powerful. During the stagnation period of the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s for instance, in a relatively peaceful and politically stable environment, sharp political wit addressed social shortcomings. With the end of authoritarian regimes in Russia in the 1990s, the decline of political humour has been lamented as being a symptom of westernisation. New features of post-communist Russian society, such as semi-criminal businessmen, instead led to the emergence of other stereotypes for satirical jokes. Generally Russian humour gains much of its wit from the great flexibility and richness of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations.

Fixed Characters

The most popular form of Russian humour are jokes (анекдоты – anekdoty), which are short stories with a punchline. A typical characteristic of Russian joke culture is that it features a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots. Some of the most popular characters and settings are:

Poruchik Rzhevski, a fictional cavalry officer interacting with characters from the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. In the aristocratic setting of ball dances and 19th century social sophistication, Rzhevski keeps ridiculing the decorum with his rude vulgarities.

Stirlitz, a character from a Soviet TV series about a Soviet spy in Nazi Germany, interacting with Nazi officials Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Müller. Usually two-liners told in parody of the stern and solemn announcement style of the background voice in the original series, the plot is resolved in grotesque plays on words.

"New Russians," newly-rich and poorly educated post-perestroika businessmen and gangsters, are a new and most popular category of characters in contemporary Russian jokes. A typical plot is the interaction of a New Russian in his Mercedes with a regular Russian in his modest Soviet-era vehicle after having had a car accident.

Ethnic jokes

As Russians have had a lot of contact with other ethnicities throughout their history, several stereotypes have developed.

Chukchi, the native people of Chukotka in far-east Siberia, are the classical sort of minority of which every nation has one to make fun of. In jokes they are depicted as generally dim-witted.

• Preface: during the period of "blossoming of national cultures" in the Soviet Union every minority was supposed to have their own "great writer" or "great poet". In many cases their works were known to be heavily edited before printing.
  During the All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, a great chukcha writer was awarded for his great opus. After the ceremony, he was asked to read something aloud from his works. He replied, offended: "Chukcha not reader, chukcha writer!"

Chukchas do not miss their chance to retaliate.

• A chukcha and a Russian go hunting a polar bear. They track it down at last. Seeing the bear, chukcha shouts "Run!" and runs himself. Russian shrugs, raises his gun and shoots the bear. "You say you Russians smart," says chukcha. "Now haul this bear ten miles to yaranga yourself!"

Ukrainians are depicted as rustic and greedy, as well as having an inferiority complex with respect to Russians. The Ukrainian accent, which is imitated in jokes, is perceived as blunt and peasant-like.

• An Ukrainian and an African sit in a train compartment. The African takes out a banana. The Ukrainian wonders what that is, and the African shares his banana with him. The Ukrainian then takes out some bacon. The African wonders what that is and asks if he may try it. The Ukrainian replies "It's just common bacon, why try it?"

Georgians are depicted as masculine and hot-blooded, sometimes with a tendency to homosexuality. The very loud and theatrical Georgian accent, including its grammatical mistakes, is funny to imitate in Russian and often becomes a joke in itself.

Estonians, allegedly rustic and mean, are depicted as having no sense of humour and being stubborn and taciturn. The Estonian accent, especially its sing-sang tune and the lack of genders in grammar, forms part of the humour.

• An Estonian stands at the railway track. Another Estonian passes by on a hand car, pushing the pump up and down. The first Estonian asks the one on the car: "Is it far to Tallinn?" "No, not far." He gets on the car and together they start pushing the pump up and down. After two hours of silent pumping, the first Estonian asks again "Is it far to Tallinn?" The other replies "Yes, now it's far."

Jews. Jewish humour is a highly developed culture in Russia, created within Jewish mentality about Jews themselves. These Jewish anecdotes are not the same as anti-Semitic jokes. Instead, whether told by Jews or non-Jewish Russians, these jokes show cynicism, self-irony and wise wit that is characteristic about Jewish sense of humour as present most prominently in Russia and the Ukraine.

• Avram cannot sleep, and his wife Sarah asks him what is bothering him. Avram tells her that he owes his neighbour Moishe twenty roubles, but that he does not have any money left and does not know what to do. Sarah bangs on the wall and shouts over to their neighbours: "Moishe! My Avram still owes you twenty roubles? Well he isn't going to give them back!" Turning to her husband she says: "Sleep, Avram! Let Moishe not sleep!"

Russians are a stereotype in Russian jokes themselves when set next to other stereotyped ethnicities. Thus, the Russian appearing in a triple joke with two other Westerners, like a German, French, American or Englishman, will provide for a self-ironic punch line depicting him as simple-minded and negligently careless but physically robust, which ensures he retains the upper hand over his naive Western counterparts.

An example of both Jewish and Russian self-irony is the following. A boy asks his father: "Dad, are we Russians or Jews?" "Why are you asking?" "A kid downstairs offers his bike for sale, and I wonder - should I bargain and then buy it, or steal it and break it?"

Other, non-ethnic stereotypes include policemen (dumb and corrupt), drill ensigns in army jokes (just dumb) and heroin-addicts (bizarre hallucinations). Jokes set in the animal kingdom also feature stereotypes, such as the violent wolf, the sneaky fox, the cocky rabbit and the bear who features a lot of ethnic Russian characteristics.

Political jokes

Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev were all travelling together in a railway carriage, when unexpectedly the train stopped. Stalin put his head out of the window and shouted, "Shoot the driver!" But the train didn't start moving. Khrushchev then shouted, "Rehabilitate the driver!" But it still didn't move. Brezhnev then said, "Comrades, Comrades, let's draw the curtains, turn on the gramophone and pretend we're moving!"

A great share of Soviet-era political humour, particularly from the post-war period, are reliant upon puns.

• Khrushchev-era pre-fab apartment buildings merged the toilet and the bathroom into one room, in contrast to pre-revolutionary urban architecture where the W.C. and the bathroom were separated. Russians called the new combined bathrooms "govanna," which sounds like "Gavanna," the Russian pronunciation of the Cuban capital of Havana, but which is in fact a merger of the words "govno" ("shit") and "vanna" ("bath tub").

• The noun form (genitive plural) used to indicate five or more of something is the most complicated and unpredictable form of the Russian noun, and nobody knows off the top of their head what the correct form is for certain words, such as kocherga (fireplace poker). The joke is set in a Soviet factory. Five pokers are to be requisitioned. The correct forms are acquired, but as they are being filled in, debate arises: what is the genitive plural of kocherga? Some say kochereg, others kocherieg, others kochergev, still others, even stranger things. One thing is clear: to send in a form with the wrong genitive plural of kocherga would spell doom. What to do? Finally, an old caretaker overhears the commotion, and tells them to send in two requisitions: one for two kochergi and another for three kochergi.

Questions and answers on the ficticious "Armenian Radio" or "Radio Yerevan" are known even outside Russia

• Question: "What happens if communism is introduced in the Sahara desert?"
  Answer: "Nothing, but soon they will have to figure out how to solve the sand shortage."

Satirical verses and parodies made fun of official Soviet propaganda.

• "The winter is over, the summer begins, thanks to the Party."

Politicians form no stereotype as such in Russian culture. Instead, historical and contemporary Russian leaders feature their very own and personal characteristics.

A popular joke set-up is Lenin, leader of the Russian revolution of 1917, interacting with the head of the secret police, Dzerzhinsky in the Smolny Institute, seat of the revolutionary communist government in Petrograd. The revolutionaries are ridiculed in grotesque plots about gluttony and maliciousness, for instance when receiving delegations of hungry peasants who wish to file a petition.

Brezhnev was depicted as a dim-witted and vain geriatric.

• Brezhnev keeps addressing Indira Gandhi as "Miss Thatcher" in a speech, shouting at his advisors "I can see it's Gandhi, in my speech it says Thatcher."

Gorbachev was occasionally made fun of for his poor grammar, but perestroika-era jokes usually addressed actual absurd domestic policy measures as well as Soviet-American relations.

• Gorbachev and Reagan decide to exchange secretaries as a trust-building measure. After two weeks the American secretary writes back home, complaining that the Soviets make her wear longer and longer skirts, covering her female charms. Her Soviet counterpart in turn complains that the Americans insist on shorter and shorter skirts: "Soon they will see my balls and the holster."

The Yeltsin-era saw the revival of some old Brezhnev jokes, but again the focus was put on actual policies. Political jokes under Vladimir Putin are also rather issue-based than personality-based.

Other forms of humour

Apart from jokes, Russian humour is expressed in plays on words and short poems including black humour verses. Drinking toasts can take the form of anecdotes or not-so-short stories, concluded with "So here's to..." with a witty punchline referring to the initial story.