Russian Humour: Difference between revisions

{{quote|[[Germanic Depressives|Tell a joke to a German, and he will not understand it.]]

[[Stiff Upper Lip|Tell a joke to an Englishman, and he will understand it, but won't show it.]]

[[Inscrutable Oriental|Tell a joke to a Japanese, and he will understand it his own way.]]

 

Russian humor is extremely pervasive. Almost every print publication will have at least a few jokes in it, up to and including the TV guide. They say that while in most countries, [[The Internet Is for Porn]], in Russia, the Internet Is For Jokes.

Not to be confused with the [[Russian Reversal]].

Russian humour comes mostly in form of "anecdotes" (anekdoty) - joke stories with a punchline. Typical of Russian joke culture is a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots and plays on words. The most common themes of Russian anecdotes are the following:

== Works of Fiction ==

* Stirlitz. This is a character from the highly popular Soviet TV series ''[[Seventeen Moments of Spring]]''. The series is about a Soviet spy Maxim Isayev, who infiltrates Nazi Germany under the guise of [[Colonel Badass|Standardentführer]] (see [[Common Ranks]]) Otto von Stirlitz and foils its plans to enter into separate peace treaty with the Allies. Stirlitz interacts with Nazi officials Walther Schellenberg, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Martin Bormann, Heinrich Müller. In the jokes he interacts with them as well as with fictional female radio operator Kat, pastor Schlagg, professor Pleischner and other characters in the series.