Hammer and Tickle Takes Itself Too Seriously

Anti-Soviet humor was one of the ways that the victims of red fascism kept their sanity. Ben Lewis has put together a great collection of such yucks under the title Hammer and Tickle. The drawback to the book is his insistence on a “serious comparative study.” Best advice is to skip those bits and laugh and cry at the humor itself.

For example, Q: “How do you deal with mice in the Kremlin?” A: “Put up a sign saying ‘collective farm’. Then half the mice will starve and the others will run away.” Mr. Lewis is right in that this is a worthy subject for academic analysis. However, as the late George Carlin noted, all humor requires an exaggerated truth. This joke merely exaggerates how bad things were after collectivization.

Naturally, the Russian language played a role in the humor. Izvestia means “news” and Pravda means “truth.” So, it was witty to say “there is no truth in Izvestia and no news in Pravda.” In English, it just doesn’t work.

Then, there is the joke about Lenin body being sent to America as a cultural exchange. His corpse is at the top of the Empire State building when he miraculously resurrects. He looks around him and says, “This is exactly how I was telling the comrades our future would be.”

Or the one about the Soviet judge who comes out of his courtroom laughing. Another judge says, “What’s so funny?” “Oh, I just heard the greatest joke.” “Oh really? Tell me?” “I can’t. I just gave the guy who told it 5 years.”

Or Three prisoners in the gulag get to talking about why they are there. "I am here because I always got to work five minutes late, and they charged me with sabotage," says the first. "I am here because I kept getting to work five minutes early, and they charged me with spying," says the second. "I am here because I got to work on time every day," says the third, "and they charged me with owning a western watch."

Post-Soviet humor is a bit different. One joke about Yeltsin went, “The president has lots of supporters, but usually, he can get to bed on his own.” Or maybe not so different. Lenin and Stalin appear to Putin in a dream, and Stalin says “To secure your position you must kill 5 million people and paint the Kremlin blue.” Putin replies, “Why blue?” Stalin turns to Lenin and says, “You see, kill millions and no one cares.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home