No sex on the Red square
some tips about jokes in Russia
«Их - орда, а нас - рать»
(an untranslatable joke from KVN, a Russian humour TV show)
One day my
department was at a lunch with a colleague, originally from England (let’s call
him Robert) who came to Russia for the 1st time on a business trip. While
part of the team was talking with him about vodka (yes, Russians always drink
it, and if they can’t drink it, at least they speak about it during lunch),
another part was watching Anna cutting chicken on her plate. We were giving her
advice how to best cut it when she asked: “Do you know why can’t you have sex
on the Red square?” None of us could answer the question, so she answered
herself: “Because they will talk you to death giving advice”.
 |
| the Red Square |
So, it was
a joke. But when I asked her to repeat the question for Robert, who was going
to visit that very evening the Red Square, she started to doubt whether it was
appropriate or not. Well, we’ll never know the answer, but it’s clear that in
different countries and cultures sense of humour differs too.
Speaking
about Russians and humour there is something you might find useful to know:
·
even
though we do not smile very often (which just means that our smiles are true
ones), we love to laugh, this is why one of the most popular shows in Russia is
KVN (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVN
- this is a show invented by Russians, when teams from different cities, mostly
students, compete in sense of humour. The teams make fun of the situation in
the country, comment on politics, social events or other hot news topics;
·
we
do understand humour from American comedies, because we watch them (as there
are not so many good Russian movies now), but humour from “Friends” is one
thing (almost all of my Russian friends like “Friends”, sorry for the
tautology), while humor from comedies such as “American pie” is another one,
not so funny for most of us. My personal opinion is that “top moments” from
that movie are just disgusting (and it’s beyond my comprehension how anyone can
really like such movies or even watch the movie from the beginning till the end);
·
the
so-called “bathroom humour” is also
not something we think to be most funny: for example, a joke from “Just go with
it” when instead of saying he needed to go to the bathroom a child said that he
needed “to make a Devlin” because that was the name of someone his mother didn’t
like, can be (with great reserve) ok for once, but not so good that it can be
repeated. For such kind of jokes you’ll never win KVN, for example, or you won’t
find it in a popular Russian comedy that everyone likes. There have been many
new Russian comedies recently where such humor took place, but we consider them
to be third-rate and make fun of them (for example, this guy makes it in a very
professional way - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBadComedian);
·
what
most of Russians really like is old
soviet comedies (like “Ivan Vasilievich changes profession”, “Irony of fate”,
“Office romance”, etc.): most of them have been watched and rewatched by any of
us like a thousand times, but we still like them. The humor there is basically
the play of words or just the characters behave in a funny way or the language
they use is funny – this is why when
translated to other languages, these movies are not so amusing. Also most of us
like old American (like “Some Like It Hot”) or French comedies (with Gerard Depardieu,
Pierre Richard, etc.).
·
we like jokes which are “on the edge”, when there is a play on words, an equivoque.
For example, it’s ok if a newly appointed director, when asked by a hot head of
legal what his expectations from the legal department are, answers “I want to
sleep well”. We all know that it means that Legal should in this case just provide
such support to the company that there were no legal risks, but the way to get
out this message shows that the person has a sense of humor, which is always a
plus. By the way, in Russian society such comments are not considered as sexual
harassment. Actually, the topic of sexual harassment in Russia does not exist
at all. It’s also ok when during a business meeting a male colleague shows his
IPhone 6+ and when asked why not just IPhone 6 says that it’s because “Size
matters”;
·
it’s ok to make a joke on us, because most of us have an ability
to have a good laugh at ourselves. So it is absolutely ok for a president to give
an English phrasebook to Vitaly Mutko, Russian minister of sport, who is famous
for his “let me speak from my heart” speech (just search “Mutco speaks English”
on the internet if you still haven’t heard of it). Speaking about speaking a
foreign language, as a famous Russian writer
Sergei Dovlatov said, “when speaking a foreign language, we lose 80% of our
personality. We lose the ability to joke, to speak ironically about something. That’s
what makes me panic.”
As a
conclusion, I encourage you to laugh at (or better with) us, because a good
laugh makes us live a longer and happier life. And now, happy about the idea
that after writing this text in English I still have about 20% of my
personality left, I’m going to bed. Need to sleep before going to the Red
square tomorrow.
P.S. Find a
joke in the 1st paragraph of this message.
