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Russian humour gains much of its wit from the
inflection
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
of the
Russian language
Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living E ...
, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations. As with any other culture's humour, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and wordplay to political satire.
Literature
17th century
According to
Dmitry Likhachov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov (russian: Дми́трий Серге́евич Лихачёв, also ''Dmitri Likhachev'' or ''Likhachyov''; – 30 September 1999) was a Russian medievalist, linguist, and a former inmate of Gulag. During his lifet ...
, Russian comedy traditions in literature could be traced back to ''
Praying of Daniel the Immured
The Prayer of Daniil Zatochnik, also translated as The Supplication of Daniel the Exile or Praying of Daniel the Immured (russian: Моление Даниила Заточника, translit=Moleniye Daniila Zatochnika), is an Old East Slavic text ...
'' by
Daniil Zatochnik, a
Pereyaslavl-born lower class writer who lived between the 12th and 13th centuries.
. — Moscow : Raduga Publishers, 1989 However, it wasn't until the early 17th century when comedy developed into a separate genre as a reaction to the
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles (russian: Смутное время, ), or Smuta (russian: Смута), was a period of political crisis during the Tsardom of Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Fyodor I (Fyodor Ivanovich, the last of the Rurik dy ...
. A whole line of independent anonymously published works gained popularity; the term "democratic satire" is used by researchers to describe them.
All had close ties to the
folklore of Russia
Folklore of Russia is folklore of Russians and other ethnic groups of Russia.
Russian folklore takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important ...
and were rewritten both in prose and as poems, including ''nebylitsa'' (a variation of
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From ...
s).
Most famous are ''
The Tale of Yersh Yershovich'' and ''
The Tale of Shemyaka's Trial'' that satirized the Russian
judicial system
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
: the first described a trial against a sleazy
ruffe, with different fish representing different social classes, while the second focused on a corrupted judge Shemyaka who is often linked to
Dmitry Shemyaka
Dmitriy Yurievich Shemyaka (Дмитрий Юрьевич Шемяка in Russian) (died 1453) was the second son of Yury of Zvenigorod by Anastasia of Smolensk and grandson of Dmitri Donskoi. His hereditary patrimony was the rich Northern to ...
.
Another outstanding work, ''
The Tale of Frol Skobeev'', was inspired by
picaresque novel
The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...
s.
Satire on Church was also very popular (''The Tale of Savva the Priest'', ''The Kalyazin Petition'', ''The Tavern Service'') which included parodies of religious texts.
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( ; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic and scholar who worked on literary theor ...
and Dmitry Likhachov agreed on that many tales were created by low-ranking clergy who made fun of the form rather than content. There were also straight-up parodies of literary genres such as ''The Story of a Life in Luxury and Fun''.
Lubok
A ''lubok'' (plural ''lubki'', Cyrillic: russian: лубо́к, лубо́чная картинка) is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories, and popular tales. Lubki ...
was one of the earliest known forms of
popular print
Popular prints is a term for printed images of generally low artistic quality which were sold cheaply in Europe and later the New World from the 15th to 18th centuries, often with text as well as images. They were some of the earliest examples of ...
in Russia which rose to popularity around the same time. Similar to
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
s, it depicted various — often humorous —
anecdote
An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...
s as primitivistic pictures with captions. Among the common characters was
The Cat of Kazan which appeared in one of the most famous lubki ''The Mice Are Burying the Cat'' described by various researchers as a parody on the funeral of
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
, a celebration of
Russian victories over the Tatars during the late 16th century or simply an illustration to an old fairy tale.
18th century
Next century saw the rise of a number of prominent comedy writers who belonged to the upper class. The most renowned is
Denis Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (russian: Денис Иванович Фонвизин; —) was a playwright and writer of the Russian Enlightenment, one of the founders of literary comedy in Russia. His main works are two satirical comedies, one of th ...
who produced several comedy plays between 1769 and 1792, most famously ''
The Minor'' (1781) about a nobleman without a
high school diploma
A high school diploma or high school degree is a North American academic school leaving qualification awarded upon high school graduation. The high school diploma is typically obtained after a course of study lasting four years, from grade 9 to gra ...
. It satirized provincial nobility and became a great success and a source of many quotes, inspiring many future generations of writers.
['']Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
(1998)''
Two Comedies by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia: Oh, These Times! and The Siberian Shaman
// trans. and ed. by Lurana Donnels O'Malley. — Harwood: Harwood Academic Publishers, p. 15—79 Other names include
Antiochus Kantemir
Antiochus or Antioch Kantemir or Cantemir (russian: Антиох Дмитриевич Кантемир, ''Antiokh Dmitrievich Kantemir''; ro, Antioh Cantemir; tr, Antioh Kantemiroğlu; french: Antioche Cantemir; 8 September 1708 – 31 Mar ...
who wrote satirical poems and a dramatist
Alexander Sumarokov
Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Сумаро́ков; , Moscow – , Moscow) was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonos ...
whose plays varied from a straight-up satire against his enemies to
comedy of manners
In English literature, the term comedy of manners (also anti-sentimental comedy) describes a genre of realistic, satirical comedy of the Restoration period (1660–1710) that questions and comments upon the manners and social conventions of a gr ...
as well as the Russian Empress
Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
who produced around 20 comedy plays and operas, most famously ''Oh, These Time!'' (1772) and ''The Siberian Shaman'' (1786).
Satirical magazines
During the second half of the 18th century satirical magazines rose to popularity, providing social and political commentary. Those included ''Pochta dukhov'' (''Spirits Mail'') and ''Zritel'' (''The Spectator'') by
Ivan Krylov
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journali ...
who later turned into the leading Russian
fabulist
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...
, ''
Zhivopisets'' (''The Painter'') and ''Truten'' (''The Drone'') by
Nikolay Novikov
Nikolay Ivanovich Novikov (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Новико́в) (, Moscow Governorate – . Moscow Governorate) was a Russian writer and philanthropist most representative of his country's Enlightenment. Frequently cons ...
and even ''
Vsyakaya vsyachina'' (''All Sorts'') established and edited by Catherine the Great herself.
Alexander Afanasyev
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Afanasief, Afanasiev or Afanas'ev, russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Афанасьев) ( — ) was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer who published nearly 600 Russian fairy and folk ta ...
's 1859 monograph ''Russian Satirical Magazines of 1769—1774'' became an in-depth research on this period and inspired a famous critical essay ''Russian satire during the times of Catherine'' by
Nikolay Dobrolyubov
Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov ( rus, Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf, a=Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Dobrolyubov.ru.vorb.oga; 5 February Old_Style_a ...
who argued that the 18th-century satire wasn't sharp or influential enough and didn't lead to necessary socio-political changes.
Jokes
The most popular form of Russian humour consists of
joke
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with ...
s (анекдоты — anekdoty), which are short stories with a
punch line
A punch line (a. k. a. punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people laugh. It is the third and final part of the typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and the narrative which sets up ...
. 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.
Toasts
Drinking
toasts can take the form of anecdotes or not-so-short stories, which tend to have a jocular or paradoxical conclusion, and ending with "So here's to, let's drink for the..." with a witty punchline referring to the initial story.
Chastushka
A specific form of humour is
chastushka
Chastushka ( rus, частушка, , tɕɪsˈtuʂkə) is a traditional type of short Russian or Ukrainian humorous folk song with high beat frequency, that consists of one four-lined couplet, full of humor, satire or irony. The term "chastushki" w ...
s, songs composed of four-line rhymes, usually of black, sarcastic, humoristic, or satiric content.
Black humour
Apart from jokes, Russian humour is very sarcastic and it is expressed in
word play
Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, pho ...
. Sometimes there are short poems including nonsense and
black humour
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...
verses, similar to the
Little Willie rhymes
''Little Willie'' rhymes are light verses including an indifferent or cheerfully inappropriate response to a gruesome act of violence in a quatrain form attributed to Harry Graham (1874-1936). The earliest was included among the ''Ruthless Rhyme ...
by
Harry Graham, or, less so,
Edward Lear's literary "nonsense verse".
[Valery Belyanin, Irina Butenko (1996). ]
Anthology of Black Humour
'. Moscow: PAIMS, pp. 148-153
Often they have recurring characters such as "little boy", "Vova", "a girl", "Masha". Most rhymes involve death or a painful experience either for the protagonists or other people. This type of joke is especially popular with children.
See also
*
Kozma Prutkov
Kozma Petrovich Prutkov (russian: Козьма́ Петро́вич Прутко́в) is a fictional author invented by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875) and his cousins, the brothers Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov (1821-1908), (1830-1884) and ...
*
Novyi Satirikon
*
KVN
''KVN'' (russian: КВН, an abbreviation of , ''Klub Vesyólykh i Nakhódchivykh'' or ''Ka-Ve-En'', "Club of the Funny and Inventive") is a Russian (and formerly Soviet) humour TV show and an international competition where teams (usually comp ...
*
Fitil
''Fitil'' ( rus, Фитиль, p=fʲɪˈtʲilʲ, ''Fuse'') is a popular Soviet short film and television anthology series which ran for 608 episodes. Some of the episodes were aimed at children, and were called , ''Little Fuse''.
Each issue contain ...
*
Yeralash
''Yeralash'' ( rus, Ералаш, p=jɪrɐˈlaʂ) is a Russian children's comedy TV show and magazine. Yeralash also runs an actor studio and the "Yeralash Island" camp. The word ''eralash'' means "mixed, mishmash" or "jumble" and is taken from ...
- for kids
*
Puppets
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to mov ...
*
Comedy Club (Russia)
''Comedy Club'' is a Russian stand-up comedy TV show broadcast by the Russian TNT channel since April 23, 2005.
Long-time residents of the club are Garik Martirosyan, Timur Batrutdinov, Garik Kharlamov, Pavel Volya, Alexandr Revva, Marina Krav ...
Bibliography
*
Dmitry Likhachov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov (russian: Дми́трий Серге́евич Лихачёв, also ''Dmitri Likhachev'' or ''Likhachyov''; – 30 September 1999) was a Russian medievalist, linguist, and a former inmate of Gulag. During his lifet ...
,
Alexander Panchenko (1976)
The World of Laughter of Ancient Rus' Leningrad: Nauka.
*Lev Dmitriev,
Dmitry Likhachov
Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov (russian: Дми́трий Серге́евич Лихачёв, also ''Dmitri Likhachev'' or ''Likhachyov''; – 30 September 1999) was a Russian medievalist, linguist, and a former inmate of Gulag. During his lifet ...
(1989).
A History of Russian Literature, 11Th-17th Centuries // Democratic satire and humorous literature'. Moscow : Raduga Publishers
*Sannikov, Vladimir (1999).
Russian Language in the Mirror of the Language Game'. Moscow: Languages of Russian Сulture. McFarland, WI: Book on Demand Ltd.
*Sannikov, Vladimir (2003). ''Russian Lingual Joke: From Pushkin to Our Days''. Moscow: Agraph.
References
{{Reflist
External links
*Richard W. F. Pope.
Review: Fools and Folly in Old Russia',
Slavic Review
The ''Slavic Review'' is a major peer-reviewed academic journal publishing scholarly studies, book and film reviews, and review essays in all disciplines concerned with Russia, Central Eurasia, and Eastern and Central Europe. The journal's titl ...
Vol. 39, No. 3, September 1980
Hammer & tickle Prospect Magazine
''Prospect'' is a monthly British general-interest magazine, specialising in politics, economics and current affairs. Topics covered include British and other European, and US politics, social issues, art, literature, cinema, science, the medi ...
, May 2006, essay by Ben Lewis on jokes in Communist countries
*Tatiana Stolar, Maria Komarova.
Remembering, loving, laughing: Anthology of Russian humour',
Esquire, December 2021 (in Russian)
Russian language
Ethnic humour