Saturday, September 6, 2014

Window on Eurasia: Russians Tell Jokes about Only a Few Ethnic Groups, Study Finds


Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, September 6 – Given how many peoples live in or near Russia, two scholars say, it is “curious” that Russians from imperial times until now have told ethnic jokes about only a small number of them, including most prominently Armenians and Gypsies in late imperial times, Georgians, Chukchis, Ukrainians and Jews in Soviet times, and Estonians now.

 

            In the current issue of “Otechestvennyye zapiski,” Aleksey Smelyev and Elena Smelyeva stress among other things that “now, if one begins with formal state borders, Ukrainians, Georgians and Estonians should be characterized as ‘foreigners.’” But “despite that,” they retain in Russian humor status of “’inogorodtsy’ – peoples who live alongside Russians but do not fully master the Russian language and are distinguished from Russians by definite aspects of character and everyday behavior” (magazines.russ.ru/oz/2014/4/12sch.html).

 

            The two longtime specialists on humor in Russia – they are the authors of numerous articles and books on the subject over the last two decades -- say that “one should not give too great significance to the ethnic stereotypes on which the anecdotes are formed,” but argue jokes do provide insight into these stereotypes and cannot be understood apart from them.

 

            “Each of the typical figures of anecdotes about inogorodtsy,” they point out, features “special characteristic aspects.”  Georgians, at least in Soviet times, were presented a hospitable but fundamentally dishonest about his own nature, at least in interactions with Russians. And threy provide several anecdotes as examples.

 

            One goes as follows:  A Russian journalist asks an elderly Georgian how he has managed to live so long. The Georgian replies: “’I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, and all my life I have avoided women.’” But then someone noisily breaks into the room. Asked who it is, the first Georgian replies: “’My older brother has returned, drunk as always, and with some girls.’”

 

            The Smelyevs also note that in Russian jokes about Georgians, the Georgians always speak to each other and to Russians using the second person singular because using the more formal second person plural “is too formal and would destroy the stereotypical image of the Georgian” in Russian minds.

 

            Russian anecdotes about Chukchis are very different, the two say.  In Russian humor, “the Chukchi is Rousseau’s natural man who has fallen into what is for him an alien urban technocratic civilization.”  He appears “stupid only because” he tries to live in the city “according to the laws of the taiga.” At home, they say, the Chukchi is “clever and smart.”

 

            But Georgians and Chukchis, they continue, as objects of humor share one thing in common: they “always function as persons of a Russian anecdote” rather than being the subject of jokes from their own culture translated into Russian.  Anecdotes about Jews, far more often have their roots in Jewish humor and are simply translated and always use the formal second person plural.

 

            Jews in Russian anecdotes, the two analysts say, are “characterized by qualities which are radically different from the Georgians and Chukchis.” They often take the form of responding to a question with a question, value sympathy over compliments, and invite the hearer to share the Jewish understanding of the situation.

 

            They give two examples of this. In one, one Jew asks another “’Sara, you remember Isa who lived opposite the prison?’ Yes, comes the reply. ‘Well, now he lives opposite his own home.’” And in the other, Rabinovich is asked whether he has ever tried sex with two partners. Rabinovich says no, but then his interlocutor says “’then run home and perhaps you’ll be able to.’”

 

            “Certain characteristics of Jews in Russian anecdotes have changed little over the course of more than a century-long history of the existence of this series,” the Smelyevs say.  Jews in these anecdotes are intelligent, clever, good at business, and often physically weak – although after the 1967 war, the last feature was modified.

 

            The authors recount the following anecdote from that time. US President Lyndon Johnson asks Israel for assistance in Vietnam. The Israelis say they’ll send five soldiers. Johnson wants to know why they won’t send more, perhaps at least ten. The Israeli response: “’Are you planning to fight with China?’”

 

                The recent wave of jokes about Estonians among Russians is perhaps especially suggestive now, the two writers say. Most of these anecdotes focus on what Russians see as “the super-natural deliberateness” with which Estonians speak and with which they approach all issues.

 

            They recount the following story: An Estonian couple visits a market in the Middle East. One Arab there asks the man if he will take 50 camels in exchange for his wife. The Estonia reflects “for ten minutes, for 15 … for 20.”  His wife is furious that he hasn’t rejected the idea out of hand. The Estonian husband replies that he had to calculate whether he could put 50 camels in their apartment.

 

            The Smelyevs stress that despite Estonia being an independent country, Russians continue to joke about them in the way that they joke about people who live within Russia rather than about those who don’t. In some ways, Russians do the same with regard to Ukrainians as well but with one important difference.

 

            In anecdotes about other peoples whom Russians view as minorities within their own country, the non-Russians involved are presented as speaking Russian poorly but with distinctive deviations from the rules. But in the case of Ukrainians, Russians attempt to “imitate Ukrainian speech” itself.

 

            “In other words, the speech of a Georgian, a Chukchi or a Jew in an anecdote is Russian speech with this or that deviation from the norm,” the Smelyevs say, “but the speech of the Ukrainian is Ukrainian speech with deviations” reflecting the level of knowledge of Ukrainian by the Russian teller.

 

             

 

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