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Russian joke: I don’t get it! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6891 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 1 of 8 24 June 2011 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||
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http://russian.cornell.edu/brtf/eralash1/start.cfm
Could someone please watch the third video here ("Where's the money? В магазине не было кефира") and tell me what's supposed to be so funny about it? I do understand everything they're saying, but I just don't get the joke! Maybe it's a particularly Russian kind of humor? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spiderkat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5813 days ago 175 posts - 248 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 8 24 June 2011 at 5:54am | IP Logged | ||
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The kid brother seems to be smarter and tougher than his older brother. So using his toughness and cleverness, he gets to keep the money he got at the beginning and then also gets more money by reversing the roles and going through the exact same question-answer reasonning his older brother used. And that is the funny part.
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| PIV Newbie United States Joined 4910 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 3 of 8 24 June 2011 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Although this clip' producers tried to make a comedy, there is really nothing so funny to count this as a comedy. The most "funny" part of this video is that during the soviet time the most common meal (both drink and food) was "kefir", and also that it was normal that a store (shop) could turn out to not have this "kefir".
P.S. sorry for my English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6891 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 4 of 8 24 June 2011 at 7:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm okay... I guess it just depends on your sense of humor? It still doesn't seem very funny to me, but I guess I can see how some people might think it is.
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| PIV Newbie United States Joined 4910 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 5 of 8 24 June 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged | ||
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You are absolutely right - "it just depends on your sense of humor". I don't consider it funny, too.
It was supposed to be funny - the kid brother is jerking around pretending not understanding what money his elder brother means. Then the elder loses his temper and falls unconscious, and the kid takes advantge of it. Hah, hah! But this "Humor" was made by "professionals" of the Soviet cinema. Besides, it was intended for children. ("Eralash" is children program). You better check out the type of Humor the folk invent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z83Dv7T4nBs&feature=related . Although this takes EXTREMELY ADVANCED level of Russian and some knowledge of the modern history of Russia, and most probably you will not understand 95%, but if eventually you succeed at it, you will know the one of the sorts of Humor the Russians prefer. If you want, I will provide you with the script for this video later. Edited by PIV on 24 June 2011 at 9:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5047 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 8 24 June 2011 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
IMHO I don't think this was the point of it at all, at least that's not funny to me. Although maybe it's a generational gap, don't really know whether it's unnatural to not have kefir, but I concede that it was and is a common food product. So the clip is not rofl-hilarious but it's a little-chuckle funny to me. The plot is that the kid brother keeps feigning dumbness repeatedly, getting his older brother foaming at the mouth-crazy to the point of reversal of roles, getting double the money instead of returning the original sum given to him earlier that was earmarked for kefir. This is kind of like in that Cheech and Chong episode of Simpsons, the "Dave's not here, man" scene. Or maybe more kind of like jokes that have two people disagreeing with one another, so they keep saying yes, no, yes no, really fast until one reverses his part, makes the other one switch and ends up getting his way. A kind of childish humor. Edit: P.S. just noticed last post by PIV, that video is another example of repetitiveness and dumbness being funny. Btw it's very good idea to try youtubing КВН (it's a very popular show, like stand up comedy) for lots of more modern and more funny stuff (though more linguistically complex and culture specific). Edited by s0fist on 24 June 2011 at 9:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PIV Newbie United States Joined 4910 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 7 of 8 24 June 2011 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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s0fist: "I don't think this was the point of it at all"
I didn't mean that consuming "kefir" and its absence in the store were any funny. I wrote it in quotations "funny" meaning that that was "more funny" that the main idea of the clip, saying by that that the clip was not any funny. And further, absence of kefir in the store is not any notable by itself, of course. But the funny part of it (what I meant) is that it was so typical for the Soviet time that the producers of the clip used that circumstance in their scenario as the very normal and understandable one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6891 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 8 of 8 24 June 2011 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks everyone for your responses! I'll check out the Youtube videos you suggested.
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