Soviet joke-telling

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2006/07/12/soviet-joketelling.html

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A history prof I had one semester for pre-Soviet Russian history told us a story about riding the bus in Moscow with a fellow grad student who was Russian. The guy said to him, “do you know what the difference is between capitalism and communism?” Our prof said he felt nervous, as he thought this was a deeply serious question. But the Russian student says to him “In capitalism it’s dog eat dog… in the communist countries, it’s exactly the opposite.”

Also, @doctorow, the link seems to be dead. It just goes to a page not found thingie…

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page found thingy (probably, it’s about Soviet humour and on the same domain)

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I actually recently ran into a very odd bit of Soviet Joke Telling, reworked for the modern age, that made me pause and really realize the degree of accuracy in the comment of “Without the Soviet Union, America has become its warped-mirror twin” that Cory made a year ago.

The new and updated joke went:

President Donald Trump is attending a diplomatic function in Europe, when he’s introduced to the Minister Of Defense of Luxembourg.

“Minister of Defense? Of Luxembourg? Your country’s tiny, what exactly do you have to defend? Ha! What a joke position!”

The Minister just looks back at him and goes coolly, “Well, you would know that sort of thing from experience, I suppose. I was, afterall, introduced to your nominees for Supreme Court Justices a little while ago.”

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