Ruble crisis lends itself to Russian jokes
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Version 0 of 1. MOSCOW — As the falling ruble and depressed oil prices push Russia’s once-booming economy into the red, ordinary Russians are doing everything they can to lighten the mood – with black humor. Dark humor is as much a Russian specialty as fine caviar, perfected during the more difficult years of the Soviet Union and over centuries of bleak, sunless winters. Russians routinely reach their peak joking creativity when times are their worst – and the current ruble-and-oil-and-sanctions-driven economic crisis is proving the ideal muse to inspire such irreverent expression. “What do Russian President Vladimir Putin, the price of oil, and the ruble's value against the dollar have in common," opens one pithy wisecrack that recently made it from behind closed doors into a Bloomberg news story. “They’ll all hit 63 next year.” In general, the classic style of joking in Russia relies less on one-liners than it does on cheeky rhymed couplets and sardonic allegory immediately recognizable to locals. “Autumn has flown away/Winter has come too/The Euro is 64/And the dollar, 52,” Andrei Bystrov, an opposition activist, tweeted last week – a verse Russia’s independent television channel Dozhd named one of the crisis’ funniest quips. (We added a word to make it rhyme in English.) The ruble has even less buying power now: Today, one dollar is worth almost 54 rubles, and one euro is worth more than 66 rubles. “The punishers of Kiev crucified the ruble in front of its mother! Beasts!” read another of Dozhd’s featured tweets – a reference to one of the more scandalous moments of the Ukraine crisis, when Russian state-owned TV made the unsubstantiated claim this summer that the Ukrainian army had crucified a 3-year-old from the rebel-claimed part of the country – that was widely dismissed as propaganda gone too far. Many of the jokes need some historical context to fully grasp, because Russians often measure the severity of the current crisis against difficult Soviet and post-Soviet transition years. “We are not rich enough to buy cheap things,” was a very popular adage during hard times. Cue the following joke from influential blogger Rustem Adagamov: “We’re not rich enough to buy.” “Cheap things?” “To buy” -- in general. But other jokes – especially those that appear in video form – hardly need any translation at all. Egor Zhgun released a wildly popular animated clip last week depicting a Titanic-style romance between a Russian ruble and an oil barrel (complete with Celine Dion soundtrack), doomed when their ship hits an iceberg in the shape of Crimea -- the territory Russia annexed from Ukraine in the spring, sparking sanctions from the West. And the stand-up comics at the long-running Russian show "Comedy Club" gave their take on the economic crisis by acting out a salary negotiation at a job interview, in which a new hire bargains for the staggering starting salary of $6 a year – in rubles. The sight gag of the office workers then dumping successive plastic tubs full of rubles on the new employee as they race against the tanking exchange rate on his smartphone app works in any language. As in all crises, there is a serious side to this. For every jokester on Twitter, there are myriad more users expressing grave concerns, and even Russia’s top politicians are making a point of addressing Russia’s present situation by trying to boost morale. “The difficulties we are facing today also create new opportunities for us,” Putin said as he closed his annual state of the union-style address last week. “We are ready to take up any challenge, and win.” But it only took a few hours for someone to set those thoughts to an animated video. In it, the president’s podium is precariously balanced on a ruble floating at sea – an apparent reference to the free float policy that Russia’s Central Bank recently adopted to reduce external shocks and speculation. When Putin is done talking, it sinks. |