Russian jokes

Stierlitz is a fictional Soviet intelligence officer, portrayed by Vyacheslav Tikhonov in the popular Soviet TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring. In the jokes, Stierlitz interacts with various characters, most prominently his nemesis Müller. Usually two-liners spoofing the solemn style of the original TV voice-overs, the plot is resolved in grotesque plays on words or in parodies of the trains of thought and narrow escapes of the "original" Stierlitz.

• Müller was walking through the forest when he saw two eyes staring at him in the darkness: "Must be an owl," Müller thought. / "Who's an owl? You're an owl yourself!" Stierlitz thought.
• Stierlitz opens a door, and the lights go on. Stierlitz closes the door, and the lights go out. Stierlitz opens the door again; the light goes back on. Stierlitz closes the door; the light goes out again. Stierlitz deduces, "It's a refrigerator".
• Stierlitz approaches Berlin, which is veiled in smoke from widespread fires: "Must have forgotten to turn off my iron", Stierlitz thought with slight irritation.[1]
• Stierlitz wakes up in a prison cell. "Which identity should I use?" he wonders. "Let's see. If a person in black uniform walks in, I must be in Germany so I'll say I'm Standartenführer Stierlitz. If they wear green uniform, I'm in the USSR so I'll admit I'm Colonel Isayev". The door opens and a person in a blue uniform comes in saying, "You really should ease up on vodka, Comrade Tikhonov!" (Blue uniform was the typical police officer's uniform in Soviet Union.)

Poruchik (First Lieutenant) Dmitry Rzhevsky of the jokes is a cavalry (Hussar) officer, a straightforward, unsophisticated, and innocently rude military type whose rank and standing nevertheless gain him entrance into high society. In the aristocratic setting of high-society formal balls, and 19th-century social sophistication with widespread use of the French language, Rzhevsky, famous for brisk but usually unintelligent remarks, keeps puncturing the decorum with his vulgarities. In the jokes, he is often seen interacting with characters from the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The name is borrowed from a character from a popular 1960s comedy, Hussar Ballad (Russian: «Гусарская баллада»), bearing little in common with the folklore hero. The 1967 film rendering of War and Peace contributed to the proliferation of the Rzhevsky jokes.[2] Some researchers point out that many jokes of this kind are versions of 19th-century Russian army jokes, retold as a new series of jokes about Rzhevsky.[3]

Rzhevsky (and supposedly all Hussars) has a casual, nonchalant attitude to love and sex:

• Poruchik Rzhevsky is putting his riding boots on and is about to take leave of a charming demoiselle he had met the previous evening: "Mon cher Poruchik", she intones teasingly, "aren't you forgetting about the money?" Rzhevsky turns to her and says proudly: "Hussars never take money!" (The latter expression Gusary deneg ne berut! has become a Russian catchphrase.)[4]

He also gives his best advice to other Russian gentlemen on love matters. The Poruchik believes that the most straightforward approach is the most effective one:[3]

• Kniaz Andrei Bolkonski asks Poruchik Rzhevsky: "Tell me, Poruchik, how did you come to be so good with the ladies? What is your secret?" / "It's quite simplement, mon Prince, quite simplement. I just come over and say: 'Madame, would you like to fuck?'" / "But Poruchik, you'll get slapped in the face for that!" / "Oui, some of them slap, but most of them fuck."[3]

In a series of jokes Rzhevsky wants to impress a high society gathering with a witticism, but messes up:

• Poruchik Rzhevsky asks his batman: "Stepan, there is a grand ball tonight. Got any new puns for me to tell there?" / "Sure, sir, how about this rhyme: 'Adam had Eve... right on the eve... of their very last day in Eden...'" / "That's a good one!" / Later, at the ball: "Monsieurs, monsieurs! My Stepan taught me a funny chanson ridicule: 'Adam boinked Eve at dawn...' Pardon, not like that... 'Adam and Eve fuck through the night ...' Er... Hell, basically they did fuck, but it was absolutement splendid in verse!"

A series of jokes is based on a paradox of vulgarity within a high society setting:

• Natasha Rostova attends her first formal ball and dances with Pierre Bezukhov: "Pierre, isn't that grease on your collar?" / "Oh my, how could I miss such a terrible flaw in my costume, I'm totally destroyed!" [he retreats in shame] / Then, she dances with Kniaz Bolkonsky: "Andrew, isn't there a spot of sauce on your tunic?" [he faints] / Finally, she's dancing with Rzhevsky: "Poruchik, your boots are all covered in mud!" / "It's not mud, it's shit. Don't worry, mademoiselle, it'll fall off once it dries up."
• Poruchik Rzhevsky is dancing at a ball with a lady. He asks to be excused "to go out to check on the horse". When he returns his clothes are all wet. "Poruchik, is it raining outside?" Asks the lady. "No, m'd'mselle", Rzhevsky responds, "it's windy outside."

Many jokes are related to Rzhevskiy's ability to turn the ordinary situations or a moderate bedlam into a complete mess:

• Hussar regiment took the village. Day 1: hussars drank all beer and slept with every woman. Day 2: hussars drank all vodka and slept with every girl. Day 3: hussars drank everything that burns and slept with everything that moves. Day 4: Rzhevskiy has arrived, and then the real depravity began.
• Hussars are on a leisure: having rent a lady of the night, they put her on a pool table, insert cucumbers in her, and hit her backside with pool cues to make the cucumbers fly out, whoever hits the portrait of the Grand Empress with a cucumber wins the money. Rzhevskiy enters, looks at this and exclaims: "What are you doing, gentlemen, we could be sleeping with her instead!". Hussars, irritated: "And so Rzhevskiy came and vulgarized everything!" (Пришел поручик и все опошлил! has become a catchphrase in itself). Variant: an officer retells the aforementioned events to the colonel: "...And then Rzhevskiy came and vulgarized everything! / How exactly? Did he take the lady away? / No, he ate the cucumbers!".

While successful narration of quite a few Russian jokes heavily depends on using sexual vulgarities ("Russian mat"), Rzhevsky, with all his vulgarity, does not use heavy mat in traditional versions of his tales. One of his favorite words is "arse" (which is considered rather mild among Russian vulgarities), and there is a series of jokes where Rzhevsky answers "arse" to some innocent question (it is typical of Rzhevsky to blurt unromantic comments in the most romantic situations[3]):

• Poruchik Rzhevsky and Natasha Rostova are riding horses together on the countryside. "Poruchik, what a beautiful meadow! Guess what I see there?" / "Arse, mademoiselle?" / "Ouch, Poruchik! I see chamomiles!" (Chamomiles are Russian cliché folk flowers) / "How romantic, mademoiselle! An arse amid chamomiles!..."

The essence of Rzhevsky's peculiarity is captured in the following meta-joke:

• Rzhevsky narrates his latest adventure to his Hussar comrades. "...So I am riding through this dark wood and suddenly see a wide, white..." / Hussars, all together: "...arse!" / "Of course not! A glade full of chamomiles! And right in the middle there is a beautiful white..." / Hussars, encore: "...arse!" / "How vulgar of you! A mansion! So I open the door and guess what I see?" / Hussars, encore: "An arse!" / Poruchik, genuinely surprised: "How did you guess? Did I tell this story before?"

This theme culminates in the following joke, sometimes called "the ultimate Hussar joke":

• Countess Maria Bolkonskaya celebrates her 50th anniversary, the whole local Hussar regiment is invited, and the Countess boasts about the gifts she has received: "Cornet Obolensky presented me a lovely set of 50 Chinese fragrant candles. I loved them so much that I immediately stuck them into the seven 7-branch candlesticks you see on the table. Such auspicious numbers! Unfortunately there is a single candle left, and I don't know where to stick it..." / The whole Hussar regiment takes a deep breath... but the Hussar colonel barks out: "Hussars!!! Silence!!!" (Гусары, молчать! has become a catchphrase too.)

Sholem Aleichem, a famous Rabinovich

Rabinovich is an archetypal Russian Jew. He is a crafty, cynical, sometimes bitter type, skeptical about the Soviet government, and often too smart for his own good. He is sometimes portrayed as an otkaznik ("refusenik"): someone who is refused permission to emigrate to Israel.

• Rabinovich fills out a job application form. The official is skeptical: "You stated that you don't have any relatives abroad, but you do have a brother in Israel." / "Yes, but he isn't abroad, I am abroad!"
• Seeing a pompous and lavish burial of a member of the Politburo, Rabinovich sadly shakes his head: "What a waste! With this kind of money, I could have buried the entire Politburo!"
• Rabinovich calls Pamyat headquarters, speaking with a characteristic accent: "Tell me, is it true that Jews sold out Russia?" / "Yes, of course it's true, Kike-schnabel!" / "Oh good! Could you please tell me where I should go to get my share?"
• Rabinovich is applying to move to Israel yet again. "Why do you want to move to Israel?" the bureaucrat asks. / "Two reasons. First, a Pamyat member moved in next door to me, and he says to me 'Once we get rid of the Communists you Jews are next!'" / "Ah, but they'll never get rid of us!" / "Which brings me to the second reason..."
• Rabinovich is arrested on the street in Leningrad. After an hour of being beaten, a KGB agent comes and asks him, "Where were you born?" / He spits out, "Saint Petersburg!" / The KGB agent beats him for ten more minutes and asks him, "Where were you raised?" / "Petrograd!" / The KGB agent beats him for fifteen more minutes and asks him, "Where do you live?" / "Leningrad!" / After a half hour more beating, the KGB agent asks, "And where would you like to die?" / "Saint Petersburg!"

This following example explains Vladimir Putin's remark about "Comrade Wolf", describing the policies of the United States, that many non-Russians found cryptic.

• Rabinovich is walking through the forest with a sheep, when both of them stumble into a pit. A few minutes later, a wolf also falls into the pit. The sheep gets nervous and starts bleating. "What's with all the baaahh, baaahh?" Rabinovich asks. "Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat."

Vovochka is the Russian equivalent of "Little Johnny". He interacts with his school teacher, Maria Ivanovna (shortened to "Marivanna", a stereotypical female teacher's name). "Vovochka" is a diminutive form of "Vova", which in turn is a shortened version of "Vladimir", creating the "little boy" effect. His fellow students bear similarly diminutive names. This "little boy" name is used in contrast with Vovochka's wisecracking, adult, often obscene statements.

• In biology class, the teacher draws a cucumber on the blackboard: "Children, could someone tell me what is this?" / Vovochka raises his hand: "It's a dick, Marivanna!" The teacher bursts into tears and runs out. / Shortly, the principal rushes in: "All right, what did you do now? Which one of you brought Maria Ivanovna to tears? And who the hell drew that dick on the blackboard?"
• The teacher asks the class to produce a word that starts with the letter "A": Vovochka happily raises his hand and says "Arse!" ("Жопа" in the original)/ The teacher, shocked, responds "For shame! There's no such word!" / "That's strange," says Vovochka thoughtfully, "the arse exists, but the word doesn't!" (Actually, the phrase is attributed to Ivan Baudouin de Courtenay, famous linguist and lexicographer.)
• Vovochka is taken to the school principal: "We think this boy is too smart for the 3rd grade, he has to be moved to the 4th grade / Alright, please, Maria Ivanovna, ask this boy some difficult questions to see if that's true! / Now, Vovochka: what does a cow has 4 of, and a woman 2 of? / Legs! / And where are the women's hair most curly? / In Africa! / And what do you have 2 of in your pants, and I have none in my skirt? / Pockets!". The principal, shocked: "Send that kid straight to the university, I'd answer none of those right!"
• "So, trouble with Vovochka again? / Yes. Can you imagine: in biology class, he asked why animals have brightly colored males to attract females, and humans have it the other way around! I sent him to the school counselor, I think the boy might be gay. (in a week) So? What was the result? / Turns out Vovochka really is, but that was not why he asked that question."

Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev

Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev (Russian: Василий Иванович Чапаев), a Red Army hero of the Russian Civil War, in the rank of Division Commander, was featured in a hugely popular 1934 biopic. The most common topics are the war with the monarchist White Army, Chapayev's futile attempts to enroll into the Frunze Military Academy, and the circumstances of Chapayev's death (officially, he was gunned down by the Whites and drowned while attempting to flee across the Ural River after a lost battle).

Chapayev is usually accompanied by his aide-de-camp Petka (Петька, "Peter"), as well as Anka the Machine-Gunner (Анка-Пулемётчица), and political commissar Furmanov, all based on real people. (Being well known in Russian popular culture, Chapayev, Petka, and Anka were featured in a series of Russian adventure games released in the late 1990s and 2000s.)[5]

• "I flunked my history exam, Petka. They asked me who Caesar was, and I said he's a stallion from our 7th cavalry squadron." / "It's all my fault, Vasily Ivanovich! While you were away, I reassigned him to the 6th!"
• Chapayev, Petka, and Anka, in hiding from the Whites, are crawling plastoon-style across a field: Anka first, then Petka, and Chapayev is last. / Petka says to Anka, "Anka, you lied about your proletarian descent! Your mother must have been a ballerina – your legs are so fine!" / Chapayev responds, "And your father, Petka, must have been a plowman – the furrow you're leaving behind you is so deep!"
• Petka shout to Chapayev "Vasily Ivanovich, our Anka is crawling to the Whites!" / Chapayev replies, "Don't shoot, Petka! She is our bacteriological weapon!"
• On the occasion of an anniversary of the October Revolution, Furmanov gives a political lecture to the rank and file soldiers: "...And now we are on our glorious way to the shining horizons of Communism!" / "How did it go?", Chapayev asks Petka afterwards. "Exciting!... but unclear. What the hell is a horizon?" / "See Petka, it is a line you may see far away in the steppe when the weather is good. And it's a tricky one – no matter how long you ride towards it, you'll never reach it. You'll only wear down your horse." (Many other folk characters have starred in this type of joke as well, including Rabinovich.)

Jokes about Vasily Ivanovich and Petka are so common that meta-jokes on the subject exist.

• A man dies and goes to heaven. An angel is showing him around and leads him to a room of beds. "You can pick any bed you want" the angel says "they are all really comfortable but whenever someone who is living remembers you, you must flip over in your sleep." The man looks around. "All right" he says, "I'll take the bed near those two fans." "Those aren't fans" says the angel, "those are Vasily Ivanovich and Petka."
• See also under Fantômas below.

A number of jokes involve characters from the famous short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about the private detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Doctor Watson. The jokes appeared and became popular soon after The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson film series was broadcast on Soviet TV in the late 1970s to mid-1980s. In all these movies, the characters were brilliantly played by the same actors – Vasily Livanov (as Sherlock Holmes) and Vitaly Solomin (as Watson). Quotes from these films are usually included in the jokes («Элементарно, Ватсон!» – "Elementary, my dear Watson!"). The narrator of such a joke usually tries to mimic the unique husky voice of Vasily Livanov. The standard plot of these jokes is a short dialog where Watson naïvely wonders about something, and Holmes finds a "logical" explanation to the phenomenon in question. Occasionally the jokes also include other characters – Mrs Hudson, the landlady of Holmes's residence on Baker Street; or Sir Henry and his butler Barrymore from The Hound of the Baskervilles; or the detective's nemesis Professor Moriarty.

• Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson up and says: "Watson, look up, and tell me what you see." / "I see millions and millions of stars." / "And what do you deduce from that?" / "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." / "Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent!"

The preceding joke won second place in the World's funniest joke contest.

Combining characters and plots is not uncommon:

• At a ball. Natasha Rostova dances with Andrei Bolkonsky: "Natasha, would you accept my proposal to become husband and wife?" / "I'm afraid I wouldn't. You are as handsome as Dr Watson, but not as smart as Sherlock Holmes." / Natasha Rostova dances with Pierre Bezukhov: "Natasha, I'm in love with you, please be my wife!" / "It's quite impossible. You are as smart as Sherlock Holmes, but not as handsome as Dr Watson." / Natasha Rostova dances with Poruchik Rzhevsky: "Natasha, you're such a sweetie, why don't you become my wife?" / "Ah, Rzhevsky, you're neither handsome, nor smart!" / "Sure! But I fuck like the hound of the Baskervilles."

Some older jokes involve Fantômas, a fictional criminal and master of disguise from the French detective series, a character once widely popular in the USSR. His arch-enemy is Inspector Juve, charged with catching him. Fantômas' talent for disguise is usually the focus of the joke, allowing for jokes featuring all sorts of other characters:

• From the days when Prime Minister Golda Meir led Israel: Fantômas sneaks into Mao Zedong's private chamber as the latter is on his deathbed, and respectfully removes his mask. / Mao muses: "Well, Comrade Petka, fate sure does have a way of scattering friends all over the world, doesn't it?" / "Ah, if you only knew, Vasily Ivanovich, what our Anka has been up to in Israel!"

Bogatyrs (demigods) are heroes of Russian folk tales: impossibly strong and brave warriors, but often portrayed in jokes as arrogant, cunning and cruel. The three bogatyrs are usually Ilya Muromets, Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich or a combination thereof; the jokes often include other folk characters (such as Baba Yaga, Koschei or Gorynych) and enemies of Rus (most often the Golden Horde), usually defeated by the end of the joke. As with most other jokes, most of these are not meant for children despite folk characters associated with kids' fairy tales.

• Ilya Muromets to Gorynych: "I envy you, Gorynych; you dragons have three heads, so you can drink in company even when alone! / Nothing to envy here, Ilya: I only got one liver".
• Three bogatyrs, bored, boast of their feats: "I once stood against the Horde for three days, that was a battle to remember! / And I once fought Gorynych for four days! / And I once made love to Vasilisa the Beautiful for a week! / So? How's that a feat for a man like us? / Well, she only turned human on day four!"
• (L) Ilya meets Alesha: "I am called Ilya Muromets, for I am from the place called Murom! / And I'm Alesha Popovich, and I'm not telling you which place I'm from..." (the joke is a play of words: Ilya is named after his home city, while Alesha after his father's profession, "pop" meaning "priest"; however, "popa" also means "arse").
• Three bogatyrs clash with the Three Musketeers over a petty dispute; of course, d'Artagnan challenges Ilya to a duel. He then marks Ilya's heart with a chalk: "It is here that my épée will pierce you!". Ilya looks at his mace, then at d'Artagnan, then, without a word, covers the musketeer head to toe in chalk dust.

Mercedes-Benz S600 (W140)

Zaporozhets 968

New Russians (Russian: новые русские, Novye Russkie, the nouveau-riche), a newly rich class of businessmen and gangsters in post-perestroika, were a very common category of characters in Russian jokes of the 1990s. A common theme is the interaction of a New Russian in his archetypal shiny black Mercedes S600, arguing with a regular Russian in his modest Soviet-era Zaporozhets after their vehicles collide. The New Russian is often a violent criminal or at least speaks criminal argot, with a number of neologisms (or common words with skewed meaning) typical among New Russians. In a way, these anecdotes are a continuation of the Soviet-era series about Georgians, who were then depicted as extremely wealthy. The physical stereotype of the New Russians is often that of overweight men with short haircuts, dressed in thick gold chains and crimson jackets, with their fingers in the horns gesture, cruising around in the "600 Merc" and showing off their wealth. Jokes about expensive foreign sports cars can be compared to German Manta jokes.

• A New Russian's son complains to his father: "Daddy, all my schoolmates are riding the bus, and I look like a black sheep in this 600 Merc." / "No worries, son. I'll buy you a bus, and you'll ride like everyone else!"
• A New Russian buys a new car. His fellow asks: "Why do you need it, you've bought brand new car a month ago!" - "It's ashtray is already full".
• A New Russian's son complains to his father: "Daddy, I've met a beautiful girl, but she agrees to walk with me only if I have Mercedes and 3-floor house" - "Okay, son, I'm ready to buy you Mercedes if she doesn't like your Ferrari, but not to demolish two floors of our house for this foolish girl!"
• A New Russian brags to his colleague: "Look at my new tie. I bought it for 500 dollars in the store over there." / "You were conned. You could have paid twice as much for the same one just across the street!"
• A New Russian and an old man lie injured side by side in an emergency room: "How did you get here, old fella?" / "I had an old Zaporozhets car, and I installed my war trophy Messerschmitt jet engine in it. While driving on a highway, I saw a Ferrari ahead and tried to overtake it. My speed was too high, I lost control, and crashed into a tree... And how did you get here?" / "I was driving my Ferrari when I saw a Zaporozhets overtaking me. I thought that my car might have broken down again, and had coasted to a stop. So I opened the door and stepped out..."
• Two New Russian friends meet up and one asks the other how he is doing: "I'm fine, but did you hear about Sergei? He was driving his new Mercedes through Petersburg and ran into a horse."/"Oh God, what happened?"/"The car was ruined, but the horse was fine. It was made of bronze."

Jokes set in the animal kingdom also feature characters, which draw their roots in the old Slavic fairy tales, where animals are portrayed as sapient beings with a stereotypical behavior, such as the violent Wolf; the sneaky Fox; the cocky, cowardly Hare; the strong, simple-minded Bear; the multi-dimensional Hedgehog; and the Lion, king of the animal kingdom. In the Russian language all objects, animate and inanimate, have a (grammatical) gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. The reader should assume that the Wolf, the Bear, the Hare, the Lion, and the Hedgehog are males, whereas the Fox (Vixen) is a female:

• The Bear, the Wolf and the Vixen are playing cards. The Wolf warns, shuffling: "No cheating! If anyone is cheating, her smug red-furred face is going to hurt!"
• "If something has spilled from somewhere, then that must mean that something has poured into somewhere else," the Drunken Hedgehog mused philosophically when the campers quarrelled over a broken bottle. ("Drunken hedgehog" is a kind of multipurpose Russian cliché.)

Animals in Russian jokes are and were very well aware of politics in the realm of humans:

• A bunch of animals including the Cock are in prison bragging about why they were sent there. The Cock doesn't take part in this. Someone asks: "And what are you in for?" / "I am not talking to you, criminals. I am a political prisoner!" / "How come?" / "I pecked a Young Pioneer in the arse!"

Animal jokes are often fables, i.e. their punchline is (or eventually becomes) a kind of a maxim.

• The Hare runs like crazy through a forest and meets the Wolf. The Wolf asks: "What's the matter? Why such haste?" / "The camels there are caught and shod!" The Wolf says: "But you're not a camel!" / "Hey, after you are caught and shod, just you try to prove to them that you are not a camel!"

This joke is a suggested to be an origin of the popular Russian saying "try to prove you are not a camel" in the sense "try to prove something to someone who doesn't want to listen", used in relation to violations of the presumption of innocence[6] by Russian law enforcement agencies, or when someone has to fight the bureaucracy to get official papers proving that one has lost a leg or is even alive. The Hare and the joke itself were used to illustrate the hassles of a Soviet lishenets in a 1929 issue of a satirical magazine Chudak.[7] Mikhail Melnichenko, in an article about Soviet political jokes cites a 1926 private collection, which renders the joke in a more gruesome form, where the Hare is scared of the rumor that all camels are taken hostages by Cheka and shot (a reference to the Red Terror).[8] Later Melnichenko in his book Coветский анекдот. Указатель сюжетов reports an earlier version, a record of a censored sketch of the comic duo Bim Bom. A similar parable was told by a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi Jalal ad-Din Rumi, in which a person was scared to be taken for a donkey and skinned.[9] Ben Lewis in his "Hammer & Tickle" cites a yet another version : a flock of sheep seek refuge in Finland because Beria ordered an arrest of all elephants (an allusion to the sweeping national operations of the NKVD) and they have no chance to explain the difference to Beria. Lewis traces it to "a Persian poet in 12th-century Arabia, where it involves a fox running away from a royal ordinance that in theory applies only to donkeys."[10]

Aside from mammals, a rather common non-human is the "Golden Fish", who asks the catcher to release her in exchange for three wishes. The first Russian instance of this appeared in Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish. In jokes, the Fisherman may be replaced by a representative of a nationality or ethnicity, and the third wish usually makes the punch line of the joke.

• An American, a Frenchman and a Russian are alone on an uninhabited island. They catch fish for food and suddenly catch a Golden Fish, who promises to fulfill two wishes for each in trade for her own freedom:
  The American: "A million dollars and to go back home!"
  The Frenchman: "Three beautiful women and to go back home!"
  The Russian: "Tsk, and we were getting along so well. Three crates of vodka and the two fellas back!"
  • Side Note: This joke is a play on the fact that in Russia it is believed that three is the optimal number of people for drinking. This in turn goes back to when in the Soviet Union a bottle of vodka cost 2.87 Soviet rubles, 3 rubles being a convenient price for three men to buy a bottle and have 13 kopecks left for a snack. The classic for the latter was a rectangular pack of soft processed cheese "Druzhba" (Friendship), with that exact price. Therefore, a natural company is 3, each contributing 1 ruble. This procedure was dubbed "to have arranged for three (persons)" (Russian: сообразить на троих; soobrazit' na troikh, literal translation: "to have figured out for three"). Much of Soviet folklore is based on this interpretation of the "magic of the number 3".

A similar type of joke involves a wish-granting Genie, the main difference being that in the case of the Golden Fish the Fisherman suffers from his own stupidity or greed, while the Genie is known for ingeniously twisting an interpretation of the wish to frustrate the grantee.

• A man finds an old bottle, picks it up and opens it. The Genie comes out of the bottle and says: "Thanks so much for letting me out! I feel I should do something for you, too. Would you like to become a Hero of the Soviet Union?" (Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest Soviet award). The guy says: "Yes, sure!" Next thing he knows, he finds himself on a battlefield with four grenades, alone against six German panzers.

• A drunkard takes a leak by a lamp pole in the street. A policeman tries to reason with him: "Can't you see the latrine is just 25 feet away?" The drunkard replies: "Do you think I've got a fire hose in my trousers?"
• Drunk #1 is slowly walking, bracing himself against a fence and stumbling. He comes across Drunk #2, who is lying in mud across the street. "What a disgrace! Lying around like a pig! I'm ashamed for you." / "You just keep on walking, demagogue! We'll see what you're gonna do when you run out of your fence too!"
• The above joke has a counterpart, mocking a stereotypical question - ты меня уважаешь? do you respect me? - often met when drunks get talkative and start discussing issues usually kept private. So, Drunk #1 is slowly walking, bracing himself against a fence and stumbling. He comes across Drunk #2, who is lying across the street, equally incapable of walking. "Hey, fella, do you respect me?", "Oh my gosh.... I have ADMIRATION for you!!!" (originally: я горжусь тобой, I am proud of you).
• During the anti-alcohol campaign two drunkards agreed on a special code: "book" means "vodka", "newspaper" means "beer", etc. So, this is how their chat goes: "Shit, newspapers are out of stock since early morning, the library opens only at 11am..." The second one cuts in: "To hell with the books, come over quickly: uncle Ivan brought some manuscripts from the village!"

These often revolve around the supposition that the vast majority of Russian and Soviet militsioners (policemen, now called politzia) accept bribes. Also, they are not considered to be very bright.

• Three prizes were awarded for the successes in a Socialist competition of the Traffic Inspection Department #18. The third prize is the Complete Works of Vladimir Lenin. The second prize is 100 roubles and a ticket to Sochi... The first prize is a portable stop sign. (There are several versions with this punch line about the stop sign, which is a Soviet peculiarity. A portable stop sign allowed the militsioner to put it in an unexpected or hard-to-see place on a road, to fine everyone passing it, and to appropriate most of the fines for himself. One such joke: The policeman asked his supervisor for a raise and got the reply, "I cannot give you a raise, but I can give you a stop sign.")
• A person on a bus tells a joke: "Do you know why policemen always go in pairs?" / "No, why?" / "It's specialization: one knows how to read, the other knows how to write." / A hand promptly grabs him by the shoulder – a policeman is standing right behind him! / "Your papers!" he barks. The hapless person surrenders his official papers. / The policeman opens them, reads, and nods to his partner: "Write him a citation for slandering the Soviet Militsiya, Vasya". (A version of this joke involves a third policeman whose sole job is in turn to watch over these two dangerously literate intellectuals.)
• In an attempt to crack down on corruption, a local mayor instruct the police to issue speeding tickets to anyone caught speeding, even the mayor himself. Later the mayor, late to an appointment asks his driver to speed. When the driver refuses, the mayor orders him to sit in the back, and drives the car himself. He is stopped by two policemen, one of whom recognizes him and lets him go. “Comrade!” the other cries. “Surely we will get in trouble for allowing someone to speed!” “No, comrade,” says the other. “This one was extremely important.” “Who was he?” asks the other. “I haven’t a clue,” says the first one, “but the mayor was his driver!”

Imperial Russia had been multi-ethnic for many centuries, and this situation continued throughout the Soviet period, and continues still. Throughout history, several ethnic stereotypes have developed, often in common with those views by other ethnicities (usually except for the ethnicity in question, but not always).

Chukchi (singular Chukcha), the native people of Chukotka, the most remote northeast corner of Russia, are a common minority targeted for generic ethnic jokes in Russia.[11] In jokes, they are depicted as generally primitive, uncivilized, and simple-minded, but clever in a naive kind of way.[12] A propensity for constantly saying odnako (equivalent to "however", depending on context) is a staple of Chukcha jokes. Often a straight man of the Chukcha in the jokes is a Russian geologist.

• "Chukcha, why did you buy a fridge, if it's so cold on the tundra?" / "Why, is −50° Celsius outside yaranga, is −10° inside, is −5° in fridge – warm place, odnako!"
• A Chukcha comes into a shop and asks: "Do you have color TVs?" / "Yes, we do." / "Give me a green one."
• A Chukcha applies for membership in the Union of Soviet Writers. He is asked what literature he is familiar with. "Have you read Pushkin?" / "No." / "Have you read Dostoevsky?" / "No." / "Can you read at all?" / The Chukcha, offended, replies, "Chukcha not reader, Chukcha writer!"[12] (The last phrase has become a popular cliché in Russian culture, hinting at happy or militant ignorance.)

Chukchi do not miss their chance to retort:

• A Chukcha and a Russian geologist go hunting polar bears. They track one down at last. Seeing the bear, the Chukcha shouts "Run!" and starts running away. The Russian shrugs, calmly raises his gun, and shoots the bear. "Russian hunter, bad hunter!" the Chukcha exclaims. "Ten kilometres to the yaranga, you haul this bear yourself!"[12]

Chukchi, due to their innocence, often see the inner truth of situations:

• A Chukcha returning home from Moscow is met with great excitement and interest from his friends: "What is socialism like?" / "Oh," begins the Chukcha in awe, "There, everything is for the betterment of man... I even saw that man himself!" (a reference to the Communist slogan Всё для блага человека!, "Everything for the betterment of man").[2]

Ukrainians are depicted as rustic, stingy, and inordinately fond of salted salo (pork back fat); their accent, which is imitated in jokes, is perceived as funny.

• A Ukrainian tourist is questioned at international customs: "Are you carrying any weapons or drugs?" / "What are drugs?" / "They make you get high." / "Yes, salo." / "But salo is not a drug." / "When I eat salo, I get high!"
• A Ukrainian is asked: "Can you eat a kilo of apples?" / "Yes, I can." / "Can you eat two kilos of apples?" / "I can." / "And five kilos?" / "I can." / "Can you eat 100 kilos?!" / "What I cannot eat, I will nibble!"
• A Ukrainian and an African student live together in a room. The African is poor and hungry, but the Ukrainian has received a food package from parents. So he takes out a can of borscht, a big loaf of bread with butter, a big piece of salo, onion, a bottle of gorilka (vodka) and begins to eat. The African looks at him jealously. The Ukrainian asks: "Are you hungry?" / "Yes, very hungry!" / "Sorry, I have no bananas."

Ukrainians are perceived to bear a grudge against Russians (derided as Moskali by Ukrainians):

• The Soviet Union has launched the first man into space. A Hutsul shepherd, standing on top of a hill, shouts over to another shepherd on another hill to tell him the news. "Mykola!" / "Yes!" / "The moskali have flown to space!" / "All of them?" / "No, just one." / "So why are you bothering me then?" (An oral version may end at the "all of them" sentence, said in a hopeful tone).

Armenian Suren Spandaryan (left) and Georgian Joseph Stalin in 1915

Georgians are almost always depicted as stupid, greedy, hot-blooded, or sexually addicted, and in some cases, all four at the same time. A very loud and theatrical Georgian accent, including grammatical errors considered typical of Georgians, and occasional Georgian words are considered funny to imitate in Russian and often becomes a joke in itself.

In some jokes, Georgians are portrayed as rich, because in Soviet times they were also perceived as profiting immensely from black market businesses. There is a humorous expression deriving from the custom in police reports of referring to them as "persons of Caucasian ethnicity" (Russian: лицо кавказской национальности). Since the Russian word for "person" in the formal sense, (Russian: лицо), is the same as the word for "face", this allows a play on words about "faces of Caucasian ethnicity". In Russia itself, most people see "persons of Caucasian ethnicity" mostly at marketplaces selling fruits and flowers. In recent years, many old jokes about rich Georgians are being recast in terms of "New Russians".

• A plane takes off from the Tbilisi airport. A passenger storms the pilot's cabin, waving an AK-47 rifle and demanding that the flight be diverted to Israel. The pilot shrugs in agreement, but suddenly the hijacker's head falls off his shoulders, and a Georgian pops from behind with a blood-drenched dagger, and a huge suitcase: "Lisss'n here genatsvale: No any Israel-Misrael. Fly Moscow nonstop – my roses are wilting!"
• In a zoo, two girls are discussing a gorilla with a huge penis: "That's what a real man must have!" A Georgian passer-by sarcastically remarks: "You are badly mistaken, it's not a man, it is a male. This is what a real man must have!", and produces a thick wallet.

Estonians and Finns are depicted as having no sense of humor and being stubborn, taciturn, and especially slow. The Estonian accent, especially its sing-song tune and the lack of genders in grammar, forms part of the humor. Their common usage of long vowels and consonants both in speech and orthography (e.g. words such as Tallinn, Saaremaa) also led to the stereotype of being slow in speech, thinking, and action. In the everyday life, a person may be derisively called a "hot-headed Estonian fellow" (or in similar spirit, a "hot-tempered Finnish bloke", a phrase popularized by the 1995 Russian comedy Peculiarities of the National Hunt) to emphasize tardiness or lack of temperament. Indeed, Estonians play a similar role in Soviet humor to that of Finns in Scandinavian jokes.

Finnish political scientist Ilmari Susiluoto, also an author of three books on Russian humor, writes that Finns and Russians understand each other's humor. "Being included in a Russian anecdote is a privilege that Danes or Dutchmen have not attained. These nations are too boring and unvaried to rise into the consciousness of a large country. But the funny and slightly silly, stubborn Finns, the Chukhnas do."[13]

• An Estonian stands by a railway track. Another Estonian passes by on a handcar, pushing the pump up and down. The first one asks: "Iis iitt a llonngg wwayy ttoo Ttallinn?" / "Nnoot ttoo llonngg." He gets on the car and joins pushing the pump up and down. After two hours of silent pumping the first Estonian asks again: "Iis iitt a llonngg wwayy ttoo Ttallinn?" / "Nnnoooowww iiitt iiiis llonngg wwayy."
• A special offer from Estonian mobile phone providers: the first two hours of a call are free.
• "I told some Estonian blokes that they're slow." / "What did they reply?" / "Nothing, but they beat me up the following day."
• A Finnish family – parents and two brothers – goes to the countryside in their car. Suddenly some animal crosses the road in front of the car and runs away into the forest. After an hour one brother says: "It is a fox!" After another hour, the second brother says: "No, it is a wolf!" After two hours, the father replies: "Well, why don't you have a fight, you hot-headed Finnish guys!"
• Two Finns are sitting near a road. Suddenly, a car passes in a fast, noisy blur, barely visible. After 30 minutes one Finn asks: "Whaaat waaaaas thaaaat?" After 30 more minutes, the other replies: "Thaaaat waaaas Miiiiiiiikaaaa Häaaaaakkiiiiiiineeeeeen, the shaaaame of the Fiiiiinniiish naaaaation"

Finns share with Chukchi their ability to withstand cold:

• At −10° Celsius, heating is switched on in British homes, while Finns change into a long-sleeved shirt. At −20°, Austrians fly to Málaga, while Finns celebrate midsummer. At −200°, hell freezes over and Finland wins the Eurovision Song Contest. (This joke predates the event, previously deemed impossible, of Finland actually winning the contest, in 2006.) At −273°, absolute zero temperature is reached, and all atomic movement ceases. The Finns shrug and say: "Perkele, a bit chilly today, isn't it?".[13]

Jewish humor is a highly developed subset of Russian humor, largely based on the Russian Jews' self-image. The Jewish self-deprecating anecdotes are not the same as anti-Semitic jokes. As some Jews say themselves, Jewish jokes are being made by either anti-Semites or the Jews themselves. Instead, whether told by Jews or non-Jewish Russians, these jokes show cynicism, self-irony, and wit that is characteristic of Jewish humor both in Russia and elsewhere in the world (see Jewish humor). The jokes are usually told with a characteristic Jewish accent (stretching out syllables, parodying the uvular trill of "R", etc.) and some peculiarities of sentence structure calqued into Russian from Yiddish. Many of these jokes are set in Odessa, and to some extent the phrase "Odessa humor" is synonymous with "Jewish jokes," even if the characters don't have Jewish names and even their religion/ethnicity is never mentioned. To Russians, it is sufficient to begin a joke with: "So, an Odessan woman gets on the bus...", and her Jewishness is implicitly understood by the listener.

• Abram cannot sleep, tossing and turning from side to side... Finally his wife Sarah inquires: "Abram, what's bothering you?" / "I owe Moishe 20 roubles, but I have no money. What shall I do?" / Sarah bangs on the flimsy wall and shouts to the neighbors: "Moishe! My Abram still owes you 20 roubles? Well he isn't giving them back!" / Turning to her husband, she says reassuringly: "Now go to sleep and let Moishe stay awake!"
• An Odessa Jew meets another one. "Have you heard, Einstein has won the Nobel Prize?" / "Oy, what for?" / "He developed this Relativity Theory." / "Yeah, what's that?" / "Well, you know, five hairs on your head is relatively few. Five hairs in your soup is relatively many." / "And for that he gets the Nobel Prize?!"
• A Red Guardsman pounds on Abram's door. / He answers through the door: "Yes?" / "Abram, we've come for everything precious." / Abram thinks for a few seconds, and calls out: "Rosa, my precious, someone's here for you!"

During the 1967 Arab–Israeli War sympathies of the ordinary Soviet people were on the side of the Israel despite Egypt under Nasser being officially a Soviet ally, "on the Socialist path of development":

• A quiet time at the Egypt-Israel frontline. A Jew shouts: "Hey, Abdullah!" – A head pops up: "What do you want?" – and catches a bullet. Now an Egyptian shouts: "Hey, Abraham!" – "Who asked Abraham?" – A head pops up: "It's me, Abdullah!" – and catches a bullet.

This joke is in part based on the common stereotype about Jews: to answer a question with a question.

Common jokes center on the enormous size of the Chinese population, the Chinese language and the perceptions of the Chinese as cunning, industrious, and hard-working. Other popular jokes revolve around the belief that the Chinese are capable of amazing feats by primitive means, such as the Great Leap Forward.

• "During the Damansky Island incident the Chinese military developed three main strategies: The Great Offensive, The Small Retreat, and Infiltration by Small Groups of One to Two Million Across the Border".
• A Chinese anti-tank squad consists of 3000 foot soldiers armed with wrenches. Their orders are to disassemble the enemy tank before it gets a chance to fire.
• In another joke of that time, China developed a strategy to capture all the Soviet Union (or United States, or Japan, etc.): 1. Declare a war. 2. Order soldiers to surrender, ALL of them at once. (Variant: surrender 1 million soldiers per day until the enemy admits defeat, usually in a month or two into the war)
• When a child is born in a wealthy Chinese family, there is an ancient tradition: a silver spoon is dropped onto the jade floor. The sound the spoon makes will be the name of the newborn. (see Chinese names)
• The initial report on the first Chinese human spaceflight: "All systems operational, boiler-men on duty!"
• A multi-nation meta-joke combining stereotypes: "Let us declare war on Moldavia! / Negative, they will rebuild faster than we can destroy their homes! / Then let us declare war on China! / Negative, they will reproduce faster than we can kill them! / Then let us declare war on stupid yankees! / Mr. President, we ARE the stupid yankees..."

A good many of the jokes are puns based on the fact that a widespread Chinese syllable (written as hui in pinyin) looks very similar to the obscene Russian word for penis. For this reason, since about 1956 the Russian-Chinese dictionaries render the Russian transcription of this syllable as "хуэй" (huey) (which actually is closer to the correct Standard Chinese pronunciation). The most embarrassing case for the Chinese-Soviet friendship probably is the word "socialism" (社会主义; pinyin: shè huì zhǔ yì), rendered previously as шэ-хуй-чжу-и. The following humorous possibilities for the misunderstanding of the Chinese syllable hui are derived from Aarons's (2012) text:[14]

• A new Chinese ambassador is to meet Gromyko. When the latter enters, the Chinese presents himself: "Zhui Hui!" Gromyko, unperturbed, retorts "Zhui sam!" The surprised Chinese asks: "And where is Gromyko?" (The pun is that zhui hui (a mock Chinese name) means "chew a dick" in Russian and zhui sam means "chew [it] yourself").
• Сунь Хуй в Чай Вынь Пей Сам, Sun' Huy v Chay Vyn' Pey Sam, (literally meaning "Dip [your] penis into tea, withdraw [and] drink [it], yourself") is a made-up "Chinese name" that is analogous to the English "Who Flung Dung". A suitable English interpretation sounds like "Dip Dick Tea, Back, You Drink". There is another variation of this joke about two Chinese persons: Сунь Хуй в Чай (Sun' Huy v Chay) and Вынь Су Хим (Vyn' Su Him), which can be translated as "Dip [your] penis into tea", and "Take [it] out dry", where a word "сухим" (suhim, meaning "dry") is divided into two syllables "су" (su) and "хим" (him).
• A subset of name-based jokes use the reverse, implying direct Soviet participation in Korean war. Usually "Chinese" pilot Lee See Tsyn is mentioned, being an easily recognizable Russian family name Лисицын (Lisitsyn, from Лисица - "vixen" in Russian). Some versions also include pilots Ku Ree Tsyn, See Nee Tsyn, and Tu Pee Tsyn. These are respectively Курицин, from курица ("hen"), Синицын (синица, "titmouse"), and Тупицын (тупица, "dumb one").

Russians are a stereotype in Russian jokes themselves when set next to other stereotyped ethnicities. Thus, the Russian appearing in a triple joke with two Westerners, German, French, American or Englishman, will provide for a self-ironic punchline depicting himself as simple-minded and negligently careless but physically robust, which often ensures that he retains the upper hand over his less naive Western counterparts. Another common plot is a Russian holding a contest with technologically-superior opponents (usually, an American and a Japanese) and winning with sheer brute force or a clever trick.

• A Frenchman, a German, and a Russian go on a safari and are captured by cannibals. They are brought to the chief, who says, "We are going to eat you right now. But I am a civilized man, I studied human rights at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, so I'll grant each of you a last request." The German asks for a mug of beer and a bratwurst. He gets it, and then the cannibals eat him. The Frenchman asks for three girls. He has crazy sex with them, and then suffers the fate of the German. The Russian demands: "Hit me hard, right on my nose!" The chief is surprised, but hits him. The Russian pulls out a Kalashnikov and shoots all the cannibals. The mortally-wounded chief asks him: "Why didn't you do this before we ate the German?" The Russian proudly replies: "Russians are not aggressors!" (This joke has also been used as a Jewish joke; more specifically, as an Israeli joke, alluding to Israel's being constantly afraid of being seen as the "aggressor".)

• A Chukcha sits on the shore of the Bering Strait. An American submarine surfaces. The American captain opens the hatch and asks: "Which way is Alaska?" The Chukcha points his finger: "That way!" / "Thanks!" says the American, shouts "South-South-East, bearing 159.5 degrees!" down the hatch and the submarine submerges. Ten minutes later, a Soviet submarine emerges. The Russian captain opens the hatch and asks the Chukcha: "Where did the American submarine go?" The Chukcha replies: "South-South-East bearing 159.5 degrees!" "Don't be a smart-ass", says the captain, "just point your finger!"
• A Frenchman, a Japanese, and a Russian are captured by an alien. He locks them in cells and demands that they amaze him using two steel balls – the winner will be released, the others will be executed. A week later, the Frenchman demonstrates a juggling trick with the balls. The Japanese has created a rock garden. However the Russian is declared winner: he broke one ball, and lost another one.
• American pilots challenged Russians to find out whose planes are faster. The Americans took the latter-day supersonic aircraft, the Russians managed to get only an old, decommissioned Kukuruznik and tied it to the American plane with rope. After takeoff, the American crew says: "Sir, Russians are right behind us!" - "What is our speed?" - "400 mph" - "Raise to 500!" - "Sir, the Russians aren't falling behind!" - "Raise to 600!" - "Sir, I'm afraid we will lose!" - "Why?" - "They still haven't retracted their landing gear yet!"

The Russian word for "testicle" is a diminutive of "egg", so the slang word is the non-diminutive form (yaitso, cf. Spanish huevo). A large variety of jokes capitalizes on this, ranging from predictably silly to surprisingly elegant:

• A man jumps onto a bus and falls over another man, who is holding a large sack and cries out: "Watch the eggs!" / "Are you stupid? Who would carry eggs in a sack?" / "Watch your eggs. This sack is full of nails!"
• There is an exhibit of a precious jeweled Fabergé egg at the Hermitage Museum. The label reads: "Fabergé / Self-portrait (fragment)"
• A train compartment holds a family: a small daughter, her mother, and grandma. A fourth passenger is a Georgian (See jokes about Georgians). The mother starts feeding a soft-boiled egg to the daughter with a silver spoon. / Grandma: "Don't you know that eggs can spoil silver?" / "Who would have known!", thinks the Georgian, and he hastily moves his silver cigarette case from his front pants pocket to the back one.
• Vladimir Putin, in one of his 2002 putinisms noticed by media, exploited this popular pun; when asked of his opinion about portraits of presidents painted on Easter eggs, he answered: "I don't know what they paint on their eggs; I haven't seen."[16] This is reminiscent of the following joke: A Russian invites his new American friend, a student of Russian culture, to meet his family during the Easter period: "Please meet my mother!" / "Oh, your mother! My respects!" / "That's my sister!" / "Oh, your sister! Charmed!" / "And my brother is in the kitchen, painting the eggs." / "Oh, a hippie! We have them too!"

Other jokes touching on religion involve Heaven or Hell. They usually focus on the attempts to settle in Afterlife in a non-trivial way, or how different nationalities/professions/occupations are treated. Jokes about specific people going to Hell and receiving fitting punishment are common as well. Rarer variants include jokes about historic figures coming back from beyond to observe or settle issues of modern Russia.

• A Communist died, and since he was an honest man albeit atheist, he was sentenced to alternate spending one year in Hell and one year in Heaven. One year passed and Satan said to God: "Take this man as fast as possible. Because he turned all my young demons into Young Pioneers, I have to restore some order." Another year passed, Satan meets God again and tells him: "Lord God, it's my turn now." God replied: "First of all, don't call me Lord God, but instead Comrade God; second, there is no God; and one more thing – don't distract me or I'll be late to the Party meeting."[17]
• A Russian and an American are sentenced to Hell. The Devil summons them and says: "Guys, you have 2 options: an American or Russian Hell. In the American one you can do what you want, but you'll have to eat a bucket of shit every morning. The Russian one is the same, but it's 2 buckets." The Yankee quickly makes up his mind and goes to American Hell, while the Russian eventually chooses the Russian one. In a week or so they meet. The Russian asks: "So, what's it like out there?"/ "Exactly what the devil said, the Hell itself is OK, but eating a bucket of shit is killing me. And you?" / "Ah, it feels just like home – either the shit doesn't get delivered or there aren't enough buckets for everyone!"
• An American, a Hindu, and a Russian land in Purgatory. A grey-winged angel with a huge whip hanging from his belt meets them and says: "Alright, here's the rules. Anyone who takes three strikes from my whip without screaming, can go straight to Heaven. You can shield yourselves with whatever you like. We've got everything here. Who's first?" The American steps forward. "Alright, you've got three hours to prepare yourself." The American puts on a full-body Kevlar outfit, gets into a tank, drives it into a concrete bunker, the bunker is covered with 15 feet of dirt and inch-thick titanium plates. The angel unravels his whip. SNAP! The titanium and the dirt are gone. SNAP! The bunker and tank are gone. SNAP! The American howls in pain, the ground opens up under his feet and he drops straight to Hell. "Next!", says the angel. The Hindu steps forward. "You've got three hours to prepare yourself." / "I need only five minutes. I have studied Yoga all my life and can make myself immune to all pain." The Hindu gets into a lotus position, hums mantras for a few minutes, and rises a couple of inches off the ground. The angel unravels his whip. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! The Hindu is completely unfazed. "Hmm, impressive. Alright, you're free to go." / "Thank you, but only after I see how this last one makes it out of this", says the Hindu, looking at the Russian. / "Your call." / The angel turns to the Russian: "What are you going to shield yourself with?" / "With the Hindu, of course."
• A drunkard, a sex addict, and a junkie die and go to Hell. The Devil says that he will let go of anyone who manages to spend 100 years trapped in a room with their carnal sin. The drunkard is trapped in a wine cellar, the playboy in a brothel, and the junkie in a giant field of weed. In 80 years, the Devil checks on them. The drunkard begs to be let out since he drank all the wine in the first few years and now suffers an eternal hangover. The playboy begs to be let out since the women around him grew old but no less insatiable, while he remained young. The junkie is silent and furious, but not a single weed was touched, to the Devil's surprise. "How did you resist your temptation? / If you wanted me to be tempted, you could've left me with a lighter".
• During the tour around Hell, cauldrons with molten lead are explained to tourists. "Here we have a cauldron for Germans: it must be sealed at all times, because if one German gets out, all others realize they could all do it all along. And here we have a cauldron for Chinese: it requires extra supervision, for if one Chinese gets out, he helps all others out as well. And here we have a cauldron for Russians: it requires no extra supervision at all! / How so? / Even if one manages to get out, others will immediately drag him back in!" (this joke refers to the political stability jokes where Russians allegedly put status quo above everything, including their own comfort; some variants replace Russians with Ukrainians and Chinese with Jews)

• An old woman stands in the market with a “Chernobyl mushrooms for sale" sign. A man goes up to her and demands: "Hey, what are you doing? Who's going to buy Chernobyl mushrooms?” / “Well, lots of people. Some for their boss, others for their mother-in-law...”
• A grandson asks his grandfather: "Grandpa, is it true that in 1986 there was an accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant?" / "Yes, there was", answers the Grandpa and patted the grandson's head. / "Grandpa, is it true that it had absolutely no consequences?" / "Yes, absolutely", answered the Grandpa, and patted the grandson's second head. (Often added: "And they strolled off together, wagging their tails").
• A Soviet newspaper reports: "Last night the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station fulfilled the Five Year Plan of heat energy generation... in 4 microseconds." (A poke on common Soviet reports about speedy execution of five-year plans.)
• "Is it true, that you may eat meat from Chernobyl?" / "Yes, you may. But your feces will need to be buried in concrete 30 feet deep underground." (a typical Radio Yerevan joke)
• "It's very difficult to gather mushrooms in Chernobyl; they scramble in all directions when you approach."

Medical jokes are widespread. Often, they consist of a short dialogue of doctor or nurse with a patient:

• An autopsy of a dead patient revealed that cause of death was... an autopsy.
• "Nurse, where are we going?" / "To the morgue."/ "But I haven't died yet!"/ "Well, we haven't arrived yet."
• "Nurse, where are we going?" / "To the morgue."/ "But I haven't died yet!"/ "The doc said 'to the morgue' — to the morgue it is!" / "But what is wrong with me?!" / "The autopsy will show!"

The phrase "The doc said 'to the morgue' — to the morgue it is!" (Доктор сказал «в морг» — значит, в морг!) became a well-known Russian cliché, meaning that something must be done whenever it makes sense or not.

• A sign in a student dining hall: "Students, do not drop your food on the floor, two cats have already been poisoned!"
• A crocodile's stomach can digest concrete. A student's stomach can digest that of a crocodile.
• A student in the canteen: "Can I have 2 wieners... [he hears whispers all around: "Look at the rich guy!"] ...and 17 forks, please?"

• A very rumpled student peers into an exam room and slurs at the examiner: "Pp-proffessosssor, wou'd you al-low a drunk student tt-o tt-ake the exam?..." / The professor sighs and says, "Sure, why not?" / The rumpled student turns around and slurs into the hallway: "G-guys, c-carry 'im in."

Also, there are a number of funny student obsessions such as zachyotka (a book of grade transcripts, carried by every student), halyava (a chance of getting something (in this context, good or acceptable grades) without any effort), and getting a stipend for good grades. Jokes about student life (filled with relationships, alcohol, and a permanent lack of any money) are common.

A large number of jokes are about an exam: these are usually a dialogue between the professor and the student, based on a set of questions written on a bilet (a small sheet of paper, literally "ticket"), which the student draws at random in the exam room, and is given some time to prepare answers. Many jokes refer to students trying to pass an exam with little or no knowledge at all (halyava as mentioned above).

• Students are asked how quickly they can learn the Japanese language. American student: "I need 6 months and I will pass any exam!". German student: "I think I can do it in three months!". Russian student is asked while he's smoking outside: "Hmmm... Do you have a textbook? / Yes? / Then let me finish the cigarette and we're good to go to that exam."
• A professor enters the lectorium on the exam day. "Alright slackers, a question for A grade, what's my name? (angry yelling in the back rows) Alright, a B grade question, what's the color of the handbook cover? (angry yelling) Fine, a C grade question: what's the discipline the exam is on? / We are all gonna fail if he keeps this up!"
• Year one exam: students pull out cheat sheets the moment their professor looks away, but hide them when he turns back. Year two exam: students pull out cheat sheets the moment the professor looks away, he turns back, they continue writing, he coughs and they hide those. Year three exam: the professor looks at students with cheat sheets, the students cough, the professor turns away.

Other jokes use the fact that many (or even most) students really study only when the exam is in the imminent future (in one or two days), otherwise spending time with more interesting activities such as parties.

• God sends his angel to find out what students do. Angel returns: "Three months before exams. English students study, American students have parties, Russians also have parties". Next time angel reports: "One month before exams. English and Americans study, Russians have parties". Next report: "One night before exams. English and American students learn their subjects, Russians pray for halyava". God: "Well, if they pray, we'll help them!"

• Emil Draitser Forbidden Laughter (Los Angeles: Almanac Press, 1980.) ISBN 0-89626-045-3
• Seth Graham (2003) A Cultural Analysis of the Russo-Soviet Anekdot. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
• Jonathan Waterlow, It's Only a Joke, Comrade! Humour, Trust and Everyday Life under Stalin (2018) ISBN 978-1985635821
• Emil Draitser Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.) ISBN 0-8143-2327-8
• Bruce Adams, Tiny Revolution Russia: Twentieth Century Soviet and Russian History in Anecdotes and Jokes
• Reflective Laughter: Aspects of Humour in Russian Culture (Anthem Slavic and Russian Studies)
• Ethnic Humor Around the World: A Comparative Analysis
• Consuming Russia: Popular Culture, Sex, and Society since Gorbachev, contains an essay about Russian jokes
• Christie Davies, Jokes and Their Relation to Society (1998) ISBN 3-11-016104-4, Chapter 5: "Stupidity and rationality: Jokes from the iron cage" (about jokes from beyond the Iron Curtain)
• Contemporary Russian Satire: A Genre Study
• Laughter through tears: Underground wit, humor, and satire in the Soviet Russian Empire
• Is That You Laughing Comrade? the World's Best Russian (Underground Jokes)
• Rodger Swearingen, What's so funny, comrade? (1961) ASIN B0007DX2Z0
• The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture; section "Popular Culture" discusses Russian narrative jokes (anekdot) and chastushkas: ... further "wise fool" figures, such as brave Red Army commander Chapayev, hippies, Cheburashka and Cornet Rzhevsky have replaced Ivan the Fool
• "Eros and Pornography in Russian Culture." Edited by Marcus C. Levitt and Andrei L. Toporkov. In the Series “Russkaia potaennaia literatura.” Ladomir Publishers, Moscow, 1999. 700 p (review) Section "Pornography in Russia today" contains a chapter on contemporary Russian humor
• Draitser, Emil, "The Rise and Fall of the New Russians," in Uncensored? Reinventing Humor and Satire in Post-Soviet Russia by Seth Graham and Olga Mezropova, eds. Slavica Publishers, 2008, 79–98.

• "Eto prosto smeshno, ili, Zerkalo krivogo korolevstva: Anekdoty : sistemnyi analiz, sintez i klassifikatsiia"
• "U Mikrofona Armianskoe Radio" (1995) ISBN 5-87173-001-9
• Sotsiologiia iumora: Ocherki (1996) Russian Academy of Science, ISBN 5-201-01908-0
• Sovetskii Soiuz v zerkale politicheskogo anekdota

• Ilmari Susiluoto
  • Työ tyhmästä pitää, venäläisen huumorin aakkoset ("Only a Fool Likes to Work: The ABCs of Russian humour"), Ajatuskustannus, 2000 (in Finnish)
  • Takaisin Neuvostoliittoon (2006) ("Back to the USSR") — A review, Helsingin Sanomat, 9/5/2006 : "Soviet nostalgia lives on in Russian anecdotes: Finnish political scientist examines post-Soviet humour in new book" (review in English)
• Radio Yerevan jokes