Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia

The title refers to a joke told about residents of the northern Russian region of Chuchotka, who are stereotyped by ethnic Russians as being simple but friendly--almost on a par with penguins. Unfortunately, the joke, like most of the scores told and analyzed in the book, doesn't translate so well. Jokes from this part of the world, like humor elsewhere, are based on cultural assumptions and clever wordplay that will be shared by few readers in the West. The author, a Soviet Jew who emigrated in the 1970s, offers chapters on jokes told by and about various minority groups in the region: Jews, Ukrainians and residents of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, as well as Chuchkis. He demonstrates how Russian ""jokelore"" reflects multiple, and at times, conflicting views of ethnic groups. Russian humor about Jews and Georgians, for example, often belittles these groups while simultaneously praising the financial acumen that they are purported to possess. Draitser also shows how ethnic groups themselves use jokes to buttress themselves against Russian stereotypes. But his analyses, while insightful, are incomplete: the author notes that anti-German slurs appear to have disappeared from contemporary Russian jokelore, but offers no explanations for this phenomenon. A greater use of the comparative method (e.g., how does humor toward minorities in Russia compare with its use in other countries?) would have made this book accessible to a wider audience. (Sept.)