Recently, my German acquaintance phoned and asked how people in Russia are weathering the crisis. I replied: they tell each other jokes. He, apparently, did not understand. I will explain in this article. Inasmuch as there aren’t so many owners of steamships and factories and stocks in Russia, then the quantity of jokes about those who do own them, naturally, has increased.

The statistics, for example, on the new website www.sokratili.ru [the word “sokratili” means “they laid me off” in this case–Trans.], of course, are not happy. But the people rejoice. Probably this is a kind of way to get oneself out of a state of depression and to avoid a lousy mood from getting lousy news.

Specialists assert that humor in Russia since Soviet times, when strict censorship reigned, is the revenge of the little person, a safety valve with the help of which he or she makes the often unbearable reality bearable and with the help of laughter becomes its master. I don’t know if this is so. For example, I like my humor without all those socio-political inferences. When the people laugh – that means they’re alive and are going to keep on living.