I've been thinking : perhaps we should try posting some cute jokes related to the works of Tolstoy, just to lighten the mood of the forum : just for FUN ??
Can anyone come up with something ?
Regards, Swanduckling.
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I've been thinking : perhaps we should try posting some cute jokes related to the works of Tolstoy, just to lighten the mood of the forum : just for FUN ??
Can anyone come up with something ?
Regards, Swanduckling.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanduckling
I don't know any jokes about Tolstoy, but I do know a joke about the Russian " classics " ( famous writers in Russian ) :
A school-boy asks his mother : " Mommy, the reason that Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermontov and Chekhov are called " classics " is because they all studied together in the same home-form ( in Russian, " klass " ) ? "
1 ) Brezhnev asks Bush if he collects political jokes about himself.
- Oh, yes, I've 2 books. And you ?
- I've 2 prison camps.
2 ) During the famine of revolution of 1917 in Russia Lenin receives a telegram from the countryside :
- Vladimir Ilich, we have nothing to eat, only straw, soon we'll moo like cows.
He answers :
- Feliz Edmundovich ( first KGB chief ) and I have eaten a whole big pot of honey recently, and we do not buzz like bees !
3 ) L.I. Brezhnev died. A phone call to Kremlin.
- Could I please talk to Brezhnev ?
- We are sorry, but you cannot --- he passed away.
In five minutes, the same fellow :
- Could I please talk to Brezhnev ?
- No. Brezhnev is dead.
Again the same person :
- Could I please talk to Brezhnev ?
- He's bitten the dust, don'tcha understand ?? Why are you calling again and again ?
- I'm just so glad to hear it !
There are so many incredibly humorous moments in War and Peace. My husband and I are reading it aloud right now and we have to stop every evening to wipe tears from our eyes.
The scene where the residents of Smolensk (who of course do not consider themselves peasants or muzhiks or anything like that - they are all so sophisticated, don't you know) are admiring the bullets and cannon balls whizzing over their head and generally behaving as if it's fireworks is hilarious and such a treasure. Very Monty Python.
Indeed, one sometimes wonders if the Monty Python crew hadn't read War and Peace very carefully.
Thank you, Melisande, for pointing out that there's a lot of humour in " W. and P. " itself.
My personal favourite concerns the xenophobia and paranoia that affects the Russian population during the Napoleonic invasion. In this particular episode an old German resident of Moscow is caught, brought before the governor of that city and accused of being a " champignon " ( corrupted " espion " ) by some semi-literate ( or illiterate ) patriotic residents. Unfazed, the governor replies that that he is not at all a French " champignon ", but simply an old and common German mushroom.
My other favourite is Tolstoy's ridicule of the belated attempts of some representatives of the upper classes at " Russification ". For example, Julie Karagina writes that she cannot " hear speak the French language ".
Quite often, Tolstoy makes fun of the peasant patterns of speech.
With regard to movie adaptations, Woody Allen made a very funny spoof called " Love and War ", which is an apt and succinct synopsis of the novel. Have you seen it ?
Not very clever I suppose but I wouldn't mind having a dwink with Denisov.
Here's a Russian joke.
Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev are on a train, they look out of the window and see they are not moving.
"The train has stopped," says Lenin, "we must re-educate the railway workers."
So it was done, but when they looked out of the window the train was still not moving.
"The train is still not moving," said Stalin, " we must shoot the railway workers."
So it was done. Once again, a glance through the window showed the train was still stationary.
Brezhnev shrugged. "Draw the blinds, and tell everyone the train is moving."
My general kudos off to you for suggesting this topic.