Monthly Archives: May 2022

Russian Joke 2 – Tie

1) “Two Russians meet in Moscow at night… one says, ‘Hey look at this tie I bought last week for $200!’ The other man responded, ‘You’re an idiot. You could have bought that tie yesterday for $500’”

2) My Russian friend told me this joke because he explained to me that he is very passionate about Russia’s economy, and that the reference to inflation in this ties into some of the issues that he wants to contribute to solving through Russian politics.

3) This joke was told to me in a set of four while my Russian friend and I were playing video games. 

4) This joke is essentially implying that at a point, inflation in Russia was so severe that $500 became worth less than $200 within the span of a few days. This ties into Russia’s economic conditions. After the days of collectivization and transition through the Cold War era now to the regime of Putin, Russia has struggled with economic identity. The link between communism, desires for small market openings, massive bribes and corruption have created an economic condition where trust between individuals is diminished, and when trust is diminished, so is currency. 

Russian Joke 3 – List

1) “Do you know Putin’s plan for Russia’s new economy? It’s to make people rich and happy. The list of people is attached!” 

2) My Russian friend told me this joke because he said he really wants Putin out of office, although he doesn’t see that happening until he dies. He used this joke as an opportunity to critique Russia’s president. 

3) This joke was told to me in a set of four while my Russian friend and I were playing video games. 

4) This joke seems to be getting at the idea that Putin, and Russian big government as a whole, largely tends to the interests of those within an elite network, as opposed to the Russian people as a whole. Wealth is highly centralized amongst government officials, and the prevalence of bribery allows for blackmarkets to facilitate without crackdown (bribery likely circles back to the Russian government). 

Russian Joke 4 – rabbits and camels

1) “So there are two rabbits on a road during Stalin’s 1937 Purge… the first rabbit asks the second, ‘why are you in such a hurry?’ The second responds, ‘you haven’t heard? There’s a rumor circulating… apparently all camels are to be castrated.’ The first replies, ‘But you’re not a camel.’ So the second explains, ‘After they catch you and castrate you, try proving you’re not a camel.’

2) My Russian friend told me this joke because he wanted to make a point. He believes that socialism or communism have potential under the right leaders and environment, but he believes Stalin’s method was utterly immoral and a failure. He told me that he shared this joke because he believes critique is prior to proper reformation in society. 

3) This joke was told to me in a set of four while my Russian friend and I were playing video games. 

4) This joke is referencing Stalin’s Great Purge in 1937. This event was the culmination of Stalin’s reign in which he had various political and military figures executed or removed from the USSR, as well as Russia’s intelligentsia, and ultimately conducted a witch hunt in which people who displayed any marginal signs of anti-soviet sentiments would be imprisoned or executed without fair due process. The Great Purge is estimated to have led to nearly 700,000 deaths. 

Gumiho

1) Original Performance:

“Well there is this mythical creature called a nine-tail fox.. In Korean it’s Gumiho. They are very beautiful and roamed the forests of Korea… the voice too… very charming. One night the Gumiho entered Korea’s Royal Palace, and became a servant of the royal court. It was through this that she hoped to get close to the king. Finally, she had a task which required her to bring food to the king’s chamber. The king was immediately entranced. Then all of a sudden, her fox tail came out, she lunged toward the king… and tore out his heart and liver. She brought them back to her forest and ate.”

2) I heard this tale from my Korean mother. She said she heard this folktale during Korean school when she was a child. She claimed that she frankly doesn’t enjoy the story itself, and thinks it’s quite gruesome. However, she told me that she shared it because she believes it has an important lesson – that one shouldn’t blindly trust the outer appearances of others. 

3) My mom is a devout Christian, so I imagine most of the folklore I could gather from her would be fairly pure in principle. With this in mind, after visiting home and eating dinner with her, I told her of my project. However, I made it clear that I wanted to hear the “scariest” piece of folklore that she could recall from her childhood. 

4) This story is derived from the character of the Gumiho, a nine-tail fox which is seen in ancient Korean literature, and has appeared in various stories and even now TV shows up to today. The core folk concept that has been continually transmitted seems to be the two-sidedness of its nature. A beautiful, seemingly harmless being is secretly a brutal killer. In Korean there’s also a common expression that I have heard multiple people (from all ages and genders) use, being  “she looks like a fox.” This is always said with a negative connotation with the intention of instilling a sense of weariness within the listener. This could very well be derived from the idea of the Gumiho and the dangers associated with its character. 

Annotation: 

To read other version of this tale, read Sung-Ae Lee’s article, “Lures and Horrors of Alterity: Adapting Korean Tales of Fox Spirits.”

Lee, Sung-Ae. “Lures and Horrors of Alterity: Adapting Korean Tales of Fox Spirits.” International Research in Children’s Literature, vol. 4, no. 2, 17 Dec. 2011, pp. 135–150., https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2011.0022.

red fan blue fan

1) “There was a woodcutter who came upon two magical fans… a red fan and a blue fan. Upon fanning his nose with the red fan, his nose grew double in size. He panicked! However, he then fanned his nose with the blue fan, and his nose shrunk! With these newfound magical devices, he devised a plan to get rich. He went to the local village noble’s house and fanned his nose without looking. The noble was panicking, believing he had an incurable disease, and called the entire village, offering a huge sum of money for whoever could cure him. The woodcutter brought the blue fan, cured him, and was given money that would last his children’s children. Because of his new wealth however, he quit woodcutting and became extremely bored. So he decided to use the red fan indefinitely to see how high his nose could grow. It made a dent in the floor of heaven! Angered by this occurrence, God snipped his nose and the woodcutter lived the rest of his life in pain…”  

2) This folktale was told to me and my grandparents by my mother. She first heard it at church when she was young. She said she wanted me to hear it because she doesn’t want me to live a life that is marked by greed. 

3) I had initially asked my grandparents for folktales, but they directed the responsibility onto my mother. They said they were curious as to what she knew because she has spent a lot of time growing up in America while being Korean. 

4) This folktale has large ties to the idea of Karma. Buddhism was the original major religious system in Korea, so it makes sense that its influence would be manifest in multiple forms. The ideas of karma and incarnation are quite grave, however, and since this folktale is a children’s story, it seems to have been packaged in a way that includes comedy and is more digestible for children.