world
ussia’s ‘ironic curtain’
f VOTE FOR |
PHIL
DAVIS
THE BATTALION Page 11
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1980
leaks underground humor
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
SR.
YELL LEADER
*
*
&
*
*
*
SELL YOUR BOOKS
FOR MORE!
ipiprfcipipjpypipipipjp
BTi
University Book Stores
NORTHGATE
409 UNIVERSITY DR.
CULPEPPER PLAZA , ^
NEXT TO 3C-BBQ ' l
United Press International
LOS ANGELES — Have you
heard the joke from Afghanistan,
omrade? Or the one about Brezh
nev’s shoes?
Nicolai Abbotchekov asks Vladi
mir Costellovich:
‘Why are our troops staying so
long in Afghanistan ?”
ft Reply:
B "They are still looking for the peo
ple who invited them. ’’
| That is the first Russian joke about
lAfghanistan to reach the Western
i world, says Emil Draitser, a former
| Moscow comedy writer who now
keeps track of underground Russian
Rebuilt city
hums again
United Press International
YUNGAY, Peru — It has been
I fiearly 10 years since a mile-long,
i half-mile wide mass of glacial ice,
mud and boulders thundered down a
Steep canyon at more than 200 mph,
burying Yungay under 80 million
1V \ cubic feet of debris,
e sutiL h ums again in the rebuilt
kiJBjMartyr City of Yungay” a decade
re Jafter the the worst natural disaster in
il ra Irecorded history of the Western
(], f Hemisphere.
W The earthquake of May 31, 1970,
Icentered in the Pacific Ocean and
Imeasuring 7.7 on the Richter scale,
fkilled outright an estimated 60,000
Ipeople. It injured another 50,000
land destroyed 186,000 dwellings.
LlV B A t/.S. Geological Survey expert,
Dr. George Ericksen, called the
damage “almost unbelievable, poss-
forepibly surpassing in magnitude such
pt catastrophic events as the M t. Pelee
constojeruption of 1902 on the island of
Martinique and the eruption of
iievattpuvius in the year A.D. 79 that
rderedjburied the city of Pompeii.”
.e said!■ The earthquake’s destruction cen-
ipedpSitered on Yungay. Thousands of tons
ctor al of rocks and ice from the. peak of
Peru’s highest mountain, 22,000-
eveni pot Mt. Huascaran hurtled into two
land, taL's. The overflow mixed with the
lustra ! wall of debris that crushed Yungay
tedthand the nearby, smaller town of Ran-
era otfflfflhirca.
t prop*' I was east and just above the town
/asn’t pasturing my animals when every-
n’tAl thing started shaking,” said Augusti-
no Acuna.
“After, there was a calm. All the
|Bildings in the city fell down, and
Ben I heard the rumble coming from
S Huasc iinin. It covered the whole city
less than a minute. No one could
cape.
Other towns along the canyon
paped Yungay s total devastation,
I it their survivors were left home-
is, hungry and frightened.
“I was scared,” said farmer Gri-
aldo Ulloa, a mountain dweller
lose land lies above the neighbor-
city of Caraz. “Our house fell
wn and I thought at least now it
11 stop. It didn’t. The earth moved
lain and Huascaran fell.”
A decade after the catastrophe,
mmerce bustles in the market of a
gely prefabricated new Yungay
rth of the rocky plain covering the
city.
“The earthquake all seems like a
jeam now,” said farmer Ulloa’s
oghter, Mercedes, 24. Still, once
awhile, I wonder if it will all hap-
humor from Los Angeles, aided by
his joke-intelligence network behind
the ironic curtain.
But Draitser, a scholar of the sub
ject, recognized it instantly:
“This is an old joke. I heard it years
ago about Soviet troops in Czechos
lovakia.
“Many underground jokes have
been in existence for many years and
the names and places change to fit
new circumstances and persons,” he
said.
“When I first got to the West five
years ago, I read some emigre jour
nals published 50 years ago. Some of
the jokes I had heard from friends in
Moscow just the month before.
“In Russia, we can recycle the
jokes that are never printed or heard
on radio or television.”
For instance:
Why is there always a meat shor
tage in Moscow?
We are moving toward commun
ism so fast the animals cannot keep
up.
Draitser, 42, a professor of Rus
sian literature at UCLA, was for
more than 10 years a humor writer
for Russian publications including:
“Izvestia,” the humor magazine;
“Krokodil,” Soviet movies and tele-
is the level of what is permitted. My
totalitarian mind still is not used to
such frontal attacks on governmental
personalities.”
While working on his doctoral dis
sertation on Russian satire, and a col
lection of stories on “America
through the eyes of a Russian,” he
has published a book-length collec
tion of underground jokes, titled
“Forbidden Laughter.”
He keeps abreast of the latest on
the Moscow jokeline through coded
letters from fellow humorists in the
Soviet Union. He does not fear for
them, he said, because “So far, I’m
not on the (KGB) list of dangerous
people. They have more important
people than me to go after.”
"But I imagine if 1 would be kid
napped by the KGB my little book
would sell in the millions right
away.”
Here are some examples of jokes
from Draitser’s “Forbidden
Laughter”:
Pravda reporting two-man foot
race between President John Ken
nedy and Premier Nikita Khrush
chev, won by Kennedy:
“Our beloved Nikita Sergeivitch
won a respectable second, but the
American president barely managed
to finish next to last. ”
Habitech
PROBLEM: A six-foot man looking for a comfortable chair
at a comfortable price.
SOLUTION:
Our
vision.
Draitser came to the United States
in 1974 when a satire on a play back
fired and he was suddenly “unem
ployable.” Krokodil published the
play just as the playwright was prom
oted to a high-ranking editorship.
Why America? Thank fellow satir
ist Art Buchwald.
“Buchwald is widely known in
Russia because they print all his col
umns making fun of the White
House, the CIA, things like that.
Almost every week in Russia you can
read something by Buchwald.
“I thought ‘Oh God, they have
such freedom there.’ In Russia you
would be in jail for even thinking
such things as Buchwald does, much
less writing them.
“What amazes me about America
Jew asking KGB for permission to
emigrate to Israel:
“Every night my neighbor bangs
on the wall and yells ‘As soon as we
put an end to the Soviet regime we ll
take care of you Jews.
KGB official: “Why leave the best
country in the world for that? The
regime will last forever. ”
Jew: “That’s my second reason. ’’
JUpInamk, I pUTf-*1©^
Eddie Dominguez '66 A W
Joe Arciniega '74
m
Brezhnev to cosmonauts:
“The Americans were first to land
on the moon, so we will be the first to
land on the sun. ”
Cosmonauts: “Comrade, we will
be burned to death. ”
Brezhnev: “Do you think we know
nothing? We arranged for you to land
at night. ”
Stalin speech to masses: “I am
prepared to give my blood for the
working class, drop by drop. ”
Voice from audience: “Why drag
things out, beloved comrade? Give it
all at once. ”
If you want the real
thing, not frozen or
canned ... We call It
"Mexican Food
Supreme."
Dallas location:
3071 Northweat Hwy
352-8570
Sleek, contemporary
styling with all the comfort
of an old lounge chair.
Button tufted canvas is
filled with a combination of cotton and foam for non-flattening comfort. Soft
canvas cover is designed to wrap around your body... the feeling you get from
a custom-made suit. Tubular steel legs are chrome plated or almond
finished. Brown, sand and rust. An awful lot of chair for a reasonable price.
907E Harvey Rd.
Woodstone Center
693-5046
Mon. 1-6, Tues.-Sat. 10-6
/ V J7^
Get your Xerox copies
ON THE DOUBLE
at Northgate, above Farmer’s Market
Copies
only 30
each
NEED TO GET
IT ALL
TOGETHER?
Complete Tuxedo
$25 to $40
formals
846-1021
111 College Main
846-4116
IS COMING!
Friday, April 18
th
for 2000 or more copies, 48-hr. service.
FREE COLLATING
in most cases.
We specialize in
REPORTS and DISSERTATIONS.
BE A LEADER
ON THE DOUBLE
BE AN OFFICER OF MARINES
331 University 846-3755
Open M-F, 7 a.m.-lO p.m.
Sat., 9-6
In again.
Apply For The Two-Year NROTC Program
* Attend six weeks of summer training at Newport, Rhode Island and
receive $600. plus room and board.
* Top 20% of candidates will receive a two-year scholarship which
provides $100. per month, tuition, fees and books.
* Be commissioned an Officer of Marines after graduation and serve in
either the Air or Ground service.
SOPHOMORES CONTACT THE