Trends in ethnic humour: an analysis of contemporary jokes in Russian

Abstract

This article analyses both textually and thematically contemporary ethnic jokes in Russian, which were published in the Internet in the years 2010 to 2016. All the jokes share the commonality of having a Georgian as a main character. In Soviet times, only a few nationalities appeared as a main character in ethnic humorous texts and Georgians belonged to this select group. In ethnic jokes, certain stable, highly stereotyped characteristics ­—physical, discursive and idiosyncratic— were ascribed to a nationality, so that Russian-speakers easily recognised it. Moreover, ethnic jokes made use of these particularities to attain a comical effect. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and related political, economic and cultural transformations, ethnic jokes in Russian were affected by significant structural and thematic changes. Likewise, from the 1990’s onwards, jokes were not only orally transmitted. Press freedom allowed printing and jokes started being published in the Internet. Characters are also affected: the relevance of their characteristics decrease; discourse features and behaviour particularities are not decisive for the comical effect. Georgians still appear as a main character in jokes as a part of the traditional also because in contemporary Russian ethnic jokes the Georgian character allows a development of a positive self-image.