OT: terribly bad joke to share
 

Some time in the past, perhaps when Oleg was just in school:

A Russian couple walks down a street in Moscow when the man feels a drop hit his nose.
"I think it's raining," he says to his wife.
"No, that feels like snow to me, dear," she replies.
Just then, a minor communist party official walks towards them.
"Let's not fight about it," the man says. "Let's ask Comrade Rudolph whether it's officially raining or snowing."
"It's raining, of course" Comrade Rudolph says and walks on.
But the woman insists, "I know that felt like snow."
To which the man quietly says, "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear."

I thought it would be black humor :(

Huh? It's probably funny, but I just don't know where to laugh...

Almost as bad as the Washing up liquid one...............

BTW: Official Joke thread is here >

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=31613

Nice. That's one of those jokes that must be read, and not said.

I guess I should have titled it "Terribly Stupid Joke....". I chose "Bad" because it's such a groaner.

And I've been waiting to see how many calls to ban me would result.

In fact its red humor. And I liked it! :D

A communist party official in Moscow named "Rudolph".

Ironies abound.

There's a well-known song in the US called "Rudolph the red-nose reindeer". The joke is a pun and sounds the same.

Uuuh, thanks for the clarification. I'm releived. Now I see why it's called a 'joke'.

Sorry, I should have noticed. It is related to the Santa Claus story. A very old Northern European winter solstice tradition where gifts given are said to come from Santa. He has a sled pulled by reindeer that fly and in a new twist the lead reindeer is named Rudolph and has a red nose that shines brightly.
So you grow up in this culture, you know the song and learn it is all a game to get children to behave in order to get presents.
Very Capitalist, no? So here is irony that in Soviet Russia the sounds are said in completely different meaning.

Such plays on words and meanings help English speakers deal with a language that seems more exceptions than rules. :)

The American Santa Claus is generally considered to have been the invention of Washington Irving and other early nineteenth-century New Yorkers, who wished to create a benign figure that might help calm down riotous Christmas celebrations and refocus them on the family. This new Santa Claus seems to have been largely inspired by the Dutch tradition of a gift-giving Sinterklaas, but it always was divergent from this tradition and was increasingly so over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. So, the American Santa is a largely secular visitor who arrives at Christmas, not the 6 December; who dresses in furs rather than a version of bishop's robes; who is rotund rather than thin; and who has a team of flying reindeer rather than a flying horse. At first his image was somewhat variable, but Thomas Nast's illustrations for Harper's Illustrated Weekly (1863-6) helped establish a figure who looks fairly close to the modern Santa. This figure was taken up by various advertisers, including Coca-Cola, with the result that he is now the 'standard' version of the Christmas visitor and has largely replaced the traditional Father Christmas in England.

http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/

Don't be so quick to assume that Russians don't know about Santa. They just call him Father Frost, and he comes on January 7th, but it's the same basic idea with the same historic origin. Rudolph came about in the 40's I think, so it's understandably not a part of Russian culture.

I was hoping for some shared parts and figured there would be some given where reindeer come from and where the Rus came from.

Do the Finns have the gift-giver with the sleigh? Is Father Frost a gift-giver?

Go to the link I posted Max.

"In Russia, under the influence of communism, St. Nicolas evolved into the secular Father Frost. He distributes toys to children on New Year's Eve."

I thought, Rudolf was an invention of Disney! :rolleyes:

This is Rudolph the Red, BTW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Sl%C3%A1nsk%C3%BD
Guess, he was on vacation in Moscow at that time.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...82/Slansky.jpg

Ye gads.............

:)

Leaves me wondering just what the words "knows rain" refer to.

There is no wondering when you face into the wind.:-P

Something more specific to Rudolph the Red is what I had in mind.

Father of RayBanJockey (monobrow) trim on a slider .............

Blimey, first time I log on here in months, and a really decent (but corny) joke turns into an analysis of the religious and secular influences resulting in a fat bloke in red.

Only at Banana!

Great joke mate! :lol:

Marvelous! "Under influence of communism". Ha-ha. So, this guys, who wrote that, have no idea, that St.Nicolas is Catholic saint, while most of the Russia and neighboring countries are Orthodox Christians and hence don't care about Catholic mythic figures. Therefore the St.Nicolas myth have never been popular, or even widely known in Russia, until late XX century.
On contrary, a similar figure, "Old Man Frost" (Дед Мороз literary translates into Grand-Farther Frost, yet, a correct translation would be "Old Man Frost") is a reminder of pre-christian period of Russian mythology and is a part of the Slavic Pagan pantheon.
Apparently, this myth blended into Russian Orthodox Christian tradition thousand years ago and, similarly to St.Nicolas, become an icon of Orthodox Christmas.

During the Soviet period of Russian history religion was banned at first and religious holidays weren't celebrated. But the Old Man Frost and generally Christmas celebration was so popular, particularly among children, that in late 1920-s it was "resurrected", along with the Christmas tree as a part of the New Year celebration, which wasn't anymore a religious holiday and thus could go along with the Communist ideology.

Back on topic: I, obviously, know about Santa and his deers. I even know, one of them, supposedly, called Rudolf. But I still don't get it. And it seems, not just me. :)

Guess you had better edit Wiki SaQSoN.

In 325, he was one of many bishops to answer the request of Constantine and appear at the First Council of Nicaea. There, Nicolas was a staunch anti-Arian and defender of the Orthodox Christian position, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed.

Saint Nicholas is a popular subject portrayed on countless Eastern Orthodox icons, particularly Russian ones. He is depicted as an Orthodox bishop, wearing the omophorion and holding a Gospel Book. Sometimes he is depicted wearing the Eastern Orthodox mitre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

And maybe a bit of cross-culture understanding between the flames.

I learned about Rudolph years ago from a colleague, who was a veritable encyclopedia of such bad puns. They all slipped my mind except one:

In a road-bar all the roads and streets are sitting and drinking peacefully. In comes a big four lane highway and starts to bully everybody. All the roads are afraid and none dares to speak up. Suddenly the door opens and in comes a small little dirt path. It walks right to the big four lane highway, steps on its toes, drinks its beer and wipes the mouth with its shirtsleeve. The four lane highway gets pale, backs off and disappears silently. One of the streets turns to its neighbour and asks: "I don´t get it. This is just a little dirt path and the big four lane highway just backs off like that?" The other street whispers: "Shhhh! That´s a psychopath!"

Ok, shoot me ...

Bang, bang, bang! :grin::-P