Hammer And Tickle: A History Of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes

390 Pages·2008·4.95 MB·English

by  Ben Lewis

Praise for Hammer and Tickle
‘An excellent anthology of anecdotes knowledgeably linked into the history of
the Soviet period … very enjoyable to read’
Daily Telegraph
‘Wonderful … this isn’t just a joke book. Instead, Lewis embarks on a deeply
scholarly examination and analysis of the communist joke … an excellent job’
New Statesman
‘Explores the wealth of subversive humour during the long, bleak decades of
communism’ Irish Independent
‘[An] entertaining and thoughtful study’ Evening Standard
‘Ben Lewis’s grimly entertaining study is no mere joke compendium’ Scotsman
‘A fascinating attempt to get to grips with communism’s rise and fall in Europe
through its funny bone … their cultural significance shouldn’t be
underestimated’ Metro
Ben Lewis’s documentary film Hammer and Tickle: The Communist Joke Book
was broadcast on BBC4, and on a score of other TV channels across the world,
in 2006. His article on Communist jokes for
Prospect magazine received the greatest number of hits on their website of
any article that year. Ben Lewis has won numerous international
awards for his documentaries. He is also a television presenter and writer,
who contributes regularly to Prospect, the Evening Standard and the Sunday
Telegraph.
HAMMER & TICKLE
The History of
Communism Told Through
Communist Jokes
BEN LEWIS
For Nick and Dad, und für K.
CONTENTS
Praise for Hammer and Tickle
About the Author
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
1. Laughter under Lenin
2. Stalin and the Grim Grin
3. Nazi Jokes vs Communist Jokes
4. The Soviet Bloc
5. The Golden Age of Communist Jokes
6. Stagnating Jokes
7. The End is Wry
8. We’re Not Joking
9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Author Bio
Illustrations
Index
Copyright
The higher the slavery, the more exquisite the buffoonery.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury,
Sensus Communis, 1711
It’s the law of Faust: the worse the times, the better the jokes.
Ernst Röhl, interview with the author
The final phase of a historic political system is comedy.
(Die letzte Phase einer weltgeschichtlichen Gestalt ist ihre Komödie).
Karl Marx, Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right in Deutsch-Französische
Jahrbücher, February 1844
The truth is forbidden, it is expelled;
All the doors and the windows are closed to it now.
And yet, I believe in the people’s instinct for the truth, I still believe in common
sense.
An anekdot goes amongst the people Its way to the soul is through eyes and ears.
Perhaps, this anekdot won’t reach our grandsons, But at least our contemporaries
will speak their heart in it.
Great men, decorated with crowns or with wreaths, May be flattered most
cleverly and skilfully.
But the people crack a good joke about them – And perish all the praise, be it
written or verbal.
The historians, digging through the archives, May curse or glorify these people
tomorrow.
But our trial by anger or laughter,
Is by far fairer than latterday judgements.
From ‘Impatience’, Lazar Shereshevsky,
Gulag survivor and poet, 1955
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first person I want to thank is Nick Fraser, commissioning editor for the
Storyville documentary strand at the BBC. This project began life as a feature-
length documentary and it would never have come to anything without Nick’s
passionate support. From the beginning he showed confidence where others
showed doubt. Thanks to him and my French producer Christine Camdessus, we
were able to raise finance from the BBC, Arte and broadcasters all over the
world. I would also like to thank many hugely supportive European
commissioning editors, who comprise an unsung intellectual elite – Martin
Pieper from ZDF, Mette Hoffman Meyer from TV2, Hans Robert Eisenhauer
from Arte, Ikke Vehkalahti from Finnish YLE, Nathalie Windhorst from VPRO
in Holland, as well as my brilliant line producer and business partner Fiona
O’Doherty, my composer Daniel Pemberton, my Canadian co-producers Leah
Mallen and Trish Dolmen from Screen Siren, the European Union Media Fund,
Michael Burns formerly of the Documentary Channel in Canada, the
documentary pitching forum at the Amsterdam Documentary Festival, IDFA,
where I first unveiled this eccentric idea, Leena Pasanen now at EDN, Seth
Benedict Graham at SSEES, who wrote an inspiring PhD thesis on the ‘Russo-
Soviet Anekdot’, and Richard Klein, an early supporter of my films at BBC2,
Roly Keating, Antoine Monot at the Zurich Film Festival, Catherine
‘Mastermind’ Story, and lastly Thor Halvorssen and Rob Pfaltzgraff from MPI,
an American Libertarian film fund, whose dubious politics are far removed from
mine, but who very generously contributed finance to the finished film to cover
our overspend.
A team of smart and dedicated people across Europe helped me research the
material in this book: Kriszta Fenyo in Hungary, Alexandra Solomon in
Romania, Maria Oleneva in Russia, Pavel Stroilov and Dimitri Collingridge in
London, Magda ‘Gorfi’ Gorfinska and Pia Turunen-Rusinek in Poland, Luca
Chiari in Paris, and Juergen Nowak, former editor of Eulenspiegel, Jana Cisar,
Anna-Claire Schroeder, Elvira Geppert and my DP Frank-Peter Lehmann in
Germany. At St Peter’s College, Oxford, Timothy Johnston, Junior Research
Fellow in Modern European History, read my final draft and discussed its
historical content.
I owe a debt of imagination and intellect to my unofficial mentor at
Cambridge University, Dalibor Vesely, a brilliant émigré Czech professor of
architecture, who introduced me to phenomenology and taught me European
modes of thought.
Then there are my more recently acquired friends from the world of letters
who believed in me and this book. My literary agent Claire Patterson from
Janklow Nesbitt told me I was a writer before I was one. Alex Linklater, as
deputy editor of Prospect, gave me my first significant job in journalism writing
a column about contemporary art, and later took the trouble to read through this
manuscript and point out a myriad of incoherent thoughts. Finally I would like to
thank my editor, Alan Samson, whose comments on my first draft, in equal
measure enthusiastic and critical, were as crisp and invigorating as a frozen shot
of bison-grass vodka.