Soviet Humor

This is a book of cartoons from the Soviet humor magazine KROKODIL, mainly from the Brezhnev-to-Gorbachev 1970s and 80s. It's fascinating to compare them, in terms of style and content, with their American counterparts in The New Yorker and The National Lampoon. A lot of the gags involve privations and bread lines, but there are also a lot of classical and mythological references. They don't try to be hip (one of the best cartoons is of a teacher trying a little to hard to relate to teenage students, with his skateboard, spiky hair, wraparound shades, and Heavy Metal t-shirt), and the sexual…