How I Missed the Punchline in Russia
By Kevin McCaughey
A traveler to Russia learns he is not allowed to understand Russian humor.
“It’s impossible for you to understand.” That’s what Galina told me. She was head of the university English Department in a city on the Volga river.
Maria, Galina’s sidekick and thesaurus, said: “Unattainable. Russian humor is very specifical.”
These pleasant, fleshy-faced, forty-something