In Soviet Russia

Russian reversal is a type of joke (popularized by Yakov Smirnoff) which frequently appears in many online communities, particularly on Slashdot, LUE (and its spinoffs) and Uncyclopedia. The general form of the Soviet Russia joke is that the subject and objects of a statement are reversed, and “In Soviet Russia,” or something equivalent, is added. For example:

In the US, you can catch a cold.

In Soviet Russia, cold catches you!

All of Smirnoff's original “In Soviet Russia” jokes made use of wordplay that carried Orwellian undertones. For example, one well known joke of this type (already in circulation in the 1960s) runs (with minor variations) “In the US, you watch television. In Soviet Russia, television watches you!” or “In the US, you check out books at the library. In Soviet Russia, library book checks out you!”, both punchlines refer to systems of omnipresent surveillance characteristic of police states. The first joke alludes to video screens that both reproduce images and monitor the citizenry, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four. A modern version in the same spirit is: "In Mozilla, you keep tabs on your browser. In Soviet Russia, browser keeps tabs on you!"

As another example, in the joke “In California, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, Party finds you!” the second use of the noun “party” denotes the Communist Party.

In modern popular culture, “In Soviet Russia” jokes often lack any Orwellian undertone, and merely make use of a grammatical transposition to achieve some absurd, but apolitical, result. One example is, "In Soviet Russia, tobacco smokes you!" as a play on a common American anti-smoking campaign.

At the peak of Smirnoff's celebrity in the mid-1980s, he did not say “Soviet Russia” — he said simply “Russia,” as the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic had been around since 1917, was still extant, and showed no signs of imminent collapse. Smirnoff added the “Soviet” qualifier after the fall of the USSR, long after his fame had faded, to specify that he was referring to the communist regime and not the present state.

Many modern variants on the “Soviet Russia” theme do not make sense outside of specific contexts, for example: “In Soviet Russia, floor rolls on you!” (see ROFL). Or even:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

In Soviet Russia

Poem writes you!

Occurrence of "In Soviet Russia" jokes on television

On The Simpsons episode “The Old Man and the Key”, Smirnoff introduces himself with the joke when he appears in a stage musical celebrating entertainment industry “has beens”. The chorus sings about all the remnants of 1980s pop culture present, ending with “So sit back, relax and watch our revue,” to which Smirnoff adds “In Soviet Union, revue watches you!” The episode ends with Smirnoff complaining that "In Russia, stage is for performers only."

In a second-season Family Guy episode entitled "There's Something About Paulie", Peter Griffin plays around with his new car's navigation system and turns it to “Yakov Smirnoff Mode”. The navigation system says, “In Soviet Russia, car drives you!” Later in that episode, it says, “Turn right at fork in road. In Soviet Russia, road forks you!” (at which Peter Griffin remarks, “Boy, is that getting old.”)

In the sixth season episode of King of the Hill titled “The Bluegrass Is Always Greener” in which they go to Branson for a bluegrass festival, Bobby Hill sells a Soviet Russia joke to Yakov. The joke is: In the US you put “In God we trust” on your money; in Russia, we have no money! Similar versions on other comedy shows have used the phrase “people's pictures” in place of “In God we trust”. Also compare with Will Rogers' comment, “In Russia, they ain't got no income tax. But they ain't got no income!”

In the eighth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Crow T. Robot invited Yakov Smirnoff (played by a member of the MST3K production team) to lecture on the film Jack Frost, a Russo-Finnish co-production. Predictably, Smirnoff's “lecture” degenerated into a sequence of unrelated “In Soviet Russia” jokes: “In your country, you watch movie The Rock. In our country, we break rock in gulag.”

In the Futurama episode “That's Lobstertainment!”, Doctor Zoidberg does stand-up on Amateur Night at the Apollo. He makes the joke: “Earth. What a planet. On Earth, you enjoy eating a tasty clam. On my planet, clams enjoy eating a tasty you!” In another episode, “Crimes of the Hot”, Fry, while standing in front of a giant ice crusher, says: “Wow! That ice dispenser is so big, the ice crushes you!...Yakov Smirnoff said it.” (Leela responds, "No, he didn't.")

In an episode of the ESPN television show Cheap Seats, Randy and Jason are discussing the World Series of Poker from 1994. While the camera pans the crowd, Randy and Jason claim to see a Smirnoff look-alike in the crowd, to which they go to "Duelling Smirnoffs". In this they make several jokes, in a Russian accent, dealing with poker with the reversal of the noun and direct object are evident. One joke goes, "In Soviet Union, Full House means KGB in your basement!"

On The Ben Stiller Show, Ben Stiller portrays Yakov Smirnoff "dying" on stage.

On an episode of G4's TV show X-Play, hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb review Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, a World War Two video game. After, they make a reference to Yakov Smirnoff, in which they show a moving picture of him saying, "In Russia, video game plays you!"

External links

• The "Russian reversal" page on the parody site Uncyclopedia is a good example of the Russian reversal in internet culture.
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