Can Jokes Bring Down Governments by Metahaven – you can find notes on a few hundred books and films on my blog, where the best gig is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

Can Jokes Bring Down Governments by Metahaven – you can find notes on a few hundred books and films on my blog, where the best gig is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

 

9 out of 10

 

The answer to the question Can Jokes Bring Down Governments may seem obvious, and we could affirm that it is no, you need much more than irony to undermine power, except that maybe we are closer to the Golden Mean https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html of Aristotle

 

They could help shake the foundations, and though we do not have studies, confirmation – at least I think we do not – my view is that the samizdat, underground passing of humor targeting the regime, especially the leader, in our case, Ceausescu, but also aspects of life under communism, like the police, called militia then

 

Take this joke: ‘how many policemen do you need to change a bulb? Five, one to keep the bulb and the other four to turn the table around’ and there are plenty of others like this, meant to expose the stupidity, absurdity of the regime, and of the ones serving it, keeping the tyrant and his clique in power until 1989

 

Animal Farm https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/08/animal-farm-by-george-orwell-one-of.html is one of the masterpieces, Greatest Books of All Time, and the overwhelming point made in there uses humor to get the message across, the pigs take the power and use the dogs to keep it, commies and the police

Let me mention this other joke ‘the end of the world comes, and the American and Soviet (then, now it would be Putin) presidents tell their citizens on live television that they have space ships, they will leave the earth, at the same time, Ceausescu (and it could be another one) says ‘do not worry, we are at least 100 years behind’

 

Humor is one of the ten crucial ingredients of Positivity, the others are awe, interest, hope, inspiration, pride, serenity, gratitude, love, joy and the list is detailed in the classic of psychology by Barbara Fredrickson https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/positivity-by-barbara-fredrickson-life.html which is worth reading

jokes used to explain what was going on and give you the truth, distorted by the propaganda, just like you see from this other sample: ‘question for Radio Yerevan – is it true that Mr. Ionescu has been given a white Dacia (it could be a Lada, Skoda, in other realms) and the official answer is

 

-          ‘It is not a car, it is a bicycle, it is not white, it is black, and it was not given to him, it was taken away from him’

 

Nevertheless, we live in a world where the joke is on us, we have attitudes, acts, words that would have seemed preposterous, outrageous in a comedy, we would not believe a fictional character would do such a stupid thing, and yet, like in the film which presents a future where humanity is idiotic, the rulers are fools in quiet a few places

The Orange Jesus has announced new tariffs yesterday, and for me, this is the epitome of evil and it has been said that they represent the ‘car with clowns’, what with that sharing of war plans (claimed to be just ‘attack plans’ to distract, deflect, deny and lie) on insecure platforms, and the rest of the shit show, you may think of

 

-          Waiting for Godot https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/04/waiting-for-godot-by-samuel-beckett.html

 

In other words, you have some governments – America now- that are a joke themselves, but maybe MAGA hoi polloi will eventually see that they are taken for a ride, The Chosen One is all about vanity, and a complete calamity

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’