A Joke

My favourite joke from this Prospect article about humour under Soviet regimes is:

Did you hear the one about the sheep who tried to leave the USSR? They were stopped at the border by a guard. "Why do you wish to leave Russia?" the guard asked. "It's the secret police," replied the sheep. "Stalin has ordered them to arrest all the elephants." "But you aren't elephants." "Try telling that to the secret police."

A mate of mine who grew up in Siberia told me about the day the KGB schools officer (no, really) came to give a warning lecture to the class about anti-Soviet jokes. The officer alleged that these jokes were thought up in a special section of the CIA. He then made the rather basic error of telling a few of them by way of example. The kids later agreed amongst themselves that the CIA certainly had some excellent joke writers.