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Home > Yakov Smirnoff


 

Yakov Smirnoff (born January 24, 1951) is, according to his own description, a Russian-born United States comedian.

Smirnoff was born in Odessa, Ukraine, at the time part of the Soviet Union. He has been an art teacher in Odessa, and continues to paint. He came to the United States in 1977 and became an American citizen on July 4, 1986. He has appeared in several motion pictures, such as Buckaroo Banzai and on television. Since 19921992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday. Events January January The Internet Society is formed. January 1 Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General January 1 George H. Bush becomes the fi he has been a fixture at Branson, MissouriBranson is a city located in Taney County, Missouri. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 6,050. Branson is a nationally popular tourist destination, famous for its many live music theaters, clubs and other entertainment venues. Brans.

1 "In Soviet Russia"

Yakov Smirnoff's legacy is the "In Soviet Russia" jokes, which frequently appear in many online communities, in particular SlashdotSlashdot (frequently abbreviated online as "/. is a popular technology-oriented weblog, primarily consisting of short summaries of stories on other websites with links to the stories, and provisions for readers to comment on the story. Each story generall (see Slashdot trolling phenomenaSlashdot trolling phenomena make up a large subset of the bizarre and complex subculture found on the popular technology website Slashdot. They are a mixture of juvenilia, sarcasm, deliberately bad jokes, tasteless nonsense and highly developed and artist and Slashdot subcultureThe Slashdot subculture is mixtures of juvenilia, sarcasm, deliberately bad jokes, tasteless nonsense and highly developed and artistic attempts to provoke outraged responses from other forum users, amuse them, or challenge their thinking on the popular S). The general form of the Soviet Russia joke is that the subject and objects of a statement are reversed, and the preposition: "In Soviet Russia" or something equivalent, is added. A modern example:

How do you feel about tabbed browsing?
In Soviet Russia, web browsers keep tabs on you!

Or an apolitical joke:

In America, you can catch a cold.
In Russia, cold catches you!

However, the original context of the "In Soviet Russia" jokes have been somewhat lost. The original joke was, "In California, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, The Party can always find you!" The implication is that the latter use of the noun "party" implies the Communist Party, and refers to pervasiveness of the Communist party in Soviet Russia. Thus, to be done correctly, the latter part of the joke should be both 1.) different from the former part of the joke and 2.) describe a characteristic of Soviet Russia.

It is also worth noting that at the peak of Smirnoff's celebrity, he did not say "Soviet Russia" — he said "Russia," as the Soviet Union had been around since 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-, was still extant, and showed no signs of going anywhere any time soon. 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.



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