Cold Humour —冷たいユーモア－

I recently finished reading an interesting book about the history of the cold war between America and the Soviet Union. 

People in the Soviet Union experienced shortages of goods in shops and long queues to buy things in the 1980s.  There were a couple of funny jokes from that time included in the book.

 

1

A woman in Saint Petersburg waits in a long queue at a butcher’s.  Eventually, when she gets to the front, she finds that the store has run out of meat. 

“Don’t you have any meat at all?” she asks. 

“No, we are all out,” replies the clerk. 

“Well,” says the woman, “Do you at least have some milk here?” 

The clerk shakes his head.  “We only deal in meat.  The shop which has run out of milk is across the road.”

 

2

A man in Moscow waits in a long queue to buy vodka.  He waits for an hour and still hasn’t gotten near the front. 

“This is ridiculous!” he exclaims.  “I can’t stand these queues any more.  I’m off to kill Gorbachev.” 

The other people in the crowd watch him stomp off.  Eventually, an hour later, he comes back and rejoins the queue. 

“What happened?” ask the others.  “Did you really kill Gorbachev?” 

“Are you kidding?” says the man.  “That queue is twice as long as this one.”