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PARTISAN REVIEW
The well-known economic notion of the "reproduction of produc–
tion" may be applied to the joke in the sense that it has the tendency
to raise itself to the second or even third power, while relying on the
original characteristics of the genre . For instance, the joke is marked
by brevity of form . Suddenly variants appear whose special task it is
to boast about brevity. Although all jokes are absurdist at the core,
suddenly specifically absurdist jokes begin to surface. Probably this
exaggerated generic self-consciousness results in the occurrence from
time to time ofjokes that refer back to themselves . As a rule, they re–
mind us that prohibition is their most important condition of origin,
which at the same time must be violated. For example, it has been
decided that there should be no more Jewish jokes : "We're tired of
Jewish jokes. " "All right, we won't tell anymore," agrees the respon–
dent. "Two Japanese were walking along, and one says to the other,
'Look , Rabinowitz . .. .'''
A group of joke fans and specialists knows all the plots. For the
sake of simplicity and brevity, they have numbered the jokes, and
when the raconteurs get together in the evenings, they take turns
calling out numbers . One evening, a new person is in their midst.
Someone calls out "fifteen, " and everyone laughs. After thinking a
bit, another person shouts out "twenty-four." And again all laugh. It
is the newcomer's turn, but he doesn't understand what is going on.
He names "sixty-seven" at random. At first there is silence, then peo–
ple get upset. A big tough fellow shakes his fist at him . "How dare
you ," he says, "and in front of ladies, you scoundrel!"
Numerous jokes are structured like taboos, which are then sub–
jected to unceremonious transgression . That becomes the crux of the
story. There are taboos on obscenity, political subversion, truth, the
state of affairs in general , government secrets. On the other hand,
we can observe the strict conformity to the prohibition, or its careful
and clever avoidance, as when one is facing a dam. This produces a
kind of Herculean piling on of one absurdity upon another, making
the taboo comically nonsensical. The interdiction explodes itself. For
example, many of the "Armenian radio" jokes are structured in such
a way, as "answers to questions" which simply cannot be answered.
They mimic the real question and answer format of the Armenian
radio, which gives naive answers to equally naive questions . The ab–
surd effect of these very popular jokes reflects the absurdity of Soviet
reality.
Accompanied by the factory's party boss, a foreign correspon–
dent is visiting a factory. All of a sudden he asks the first worker he
