During my recent visit to Riga I was told independently by a couple of people I met that Latvians have a whole genre of jokes about Estonians. The theme of these jokes is that Estonians do everything very slowly. When I got back to Tartu I asked a colleague whether Estonians tell any jokes about Latvians and she said that they don't. (It transpires, however, that there is a phrase in Estonian, 'to be as stupid as a Latvian.') I hadn't noticed any particular slowness to Estonians until this weekend when Don, Nina and I went out for two successive meals where the service was incredibly, mind-boggling slow. Luckily we were not ourselves in any hurry so it didn't matter. But I began to think that there might be something to Latvia's 'Estonian jokes' after all ... .
One theory for why Latvians have Estonian jokes but Estonians don't have Latvian jokes, a theory suggested to me by a Latvian, is that Latvians are envious of Estonia's economic success in the transition from Soviet rule to independence. Another theory is that jokes go from South to North. It turns out that Estonians have a genre of Finnish jokes, featuring Finns who are rich, stupid, and drink too much. Finland is both economically more prosperous than Estonia and to the North of Estonia, so this doesn't really tell in favor of one theory or the other. But I have found some serious scholarly research on the issue, including "Targets of Estonian Ethnic Jokes Within the Theory of Ethnic Humour," by Liisi Laineste, published in a recent issue of the journal Folklore. I haven't had time to read this yet, but once I do I will report on any relevant findings.
Another interesting feature of jokes in Latvia is that Latvians often tell jokes in Russian, even if they themselves don't speak Russian as a first language. There is also a class of jokes in Latvia where the narrative is in Latvian but any reported speech is in Russian. Apparently some of this humor just cannot be translated!
arb
7 comments:
Hehe, your theory is right. We dont have or we have one or two Latvians jokes. But we have many Finland jokes. And yes, we are slow :)
There is jokes about latvia.. Well its not really a joke but just saying.. "Im fucked like latvian money" .. And joke how much you want about Estonia but what Latvia give to world??? Atleast from estonia game Skype and loveky Blue-Eyed girls:)
Ha ha ha... Yes, that's right ... I am latvian and we joke about estonians... But- french joke about belgians, and belgians joke about dutch... :) Always going south to north! :)
Agree with Zane here, it always go from south to north, I'm from Latvia and i have to say there is nothing you can make fun of us exept lazynes and thats the only thing. Maxim is wrong he have not been in Latvia cuz lots and lost of ppl say that latvian girls are the best, sadly they are thinking just about their outside, and guys like me have hard time to found one who has something in brain too.
there must also be something about longitudinal direction of joke-distribution. like for example, Russians have many jokes about "slow Estonians", while Estonians have jokes about "drunk Russians!
being part Estonian, i really enjoy the "slow"-jokes. there is something so down-to-Earth about those jokes that reflects on the culture and people. i guess, Estonia being a small country, Estonian people don't get too proud and pompous, but instead enjoy simple pleasures and easy-going ways of life that to outsides seems like being slow. :)
in the Scandinavia, Swedes have jokes about always drinking Danes (maybe because beer is a lot cheaper in DK), while Danes joke about Swedish guys being either whipped or gay. at the same time Norwegians also joke about how feminine Swedish guys are, while no-one really jokes about Norwegians - being so far north that no-one besides Norwegians themselves bothers to wonder there.
and as they say in DK: "we only tease those, who we love the most" - so that must mean that Latvians joke about Estonians, cause they envy us and love us at the same time! they simply cant get enough of us, or they would not have bothered taking time inventing jokes about us :D
Interesting, as I find that my half-Estonian friend is an unusually slow person, despite being very bright and talented. Not only does he takes ages to respond to anything, he moves, talks and does everything slowly as well. I don't know any other Estonians, but based on their economic success,I don't think they're stupid at all. After all, slow and steady wins the race. Their other stereotype of excessively drinking alcohol fits him very much, though.
Interesting, as I find that my half-Estonian friend is an unusually slow person, despite being very bright and talented. Not only does he takes ages to respond to anything, he moves, talks and does everything slowly as well. I don't know any other Estonians, but based on their economic success,I don't think they're stupid at all. After all, slow and steady wins the race. Their other stereotype of excessively drinking alcohol fits him very much, though.
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