Someone mentions something…ANYthing…the more obscure the better.
“Oh, so I was in my car…”
And someone chimes in with, “In Soviet Russia, car drives you!” In that smarmy, Russian-accented Yakov voice.
Ok, so I’m old enough to remember that this was that comedian’s schtick, but who recently popularized it? And it’s more satire now, because the examples never make sense.
Ironically, I first heard my sixth grade students doing this…and I keep forgetting to ask them where they’re getting it from. (In Soviet Russia, students teach you!)
Ok, nobody is going to believe this, but I’m posting it anyway, because it’s true.
I work in a bank’s call center. I’m a third-shifter, so I get a larger quantity than you might otherwise expect of calls from folks in other countries. Three nights ago, I got a call from a gentleman in Russia. He wanted some information on his U.S. account so that his Russian hometown bank could send a wire, which they had already tried to do once and had (according to the customer) failed. This gentleman had a very pronounced Slavic accent.
I noticed that a wire transfer had recently come through his U.S. account, so I asked him whether he’d contacted the bank to make sure the original transfer hadn’t worked. He seemed confused by this, so I asked him if he’d called his Russian bank to confirm the transfer. At this, the light seemed to come on for him, and he exclaimed happily: “oh, yes, in U.S. you must call bank; I am in Russia. In Russia, bank calls YOU!”
I did feel bad for him as he repeated a confused “…hello?” into the phone, hearing only silence as the response, as I placed him on mute for a good three minutes before I could stop laughing reliably enough to speak.
Clearly, he meant that his hometown bank was a small local outfit, where the folks at the branch would give him a call to let him know if the transfer he requested had gone through. Still, it was definitely a Priceless Moment.
Hijack? What hijack? In Soviet Russia, thread hijacks YOU!
Ok, nobody is going to believe this, but I’m posting it anyway, because it’s true.
I work in a bank’s call center. I’m a third-shifter, so I get a larger quantity than you might otherwise expect of calls from folks in other countries. Three nights ago, I got a call from a gentleman in Russia. He wanted some information on his U.S. account so that his Russian hometown bank could send a wire, which they had already tried to do once and had (according to the customer) failed. This gentleman had a very pronounced Slavic accent.
I noticed that a wire transfer had recently come through his U.S. account, so I asked him whether he’d contacted the bank to make sure the original transfer hadn’t worked. He seemed confused by this, so I asked him if he’d called his Russian bank to confirm the transfer. At this, the light seemed to come on for him, and he exclaimed happily: “oh, yes, in U.S. you must call bank; I am in Russia. In Russia, bank calls YOU!”
I did feel bad for him as he repeated a confused “…hello?” into the phone, hearing only silence as the response, as I placed him on mute for a good three minutes before I could stop laughing reliably enough to speak.
Clearly, he meant that his hometown bank was a small local outfit, where the folks at the branch would give him a call to let him know if the transfer he requested had gone through. Still, it was definitely a Priceless Moment.
Hijack? What hijack? In Soviet Russia, thread hijacks YOU!
I don’t know IF it ever became “trendy,” but I remember David Letterman doing Yakov Smirnoff-type jokes at random moments as far back as the late Eighties.
After one of his jokes bombed, Letterman would frequently put on a bad Russian accent and say something like, “In America, you eat pizza. In Russia, pizza eat YOU!”
As a note, Yakov Smirnoff has done loads of funny (yes, funny) standup without any “in Soviet Russia, noun verbs YOU!” jokes.
F’rinstance he sometimes takes audience questions. To “Is Yakov Smirnoff your real name?” he explains that it’s obviously NOT. His REAL name is Jack Daniels. “Since the USSR broke up can you go back to live in Russia?” “Hey - what did I ever do to YOU??”