Quotable notes

"... the Ukrainian public reacted to [Prime Minister Viktor] Yanukovych's misfortune in Ivano-Frankivsk with a plethora of jokes, several dozen of which are circulating on the Internet. We will repeat two here, to show that Ukrainians don't seem to believe the official version of the attack, and to underscore the fact that the country's presidential campaign, which has been marred by innumerable examples of biased media coverage and serious violations of election law, has a comic side, as well.

"The first joke belongs to the so-called Radio Yerevan family of jokes, which were extremely popular in the Soviet Union during the Brezhnev era. Radio Yerevan was famous for providing sometimes silly, sometimes clever, but always funny, answers to listener questions.

" 'Can an egg be sharp?' Ukrainian Radio inquires of Radio Yerevan in the wake of the Yanukovych incident. 'If it's a hedgehog's egg, it can,' is Radio Yerevan's answer.

"The other joke is this: Yanukovych shows up at a meeting with voters, looks around the gathered group, and asks, 'Why are there only women here?' Someone offers this answer: 'Because your chief bodyguard said no one with eggs could come in.' (In common usage, the Ukrainian word for eggs, 'yaitsia,' also refers to testicles.)"

- article by Jan Maksymiuk, published on October 1 in RFE/RL Newsline, "Ukrainian prime minister survives egg attack."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 17, 2004, No. 42, Vol. LXXII

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