The man behind the "In Soviet Russia …" meme
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_SmirnoffPosted Jan 22, 2010, 5:20 PM UTC
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en.wikipedia.org
Damn Branson, Missouri. Damn it to hell.
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It's almost as bad as the Lake of the Ozarks. Almost.
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Mmmm springfield.
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As someone who lives within 30 minutes of the place, I wholeheartedly agree with the one exception of Silver Dollar City, which is the best pseudo-colonial-era theme park in existence.
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I think it would be more correct to say the meme was created by people mocking his lame comedy act.
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Nope. You're just old.
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In Soviet Russia, ru.wikipedia.org writes about YOU.
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I had this book when I was a kid - this style of comedy is classic gold. The article shows a lot of sample pages from the book, it's worth a glance.
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My friend and I got a number to call him off a box of kid's cereal. It was a toll number, but we were only on for a minute, and with the requisite parents' permission. It was just a recording of him telling his "In Soviet Russia" jokes.
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A shame most people who say "In Soviet Russia..." don't know how funny this guy truly is.
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Who's the man behind using the word "meme" when you really just mean "joke"? Because that guy needs a wedgy.
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I don't think it really means "joke" in most internet contexts, as lots of memes (most memes?) are just repeated without actually being jokes.
NARWHALS!!!11!!ONES!
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BACON!!!!! MUDKIPS!!!!
NEVER GONNA GIVE CHOCOLATE RAIN UP!!!
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LEAVE THE NARWHALS ALONE!!!!
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NARWHALS!!!11!!ONES!
They're just jokes. Narwhals are just a running joke on reddit like "Schwing!" was on Wayne's World.
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Richard Dawkins. It's a "memory gene".
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And jokes are only one example of a meme.
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Wow, I feel super old now! Yakov Smirnoff was really popular for a brief moment when I was a teenager. It makes perfect sense, but it never occurred to me that people wouldn't know where this came from.
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I went to Branson last summer and they have his advertisements everywhere. I thought about seeing his show, but I went to a Beatles tribute instead.
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Yea, I see those all the time in magazines and stuff. For some reason, they show a bottle instead of his photo...
(Yes, I stole this joke from this very Wikipedia page.)
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Liverpool Legends, I assume?
Also, fun fact about that advertising that I learned from my father (former GM of an outdoor advertising company): many of his billboards are ridiculously illegal for their extensive moving parts.
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Yep, I don't think I noticed any moving posters that I can remember.
But Liverpool Legends was fun, It wasn't really what I expected but it was just a cheap knockoff.
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IN SOVIET RUSSIA YOU DO EVERYTHING FOR RAMIREZ!
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it's sad if you know that joke but not who it came from. or maybe it isn't. oh who fucking cares.
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I just watched liverpoop have an existential moment.
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Thank you. I always thought it appeared first on Slashdot. I was so wrong.
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Almost no memes first appear on Slashdot. Many do become popular there, but this specific meme was made popular by a family guy episode where Peter gets a GPS unit that has a Yakov Smirnoff language option.
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Almost no memes first appear on Family Guy. Many do become popular there, but only among the mouth-breathing drool-moistened populous.
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No TV show invents a meme, memes are invented on the internet. Think 4chan, SA, and the like. Some memes simply reference jokes made popular on shows.
I do agree with you that Family Guy doesn't produce many; the Simpsons and Futurama, for example, produce more.
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memes are invented on the internet
It's become a popular place thanks to the social aspect of it, but this is not at all a fact. Internet memes are one particular subgroup of them.
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only among the mouth-breathing drool-moistened populous.
In other words the target demographic for Family Guy.
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I didn't realize this about the demographic until I went to Family Guy Live in LA. When they opened the floor to questions, I was reminded of that old chestnut "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." This was confirmed when I went later to an FG panel at ComicCon.
Of course, if I'm to be properly scientific, I must concede that it could more specifically be endemic to the demographic of those who like Familiy Guy and who as well make the effort to see it in person. What this says about me, I cannot be sure, but it does not bode well.
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Except that it wasn't made popular by Family Guy...
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In the last decade, it was. How many people in our generation read Yakov?
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Well, in that case, I'm going to have to go with King of The Hill. Not only for the Yakov, but just for being a far superior show.
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I learnt about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimetabole from this page. Thanks!
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Wikipedia has Iron Maiden right by Socrates on that page. It's like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!
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He occasionally teaches a class at my university no less.
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dangit, I could have gone to his act in branson a few years back, and would have, if I had realized who he was.
que sera sera
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Holy Ka-fuck! He and I share the same birthdate!
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I came here to post the same thing (although not the year). Happy Birthday on Sunday.
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He was the comedy act on a cruise i was on in 2006. It was 30 minutes of stale comedy (the guy hasn't updated his comedy in decades) followed by 20 minutes of promoting the 9/11 tribute painting he did. It was an awkward hour for all parties involved.
still, i gotta admit "in Soviet Russia, party finds you!" is one of the few decent Russian Reversals I've ever seen
I've wondered what happened to the guy. I was sure he was the basis of the meme. Man, that guy totally dropped off.