Comedy Capital of Ukraine – Odessa

Odessa is known as the comedy capital of Ukraine……no I am not joking…..even if this blog is about comedy.

Humourina, the Ukrainian April Fools Day, draws people from all over Ukraine to Odessa…..strange how all denominations of Christianity managed to keep the fun Pagan traditions……..

What?…..No I didn’t think Humourina needed and translation.  Look at it again……”Humourina”……. Is your village missing it’s idiot?……  HUMOUR-ina.

Hooray, I see the lights have come on and you understand now.  (Bet you drink at the Irish Pub you dumb twat!!!…..Read my blog on the Irish Pub if you still don’t understand…FFS!!)

Anyway, it is a major event in Odessa, where all the village idiots from throughout Ukraine gather to do the most dumb-arsed things possible for the entertainment of the less stupid.

Normally the event is spread throughout Odessa City Centre and the football stadium.  It includes pop concerts by well known….at least if you are Russian or Ukrainian….artists, parades, floats……and a number of questionably strange and potentially physically dangerous events. 

You should also expect to be the “butt” of countless and continuous jokes and pranks from family and friends during Humourina……not to mention the tens of thousands of slightly mentally unstable who arrive for this event.

Each year it strives to become even more ridiculously manic than the year before and therefore takes a little organisation.  Here is a link to this years organisers….  http://www.odessa.ua/news/19876/ ……don’t they sound like a “barrel of laughs!!”……..No, they didn’t to me either…..but they are only responsible for the organisation after all.

Those of you who have been to Ukraine for a lengthy period, or have visited several times, are obviously asking, rather sceptically, that with, for the most part, the whole country being a bloody joke, what is the point?

It is a good question….and I have yet to see something as funny as watching the Ukrainian politicians at work or listening to the translations of English speaking films into Russian/Ukrainian. 

In fact, whilst on the subject, to any film translators who may read this blog, you and I both know that every Russian and Ukrainian, regardless of their exposure to the English language, know exactly what the words “f*ck” and “sh*t” mean and how to say them……so with the Russian language having more swear words than any other I know (literally thousands)….why don’t you translate these words accurately?…..Everyone can hear them under your voice-over anyway!!

Ok, back to the pranks and revelry which will once again be on us in 11 days here.

Why Odessa and not anywhere else?  Well Odessa is renowned for producing funny people.  No, not funny “peculiar”, but funny “Ha Ha”……although no doubt it has produced many of the former category too. 

Anyway, historically, there was a “troupe”….are they called a “troupe”…..like in “It Ain’t ‘Alf Hot Mum”?……of comedians called the KVN disbanded and then seemingly stuck for a laugh, decided to hold the Humourina.  This is back in 1972 and the first one was held in 1973 with the hidden theme of mocking the “Soviet Machine”. 

Yes, OK, but still, what has the KVN got to do with Odessa I hear you ask.  Well they decided on Odessa because they wanted to try and drive “Soviet Machines” from the top of the Primorsky Steps……..to the bottom……and the event stayed in Odessa ever since…..along with the wreckage of the machines no doubt! 

No, no, no, not the event of driving old Soviet cars down the Primorsky Steps…….. I mean the Humourina event stayed in Odessa.

Humouina suffered during the Brezhnev regime as it was not overly fond of large crowds having a laugh.  Well, to be honest, large unruly crowds, laughing or not, were not to Brezhnev’s liking……but he looked like a miserable twat didn’t he, so it’s no surprise is it…….although he did have comedy eyebrows!!!

Anyway, that’s about it really…..Odessa is the recognised “Comedy Capital of Ukraine”……..officially!!!