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Russian Reversal and I want Monopoly
Recently I have found a joke format that I've really grown fond of. Many will already know this and probably groaned at the title of this blog post, as this is a very classic and apparently overused joke format. As Wikipedia puts it:
“
Russian reversal is a joke template taking the general form “In America you do X; in Soviet Russia X does you”. Typically the American clause describes a harmless ordinary activity and the inverted Soviet form something menacing or dysfunctional, satirizing life under communist rule, or in the “old country”.
”
To pre-empt any science thumping, yesyes it's called an antimetabole and yes it's a joke format aimed at western audiences utilizing western stereotypes to satirize Russia. Do I even know what the fuck an antimetabole is? Fuck no, but on this website antimetabole researches ME. Also, nobody cares who the fuck came up with this kind of joke.
All I'm trying to say is that, despite my chronic onlineness, I am still incredibly insulated from the internet and needed multiple decades before finding this joke format. So let's just think of this as me catching up with things I should have done during my childhood:
“In America you abort fetus, in Soviet Russia fetus aborts you.”
“In America you drive car. In Soviet Russia, car drives you.”
or alternatively “In Soviet Russia you rob bank. In capitalist America bank robs you.”
I'm probably going to keep laughing at these for the next few weeks before I move on like the rest of the world, but until then I am going to enjoy it goddamnit!
This, and only this will suffice.
In other news, I have been thinking about getting Monopoly. You know, the board game? It's one of my favorite IRL games and an essential part of my childhood. But, being part of my childhood, I am quite specific about the kind of experience I want. Specifically, I need the 2001 German Euro board version with the original tokens, street names and, as the name suggests, the Euro currency as the game money. Monopoly is a popular game and has always sold well, you'd think that it must be quite cheap to come by, right?
Well, not quite. Of course the 2001 version is no longer in production and, apparently, Monopoly isn't THAT popular that everyone just has that particular version lying around. It has acceptable availability and an acceptable price, too, but it's far from where I hoped it would be. Sad.