Saturday, December 25, 2010

Comrade Rudolph, or the Red Knows

A reader sent me this Christmas joke, which I thought was one of those silly ones from inside a cracker. But the political reference and the mention of a historical date – 1956, the year of Khrushev's denunciation of Stalin, lead me to think it might be a contemporary anecdote, though not originating from Russia herself since Rudolph the rein-deer is hardly known there. Does anyone know the source?
Here is how it goes:

'An elderly Russian couple were walking down a Moscow street in 1956. The husband looks at his wife and says, “my love I just felt a snow flake on my face”. 
“No” she says “I think it was rain”. 
“No I am sure it was a snow flake” he says”. 
His wife looks at him very troubled. 
“This is terrible” she says “how are we going to find the official party line on whether it is snowing or raining”
At that moment they see Comrade Rudolph coming towards them. 
“Comrade, can you help us” says the wife “is it officially snowing or raining?”
“It is raining” says Comrade Rudolph walking off in a hurry. 
The couple set off again but the husband is worried. 
“My love” he says “I am sure that it is snowing”. 
“Don’t worry” says his wife soothingly “Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear”

Here is a nice jazzy version of Rudolph. Note that Santa invites the Red to guide his sleigh through the night:


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