Leagues of Laughter
Leagues of Laughter traces how a Soviet-created youth game changed as students’ nation states collapsed, competed and went to war. The game, called KVN (Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh, or Club of the Cheerful and Clever), spread to universities across the USSR in the 1960s. It is scored by a panel of...
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| Formato: | Online |
| Lenguaje: | inglés |
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UCL Press
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800088818_14 |
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| _version_ | 1869514226460000256 |
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| author | Garey, A. Austin |
| author_browse | Garey, A. Austin |
| author_facet | Garey, A. Austin |
| author_sort | Garey, A. Austin |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Leagues of Laughter traces how a Soviet-created youth game changed as students’ nation states collapsed, competed and went to war. The game, called KVN (Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh, or Club of the Cheerful and Clever), spread to universities across the USSR in the 1960s. It is scored by a panel of judges, like figure skating, but is played in school and university leagues, much like football. KVN rocketed to mass popularity, oddly, due to Soviet censorship. Young people could not protest in essays, speeches or fiction, but the referents of live jokes are hard to prove. KVN became a forum for Aesopian free speech. Soviet pedagogues promoted the game as a wholesome, intellectual youth activity, leading to a preponderance of ordinary schoolchildren gaining at least some experience writing jokes. Even after the fall of the USSR, millions of young people across the former Soviet bloc continued playing KVN in schools, universities and semi-pro leagues. Drawing on fieldwork in Russia and Ukraine between 2015 and 2019, Garey compares KVN traditions in two post-Soviet nation states at war. A series of interconnected, cross-border stories spanning 60 years illustrates how laughter and oppression entwined in the long cultural context of the war in Ukraine. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-166833 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | UCL Press |
| publisherStr | UCL Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1668332025-10-01T05:00:40Z Leagues of Laughter Garey, A. Austin Russia Ukraine comedy youth war semiotics tradition censorship Soviet Union ethnography thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFV Ethical issues and debates::JBFV3 Ethical issues: censorship thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATX Other performing arts::ATXD Comedy and stand-up Leagues of Laughter traces how a Soviet-created youth game changed as students’ nation states collapsed, competed and went to war. The game, called KVN (Klub veselykh i nakhodchivykh, or Club of the Cheerful and Clever), spread to universities across the USSR in the 1960s. It is scored by a panel of judges, like figure skating, but is played in school and university leagues, much like football. KVN rocketed to mass popularity, oddly, due to Soviet censorship. Young people could not protest in essays, speeches or fiction, but the referents of live jokes are hard to prove. KVN became a forum for Aesopian free speech. Soviet pedagogues promoted the game as a wholesome, intellectual youth activity, leading to a preponderance of ordinary schoolchildren gaining at least some experience writing jokes. Even after the fall of the USSR, millions of young people across the former Soviet bloc continued playing KVN in schools, universities and semi-pro leagues. Drawing on fieldwork in Russia and Ukraine between 2015 and 2019, Garey compares KVN traditions in two post-Soviet nation states at war. A series of interconnected, cross-border stories spanning 60 years illustrates how laughter and oppression entwined in the long cultural context of the war in Ukraine. 2025-10-01T05:00:39Z 2025-10-01T05:00:39Z 2025-09-30T08:19:48Z 2025 book ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800088818_14 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/106203 9781800088818 9781787353534 9781800088795 9781800088801 9781800088825 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/166833 eng open access image/jpeg n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/106203/1/9781800088818.pdf UCL Press 10.14324/111 10.14324/111 29b9f0a3-1b0d-4bdd-99d7-b4d3432d7fcc 9781800088818 9781787353534 9781800088795 9781800088801 9781800088825 London open access |
| spellingShingle | Russia Ukraine comedy youth war semiotics tradition censorship Soviet Union ethnography thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFV Ethical issues and debates::JBFV3 Ethical issues: censorship thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATX Other performing arts::ATXD Comedy and stand-up Garey, A. Austin Leagues of Laughter |
| title | Leagues of Laughter |
| title_full | Leagues of Laughter |
| title_fullStr | Leagues of Laughter |
| title_full_unstemmed | Leagues of Laughter |
| title_short | Leagues of Laughter |
| title_sort | leagues of laughter |
| topic | Russia Ukraine comedy youth war semiotics tradition censorship Soviet Union ethnography thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFV Ethical issues and debates::JBFV3 Ethical issues: censorship thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATX Other performing arts::ATXD Comedy and stand-up |
| topic_facet | Russia Ukraine comedy youth war semiotics tradition censorship Soviet Union ethnography thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFV Ethical issues and debates::JBFV3 Ethical issues: censorship thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATX Other performing arts::ATXD Comedy and stand-up |
| url | ONIX_20250930T101509_9781800088818_14 |
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