Hammer and Sickle Humour

The National Business Review's email update points me to Spiegel's collection of East German jokes. The West German intelligence service kept an ear out for political jokes as a measure of public mood in the East; they've now released their joke files. Spiegel reports on some of the best.

Did East Germans originate from apes? Impossible. Apes could never have survived on just two bananas a year.

What would happen if the desert became communist? Nothing for a while, and then there would be a sand shortage.

Why does West Germany have a higher standard of living than we do? Because communists can't get work permits there.

A new Trabi has been launched with two exhaust pipes -- so you can use it as a wheelbarrow.

There are people who tell jokes. There are people who collect jokes and tell jokes. And there are people who collect people who tell jokes.

Whole article worth reading, especially on the role of humour in totalitarian states.