- Latvian humour
Latvian humour often includes jokes from different places around the world, as well as some influence from
Russian humour and some jokes shared withEstonia andLithuania .Latvian humour music is full of great artists and comedians. Some of best examples can be
Ballad About the Swan byPērkons (band) , many songs ofLabvēlīgais Tips led byAndris Freidenfelds (also known as Fredis), songs byKaspars Upaciers (also known as UFO), "Bet Bet" managed byZigfrīds Muktupāvels and many more comedian music groups.A good humor-song example is Brāļi Laivinieki (Boatman brothers) that played before 1940, mainly about everyday life, love, poor and rich etc using humorous puns.Unlike in other countries around the world, stand-up comedy is not yet developed among Latvians, although some Russian comedians are popular among audience, who understand russian language. But this does not amount to a Latvian humour scene.
Latvians find it more funny to play around with words, twist one's words and turn them into an inside or dirty joke on the fly before one finishes speaking, still preserving neutrality.
Example
A Latvian goes to the doctor, and says "I am going to work in
Estonia and I really want to fit in, so I want 25% of my brain removed." The doctor says "Fine, such surgery is possible" - and the Latvian has part of his brain removed. However, after the surgery, the doctor comes to see him and says "I'm really sorry, we got things mixed up and instead of removing 25% of your brain, we left you with only 25% of your brain," to which the patient responds - Gerai, gerai! ("Good, good!" in Lithuanian language)
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