Russian humour gains much of its wit from the great flexibility and richness of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations. As with any other culture's humour, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and wordplay to political satire.

 

For most of Russian history, humour remained an expression of the human spirit. Political satire was considered potentially dangerous under autocratic monarchies. Though independent political satire could be extremely dangerous during most of the Soviet period, the official satirical magazine Krokodil was given considerable license to satirise political events and figures of the day.
In spite of, or perhaps even because of its oppression, Russian humour flourished as a liberating culture and a means to counter and ridicule the elite. During the Brezhnev stagnation period of the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s for instance, due to a relatively peaceful and politically stable environment, sharp political wit addressed social shortcomings. With the end of authoritarian regimes in Russia in the 1990s, the decline of political humour has been lamented as being a symptom of westernisation. New features of post-communist Russian society, such as semi-criminal businessmen, instead led to the emergence of other stereotypes for satirical jokes.

 

The most popular form of Russian humour consists of jokes (анекдо́ты — anekdoty), which are short stories with a punch line. Typical of Russian joke culture is a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots and plays on words.

 

Drinking toasts can take the form of anecdotes or not-so-short stories, concluded with "So here's to..." with a witty punchline referring to the initial story.

 

A specific form of humour is chastushkas, songs composed of four-line rhymes, usually of lewd, humoristic, or satiric content.

 

These are not Russian jokes per se but Western jokes that use reversal of phrase to pun soviet phenomena, e.g., "In America, you can always find a party; in soviet Russia, the party can always find you." The word "party" has a double meaning, when used in conjunction with America it refers to a social gathering, when used in conjunction with soviet Russia it refers to Russia's communist party.