VOA新闻杂志2022--Humor Helps Ukrainians Deal with War

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Humor Helps Ukrainians Deal with War

Although Russia's war in Ukraine is not a laughing matter, Ukrainians are learning to laugh about it anyway. Not because they want to. But because laughter can be like a medicine.

Serhiy Lipko will soon be sent to the battlefields of Ukraine. But he has also been working as a comic, a performer who tells jokes to make people laugh. At a comedy club in Kyiv, he took the stage wearing army fatigues². He joked that military training with NATO instructors³ has been a great chance to work his English. He also joked about how nervous he had been about using costly⁴ military equipment. He was afraid of breaking it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his troops are favorite targets of dark Ukrainian wartime humor. But there are also things they will not joke about. Ukrainian dead are not laughed about nor are the worst battles like Mariupol. The same is true of war crimes.

"Tragedies cannot and will never be the object of humor," said Anastasia Zukhvala. She is Lipko's wife who also works as a comic.

"This is an absolutely crazy time, beyond ordinary experience," she said. "Our life now is made of paradoxes⁶, and it can even be funny."

Ukraine's most famous comedian⁷ is Volodymyr Zelenskyy, now the country's president. He was elected in 2019. Before that, Zelenskyy played a high school teacher who accidentally becomes president in the TV comedy series Servant of the People. But Zelenskyy has not had much cause for comedy since the February 24 invasion.

While he works to build international support and soldiers fight, Ukrainians away from the frontlines are using jokes and humor as weapons. It is used as a medicine against war-time anxiety and sadness.

Twenty-nine-year-old Yuliia Shytko said she felt in far better spirits after laughing with the rest of the crowd through Lipko and other comedians⁸' performances. Most of their jokes were about the war.

"Laughing and stuff, that's how you cope," Shytko said.

Lipko and Zelenskyy crossed paths in comedy before the war. The future president, then still a performer, was a judge in 2016 on the TV game show, Make a Comedian Laugh. Lipko was a competitor.

Lipko is still joking about life in the army, even as he prepares to travel to the frontlines. His nickname in the army is "the comedian." He joked that some things his fellow soldiers say and do are so funny that he has to use them for his show.

Afterward⁹, he said his comedy should help him during battle.

But he has worries of his own. He has been trying to get his parents to leave their village in the south. He believes it is too close to the fighting. But they are laughing off the danger. His mother joked that should Russian missiles appear in her potato field, that would save her a lot of work.

"My mother never joked before the war," Lipko said. "They use my weapons against me ... and that's unfair."

Words in This Story

fatigue¹ — n. a kind of military clothing worn when soldiers are doing physical work

tragedy — n. a very sad or terrible event

ordinary –adj. not unusual, common

paradox⁵ — n. a situation that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible

anxiety — n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

cope — v. to deal with problems and difficult situations and try to come up with solutions

nickname — n. a name that is different from a person's real name but is used by friends and family

1 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

2 fatigues   

n.疲劳( fatigue的名词复数 )；杂役；厌倦；（士兵穿的）工作服

参考例句：

• The patient fatigues easily. 病人容易疲劳。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Instead of training the men were put on fatigues/fatigue duty. 那些士兵没有接受训练，而是派去做杂务。 来自辞典例句

3 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

6 paradoxes   

n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况]

参考例句：

• Contradictions and paradoxes arose in increasing numbers. 矛盾和悖论越来越多。 来自辞典例句
• As far as these paradoxes are concerned, the garden definitely a heterotopia. 就这些吊诡性而言，花园无疑地是个异质空间。 来自互联网

7 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

8 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。