By Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv, (EFE).- Humor serves as a vital painkiller to help Ukrainians cope with the constant stress and atrocities brought by the Russian invasion, as jokes mix with the painful realities of war on the lively cultural scene.
“Yes, it’s two stripes,” says the heroine of a spectacle to her incredulous husband, a soldier home on rare leave from the frontline, as she holds out a pregnancy test. The audience in the packed theater holds its breath.
“And not because I am a junior sergeant,” she adds, sparking bursts of laughter at the absurd play on the test’s result resembling the well-known Ukrainian military rank insignia.
Laughter and tears interchange constantly as the spectacle depicts scenes of farewells and greetings familiar to thousands of Ukrainians whose partners face the daily risk of death on the frontline.
“If he dies, how will I live?” The audience grows eerily quiet as the heroine recites all the little rituals she would miss without her husband.
Suddenly, she stops amid the dramatic music, eyes widening at a sudden thought.
“Wait, but what if I get killed by a drone first? I would die of shame to see him invite another woman into such a mess he always leaves,” she exclaimed, prompting another outburst of laughter.
A painkiller
The play, called “Everything will be fine, but not right now,” is presented in Lviv by the theatrical studio of Ukraine’s Third Brigade, which includes professional actors with combat experience.
It is only one example of humor as a coping mechanism: stand-up performances continue across the country, and social networks remain filled with jokes and memes.
Memes have proliferated from the very first day of the Russian invasion, sometimes growing out of anecdotal stories, like the local housewife who allegedly shot down a drone with a jar of pickled tomatoes from her balcony.
“Humour makes everything a bit lighter on the frontline,” confirmed Dmytro, a spectator in military uniform, as he leans on crutches to retain balance in the absence of his amputated right foot.
By laughing, Ukrainians take back power and ridicule danger, psychologists agree.
“We lower the tension. We alleviate our pain. We try to take back control with the help of humour and jokes,” wrote psychologist Svitlana Royz on social media.
A chance to stay sane
As the war drags on, the humour becomes increasingly darker.
One example is an application that lets Ukrainians create birds-eye view inscriptions and paintings using simulated images of bodies of killed Russian soldiers as letters or building blocks. It appeared after reports spread of a Russian newspaper that allegedly accused Ukrainian soldiers of arranging the bodies of killed Russians to paint the portrait of a nationalist leader.
“I laugh and am appalled at myself at the same time,” admits Royz, who noted, however, that such dark humor provides “a chance to stay sane” and helps rationalize “the insanity” of war and Russia’s propaganda that seeks to dehumanize Ukrainians in the eyes of its population.
Humour unites, said Viktoriya Gryshchuk, who noted that a sense of humour she shares with her husband helps glue their marriage after four years apart.
“One of our darker jokes is that it would be nice for Sergiy to get a leg blown off since he would finally get a leave,” Gryshchuk told EFE.
A source of strength
This all might seem “odd” to foreigners who may imagine Ukrainians as constantly grim and depressed, poetess Dina Chmuzh, from Kharkiv, told EFE.
She is the author of songs for the play “Empire must die,” which describes the plight of deported Ukrainian children in Russia’s “re-education camps,” where their hopes of getting back to their families are squashed.
Despite the serious content, jokes and laughter permeate the satirical play, with rebellious children using humour to challenge the Russian pressure.
“Our laughter is a furious one, such that gives us strength to keep fighting,” underlined Chmuzh. EFE
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