Who is “Рабинович (Rabinovich)” in Russian jokes?
Одесский анекдот про Рабиновича и психиатра
B1 Russian listening practice · Southern Russian · Picked for people who know some
Meet Рабинович, the most famous character in Russian anekdoty. He’s the archetypal clever, thrifty, faintly cynical Odessan everyman, and whole families of jokes revolve around him. Here, he can’t sleep because he imagines a monster under his bed. A психиатр (psychiatrist) offers two years of sessions at 2000 hryvnia each; a мясник (butcher) solves it for 200 by telling him to saw the legs off his bed.
Russian jokes run on a small cast of stock figures: Рабинович, the naughty schoolboy Вовочка, the spy Штирлиц. Note the гривна (Ukrainian hryvnia), a reminder that Odessa is in Ukraine. Spot Рабинович and you know a punchline is coming.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Odessa jokes and Russian-language stand-up
- ▸Alongside other stock figures like Вовочка and Штирлиц
- ▸In references to Privoz, Odessa’s famous market
- ▸On Russian humour channels and joke collections
- ▸Any time the setup begins “Рабинович приходит...”