Pepper Satire

Perhaps, all of you remember the satire and humor magazine Perets (Pepper) published in the time of the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922 and along with Soviet magazine Crocodile (Krokodil) was the most popular publication in the USSR. It turns out that Pepper is still published these days. During the years of Ukraine’s independence the magazine never seized to exist. Of course, Pepper now reflects new Ukrainian realities, but the style of the publication has not changed much since the Soviet time. Some consider its humor primitive, others, on the contrary, continue to laugh heartily.

The Day spoke with Mykhailo PRUDNYK, Pepper’s editor-in-chief, famous Ukrainian comic writer about more than 90-year-long history of the magazine, the global trends in humor, and the victory in the international humor competition.

Mr. Prudnyk, in your opinion, do Ukrainian people today have something to laugh at?

“I will answer with a quote from the letter we received from our reader Liudmyla Kravets from Horodnia, Chernihiv oblast: ‘When considering subscribing Pepper I was wondering what people can laugh at these days? But now I am thankful for every issue, for funny pictures, essays, and humoreques…’

“Sometimes I joke that the ‘Cossacks’ Letter to the Turkish Sultan’ was the first issue of Pepper. There was so much satire and humor in it! And everyone knows that Cossacks fled to Sich not because of easy life. However, they never lost their sense of humor. Spring came, young people fell in love, got married, children were born, and despite any hardships people laughed. They laughed even in most difficult times of their lives. And the fact that Ukraine has been never completely destroyed was possible thanks to Ukrainian songs, Ukrainian humor, folk wisdom in sayings and proverbs, and our national traditions.

“The task of satire and humor is not only to make fun of things, but also to help. Perhaps, those, at the high ranks of power, should not be angry at journalists but rather say: ‘Thank you for helping us to see the problem!’ Of course, if information is reliable, there was a time when French President Georges Pompidou and Finnish President Urho Kekkonen, if opened a morning newspaper and didn’t see a cartoon or a caricature of them, would shout: ‘What happened? I am still alive!’ In England it was popular belief that if the satirical magazine Pang had no caricature of a politician, he was not a true politician.”

In the Soviet times there were cases, when people were fired from their jobs after publications in Pepper? What is the situation now?

“Back at that time, Soviet government officials and party agencies had to respond to every critical statement. And, of course, columnist weighed every word, checked every fact, not to give the criticized person any reason for striking back, because if the latter found something that did not correspond to the reality they could complain to the Central Committee of the all-powerful Communist Party right away.”

How do people react to criticism today?

“It depends. They either react aggressively or pretend that they don’t notice it. And sometimes the reaction is totally surprising for us.

“Today in humor and satire there is often a text but no implications. And because of that the written pieces often lose their fuse. Straightforwardness is often on the verge of rudeness. And it is no surprise, because everything is allowed. I remember an old joke from the most popular magazine Shershen that was published in the Russian Empire in 1905. By the way, it published the writings of Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, and Ivan Nechui-Levytsky. So, on a street in Kyiv a man is shifting his feet and is moaning: ‘These are tight, way too tight!’ Policeman comes up to him and warns him with his finger: ‘Come on, stop speaking about politics here!’ The man tries to justify himself: ‘Look, I just bought a new pair of shoes and they are tight.’ The policeman left and the man hollers after him: ‘I know whom you meant.’”

Pepper wrote about politics, too.

“It was the most painful topic. Artists sighed, while coming up with new caricatures of imperialists and NATO. And when it was the time of October holidays or May 1, they simply had to switch to ‘positive humor.’ However, in fact, even at times like that they managed to play some tricks. For example, in a collection of cartoons depicting the May Day demonstration one of the cartoons showed a column of demonstrators coming from vodka plant and another one coming from sausage factory and there they argued about who should go first. People in the column from the vodka plant reasoned their position: ‘Don’t you know that snacks come after drinks?’”

Recently you won the prestigious international competition for the best humorous stories in Bulgaria. What are your impressions?

“This is a unique competition. There are many international competitions for caricaturists. People everywhere understand images the same. But the text is a different story. More so because the authors sent their humoristic pieces in their native language, the total number of essays submitted for the competition was about 100 and they came from over 20 countries. When you are named the best of the 78 authors, perhaps, nobody will believe that it didn’t make you happy. Of course, I was happy, and not only for myself. I often hear a bitter statement in my home country: ‘Ukrainian humor does not exist.’ Maybe, this prize will convince some people that a phenomenon of Ukrainian humor does exist. Just look how highly it was rated in the international competition. European colleagues also have a high regard for one of the oldest comic magazines of Europe, Pepper. These are not my words, but theirs.”

What do you think about the state of humor in Europe?

“Humor is a rare gift. There can be many, let’s say, artists and journalists. But there are always very few comedians – there are not that many of them all over the world. We discussed this topic at a conference in Bulgaria. Chairman of the International Fund ‘Satirist’ Jordan Popov said that, among other things, today we have a tendency of humorists’ weariness. Another problem is that comic magazines constantly disappear. Since comic writers have nowhere to publish their works, the genre falls into decay. For example, in Macedonia there used to be Osten magazine, but it has been closed. Neighboring Poland used to publish Studs. Where is it now? Let alone Russian Krokodil which we haven’t seen for over 20 years already.”

Are there any improvements at all?

“Vozhyk (Hedgehog) magazine is published in Belarus. Now is not the easiest time for this publication as well. The editors’ office decided to publish it twice a year. It’s quite a thick almanac. At some meeting Alexandr Lukashenka asked: ‘Why is there no more interesting and popular Vozhyk magazine around?’ A few days later the readers received a thin, but monthly magazine.”

In your opinion, is there enough humor on the last pages of Ukrainian printed media?

“Why only the last pages? Ukrainian newspaper or a magazine won’t be truly Ukrainian, unless it prints humor. As for The Day newspaper, I can say that people who work here are experts in their field, particularly in fine humor and graphics. Another pleasant fact is that for many years already they have been organizing an international photo competition, which brings together many fun, witty, and ironic images of our lives. This is another proof of that Ukrainians always laugh, no matter what.”