This wily character always manages to make fools out of Ottoman rulers, wealthy Bulgarians, gullible priests and even Nastradin Hodzha, his Turkish protagonist. Although there is no way to know for sure what made 19th Century Bulgarians chuckle, time-honoured anecdotes about Hitar Petar, or Sneaky Peter, are telling. Authority figures of all kinds are the favourite butts of Bulgarian jokes. Stories about blondes and lawyers are relatively new to Bulgaria so Bulgarians have not yet entirely given up their traditional comic heroes, which include Jews, Armenians, Gypsies, mutri, politicians and the police.īeware, however, that most Bulgarian humour is R-rated, so make sure your kids aren't within earshot when your Bulgar buddies are trading wisecracks with you. In recent years, the latest quips circulating on the Internet have been steadily replacing home-grown Bulgarian jokes. Many felt there was something fishy afoot, however, so they thought up the joke about Ivan Shitsky.
Designed to deflect public attention from the growing economic crisis, propaganda presented the Revival Process to the Bulgarian majority as “a voluntary return to Bulgarian roots”. The “case” of Ivan Shitsky dates back to the Revival Process in the mid-1980s, when Communist leaders forced Bulgarian Turks, sometimes at gunpoint, to change their names to Slavic ones. To understand why Bulgarians would laugh at this you need to grasp the peculiar historical circumstances that have made Bulgarians into a nation unique not only in the Balkans, but in the world – in their own minds, at least. What would you like your new name to be? “ “Petar Shitsky,” the man replied. “Oh, in that case,” said the clerk, “I understand. Have you heard the one about the man who went to city hall and wanted to change his name? The clerk refused: “Sorry, no name changes allowed.” But the poor guy insisted, “Look, I can't go on living with this name, I have to change it!” Finally, the clerk gave in and asked, “OK, what's your name?” “Ivan Shitsky,” answered the man. Bulgarian humour can be tough, cynical, vulgar, sexist, anti-Semitic, anti-everybody – and all too often coprophilic.
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