In the Russian-language segment of social networks, a short text attributed to a famous satirist is popular. We checked whether Zhvanetsky wrote anything similar.
In the ironic manner characteristic of the work of Mikhail Zhvanetsky, the text reads: “In the past, the world was ruled by smart people. It was cruel. The smart ones forced the dumb ones to study. It was hard for stupid people. Now the world is run by stupid people. This is fair, because there are many more stupid people. Now the smart ones are learning to speak in a way that the dumb ones can understand. If a stupid person doesn’t understand something, that’s the problem of a smart person. In the past, it was the stupid who suffered. Now the smart ones are suffering. There is less suffering because there are fewer and fewer smart people.”
This observation (both in text format and in the form of demotivators or short videos) is distributed under the signature of Zhvanetsky on Facebook (some publications were typed at the time of writing this analysis 8100, 7600, 5400, 2500 And 1100 reposts), VKontakte (1600 reposts), on YouTube (523,000 views), in Telegram (140,000) and other social networks.
Satirist writer Mikhail Zhvanetsky during his long career wrote several hundred miniatures and published many books. Until the last year of his life he continued to give concerts.
However, “Verified” found no traces of the quote attributed to Zhvanetsky either in published print media, or on reputable websites, or in many videos of his speeches on YouTube. In some roller skating this text is read by a voice-over, and the frame shows Zhvanetsky’s face from various speeches. The satirist has his own monologue about smart and stupid, but it sounds completely different (“Sometimes I want to shout: “Hey, stupid, gather under my banner!”). In some video They even combined fragments of this monologue with someone’s recitation of the viral text. One way or another, there is no reason to attribute this quote to Zhvanetsky.
Moreover, analysis of social networks shows that this text should be attributed to Zhvanetsky started only in 2022 (satirist died in 2020), and before that he generally haven't met on the web. Back in early February 2022, the statement could discover without attribution, but in the middle of the month it was already actively attributed to Zhvanetsky - for example, on the popular website anekdot.ru.
The earliest post that contains a viral quote (with a slightly different ending) and which “Verified” could find, appeared on January 18, 2022 at 21:53 Moscow time in the accounts of the user Artem Golikov (@hozar) in “LiveJournal" And Dreamwidth. The next day already in his Telegram channel and on Facebook page he clarified his own thought, “diluted” the text with other phrases:
“I read a long text. It was written by scientists. Text about smart and stupid. The world used to be ruled by smart people. It was cruel. The smart ones forced the dumb ones to study. It was hard for stupid people. (A dog named News found a bomb. The news spread throughout the village.) Now the world is ruled by stupid people. This is fair, because there are many more stupid people. Now the smart ones are learning to speak in a way that the dumb ones can understand. If a stupid person doesn’t understand something, that’s a problem for the smart person. (A son was born into a family of skeletons. They named him Kostyan.) Previously, stupid people suffered. Now the smart ones are suffering. There is less suffering. The world has changed for the better. Now, when you write, you yourself must try to be understood. Write in short words. Break up the writing with jokes. Oh brave new world! (There was a fight at an organ sale. I barely managed to escape.) The article opened my eyes. Now I will become popular. Now this channel will only contain understandable texts.”
The long text that Golikov discussed was posted back in 2016 fast Facebook user Alexandra Polyushkova about trends in the level of education, clip thinking and other signs of modernity. It was the conclusions that Polyushkova made based on the data she presented that prompted Golikov to write his text about smart and stupid. The latter, in a condensed form, went viral on the Internet and relatively soon found an author in the person of Zhvanetsky - apparently due to the similarity in the manner of presentation or the satirist’s monologue about smart and stupid people.
Cover photo: GoodFon.ru
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