Unfathomable joke in the Guardian

[mikeymike99]

This was printed in Simon Hoggart's column in last Saturday's Guardian. I just don't get it. It's probably very simple and I'm missing the obvious, but could someone please explain it to me:

Andropov is going to visit Poland, so they decide on a gift to the Polish party leader, a painting titled Lenin In Poland. So they get an artist, Cohen. 'But Lenin never visited Poland,' he points out. 'Never mind, get on with it,' they tell him.

"Finally Cohen produces the picture. It shows a man and a woman in bed together. The apparatchiks are appalled. 'What on earth is that?' they demand. Cohen explains. 'The man is Trotsky. The woman is Lenin's wife, Krupskya.'

"'And where is Lenin?'

"'Why, Lenin is in Poland.'"

[terambulan]

would it be Lenin being cuckolded? funny.....not ! But Guardian, typical! Pseudo-intellects!

[poortony]

I know, I know - I'm sad, but I did think it funny.

[mikeymike99]

Poortony...do you understand the joke? Please, please explain it. It can't just be the fact that Lenin is being cuckolded as, after that fact is established, there's still two lines of dialogue. The last of which is, presumably, the punchline.

[whitehill]

Well, I suppose the point is, they wanted him to paint a picture of Lenin in Poland tho' he never went there and he painted a picture of Trotsky in bed with Krupskya tho' that never happened. Presumably a reference to the fact that politicians never let an inconvenient truth get in the way of a good story

[mikeymike99]

Thanks Whitehill but I'm not totally convinced. For that to work it has to be very obvious that Krupskya never slept with Trotsky which it certainly not the case. In fact, for all anyone knows, maybe they did sleep together. For example if the picture was of a logical impossibility ( let's say a fish flying an airplane) then the punchline might just work. But still not really. And it would still be an incredibly weak joke which no one in their right mind would print. Maybe there's a line missing.

[amalgam]

I'm so glad someone else didn't understand this joke! I thought I must be even dimmer than i had imagined I was!

[pquinlan]

The (scant) humour that I derive from this joke is from the predicament in which the artist is placed (Lenin was never in Poland so he doesn't want to paint the picture) and how he gets around it. Instead he imagines what might have happened if Lenin had gone to Poland (Trotsky gets into bed with Lenin's wife) and depicts that scene instead so he gets around his dilemma.

[mikeymike99]

Thank you pquinlan - that makes sense! It's still a very weak joke, though...

[Bluedragon]

Sorry everyone, I think the Guardian is crap from cover to cover but think about this joke...it's really rather clever and I find it funny.