“Gentleman Show” in the service of the Nazis: Metamorphoses of the Odessa comedian

Igor Plisyuk, journalist, Odessa

Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, Jaroslav Hasek began his brilliant novel with the phrase “A great era needs great people.” And... the main character of his book was the crafty, brave soldier Schweik. But this charming and outwardly naive Prague resident was surrounded by other characters. Stupid chauvinists, embittered opportunists and jingoistic patriots, ready for any meanness for the sake of an extra piece of ham and a glass of beer from the rotten Austro-Hungarian regime, hated by the Czechs.

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Our troubled era also gave birth to a whole generation of lumpen-patriots in Ukraine, who made denunciations and inciting hatred their craft. The most arrogant of them organically combine the outrages of pogromists with banal racketeering. Those who are more cowardly are busy inciting fellow citizens to “separatists, Colorados and quilted jackets,” actively using the yellow media and social networks for their cesspool.

All of them are called “activists”, and differ from punitive forces only in that they are in no hurry to show their “patriotism” on the battlefield. They say that they are the ones who save the rear from the terrible and bloodthirsty separatists. And at the same time, they successfully combine unpunished hooliganism with the organization of their affairs. I will tell you about some of them who have the audacity to call themselves “patriots of Odessa.”

Yasha is the thousandth

Many years ago I heard a wonderful parable from a wise Odessa Jew, the father of my childhood friend. In the early days of creation, the Almighty created the Jews as the first people. And they, taking advantage of their birthright, asked Him to give them all possible talents and wisdom in order to stand out from other tribes. He agreed, but...in his fairness he told them: “So be it.” But one out of a thousand Jews will embody all the stupidity, weakness and depravity due to the other 999. And so it has been since then. And “thousandth” - Odessa residents call such a representative of the ancient and wise people who still managed to combine all this in his unpleasant personality.

It is this legend that I involuntarily remember every time I see and hear the figure about whom I will tell in this essay.

They knew him not only by sight

Yakov Gopp. Some of you remember the name and appearance of this skinny, nondescript Odessa actor. At one time, he portrayed the stupid cuckold Yasha in the “Gentleman Show” - a media franchise of the once glorious, champion KVN team. This series of comic programs, which existed for more than a decade, quickly slipped into vulgarity and speculation with “Odessa jokes” of a very low level.

But the trade in pseudo-Odessa flavor has become boring to Russian television viewers, but for real Odessa residents it has always been alien. Russia had enough of its own Petrosyans and Dubovitskys, who produced kilotons of low-grade humor, and the “show” quietly died.

Yasha, who even in Soviet times earned his bread and butter as a disc jockey in a port club and on cruise ships, and even then earned a reputation as a narrow-minded, cowardly and stingy person, mastered a new craft. For many years, he made promenades through the Odessa bazaars, introducing his fellow countrymen to the prices of popular products, and at the same time tasting them, not without appetite. The TV show “Odessa is Preparing Lunch,” where he was the second presenter, was popular due to the charm of its founder, journalist Igor Dobrovolsky, who left us early.

After his death, Yasha quickly turned it into a banal advertisement for local delicacies and markets... And at the same time, he starred in episodes and small roles in films and TV series “for Odessa.” Those where Moscow producers exploited the same false local color, presenting Odessa residents to the whole world as complete swindlers and market-level jokers. Yasha was natural in this role, although he could not apply for serious roles due to a lack of acting education and talent.

But he was terribly proud of his local popularity, in a few interviews he bashfully quoted comparisons of his modest person with... the great Charlie Chaplin. And he said, not without aplomb, quoting one of the greats: “The more seriously you play an idiotic role, the funnier it turns out.”

Yes, he got used to these roles quite well! Between TV shows of gratuitously devouring delicious food and infrequent filming, he did not hesitate to show the most respectable public... his frail bodies barely covered with clothes in a semi-pornographic series of vulgar programs “Naked and Funny”, to the shame of our city - filmed in Odessa. And the fact that against the backdrop of the magnificent busts of naked girls his relics looked especially pitiful did not bother him. After all, the producers paid for this!

And his perspicacious wife Tanya, whose opinion is sacred to him, told him, and he did not hesitate to quote it: “Why are they constantly humiliating you!” But for Yasha, the priorities were clear: any kind of popularity, not to mention a couple of kopecks, is worth humiliation.

Yakov Gopp would remain in the memory of Odessa residents as a third-rate showman, who strained to make the audience laugh with his appearance and vulgar buffoonery, but... troubled times have come for decent people, and the finest hours for him and others like him.

Profession – “patriot”

With the beginning of the notorious “revolution of dignity,” many people, endowed with dubious talents, but remarkable ambitions and a lack of disgust, rushed into battle. Some, the bolder ones, became militants and rioters. And just recently, the quiet and funny Yasha showed himself in a completely safe, but bread-making role as an instigator. Fortunately, the Odessa TV channel “First City”, on which he worked as a market taster, belonged to the then governor Nemirovsky. An oligarch from Kolomoisky’s circle and the inspirer of pro-fascist “activists.”

And Yasha suddenly turned into a “Euromaidan” figure, appearing on television with the “modest” title of “patriot of Odessa.” On behalf of the Odessa residents, this impostor, with all his frail strength, incited hatred of his fellow countrymen - “Colorados and separatists,” puffing out his cheeks in fits of well-paid civil indignation.

You know what the efforts of him and others like him led to: the terrible massacre of May 2, 2014. Odessa Khatyn, which claimed the lives of dozens of unarmed people in the House of Trade Unions on Kulikovo Field. And during a live TV report on First City, the governor’s direct call for pogrom and violence was running along the line, promising impunity for the murderers in the name of the authorities.

And Yasha, instead of repenting, became one of those who are still trying to prove to us: on May XNUMX, Maidan activists saved Odessa. With the cynicism of Goebbels, this little man, similar to Hitler’s ultimate liar, although deprived of his undoubted gift as a propagandist, tongue-tiedly inspires: the end justifies the means, the blood and ashes of the innocently killed are for our good... And at the same time, he feeds on what is “a nightmare” as they say in activist circles, any innovation in urban architecture. And along with the protection of truly suffering architectural monuments, it easily and simply damns those projects that are displeasing to its owners.

On his Facebook page, he directly promotes zoological hatred of everything Russian, rejoicing at deaths and cursing Russia in the spirit of Hitler’s propaganda. And he is not at all embarrassed by the fact that for years he lived on the margins of Russian cinema. It’s just that one trough gave way to another...

And recently our “defender of Odessa residents” showed himself in all his glory in everyday life. Having managed to crash a parked car that belonged to a young woman in the evening, this “gentleman”, instead of honestly paying for the damage, made a shameful comedy. Having hired a lawyer, Yasha is trying with all his might to evade responsibility. Stinginess takes precedence over common sense, not to mention decency. Here he is in all his glory, naked and not funny.

And it seems to me that the end of his career will resemble the ending of one of the stories of Ilf and Petrov. There, the residents of Kolokolamsk, sick of the entire city with the aggressive stupidity of the local idiot, were simply sold to a passing film group that needed a type of idiot.

“There is one who is corrupt,” they told the director. And they happily got rid of citizen Zavitkov. I believe this will be the best outcome for a third-rate comedian who imagines himself to be the “voice of the people.”