Fellow comedian Boris Zeliger says a politically risky joke "usually doesn’t even get a laugh, but causes a reaction like 'Wow, you daredevil!'". "The comedians who write jokes on the topic of the day from a political point of view - they usually emigrate." According to one of them, Ilya Ovechkin, any reference to Putin in a joke boosts laughs by 70%. You can get punched in the face without telling a single political joke." And that Putin joke?

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Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Ivan Garkushko, Boris Zeliger, Comigration, Ilya Ovechkin, Putin, Ovechkin, you'll, who's, Ariana Lolaeva, Mark Trevelyan, Kevin Liffey Organizations: Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia