Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how social media applications like Telegram have affected the most popular extracurricular activity in Russia, a humor game played by millions. Players use new digital fora to reinforce ethical values associated with the game, especially those about the social function of humor.

Paper long abstract:

Before television, people tuned in to baseball, football, and soccer games on the radio. Fans also read about results in newspapers, waiting anxiously to find out how their favorite teams had fared in competitions that only stadium-goers could witness. The competitions of the most popular youth extracurricular activity in Russia, a humor game called Club of the Cheerful and Clever (Klub Veselykh i Nakhodchivykh, or KVN) are often not broadcast, either. And even performances in televised leagues are not shown live. Fans don't see March Premier League games on TV, for example, until the summer. Thus, social media applications like Telegram and Instagram, as well as good old fashioned blogs, have assumed the role of radio for people who want immediate information about games and pre-game preparation. This paper examines how such applications have led to new ways of imagining the KVN community—a community comprised of millions of competitors. KVNchiki, as KVN competitors are called, use social media to (1) read live, textual reporting about distant games and (2) comment on the performances of others. On the one hand, decentralized social media reporting on KVN events constitutes a culture of comments on comments, of metapragmatic evaluation as lifestyle. On the other, KVNchiki use these new fora to reinforce ethical values associated with the game, especially those about the social function of humor, aesthetic priorities, and relationships between comedians and state power.