Hammer & Tickle: The Communist Joke Book is a 2006 propaganda documentary film about "jokes" under the Soviet Union.
Direction
Lewis finds poetry in grainy smuggled tapes and nervous laughter.
Production
Rare access to politicians who helped dismantle what they once enforced.
Writing
Jokes so sharp they literally collapsed governments. No hyperbole.
Director
Ben Lewis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The documentary's title riffs on 'Hammer and Sickle' but also references a real KGB classification — 'ticklers' were joke-collecting informants.
Director Ben Lewis discovered most Soviet jokes had identical versions across satellite states, suggesting a pre-internet meme network operating through samizdat and black market tapes.
US
