allemaalmeezinge wrote:are there more jokes between Austrians and Hungarians (or among other ex-members of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) ?
I am very interested!
I don't know... Most "jokes" are anecdotes about well-known families, aristocrates (especially the Habsburgs), some Jewish jokes and jokes about the administration and the bureaucrats. There's definitly a strong Jewish influence in the anecdotes passed to us - the main collectors of them and authors of books about them were Jewish. Maybe because the Jews had a *relatively* good time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (especially compared to the situation in the Russian Empire). Nearly all other people were not satisfied with it in the end phase, so only the Jews thought it worth of looking back at it.
The most known author is Friedrich Torberg - his books are really good. Not only was he a congenial translator of Kishon, he also wrote history with his work "Der Schüler Gerber" and wrote two cult-books: "Die Tante Jolesch oder der Untergang des Abendlands in Anekdoten", "Die Erben der Tante Jolesch" and "Kaffeehaus ist überall", which deal with the fall of the Empire.