MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN LAUGHTER

“Eye on L.A.” on KABC Channel 7 sent dozens of queries to ABC News bureaus around the globe asking about TV sitcoms and other humorous fare being shown in their areas.

One of those bureaus was in Moscow. Now, the Soviets--save for maybe their funniest emigre, Yakov Smirnoff, and those silly dancing bears of the Moscow Circus--aren’t exactly known for their rollicking sense of humor. ABC’s Moscow bureau chief Walter Rodgers played on the stuffy Soviet image when he answered “Eye on L.A.” with the following wire:

SORRY TO ADVISE SITUATION COMEDIES AND HUMOR DO NOT APPEAR ON SOVIET TELEVISION. LAUGHTER IS NOT IN THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN HERE. WE TAKE OUR SOCIALISM SERIOUSLY. WE ARE WORKING TO BUILD LENIN’S DREAM AND HAVE NO TIME FOR BOURGEOISE DIVERSION. SOCIALISM IS AN IRREVERSIBLE HISTORICAL TREND THAT WILL SOMEDAY ERADICATE ALL HUMOR AND FRIVOLITY FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH AS WE BUILD THE PERFECT COMMUNIST WORLD.

SORRY, KIDS,

RODGERS