It’s said that anecdotes usually are exchanged at a party table. Most Russian stories about others involve Finns, but many anecdotes are about Estonians. Both nationalities are characterized as being slow to react and are depicted as having no sense of humour and taciturn
One can find an explanation for this. Russians consider the tempo of spoken Estonians to be slow and have funny, vowel-laden accent. It’s said to have a sing-song tune, lacks genders in grammar, uses long vowels and consonants. Russians consider Estonians to have a lack of temperament. An example: “I told some Estonians guys that they’re slow.” “What did they do?” “Nothing. But they beat me up the following day.”
It’s noted that not a single Russian-language humour program on TV is produced without a comic reference about Estonians. Some jokes:
A history teacher asks her students what the meaning of the three colours are in the Estonia flag. Tiit, the first to answer says, ”Blue is the colour of our beautiful sea that the Russians tried to pollute.” Toomas follows it up with, ”Black is our bountiful land, that the Russians are ruining.” Finally little Sergei insists, “Teacher can I answer one too?” “Very well,” says the teacher. “White is the snow that Estonians in Siberia didn’t properly sweep away. And if Tiit and Toomas don’t shut up, they’ll be sent there to finish the job.”
At the Olympic village in Sochi, the WCs had two toilets, side by side, in each WC. An explanation was given to journalists and an Estonian reporter asks why – two in each WC. The Russian says that one is for Latvians, one is for Lithuanians and Estonians simply grit their teeth and stick it out. (Pikemalt Eesti Elu 29. mai paberlehes)
