[GigabyteCoin]

I understood every single joke on that list except this one:

>A man goes into a shop and asks "You don't have any meat?". "No," replies the sales lady. "We don't have any fish. It's the store across the street that doesn't have any meat."

I just don't get it at all... is it just a bad joke?

I understand that stores ran out of products in that situation, but if you just had to walk across to street to get what you were after, that doesn't really seem like a joke at the expense of the communist government.

[llukas]

You would if you lived in a country where merchandise was available infrequently. Stores often were empty of any wares - so fish store is empty of fish and meat store is empty of meat. ;)

[eschutte2]

Thanks. "No, this is the empty fish shop. The empty meat shop is across the street."

[koliber]

Right on.

There is another level of nuance in the joke though. You need to have had spent some time in a Eastern European country. Everyone is a stickler for rules, details, and knowing the "correct" answer, even if in practice, in a given situation, it makes no difference at all.

This joke brings out that quality very nicely.

[lisivka]

All shops were named "Shop" or "Gastronome", so come in, look around at merchandise and then understand what kind of shop it is, which was hard to do when no merchandise was left at all.

[codedokode]

There also must be a play on words in original (untranslated) joke. "You don't have any meat?" in russian can be understood as "Do you have any meat?" and as "Is it your shop that has no meat?".

[leephillips]

It struck me as a variation of one that's from an old movie (can't remember which) and is a favorite of some philosophers:

Man in restaurant: "May I have a cup of coffee without cream?"

Waiter: "Sorry, we're all out of cream. Would you like it without milk?"

[patmcguire]

It's also a joke on the Russian language, it doesn't translate well. "You don't have any meat?" is the word-for-word translation of the polite way to ask if they have meat.

[narag]

The other shop had not meat, implying the mission of every shop is not having what they were supposed to have.

[lisivka]

It looks like a joke today, but it was quite helpful response back then. When shortages started to be massive, people from towns tried to find merchandise in cities, so they asked often «— Do you have a meat? — No, we don't. — You don't have a meat because you are selling something else or because of shortage? — We are selling fish. — Where I can find a meat shop? — Down the street, but they have no meat today too». (Sorry, if my English is incorrect).

Compare this dialogue to short but informative reply in the «joke» above.

Later, these responses are replaced with stickers like "No MEAT today" (it's meat shop, but we out of meat today, check us next morning) or "NO meat" (nobody saw a meat for at least two months, so don't ask us when it will be).

Maybe you understand this joke now:

Developed communism. «From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.» Sticker at the shop: «NO need in the meat today, comrades».

[stonogo]

The joke is he walked into a fish market looking for a butcher shop.