Galery

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The crisis generates humour. The economic problems that stifle the working people, the unemployment, poverty and high prices have become the ground of biting, hot but usually witty and calming humour. Jokes or just funny remarks and the popular stickers for the masses, which find many fans on Facebook, ridicule the new reality and are spread by word of mouth, via e-mail, websites and social networks.

"Last night, thieves broke into my house and looked for money. I got out of bed and we started looking for it together" is just one of those jokes that have been makinb an impression lately. Others like this one: "I am saving money to go to the petrol station one day." Their authors are people around us, who are blessed with ingenuity.

Other nations rely on humour as a cure for good mental health and an antidote to stress in times of crisis. The Italians recently wrote about themselves: "Come on, cheer up, these are the last ten years of contributions and then, we will retire" and the supporters of the national football team of Ireland appeared at the European Championship with posters reading, "Angela Merkel thinks we are at work."

The Serbs followed the same tactic of self-preservation in the late 1990s to survive the war and poverty, and a phrase that was popular at the time said, "Why shouldn’t we be proud of our past when every day is better than the last one?"

Ethnos newspaper has collected some of the best jokes about the crisis from the stickers for the masses:

"I fuelled my car with petrol worth 50 euro and the man working at the petrol station offered me his daughter to be my wife."

"I wanted to buy some clothes but I remembered that they had said that we would progress in 2013 and I postponed the purchase. I could have bought them but I might outgrow them next year."

 "One drug addict in Omonia wanted to give him 100 drachmas. He is either behind or ahead of his time."

 "I finished primary school, secondary school and then, university. And now, I must obtain an international passport to get a job."

"American tax system, Swedish taxation, Bulgarian wages, social services like in Zimbabwe, but luckily, we have not become Argentina."

 "I remember the time when I owed only lessons."

"I will go to the power company and ask them if I can pay only my tithe."

"-What did you do with your Christmas gift? -I filled the tank of the car. -And what did you do with the rest? My parents paid the rest."

"Huge queues of outraged consumers outside the shops have prompted the government to open them on Sundays too."

 "It is believed that in 2013, 190 thousand shops will hang padlocks in Greece. That’s it – I am going to open a shop for padlocks."

"With an unemployed father, little children would ask, "What is the job of your grandfather?"

 "One wrong comma can spoil your whole pension, said the teacher at school. Now I know what she was talking about!"

"My wallet has been like onions recently. Every time I open it I cry."

Here are some more:

- "A few days ago, a car crashed into a shop and the owner shouted, "At last a man has come into the shop!"

- "Things are getting worse. Yesterday I walked through Syntagma square and saw pigeons feeding people."

 - "If you hear of any job, please tell me. I am looking for a second job because I cannot find a first one at all."

 - "I have enough money to spend by the end of the month, the last month."

 - "Somebody tell them to bring this thing to an end as we do not know what coin to put in the New Year's cake."

 - "A dialogue of a couple in a time of economic crisis: - My love, I have a lover! -Is he working?"

 - "I know a family with two working and two retired people. Where should I file a complaint against them?"