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488 Florin-Aron Pádurean When Ytzig Met Shtrul: On Schmoozing and Jewish Conspiracy in Romanian Art Traditionally, a thorough study starts with a theoretical introduction. But in this case, a social introduction would fit our study better and would clearly be far more polite to our heroes. I will introduce them to you by showing one of Ytzig and Shtrul’s activities as found on many Romanian web pages: They say that when Ceausescu was still alive, Ytzig and Shtrul decided to flee the country. Shtrul, a fearful person, asked Ytzig: What if the customs officer catches us? He won't, replied Ytzig, just do what I do. It was pitch dark when the two friends got to the border. Ytzig took the first steps. Halfway through the border zone, the customs officer heard him move and shouted: Stop or I'll shoot! Ytzig crouched and cried like a cat: Meeeoooow! Oh, it’s just a cat, said the officer, it can go on! It was Shtrul’s turn. He started crossing the border, but the officer heard him, too. Stop or DII shoot! he called out loud again. Shtrul crouched and replied: Just another cat, can it go on? As you surely noticed, Ytzig and Shtrul are two joke characters. They are also two placeholder names, standing in for any average Jews and, occasionally, for any average fellows. In today’s Romania, Ytzig-and-Shtrul jokes are numerous and popular, to the point of representing one of the most noticeable nominal intraethnic jokes, surpassing (in popularity) Hungarian jokes,’ and surpassed only by the anecdotes involving Romanian placeholder names. The first ratio is highly surprising, considering, on the one hand, that the Jews became an almost invisible group, whereas the Hungarians are perceived by some Romanians as a distressing minority’ and, ! An accurate account supporting this idea is not possible, as an elaborate repertory of Romanian ethnic jokes was never compiled, the Internet being, so far, the only attesting source. A minimal Internet search would reveal to any solicitor that Ytzig and Shtrul jokes are more numerous than Janos and Pista (Hungarian placeholder names) jokes. In Folclorul literar al romanilor (The Literary Folklore of Romanians), Constantin Eretescu summarizes the ethnic Romanian jokes to those with Jews and Gypsies, considering these ethnic groups to be as relevant as Irishmen or Scots are in English jokes. The author mentions Ytzig and Shtrul as being used on a regular basis in the anecdotal setting (2004: 284). In the case of Gypsy jokes, although numerous, they have no constant actors, the characters being regularly anonymous. > An opinion survey organized at the request of the National Council for Combating Discrimination in November 2010 revealed some interesting aspects regarding the phenomenon of discrimination in
