In Soviet Russia

Typically the American clause describes a harmless ordinary activity and the inverted Soviet form something menacing or dysfunctional, satirizing life under communist rule, or in the "old country".

[4] Although the exact origin of the joke form is uncertain, an early example is from the 1938 Cole Porter musical Leave It to Me!

[3] In the 1968–1973 television show Laugh-In, a recurring character, "Piotr Rosmenko the Eastern European Man" (played by Arte Johnson), delivered short jokes such as "Here in America, is very good, everyone watch television.

"[5] This joke alludes to "telescreens" from George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which both reproduce images and monitor the citizenry.

The joke form is often associated with the Soviet emigrant comedian Yakov Smirnoff, who used it, for example, in a 1985 Miller Lite commercial: "In America, there's plenty of light beer and you can always find a party.