The Cherry Orchard Act III: Trofimov, The Joker

Perhaps something intended to be funny turns out to not be funny at all. Maybe the joke was done in a very incorrect time or to the wrong audience. Regardless of this there exists the chance that something that had no funny intentions or planning behind it turns out to be incredibly funny. The idea if something is funny or not depends a lot on the person and not so much on the joke. One person might not like offensive jokes so any joke that contains any vulgar comment will not be funny to them. Other people may be pastusos and certainly they will not find funny jokes about them. There are some cases humor in Act III of The Cherry Orchard. Some made me laugh and others not at all, yet again jokes are rather subjective.

Trofimov seems like a scholar who studies plenty as well as concentrating a lot on his works. We are now presented with the image of a Trofimov who jokes around and mocks people. This can be seen when Trofimov says, "You know, there really is something equine about your figure" (Chekhov 363). He mocks Pishchik who says that he has descended from Caligula's horse. The use of the word equine in Trofimov's line shows to the reader his scholar side. He could have simply said horse like but Chekhov prefers to use a scientific word which would show the intellect of Trofimov. This type of comment falls into the category of planned funny jokes. Trofimov certainly planned to mock Pishchik and I thought his comment was funny. Of course Pishchik would not have laughed at this since this joke was laughing about him.

Trofimov is the funny guy in this act since he also causes laughter even without trying. According to Chekhov: "In the hall there is a sound of someone running quickly downstairs and suddenly falling with a crash. Anya and Varya scream, but a moments later laughter is heard" (Chekhov 370). Anya and Varya seem like the kind of persons that laugh at people falling. Personally I don't laugh too much when a person falls but I have to admit that there have been cases where I have laughed a great deal when a person falls. I did not laugh at this fall of Trofimov even after seeing the video of his fall. It all depends on the person, I think that the funniest fall I have seen is La Caida De Edgar, but others may have not laughed even once with it.