Folklore character Vasily Pupkin: origin, history. Who is Vasya Pupkin, and why does everyone know him?

This simpleton is more popular on the Internet than many politicians and show business stars. Who is Vasya Pupkin and why does everyone know him?

Internet meme

It's a paradox, but in reality it doesn't exist. He is an Internet meme (a media object created by mass communication).

For such purposes, even a new scientific word was identified - exemplification. In this context it is used to refer to an unknown person. For example, the Ivanovs, Petrovs, and Sidorovs often appear in jokes.

From school, we are more familiar with the concept (for example, traitors are called Judas, and production leaders are called Stakhanovites), but this is not the same thing as an exemplar. If in the first case there is usually some real personality or artistic character gave a name to a generalized image, then in the second the name and surname were specially invented to designate an already existing social phenomenon.

Vasily Pupkin - a real phenomenon. Although he actually does not exist, like Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus, the Internet media space wants to convince us otherwise.

It’s surprising, but the number of Vasya Pupkin’s home pages is simply off the charts. There are more than 38 thousand profiles of the same name, and this is only on the Runet.

Who does the notorious character represent?

Often our compatriots like to remember the name of Alexander Sergeevich in vain. Eg:

- Who will clean up?

- Pushkin! (used to mean “no one”).

But Vasily Pupkin is “someone, but not me.”

Currently, this character is a reflection of the mass Russian user Internet. The fact is that the World Wide Web has penetrated every cell of the post-Soviet space, the number of network users is growing every year, and this people are quite motley and multifaceted.

And among them there are some simpletons who consider themselves beaten experts in some areas and love to rant about it. They were dubbed Vasily Pupkins.

What is he like?

In fact, netizens created Vasya Pupkin in their own image and likeness. Therefore, it is constantly evolving, just like its creators: its values change, its thinking transforms, it acquires new qualities.

Vasily Pupkin is active. He loves to get smart on all sorts of forums, and never misses the opportunity to insert his two cents into any discus. Although in fact he is a little stupid, but absolutely harmless. He lives by the laws of network culture and supports average values.

Sometimes Vasily Pupkin means an arrogant writer, critic or political scientist, one hundred percent confident that he is right. Although even the very combination of first and last name reeks of through-and-through provincialism. What can I say if naive dupes who are easily used for their own benefit are popularly called Vasya. They often play the same role in jokes.

Also, this virtual character is sometimes used to personify his “not-self”, rewarding him negative qualities and primitive thinking, which disgusts those who oppose themselves and Vasya Pupkin. For example, you can often hear the following dialogues in everyday life: “I won’t take this. Let Vasya Pupkin buy this.” This is the name given to the collective class of those individuals who are considered inferior or inferior to themselves, their loved ones.

The origin of the folklore character Vasya Pupkin is ambiguous. Some associate his last name with the word “navel,” that is, this man convinced himself that he was the navel of the earth. The second even attribute to her historical roots: they say, there was such a failed rhyme-maker Vasily Pushkin, a relative of Alexander Sergeevich, but in terms of versification he was not suitable to hold a candle to him. That’s why they twisted his last name as a joke to emphasize the absurdity of his claims to a pedestal in the field high poetry. Still others are sure that by his appearance this hero is connected with the author of a textbook on the arithmetic of the times Tsarist Russia, but more about that later. In addition, Vasisualiy Pupkin (aka Vasya Pupkin) is sometimes awarded the patronymic Alibabaevich (from the film "Gentlemen of Fortune").

Why did it take root?

It is interesting that, unlike other common nouns, this is written not with a lowercase, but with a capital letter, creating the illusion of the real existence of such a person, and not just a collective image.

Russians are a nation that loves to laugh at itself. Vasily Pupkin is the product of such self-irony. Even the combination of a rustic name and a stately surname creates a comic effect.

Among other things, it is convenient. His first and last name help to succinctly express an entire concept, characterize someone, or simply replace the usual username.

It is estimated that almost every second network user calls himself Vasya Pupkin when he registers on a website. This is a kind of anonymous self-name.

Off the Web

This product folklore expanded its habitat and stepped beyond the boundaries of Internet pages. Politicians often mention him in their speeches, referring to the whole class of common people, the conventional image of the bearer of public opinion.

This reflects the condescending attitude of the superior intelligentsia towards the people, and specifically towards the Russian people. It would be hard to call a Dagestani or an Ossetian Vasya Pupkin.

In the army you can hear: “Sergeant Vasya Pupkin is ready for combat service!” and the like. That is, these first and last names have long been used as an example of representation.

Vasily Pupkin "Arithmetic"

If you believe in the existence of an arithmetic teacher who published a textbook for parochial schools with the notorious problems about the capacity of swimming pools, then it becomes clear where his modern namesake “grows his legs.” Although the connection between them is difficult to establish. True, for some reason there is no such textbook anywhere in libraries, there are no records of its existence in the archives, it is known only from the stories of old people who went to parochial schools in their early childhood. Therefore, we can assume that this book - a textbook by Vasily Pupkin - is just a replicated myth and nothing more.

Analogues in other languages

Such exemplifications are not a phenomenon of purely Russian folklore. For example, in English vocabulary there is a certain John Doe. Initially, this was the name given to the male plaintiff in trial, if the real name is unknown or anonymous. The defendant was named Richard Rowe. John Doe is now an alias for the unidentified body of a man in judicial practice. If we were talking about the same corpse of a woman, then she is given a name. The child is called Baby Doe. Also under these fictitious names register patients in hospitals who are unable to name their real name due to coma or amnesia.

Mr. Smith plays a similar role. True, his first and last name are used in the broader sense of “anonymous” or “typical Englishman”.

America has its own folklore character - Joe-Six-Pack (Joe Six-Cans). This is a representative of the working profession, not particularly burdened with intelligence, who tends to drink exactly that amount of beer after work.

Real Vasya Pupkin

But how many namesakes of this virtual hero live in real world? At first glance it seems that there should be at least a couple of dozen. Research was even conducted on this matter, and it turned out that such a surname is very rare for Russian society. Only about fifty representatives of the Pupkins were discovered, and among them there was only one Vasily, living in Saratov region. How his name deserved such popularity, he does not know.

Although this image is fictitious, it lives a little in each of us. So, who is Vasya Pupkin? He is truly a hero of our time. It's sad, but at times, these are the heroes.

...Weeping parents come to the lodge at the foot of the mountain and say:

– Yesterday our son went to the mountains to ski, and he still hasn’t returned!

- Wait a bit. What is the name of your son?

So who is he, famous? Vasya Pupkin? Let's turn to Wikipedia:

A commission from the tax office flies into the reception area of the plant director and burst into his office:

– You have big problems: you don’t pay taxes, you don’t pay social security and pension payments, you’re withholding wages – in general, the whole set. So get ready. You will be fired from your job, you will be charged with confiscation, etc. etc. - in short, dry the crackers. Give us a list of your employees!

They bring lists. The commission looks at them and asks the question:

– What, does Pupkin work for you?

Director says:

– If it’s on the list, it means it works.

Commission in response:

– We offer our deepest apologies, please forgive us, everything is fine at your enterprise, taxes, wages, etc. etc., and you don’t have to pay taxes at all for 3 years!

They leave, walking backwards.

The director - his legs were weak, his throat was dry, in a pre-infarction state - he plopped down in a chair, sat, caught his breath, drank a hundred grams of cognac and thought that he had probably overworked himself, overheated and was generally going crazy.

The next day, a crowd of local tough kids burst into his office with an open assault:

- Hello, bro, you're fucked, you're not paying off your money, you're not paying for the roof, you're offending people, now we're going to put you on the money, the boiler - you know where to shove it! Come on, quickly send out the lists with your employees!..

They bring lists.

The brothers are shocked:

– What, does Pupkin work for you?

Director:

- Yes, it works, cool buddy, we’re friends and all that!

Brothers:

- Bro, I’m sorry, forgive me for God’s sake, in short, everything is fine, you don’t need to unfasten anything, we’ll pay for it ourselves, the roof will be free and in general, if anything happens, call!..

The completely crazy director calls the head of the personnel department and asks:

– Who is this – Pupkin?

She answers:

- Some kind of turner from the 3rd workshop.

The director calls him urgently to his place. He comes all grimy.

The boss asks him:

– Who are you and why does everyone in the city know you?

Answers:

– They know me not only in the city, but also in the near and far abroad, and even the Pope knows me!..

...Weeping parents come to the lodge at the foot of the mountain and say:
– Yesterday our son went to the mountains to ski, and he still hasn’t returned!
- Wait a bit. What is the name of your son?
- Vasya Pupkin!
- Yandex, come to me!
A healthy St. Bernard runs up and says to him:
– Vasya Pupkin, understand? Search!
After some time, Yandex returns and says:
– According to your request, nothing was found in the Runet mountains. Found 283.265 Vasya and 222.388 Pupkins. Maybe look in the Ineta Valley?..
(Computer stories)

For the request of Vasya Pupkin - Yandex search result: pages - 1,059,012, sites - at least 1,588. For the same request, Google returned 244,000 pages.

So who is he, the famous Vasya Pupkin? Let's turn to Wikipedia:
“Vasya (Vasily) Pupkin is a modern folklore character. For a long time its origins remained an absolute mystery. The mystery was resolved when information about the origin of this character was published in the October issue of Y2K magazine Hacker (however, the degree of reliability of this information raises certain doubts).

The ancestor of the Pupkin family was a Viking, Jarl Pupkur, who arrived in Rus' in ancient times. Here he married a Russian girl and from them came the Pupkovich family. At one time, Tsar Peter the Great even gave them a large plot of land in Siberia for their merits. The city of Pupkinsk was founded there, which later disappeared. There are still legends about mysterious country Puplandia, located somewhere in the Amazon jungle, where, according to rumors, part of your (Pupkin) family lives, who moved there during the era of the Great geographical discoveries, but we never found any concrete confirmation.

There is information that Vasily Pupkin was the compiler of an arithmetic textbook for gymnasiums, published in Russian Empire. In Sergei Lukyanenko’s book “Transparent Stained Glass” we read the following:

Poor Vasily Pupkin, author of an arithmetic textbook for parochial schools! He didn’t know how cruelly the students, exhausted by problems about swimming pools and trains, would deal with him. They will make him a household name, worse than any Mr. Smith.

Vasya Pupkin is an exemplifying name used as an example (exemplification) to designate an unknown or anonymous person. As a rule, it is used to describe a certain type of arrogant writer, political scientist, etc., as well as a self-confident participant in Internet discussions and forums. Usually not burdened with intelligence."

It is believed that Vasya Pupkin is an average user of the Runet/Internet (many consider him the most legendary personality Runet!). Usually they introduce themselves this way (in chats, on forums, in correspondence) when they do not want to disclose their real name...

By the way, recently Russian television journalists finally found the full namesake of Vasya Pupkin. This is an elderly Russian farmer. He was very surprised by the fact of his worldwide fame...

For Vasya Pupkin’s request - Yandex search result: pages - 1,059,012, sites - at least 1,588. Google returned 244,000 pages for the same request.

So who is he, the famous Vasya Pupkin? Let's turn to Wikipedia:
“Vasya (Vasily) Pupkin is a modern folklore character. For a long time, its origin remained an absolute mystery. The mystery was resolved when information about the origin of this character was published in the October issue of Y2K magazine Hacker (however, the degree of reliability of this information raises certain doubts).

The ancestor of the Pupkin family was a Viking, Jarl Pupkur, who arrived in Rus' in ancient times. Here he married a Russian girl and from them came the Pupkovich family. At one time, Tsar Peter the Great even gave them a large plot of land in Siberia for their merits. The city of Pupkinsk was founded there, which later disappeared. There are also legends about the mysterious country of Puplandia, located somewhere in the Amazon jungle, where, according to rumors, part of your (Pupkin’s) family lives, who moved there during the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, but we have never found concrete confirmation.

There is information that Vasily Pupkin was the compiler of an arithmetic textbook for gymnasiums, published in the Russian Empire. In Sergei Lukyanenko’s book “Transparent Stained Glass” we read the following:

It is believed that Vasya Pupkin is an average user of the Runet/Internet (many consider him the most legendary personality of the Runet!). Usually they introduce themselves this way (in chats, on forums, in correspondence) when they do not want to disclose their real name...

By the way, recently Russian television journalists finally found the full namesake of Vasya Pupkin. This is an elderly Russian farmer. He was very surprised by the fact of his worldwide fame...