What's Russian for "It's the economy, stupid"?

HeraldS

Looking for the Russian equivalent of the famous phrase, "It's the economy, stupid". It's for a paper I'm working on. Thanks.

bowen

translate.google.com tells me it's

Это экономика, глупый.

Sipex

Straight translation might not work well though unless those reading said paper won't understand it anyways. Phrases in english almost never mean the same thing as the straight translation of said phrase in another language.

Cognisseur

Er... I speak Russian... but I have no idea what "It's the economy, stupid" means in English.

Sipex

Sounds condescending, short form for the below maybe?

Obviously the underlying cause of X issue is the state of the economy you idiot.

bowen

Right, but without context that's not much else we can do.

eatmosushi

have you considered using, "Eets zee economitschika, durak"

ronya

Cognisseur wrote: »

Er... I speak Russian... but I have no idea what "It's the economy, stupid" means in English.

A Clintonian political phrase dating from 1992.

Platy

Maybe you should just quote it in English.

WildEEP

I agree - go totally checkov with it....There is an old Russian Saying, "Its the economy, Stupid!". Only with a lot of unnecessary V sounds thrown in.

Robman

Your paper will be stronger if you're not trying to shoe-horn in American political catchphrases in the language of a nation that didn't have a similar moment.

HeraldS

I want to use the Russian version of that phrase as my title. The question I'm answering in the paper is, "What caused the collapse of communism?" and my answer, obviously, is economics.

So, to the gentleman that spoke Russian, or anyone else that knows for sure, how do you say "It's the economy, stupid" in Russian? Doesn't have to be a literal translation if there's a better way to say it. My teacher doesn't speak Russian anyhow, this is just going to be at the top of my paper with "It's the economy, stupid" in parenthesis next to it.

ronya

The phrase has some political connotations that might not be appropriate in that context.

Just go with "The causes of the collapse of communism".

Jason Todd

HeraldS wrote: »

I want to use the Russian version of that phrase as my title. The question I'm answering in the paper is, "What caused the collapse of communism?" and my answer, obviously, is economics.

So, to the gentleman that spoke Russian, or anyone else that knows for sure, how do you say "It's the economy, stupid" in Russian? Doesn't have to be a literal translation if there's a better way to say it. My teacher doesn't speak Russian anyhow, this is just going to be at the top of my paper with "It's the economy, stupid" in parenthesis next to it.

You should focus on writing a strong paper, not on forcing a clumsy joke in as the title.

Platy

I think this is a bad idea. Especially if you're at college.

If you put the English phrase next to it in parentheses, the joke will seem especially clumsy. If you just go with the Russian phrase, your teacher will be puzzled if he doesn't speak Russian. Should he speak Russian, he maybe won't recognize the phrase once it has been translated. If I read the phrase in my native language, I probably wouldn't make the connection with Clinton.

JNighthawk

This sounds like a really great title for the paper. I don't know why everyone else are being silly geese.

Unfortunately, I can't help with the translation/transliteration.

bsjezz

"It's the ekonomika, stupid!"

that's the only way i'd see it as working as the title of the english essay. use the romanization and put it in its obvious english context

Platy

If you insist on using the phrase, go with a subtitle.

Like

"It's the Economy, Stupid. The Causes Of the Collapse Of Communism."

Cognisseur

To be honest, I don't really know if the phrase can be translated in a way that still keeps the same fluidity. Russian doesn't really use words like 'is' or 'the', instead opting for stuff like 'ball red' instead of 'the ball is red'.

So trying to translate 'it is the economy, stupid' just won't flow that well. I could be mistaken though, but it doesn't sound right in my head.

Esh

I'm going to toss in my vote for college professors generally not being amused by badly translated and/or jokey titles.

And yeah, you can't really translate a lot of colloquialisms. It just doesn't work.

kaliyama

unless you're writing this paper in russian i wouldn't bother trying to find an equivalent proverb. sadly my knowledge of russian proverbs is limited, but i am sure there is an equivalent one out there.

Esh

How about "In Soviet Russia, economy crashes you!"

Kidding.

SkyGheNe

You guys had some uptight professors.

Mine loved a clever title, although I probably managed one of those out of ten unfunnies.

Reznik

Could you just write it in english, but substitute cyrillic characters for the ones they look similar to?

billwill

I could have sworn he was asking what the Russian translation of "It's the economy, stupid" is, and not whether it should be the title of his paper, or whether we think his professor will appreciate it or not.

But yeah, I throw my vote in for the literal translation.

Lachrymite

"It's the economy, comrade"?

minirhyder

Это экономика, глупый.
That means "It's the economy, silly" But it's saying it as a statement more than an answer to a question.

So you can try "Экономика, дурак" and it has more of an intonation that the English version has, but still it's eehh.

Edit: And yeah you guys really jump on the judgmental boat and criticize the crap out of the OP while ignoring his actual question altogether. I guess a comment about it being a bad idea isn't that bad, but a whole tirade about it?

Cognisseur

minirhyder wrote: »

Это экономика, глупый.
That means "It's the economy, silly" But it's saying it as a statement more than an answer to a question.

So you can try "Экономика, дурак" and it has more of an intonation that the English version has, but still it's eehh.

Edit: And yeah you guys really jump on the judgmental boat and criticize the crap out of the OP while ignoring his actual question altogether. I guess a comment about it being a bad idea isn't that bad, but a whole tirade about it?

I think minirhyder put into words pretty nicely what I was trying to express. The first one is just a weird statement to make, and the second one is just going "Economy, dumbass", which is pretty weak too.

bowen

Unless you're writing this paper in Russian, I doubt it'll be good.

Stick with the English phrase, it has more oomph, but maybe change the "stupid" to "comrade". That'd be a neat and clever way to make it theme appropriate.

Sipex

Esh wrote: »

How about "In Soviet Russia, economy crashes you!"

Kidding.

I laughed.

I think going with russian is fine if the OP wants to, I just want to make sure he has the phrase right if he decides to go this route.

HeraldS

billwill wrote: »

I could have sworn he was asking what the Russian translation of "It's the economy, stupid" is, and not whether it should be the title of his paper, or whether we think his professor will appreciate it or not.

But yeah, I throw my vote in for the literal translation.

I don't know whether to be depressed or amused that only you and maybe 4 other people picked up on this.

Everyone else: assume I'm not a moron. Assume I would not be asking this if my professor hadn't made it clear that not only does he like titles that lay out the position of a paper (so "The Collapse of Communism" wouldn't work) but that he likes titles that try to be interesting or at least a little funny. Assume that I know him well enough to know that this title will pass muster. Assume finally that when I ask for a translation of something, I am looking for a translation of something and not commentary on what I'm looking to have translated. Jesus.

This thread can be closed now, I got what I needed. Thanks to the few of you who actually answered my question.

Khavall

Then use google translate next time. It won't try to be helpful beyond the basic question.

I see absolutely no reason we should assume the laundry list of things that you gave zero indication of that aren't normal things.

Hey guys, what's the best way to kill someone? I'm thinking just straight up shooting them in the head.

God guys, don't tell me not to, assume I'm writing a paper for a criminal justice class and assume I'm trying to make the theoretical crime scene that you should assume I'm setting up for the thought experiment that you should've assumed I already cleared with my professor who you should assume asked for the answer to that specific question. JESUS




It was entirely reasonable to think that like in a vast majority of the times students try to be clever with academic work it doesn't actually add anything to the work and often just make it annoying to read.

SkyCaptain

The most common word in the Russian language is Nichevo. It just means "Don't worry; let things take their course." It represents the philosophy of the Russian people.

Feels Good Man

Khavall wrote: »

Then use google translate next time. It won't try to be helpful beyond the basic question.

I see absolutely no reason we should assume the laundry list of things that you gave zero indication of that aren't normal things.

Hey guys, what's the best way to kill someone? I'm thinking just straight up shooting them in the head.

God guys, don't tell me not to, assume I'm writing a paper for a criminal justice class and assume I'm trying to make the theoretical crime scene that you should assume I'm setting up for the thought experiment that you should've assumed I already cleared with my professor who you should assume asked for the answer to that specific question. JESUS




It was entirely reasonable to think that like in a vast majority of the times students try to be clever with academic work it doesn't actually add anything to the work and often just make it annoying to read.

or we could just answer his fucking question, mechanical translators unilaterally blow donkey cocks