If only I knew that people in Russia have a link between a nose and a man’s private part…maybe I would’ve laughed a little more when I was reading “The Nose” by Nikolai Gogol. Kovalyov, a collegiate assessor, wakes up one day and finds his nose not on his face. When I read the text I immediately thought of a comedy central skit done by Drew Carey and his blue-collar crew. The skit entails a bunch of men sitting outside a house and talking about each other’s “deck,” that is, patio deck, and the comedy revolves around their innuendos of the word “deck” to a man’s private part. Here’s the video:

I enjoyed this skit because I knew what the comedians were indirectly talking about and once I made that link between the nose and ehehem, I also see what Gogol was talking about. He mocks the bureaucracy of the government and their pointless jobs. He does this in an imaginative way but still keeps his message clear; like the comedians frequently repeating the word “deck” with different punch lines. When we have the Nose dressed up as a nobleman and such (and at a higher position than Kovalyov himself) carousing through the town and heading to church, the message of Gogol’s mockery is clear. Incorporated in his message is the ease of ascending up the social ladder because the nose is at a higher position than Kovalyov probably by means of marriage or as simple as sleeping with a wealthy lady. And as I’m writing this, I just realized why the Russians probably associate the two together: if a man stands straight with his arms at his side and if we get a sideways view of him, then we’ll notice that the nose naturally sticks out and the man’s private part can potentially stick out. This “sticking out” quality attached to a message is a formula for success. Therefore, the effect of the story wouldn’t be as strong. Likewise, I don’t think I would be laughing as much at the comedy skit if they weren’t alluding to the same thing as before.

So the recipe is quite simple: mix a little ordinary with a hint of the extraordinary and you got yourself a bestseller. In fact, I read that Gogol is known for making the ordinary extraordinary. Once again, my blue-collar boys do that too. And speaking of blue-collar, the jobs that Gogol is making fun of are useless and frivolous, unlike some blue-collar job that involve manual labor on top a short lunch breaks and little pay.

Maybe Gogol is also mocking the church-goers. Especially of the scene with the nose attending a church event, relaying somehow that even those most devout and pure individuals are touched by something universal to humans. Lastly, it seems that Kovalyov chasing his nose means that we are driven by our natural instincts and sometimes is suppressed by society. I’m not a Freudian but if Kovalyov has a weird dream like he did, then maybe this bachelor is holding some repressed urge to just get down and dirty with one of his acquaintances…Over and out