An Internet joke about Putin surfaces on Russian state TV, but with Putin’s name removed

If you’re a Russian person and you partake in the tubes of the World Wide Internet, there’s a good chance you recently encountered a joke making the rounds that goes a little something like this: “Putin walks into a bar and says: Beer for everyone. It’s on the house!” This knee-slapper makes light of the president’s decision last month to suspend work for millions of Russians with pay, but without offering federal assistance to employers.

This week, on April 15, the joke surfaced in the unlikeliest of places: from the lips of State Duma deputy Leonid Kalashnikov during an appearance on the state television network Rossiya 1’s “60 Minutes” talk show. But Kalashnikov made one important change: he replaced Putin with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. In his telling, Russia’s president is mysteriously absent.

The first to draw attention to this televised distortion of Russia’s Internet culture was Dozhd journalist Ilya Shepelin.

You can watch Kalashnikov’s attempt to be funny without offending Putin below. The joke occurs around minute 44.