Passed on by Susan Fischer yesterday, this item from the We Love PUNS site:
(#1) Three things you need to know about or recognize to understand the pun joke here: Vladimir Putin (depicted here without a label); Ritz crackers (this is easy, because the name Ritz is on the package, as are images of the crackers); and, crucially, the model for the pun: the song title “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
Which gives us, oh groan, the pun Putin on the Ritz. Phonologically imperfect in the Putin part: pun /pútǝn/ for model puttin’ /pÚtǝn/. You can imagine other possibilities: poutine on / in the Ritz, pootin’ on / in the Ritz, button on the Ritz, and more with Ritz; still others involving tits, fritz, Rit (the commercial dye), and no doubt others.
It turns out that this is not the first appearance, on this blog, of Vlad the Invader with Ritz crackers. Nor the first pun involving Ritz. But first a lexical note on ritz, from NOAD:
noun ritz: informal 1 mainly North American ostentatious luxury and glamour: removed from all the ritz and glitz. [hence the informal adj. ritzy ‘expensively stylish’] 2 (the Ritz) [usually with negative] used in reference to luxurious accommodation: it’s not the Ritz, but it’s convenient, clean, and good value for money | sure as hell ain’t the Ritz, but it’s a place to call home | here is the Ritz of all shelters. PHRASES put on the ritz mainly North American make a show of luxury or extravagance: when you’re putting on the ritz, garnish your soup with an asparagus tip nestled in a small spoonful of lightly whipped cream. ORIGIN early 20th century: from Ritz, a proprietary name of luxury hotels, from César Ritz (1850–1918), a Swiss hotel owner.
The 2014 cartoon posting. From my 2/9/14 posting “Putin on the Ritz”, about this cartoon:
(#2)
Ordinarily, I’d unpack this image, but in the Linguage of Comics course at Stanford this quarter, Elizabeth Traugott and I have been asking students what sociocultural knowledge is required to understand a cartoon (this isn’t technically a cartoon, but it’s a similar visual joke) — imagine you’re trying to explain it to a Martian or a child — and why it’s funny. So think of this as an at-home exercise.
… This would be an even more challenging exercise — though not impossible — without the caption [“Putin on the Ritz”].
There’s still Putin to recognize, this time in his macho persona; and the Ritz cracker, now unlabeled; and of course the song.
On the song, from Wikipedia:
“Puttin’ On the Ritz” is a song written by Irving Berlin. He wrote it in May 1927 and first published it on December 2, 1929. … It was introduced by Harry Richman and chorus in the musical film Puttin’ On the Ritz (1930). … The title derives from the slang expression “to put on the Ritz”, meaning to dress very fashionably. This expression was inspired by the opulent Ritz Hotel in London.
… The song received renewed popularity in 1974 when it was performed by Gene Wilder [as Victor Frankenstein] and Peter Boyle [as his creation] in the film Young Frankenstein.
Many memorable recordings, from Harry Richman through Fred Astaire to Taco, but surely the most amazing is the one in Young Frankenstein, which you can view here.
A 2021 cartoon posting. From my 12/25/21 posting “Bizarros of the Solstice, Festivus, and Christmas”, about this cartoon:
(#3)
Fritz Carlton: an erratic portmanteau of on the fritz ‘not functioning’ and Ritz-Carlton the luxury hotel chain. (Note: the desk clerk is a supercilious Frenchman, an imagined present-day César Ritz.)
The posting goes on with information about the Ritz hotels and about the idiom on the fritz.
[Addendum. Following up on this posting on Facebook, James Unger (my linguistics colleague in East Asian at Ohio State) noted that the comedy troupe The Capitol Steps did a Putin parody of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” a few years back.
Indeed: they performed “Putin on a Blitz” back in 2016-17. There are YouTube videos of some of these performances, for example this one from 2016.]