A rifle had been hanging on the Ivanovs’ wall for the better part of ten years.
It finally discharged yesterday.
Thankfully, no one was injured—the mother-in-law escaped with merely three taps from the buttstock.
Commentary
This joke plays on the famous idea known in English as “Chekhov’s gun”: if a rifle hangs on the wall in the first act, it must eventually go off. Here, the rifle finally “fulfills its destiny” after nearly ten quiet years, but in a very unheroic, domestic way. The punchline is that no one is shot — instead, the mother‑in‑law “only” gets three blows from the buttstock. The tone is deliberately dry, almost like a small local news report, which makes the absurdity and the casual cruelty of the situation even funnier to an English‑speaking reader.
Russian Original
Ружье, которое висело на стене у Петровых 10 лет, вчера наконец-то выстрелило. К счастью, никто не пострадал. Тёща отделалась тремя ударами прикладом по спине.
Transliteration
Ruzh’ye, kotoroye viselo na stene u Petrovykh 10 let, vchera nakonets-to vystrelilo. K schast’yu ni kto ne postradal. Teshcha otdelalas’ tremya udarami prikladom po spine.