Calambur

Production

End

Sketches

The Host and the Helper

Bar "Calambur"

• The Bartender — presumably the main worker of the bar, most of the time imperturbable, sometimes jokes on visitors.
• The Waitress — a blonde lady who endlessly talks on the telephone near the entrance, making the Bartender angry or clients wait too long.
• The Cook — a large man with doubtful talents in cookery, but saying that would be an act of foolishness. He's also used by Bartender and Waitress as a bouncer.
• The Frequenter — a regular guest of the bar, wears a hat and typically sits at bar desk in a sketch's beginning. Most of his dialogues with other characters are well-known drink-themed jokes or anecdotes.
• The Loser — a clumsy man with glasses who always lacks money. Most of the time he orders a glass of boiled water, and as for meals he gets the worst dishes from the bar's kitchen and tries to raise jack over that. Sometimes he comes to the bar already drunk.
• Madam — a chesty lady with heavy makeup and red wig, she works as a prostitute, sometimes waiting for clients outside of the bar. She always tries to get compliments from bar workers or visitors or seduce them, but everyone is only joking on her, after which she only says "Cad" to them.
• The Rocker — a fearsome biker looking man with a ZZ Top tattoo on right hand. He always finds a reason to beat up someone in the bar and orders a bucket of vodka.
• Episodic characters:
• *Loser's girlfriend — clumsy and unlucky just as her boyfriend, she gets drunk after a single glass of soda. She appeared in three episodes.
• *Bar's owner — appeared in one episode after Rocker started a brawl in the bar.
• *Madam's friend — almost identical to the lady mentioned above, with the exception of hair color, appeared in one episode.

  The Nose Dive

• Resilient and courageous Commander — always making fun of the rest of aircrew or passengers over their coming death and weak hopes and right away laughs at his own jokes on camera. He also pretends to have dementia and always asks who just entered the cockpit or sometimes does any other thing except piloting the plane or trying to save the situation.
• Inventive and resourceful second pilot Drinkins — the main victim of Commander's tricks, he is nervous, sentimental and cowardly, trying to do something with their disaster. In the first episodes he also tried to calm down with alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and knitting.
• Cute and imperturbable Stewardess — most of the time she enters the cockpit to complain over "problems in the passenger class", after which she gets an advice from Commander. She sometimes sympathizes with almost crying Drinkins or plays along with Commander's jokes.
• Dispassionate and charming radioman Morse — doesn't fit his own description: he has a facial tic and a stutter. He enters the cockpit mostly to pass a phone call, radiogram, newspaper, message from a flight mechanic or the air traffic control tower of Los Angeles, or the current state of the plane. He is the second victim of Commander's jokes after Drinkins.
• And Incomparable Miss Murple as Miss Burple — a large lady in a red dress with a big hat and heavy makeup, she is the main source of "problems in the passenger class", but is actually seen only in the introduction and in the end of 28 episode.

  Iron Kaput

• Major Baron von Schwalzkopf XII — the commander of the tank, referred to as Herr Major by other tank crew members. Proud and not very smart, he calls everyone "dummkopf" while his "wise" decisions end up with explosions inside of the tank, his torn up uniform and his shout "Ha-a-ans".
• Hans Schmulke — gun-layer and the only technician of the tank. He doesn't differ with a greater mind but at least thinks about aftermaths. Aside of serving machines he likes to read, listen to music, dance, etc. Whenever an explosion in the tank is unavoidable, he runs away to bring commander a new pair of gallifet trousers after blast.
• Drankel and Zhrankel — two fat private soldiers who actually fit under commander's swears. As their names suggest, one is always seen with a beer stein and other with a chain of bockwurst. Most of the time Herr Major checks their knowledge of military terms and laws or their physical endurance with fast push ups.
• Zusu — two members of the Zusu tribe who laugh over mistakes and futile attempts of invaders and fire their "weaponry" at the tank while being in the trenches.

  Fool's Village

• The Man — the husband, has a long mustache and red nose. Some time ago he was a pilot and even got the cross of St. George for an unknown act of bravery, but at the present time he has become a lazy drunkard. He likes hunting and fishing and always tries to get samagon under the nose of his harsh wife.
• The Woman — the housewife, always wearing a long green dress. Most of the time she represses Man' behaviors to getting drunk with aid of a frying pan and other houseware. At the same time she cuckolds her husband with his best friend.
• The Silly Sailor — as his name suggests, he is cheerful and silly. He always greets people with a shake of the big orange pom-pom of his sailor cap. He is Man's best friend who shares his interests and hits on the head from Woman, but at the same he is the housewife's lover.
• The Bear, also referred to as Misha — a forest neighbor, simple-minded and almost harmless, and because of that he often gets beaten up for no visible reason. He sometimes helps mentioned above, sometimes steals honey from beehive or picking berries near the house, and sometimes works as postman.
• The Bee — appears as a bizarre looking puppet and lives in a beehive in the courtyard. It is hostile most of the time, which makes it a some kind of guarding animal. Sometimes the beehive is also used as a post box or safe.
• Some episodic characters:
• *The Sailor Lady — Silly Sailor's wife, who presumably still serves in the navy. Whenever she spots her husband getting drunk or cheating on her, Sailor Lady beats him up with an anchor or her fists. She appeared only in three episodes.
• *The She-Bear — Bears's wife, who wears a headscarf and apron. Her weapons of choice are a log and bench. She appeared only in two episodes.
• *Ded Moroz and Snegurochka — appear in episodes of the special New Year VHS tape.
• *Leonid Yakubovich as himself in one episode of said New Year tape.
• *Chort and Chertovka — a couple of chorts, appeared in one episode.
• *Relatives from other lands sending mail and gifts to main characters, they are identical but wear the corresponding national outfit, with the exception of Zaporizhia ones: their behaviors are total opposites, with a house working husband, drunkard wife and her pal — a cheerful sailor lady.

  Less popular and short-lived

• Our little Aperitif — random short sketches at the beginning of the show which should "create reader's humoristic appetite" for the next rubrics. It has a further recurring pair of robbers in a striped prison uniform — the smart but unlucky Chef and his big but simple-minded partner Fool. Sometimes sketches star Muzhik and Moryachok, especially ones based on aphorisms.
• Under the sound of "P" — a talk show that was, as the host says in the intro, copied after the American talk-show Without a Shadow of Doubt. The host talks with guests of the show about various things, but words characterizing the theme of the talk are replaced by censoring "P" sound, creating an illusion of an inappropriate nature of talk. In the end the host whispers what word was "under the sound of "P"."
• You wrote, we played — a replacement of the Aperitif rubric for the third and fourth seasons, featuring sketches written by viewers for a contest. Most of the sent stories were already well-known among people or were harmless, making the actors come up with half of the rubric's content by themselves.
• *Sensation by any price — four sketches, written by one of the viewers, about professor and his unlucky partner Max. Max always becomes the victim of the professor's forgetfulness, after which he says "I'll kill you, professor!", but every time he's dragged into a new invention's test by promising, "This is gonna be a sensation."
• X, or streets of Y — another take on random sketches, but with changing titles, which are a parody on the name of the popular in 1999 Russian detective TV series Streets of Broken Lights or just Menty.
• Who's There? — sketches set near the entry door of an apartment, for example, the arriving of drunk pals to their hung over friend. The most recurring character of this rubric is stereotypical Odessian Alfred Rabinovich.
• Black in White — dark humor sketches about medics and their patients, most of them based on well known anecdotes.
• Tales from the Infirmary — presumably a prequel for Iron Kaput, occurring in 1914 on the battlefields of World War I, with Herr Major becoming Herr Doktor and Drunken and Zhranken being sanitars.
• Miners — actually an untitled rubric with two miners, Vasilich and Petrovich, talking to each other while slowly moving a minecart in the tunnel.
• Men's Stories — short sketches set in a pub, which are mostly known for intrusive product placements of the current sponsor of the show. Most of the time it stars two pals, Vasily and Aleksey, drinking beer.
• From golden series of magazine «Calambur» — this rubric was in the premier versions of the first 11 episodes of the fifth season and consisted of the "best" sketches from previous seasons.