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This is a follow up to this question.

Here is a Daniil Kharms short story:

ПЕТРОВ И КАМАРОВ

ПЕТРОВ:
Эй, Камаров!
Давай ловить комаров!
КАМАРОВ:
Нет, я к этому еще не готов.
Давай лучше ловить котов!

Here since Petrov is teasing Kamarov, I expect, the котов (cats, tomcats?) Kamarov's answer to be somehow related to Петров. But I'm not able to find any relation in between (I cannot read Russian at all, I'm simply using some translation tools and dictionaries to dig the meanings).

Can anyone explain if there is an implied relation between the two?

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3 Answers 3

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The котов is related to готов, not to Петров. The sounds produced by г and к are close to each other (that's a pair of voiced and unvoiced consonants), so the words sound similar.

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  • I see that similarity, but since Petrov is suggesting catching the gnats (related to Kamarov), I expect what Kamarov suggests (cat) should be related to Petrov. So what you say is that there is no such relation between cat and Petrov?
    – some user
    Oct 7, 2012 at 14:22
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    @canpolat Correct, there is absolutely no relationship to cats there: the last name Петров is based on the first name Пётр (Peter) which comes from Greek Πετρος (stone).
    – Sergey Kalinichenko
    Oct 7, 2012 at 14:28
  • Thank you! I marked response as the answer. But I have a question: if there is no such relation, I don't really understand the humor here. Petrov says: "Let's catch some mosquitos" and Mosquitov replies: "I'm not ready, let's catch some cats instead". Is that all?
    – some user
    Oct 7, 2012 at 14:31
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    @canpolat I think the humor here is that Камаров does not catch the relation between комаров and his last name, taking the suggestion to catch mosquitoes literally.
    – Sergey Kalinichenko
    Oct 7, 2012 at 14:34
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sorry for my very bad english but i try to expalin you humor of this. I'ts easy. Here We have simple game of words - 1) КАМАРОВ(last name Kamarov, based on word КОМАР - Mosquit) - кОмаров (mosquitos) and 2) готов (i'm ready) - котов(cats). Just game of words, no hidden meaning.

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  • 2
    this game of words is called rhyme )))
    – shabunc ♦
    Nov 8, 2012 at 19:12
  • You're correct, it's a game of words.
    – Aleks G
    Nov 8, 2012 at 20:45
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Vasily Petrov-Komarov - the first authentic Soviet serial maniac, handled in Moscow in the period 1921-1923. His victims included 33 men.

All his crimes committed on one scenario: meet with a client who wanted to buy a particular product, invited to his house, then killed with a hammer, and then packaged in a sack and carefully concealed.

The cat in the sack :)

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  • can you provide an evidence that there at least exist hypothesis that this was Harms' intentional pun?
    – shabunc ♦
    Nov 8, 2012 at 19:36
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    Harms knew about this man, definitely.
    – chaotic.sys
    Nov 8, 2012 at 20:00
  • looks like this version is true. ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
    – Igor Konoplyanko
    Nov 8, 2012 at 20:13
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    While this may be an interesting insight, I don't see how it answers the OP's original question.
    – Aleks G
    Nov 8, 2012 at 20:40
  • Welcome to Russian Language and Usage Beta! Although your post contains useful information, it does not answer the question. Please edit your post so that it corresponds to the question. Irrelevant answers will be removed. If you wish to add something to another answer, you could invest some time in our site first and earn privileges to leave comments or to edit answers of other people.
    – Olga
    Nov 13, 2012 at 9:03

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