The special volume Totalitarian Laughter: Images - Sounds - Performers provides a brief overview of the сultural history of laughter under socialism, followed by the analytical discussion of the essays included in the issue.Throughout the socialist period, officially sanctioned mass culture actively employed satire, humour, and comedy to foster emotional bonds with its audience. Comic genres helped to release social and political tension, while late Soviet irony ('the aesthetics of grotesque') that evolved 'from below' were instrumental in articulating a cultural distance from the socialist state. Despite the heterogeneity of their impact and scope, these cultures of the comic invariably re-engaged the irrationality and ludicrousness of socialist life. Whether officially approved or censored, totalitarian laughter relativized existing practices and norms and suggested alternative models for understanding and embodying discourses and values of "really existing" socialism.