Tall Tale (Nebylytsia)

The nebylytsia is a genre of humorous folklore — a short work built on deliberate nonsense, illogicality, and the violation of the laws of the real world: a pig builds a nest in an oak, an ox lays eggs, a legless man runs, and an armless one plays. The comic effect of the tall tale arises from the obvious divergence between what is said and what is possible; it is a kind of 'poetics in reverse.' Nebylytsias may be children's (in the form of amusements and rhymes) or adult (within humorous and satirical songs and the vertep drama). The genre is akin to the European 'brave lies' and the carnival laughter culture described by Mikhail Bakhtin. Ukrainian nebylytsias are recorded in the collections of Volodymyr Hnatiuk. The illogical poetics of the tall tale nourished absurdist devices in the poetry of Vasyl Symonenko.