《开心球》 - 服用抗抑郁药的《芝麻街》：这部儿童动画片向俄罗斯人传授死亡知识
正文翻译
Sesame Street on antidepressants: This children’s cartoon teaches Russians about death
服用抗抑郁药的《芝麻街》：这部儿童动画片向俄罗斯人传授死亡知识
‘Smeshariki’ looks like bubblegum TV for kids, but it sneaks in heart attacks, suicide, and full-blown existential crises
《开心球》看起来像是给孩子们看的泡泡糖电视节目，但它却暗藏了心脏病发作、自杀和全面爆发的存在主义危机
Think ‘Sesame Street’ but with death, depression, and existential dread. At first glance, it looks like any other children’s cartoon: Round, brightly colored animals teaching kids to share, be polite, and cross the street safely. But Russia’s most beloved animated series, ‘Smeshariki’ – released internationally as ‘KikoRiki’ and in the US as ‘GoGoRiki’ or ‘BalloonToons’ – hides something stranger.
想象一下《芝麻街》，但充斥着死亡、抑郁和存在主义焦虑。乍看之下，它与其他儿童动画无异：圆润鲜艳的动物角色教孩子们学会分享、礼貌和安全过马路。但这部俄罗斯最受欢迎的动画系列《开心球》（国际发行时名为《KikoRiki》，在美国则称作《GoGoRiki》或《BalloonToons》）背后隐藏着更为诡谲的内核。
Beneath the cheerful surface lies a world of heart attacks, suicide jokes, and meditations on the meaning of life. In Russia, a country where fairy tales have never shied away from darkness, it’s no wonder this cartoon became both a cultural phenomenon and an internet cult.
在欢乐的表象之下，是一个充斥着心脏病发作、自杀笑话和生命意义沉思的世界。在童话故事从不避讳黑暗的俄罗斯，这部动画能同时成为文化现象和网络邪典也就不足为奇了。
The birth of Russia’s ‘two-level’ cartoons
俄罗斯"双层次"动画的诞生
Soviet animators worked under conditions that would have killed off most creative industries: Bad equipment, tiny budgets, and a censor breathing down their necks. The idea of ‘adult animation’ didn’t exist in the USSR, but animators still found ways to keep parents entertained. They slipped in jokes about bureaucrats and social misfits – you can spot them in the Soviet ‘*** the Pooh’ or in ‘The Adventures of Captain Vrungel’. Others went darker, with unsettling works like ‘Hercules at Admet’s’.
苏联动画制作人在足以扼杀大多数创意产业的环境中工作：设备简陋、预算微薄、还有审查官时刻紧盯。苏联虽不存在"成人动画"概念，但动画师仍设法让家长获得乐趣。他们在《苏联版小熊》或《冯格尔船长历险记》中穿插官僚主义者和社会边缘人的笑料，更有《大力士在阿德墨托斯家中》这类令人不安的暗黑作品。
Out of this came a whole subgenre sometimes described as ‘psychedelic Soviet fairy tales’. These weren’t just bedtime stories with pretty colors. They mixed surreal imagery, absurd humor, and hints of political satire – odd little films that could mesmerize kids while giving adults a completely different experience. Titles like ‘Wow! A Talking Fish!’ still feel strange and hypnotic today.
由此衍生出被称为"迷幻苏联童话"的完整亚类型。这些不仅是色彩绚丽的睡前故事，更融合了超现实意象、荒诞幽默与政治讽刺色彩——这些奇特短片既能吸引孩子，又为成人带来全然不同的体验。像《会说话的鱼！》这样的作品至今仍散发着诡异而迷人的气息。
The point was never to create a double audience on purpose. It was survival. When you can’t openly critique society, you hide commentary in a cartoon about animals, wizards, or a talking fish. That habit – speaking to children and adults at once – became second nature to Russian animation.
刻意打造双重观众从来不是目的，生存才是。当你无法公开批判社会时，就把评论藏在关于动物、巫师或会说话的鱼类的动画里。这种同时向儿童和成人传递信息的习惯，已成为俄罗斯动画的第二本能。
A cartoon with no villains
没有反派的动画片
Smeshariki – a mash-up of the Russian words for ‘laughter’ (smekh) and ‘little balls’ (shariki) – premiered in 2004 and quickly became a national hit. It ran for nearly a decade, spawned three feature films, an educational spin-off called ‘Pincode’, and even a movie-within-a-movie anthology. The franchise bled into video games, public-service ads, and piles of merchandise. Internationally, it reached 23 countries, including the US.
《开心球》（Smeshariki）——这个名称融合了俄语中"笑声"（smekh）和"小圆球"（shariki）两个词——于 2004 年首播后迅速风靡全国。该系列持续近十年，衍生出三部电影长片、名为《平密码》的教育番外篇，甚至还有戏中戏选集。这个 IP 还渗透到电子游戏、公益广告和大量周边商品中，在国际上覆盖了包括美国在内的 23 个国家。
On the surface, the characters look like any others: A bouncy rabbit named Krosh, his anxious hedgehog sidekick Yozhik, the dreamy poet-sheep Barash, and others.
表面看来，这些角色平平无奇：活泼的兔子克罗什、他焦虑的刺猬搭档尤日克、爱幻想的诗人绵羊巴拉什等。
Meet the rest of the cast
认识其他角色
Nyusha – a capricious and ambitious pig
Nyusha——一只任性又野心勃勃的小猪
Sovunya – a strict, health-obsessed owl
索夫妮娅——一只严谨、痴迷健康知识的猫头鹰
Kar-Karych – an aging crow with artistic pretensions
卡尔卡雷奇——一只自诩艺术家的年迈乌鸦
Pin – an eccentric inventor penguin with a thick German accent
平——说话带浓重德国口音的古怪发明家企鹅
Kopatych – a no-nonsense farmer bear with a southern Russian twang
科帕提奇——操着俄罗斯南方口音、务实耿直的农场主熊
Losyash – an active moose professor
洛夏什——一位活跃的麋鹿教授
They live in Flower Valley, a self-contained world with no villains, no battles, and no real outside contact.
他们居住在鲜花谷，一个与世隔绝的世界，没有反派、没有斗争，也没有真正的外界联系。
That lack of villains is crucial. Every conflict comes from the characters’ own flaws or mistakes, not from some evil force. The episodes almost always reset to a cheerful status quo – yet more than once, the stories veer into territory that’s unnervingly heavy for a preschool cartoon.
这种反派角色的缺失至关重要。所有冲突都源于角色自身的缺陷或错误，而非某种邪恶力量。每集几乎都会回归欢乐的日常基调——然而不止一次，这些故事会突然转向令人不安的沉重主题，对学龄前动画而言实属罕见。
When the cartoon turns dark
当卡通画风转向黑暗
At its most unsettling, Smeshariki feels less like a children’s cartoon and more like a fragment of Russian literature. Behind the cheerful colors unfold stories about death, loss, and the absurdity of existence.
《开心球》最令人不安之处在于，它不像儿童动画，反倒更像俄罗斯文学片段。欢快色彩背后展开的，是关于死亡、失去与存在荒诞性的故事。
Take Pin, the eccentric penguin inventor. In ‘Close to Heart’, he works himself into such an emotional frenzy that he suffers a heart attack. He tries to numb his feelings to avoid another one, only to collapse again. Temporarily paralyzed, he sits helplessly as his poetic friend Barash – who, in the same episode, has been abducted by aliens – dances in front of him. It’s a surreal, almost nightmarish sequence about fragility, helplessness, and the limits of control.
以古怪的企鹅发明家平克为例。在《贴近心房》一集中，他因情绪过度激动导致心脏病发作。为预防复发，他试图麻痹自己的情感，却再次崩溃倒下。暂时瘫痪的他无助地坐着，眼睁睁看着被外星人绑架的诗人朋友巴拉什在眼前起舞——这组超现实近乎噩梦的镜头，诠释着生命的脆弱、无助与控制力的局限。
Or consider ‘The Magic Pot’. Yozhik, the timid hedgehog, wanders the forest at night, marveling at glowing fireflies. One flickers weakly, its light fading for good. Desperate, Yozhik seeks help, but the moose professor Losyash explains that nothing can be done: The light is gone forever. Only Barash can help, by carrying the firefly into his magic pot, a world of imagination where it still shines. The episode was dedicated to one of the show’s own creators, who died during production – a hidden memorial disguised as a bedtime story.
再比如《魔法锅》这一集。胆小怯懦的小刺猬 Yozhik 在夜晚的森林中漫步，惊叹于萤火虫闪烁的光芒。其中一只萤火虫光芒微弱，最终彻底熄灭。绝望的 Yozhik 四处求助，但驼鹿教授 Losyash 解释说无能为力：光芒永远消失了。只有 Barash 能帮忙——将萤火虫放入他的魔法锅中，那里是幻想世界，萤火虫仍能继续发光。这集实际上是对该剧某位制作人的隐秘悼念，他在制作过程中离世，整个故事被包装成了一场睡前童话。
Then there is ‘The Meaning of Life’, one of the bleakest half-hours ever slipped into a children’s cartoon. Barash sinks into existential despair. “What’s the point of washing up in the morning? To feel awake. But what’s the point of being awake?” he asks. His search for meaning leads him on a perilous journey toward a mystical figure named Kuzinatra. Though he never reaches her, Barash concludes that the value lies not in arriving, but in paving the way for those who will follow. After narrowly escaping death, he accepts life’s absurdity with a kind of weary peace.
还有《生命的意义》，这是儿童动画中最为阴郁的半小时之一。巴雷什陷入了存在主义的绝望。"早上洗漱有什么意义？为了清醒。但清醒又有什么意义？"他问道。对意义的追寻让他踏上险途，寻找一位名为库兹娜特拉的神秘人物。虽然最终未能相见，巴雷什领悟到价值不在抵达终点，而在为后来者铺路。在侥幸逃脱死亡后，他以一种疲惫的平静接受了生活的荒诞。
And those are only the highlights. Across its run, Smeshariki quietly touches on themes far removed from playground morality:
而这仅仅是冰山一角。在剧集播出的过程中，《开心球》悄然触及了许多与校园道德相去甚远的主题：
Identity (Butterfly)
身份（蝴蝶）
Addiction (That Sweet Word 'Honey')
成瘾（那个甜蜜的词"亲爱的"）
Prostitution (Mountains and Candy)
卖淫（山与糖果）
Internet dependency (Telegraph)
互联网依赖症（《每日电讯报》）
Propaganda (Truffle)
宣传（松露）
Suicide (Valhalla)
自杀（瓦尔哈拉）
Layered over all this are sly nods to cinema both Russian and global – ‘Stalker’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, even Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.
在这些元素之上，还巧妙融入了对俄罗斯及全球经典电影的致敬——《潜行者》《黑客帝国》《终结者》《阿甘正传》《活死人之夜》，甚至希区柯克的《惊魂记》。
To children, these are just curious adventures. To adults, they read like allegories of workaholism, escapism, and death – a philosophical undercurrent running beneath the cheerful colors and round little animals. It’s unsettling, fascinating, and impossible to ignore.
在孩子们眼中，这些不过是奇妙的冒险故事。对成年人而言，它们却像是关于工作狂、逃避主义和死亡的寓言——欢快色彩与圆滚小动物之下暗涌着哲学暗流。这种反差令人不安又着迷，让人无法忽视。
From bedtime TV to internet cult
从睡前节目到网络邪典
For children, the unsettling storylines pass by as just another quirky adventure. The bright colors and slapstick humor soften the blow, and most kids never notice the philosophical undertones.
对儿童观众来说，那些令人不安的情节只是又一幕古怪冒险。明亮的色彩和滑稽幽默冲淡了冲击力，大多数孩子根本察觉不到其中的哲学深意。
Adults, however, have turned Smeshariki into a phenomenon of its own. Online forums are full of lengthy essays unpacking the hidden meanings of particular episodes – whether they’re allegories of workaholism, grief, or existential futility. At the same time, the show has spawned a thriving meme culture, where its round, bouncy characters get pasted into bleak jokes about depression, burnout, and politics.
然而，成年人已将《开心球》（Smeshariki）塑造成一种独特现象。网络论坛上充斥着长篇大论，剖析特定剧集中隐藏的寓意——无论是关于工作狂、悲伤还是存在主义虚无的寓言。与此同时，这部动画催生了一个蓬勃发展的梗文化，那些圆滚滚的弹性角色被植入关于抑郁、职业倦怠和政治的黑色笑话中。
What makes this dual reception even stranger is the stance of the creators. Officially, Smeshariki remains labeled as children’s programming. It airs on kids’ channels, sells plush toys, and runs educational spin-offs. The writers and producers rarely acknowledge the darker interpretations, insisting it’s just a cheerful series for preschoolers. Yet the internet seems determined to prove them wrong – seeing in the show not only a cartoon, but a mirror of Russian life itself.
更令人费解的是创作者们的态度。尽管官方仍将《开心球》定位为儿童节目——它在儿童频道播出、销售毛绒玩具、推出教育衍生剧，编剧和制片人也很少承认那些黑暗解读，坚称这仅仅是给学龄前儿童观看的欢乐动画。然而互联网似乎执意要证明他们的错误——观众从中看到的不仅是卡通，更是俄罗斯社会生活的真实映照。
Why Russians give children tragedy
为何俄罗斯人将悲剧呈现给孩子
To understand why Russian parents don’t flinch at letting their kids watch a cartoon about death and despair, you have to look beyond animation – back to school literature.
要理解俄罗斯父母为何能坦然让孩子观看关于死亡与绝望的动画，必须超越动画本身——回溯至学校文学教育。
Generations of Russian children grow up reading Ivan Turgenev’s ‘Mumu’ (1854), the grim story of a mute serf forced to drown the only creature he loves – a little dog – at his mistress’s command. For outsiders, it seems brutal to assign such a tale in middle school. But in Russia, it’s considered formative: An early lesson that life is unfair, loss is inevitable, and cruelty exists even in domestic settings.
一代代俄罗斯孩童成长过程中必读屠格涅夫 1854 年创作的《木木》，这个阴郁故事讲述哑巴农奴被迫遵照女主人命令，溺死他唯一挚爱的小狗。在外界看来，让初中生接触如此残酷的故事未免残忍。但在俄罗斯，这被视为塑造人格的必经之路：一堂关于生活不公、失去不可避免、甚至家庭环境中也存在残酷的早期课程。
The same applies to Alexander Pushkin’s works. Fifth graders encounter ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ as a lighthearted fairy tale, but adults recognize the sly sexual jokes and satire buried in the verse. Later, students read ‘Eugene Onegin’ as a romantic novel, only to discover years later that it is also a biting commentary on social vices. In Russian culture, stories are designed to unfold in layers – innocent on the surface, biting underneath.
普希金的作品同样如此。五年级学生读《鲁斯兰与柳德米拉》时只当它是个轻松的童话，而成年人却能发现诗中暗藏的隐晦性笑话和讽刺。之后，学生们又将《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》当作爱情小说来读，多年后才领悟到它对社会弊病的尖锐批判。俄罗斯文化中的故事总是层层递进——表面纯真无邪，内里锋芒毕露。
This educational approach reflects a deeper belief: Children should be gradually introduced to the harsher sides of reality, but in controlled doses. Rather than protecting kids from darkness, Russian tradition treats it as something to be absorbed early, through allegory and literature.
这种教育方式反映了一种深层信念：应当以可控的方式，让孩子逐步接触现实的残酷面。俄罗斯传统并非将黑暗面隔绝于儿童，而是通过寓言和文学作品，让他们早期就有所体悟。
Seen this way, Smeshariki isn’t an outlier at all. It’s the latest expression of a cultural habit: To wrap existential dread and satire inside the safe package of a children’s tale.
由此观之，《开心球》绝非异类，它只是一种文化习惯的最新体现——将存在主义的焦虑与社会讽刺，包裹在儿童故事的安全外衣中传递。
It carries the same double code that has shaped Russian culture for centuries: Teaching children kindness while quietly preparing them for life’s cruelty.
它延续了塑造俄罗斯文化数百年的双重密码：既教导孩子们善良，又悄然为他们应对生活的残酷做好准备。
This is why the show’s strange mix of whimsy and despair resonates so deeply. For Russian audiences, a bedtime story that touches on mortality or existential dread isn’t a contradiction. It’s a continuation of a cultural tradition that runs from Pushkin’s sly verse to Turgenev’s drowned dog. Childhood, in this view, isn’t a protected bubble. It’s the training ground for the world outside.
这正是为何剧中奇思妙想与绝望情绪交织的独特魅力能引发如此深刻的共鸣。对俄罗斯观众而言，睡前故事触及生死议题或存在主义焦虑并非矛盾，而是从普希金狡黠诗篇到屠格涅夫笔下溺毙小狗的文化传承。在这种观念里，童年并非保护罩，而是面对现实世界的练兵场。
Perhaps the strangest thing about Smeshariki is not that it hides death and despair inside cheerful little animals – but that Russian parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
《芝麻街》嗑抗抑郁药：这部儿童动画教俄罗斯人认识死亡——RT 娱乐 关于《开心球》（《奇奇怪怪》/《咯咯奇》）最奇怪的或许不是它将死亡与绝望藏在欢快的小动物外表下——而是俄罗斯父母们对此习以为常。
By Vadim Zagorenko, a Moscow-based columnist and writer covering international politics, culture, and media trends
作者：瓦迪姆·扎戈连科，常驻莫斯科的专栏作家兼撰稿人，专注于国际政治、文化与媒体趋势的报道
Sesame Street on antidepressants: This children’s cartoon teaches Russians about death
服用抗抑郁药的《芝麻街》：这部儿童动画片向俄罗斯人传授死亡知识
‘Smeshariki’ looks like bubblegum TV for kids, but it sneaks in heart attacks, suicide, and full-blown existential crises
《开心球》看起来像是给孩子们看的泡泡糖电视节目，但它却暗藏了心脏病发作、自杀和全面爆发的存在主义危机
Think ‘Sesame Street’ but with death, depression, and existential dread. At first glance, it looks like any other children’s cartoon: Round, brightly colored animals teaching kids to share, be polite, and cross the street safely. But Russia’s most beloved animated series, ‘Smeshariki’ – released internationally as ‘KikoRiki’ and in the US as ‘GoGoRiki’ or ‘BalloonToons’ – hides something stranger.
想象一下《芝麻街》，但充斥着死亡、抑郁和存在主义焦虑。乍看之下，它与其他儿童动画无异：圆润鲜艳的动物角色教孩子们学会分享、礼貌和安全过马路。但这部俄罗斯最受欢迎的动画系列《开心球》（国际发行时名为《KikoRiki》，在美国则称作《GoGoRiki》或《BalloonToons》）背后隐藏着更为诡谲的内核。
Beneath the cheerful surface lies a world of heart attacks, suicide jokes, and meditations on the meaning of life. In Russia, a country where fairy tales have never shied away from darkness, it’s no wonder this cartoon became both a cultural phenomenon and an internet cult.
在欢乐的表象之下，是一个充斥着心脏病发作、自杀笑话和生命意义沉思的世界。在童话故事从不避讳黑暗的俄罗斯，这部动画能同时成为文化现象和网络邪典也就不足为奇了。
The birth of Russia’s ‘two-level’ cartoons
俄罗斯"双层次"动画的诞生
Soviet animators worked under conditions that would have killed off most creative industries: Bad equipment, tiny budgets, and a censor breathing down their necks. The idea of ‘adult animation’ didn’t exist in the USSR, but animators still found ways to keep parents entertained. They slipped in jokes about bureaucrats and social misfits – you can spot them in the Soviet ‘*** the Pooh’ or in ‘The Adventures of Captain Vrungel’. Others went darker, with unsettling works like ‘Hercules at Admet’s’.
苏联动画制作人在足以扼杀大多数创意产业的环境中工作：设备简陋、预算微薄、还有审查官时刻紧盯。苏联虽不存在"成人动画"概念，但动画师仍设法让家长获得乐趣。他们在《苏联版小熊》或《冯格尔船长历险记》中穿插官僚主义者和社会边缘人的笑料，更有《大力士在阿德墨托斯家中》这类令人不安的暗黑作品。
Out of this came a whole subgenre sometimes described as ‘psychedelic Soviet fairy tales’. These weren’t just bedtime stories with pretty colors. They mixed surreal imagery, absurd humor, and hints of political satire – odd little films that could mesmerize kids while giving adults a completely different experience. Titles like ‘Wow! A Talking Fish!’ still feel strange and hypnotic today.
由此衍生出被称为"迷幻苏联童话"的完整亚类型。这些不仅是色彩绚丽的睡前故事，更融合了超现实意象、荒诞幽默与政治讽刺色彩——这些奇特短片既能吸引孩子，又为成人带来全然不同的体验。像《会说话的鱼！》这样的作品至今仍散发着诡异而迷人的气息。
The point was never to create a double audience on purpose. It was survival. When you can’t openly critique society, you hide commentary in a cartoon about animals, wizards, or a talking fish. That habit – speaking to children and adults at once – became second nature to Russian animation.
刻意打造双重观众从来不是目的，生存才是。当你无法公开批判社会时，就把评论藏在关于动物、巫师或会说话的鱼类的动画里。这种同时向儿童和成人传递信息的习惯，已成为俄罗斯动画的第二本能。
A cartoon with no villains
没有反派的动画片
Smeshariki – a mash-up of the Russian words for ‘laughter’ (smekh) and ‘little balls’ (shariki) – premiered in 2004 and quickly became a national hit. It ran for nearly a decade, spawned three feature films, an educational spin-off called ‘Pincode’, and even a movie-within-a-movie anthology. The franchise bled into video games, public-service ads, and piles of merchandise. Internationally, it reached 23 countries, including the US.
《开心球》（Smeshariki）——这个名称融合了俄语中"笑声"（smekh）和"小圆球"（shariki）两个词——于 2004 年首播后迅速风靡全国。该系列持续近十年，衍生出三部电影长片、名为《平密码》的教育番外篇，甚至还有戏中戏选集。这个 IP 还渗透到电子游戏、公益广告和大量周边商品中，在国际上覆盖了包括美国在内的 23 个国家。
On the surface, the characters look like any others: A bouncy rabbit named Krosh, his anxious hedgehog sidekick Yozhik, the dreamy poet-sheep Barash, and others.
表面看来，这些角色平平无奇：活泼的兔子克罗什、他焦虑的刺猬搭档尤日克、爱幻想的诗人绵羊巴拉什等。
Meet the rest of the cast
认识其他角色
Nyusha – a capricious and ambitious pig
Nyusha——一只任性又野心勃勃的小猪
Sovunya – a strict, health-obsessed owl
索夫妮娅——一只严谨、痴迷健康知识的猫头鹰
Kar-Karych – an aging crow with artistic pretensions
卡尔卡雷奇——一只自诩艺术家的年迈乌鸦
Pin – an eccentric inventor penguin with a thick German accent
平——说话带浓重德国口音的古怪发明家企鹅
Kopatych – a no-nonsense farmer bear with a southern Russian twang
科帕提奇——操着俄罗斯南方口音、务实耿直的农场主熊
Losyash – an active moose professor
洛夏什——一位活跃的麋鹿教授
They live in Flower Valley, a self-contained world with no villains, no battles, and no real outside contact.
他们居住在鲜花谷，一个与世隔绝的世界，没有反派、没有斗争，也没有真正的外界联系。
That lack of villains is crucial. Every conflict comes from the characters’ own flaws or mistakes, not from some evil force. The episodes almost always reset to a cheerful status quo – yet more than once, the stories veer into territory that’s unnervingly heavy for a preschool cartoon.
这种反派角色的缺失至关重要。所有冲突都源于角色自身的缺陷或错误，而非某种邪恶力量。每集几乎都会回归欢乐的日常基调——然而不止一次，这些故事会突然转向令人不安的沉重主题，对学龄前动画而言实属罕见。
When the cartoon turns dark
当卡通画风转向黑暗
At its most unsettling, Smeshariki feels less like a children’s cartoon and more like a fragment of Russian literature. Behind the cheerful colors unfold stories about death, loss, and the absurdity of existence.
《开心球》最令人不安之处在于，它不像儿童动画，反倒更像俄罗斯文学片段。欢快色彩背后展开的，是关于死亡、失去与存在荒诞性的故事。
Take Pin, the eccentric penguin inventor. In ‘Close to Heart’, he works himself into such an emotional frenzy that he suffers a heart attack. He tries to numb his feelings to avoid another one, only to collapse again. Temporarily paralyzed, he sits helplessly as his poetic friend Barash – who, in the same episode, has been abducted by aliens – dances in front of him. It’s a surreal, almost nightmarish sequence about fragility, helplessness, and the limits of control.
以古怪的企鹅发明家平克为例。在《贴近心房》一集中，他因情绪过度激动导致心脏病发作。为预防复发，他试图麻痹自己的情感，却再次崩溃倒下。暂时瘫痪的他无助地坐着，眼睁睁看着被外星人绑架的诗人朋友巴拉什在眼前起舞——这组超现实近乎噩梦的镜头，诠释着生命的脆弱、无助与控制力的局限。
Or consider ‘The Magic Pot’. Yozhik, the timid hedgehog, wanders the forest at night, marveling at glowing fireflies. One flickers weakly, its light fading for good. Desperate, Yozhik seeks help, but the moose professor Losyash explains that nothing can be done: The light is gone forever. Only Barash can help, by carrying the firefly into his magic pot, a world of imagination where it still shines. The episode was dedicated to one of the show’s own creators, who died during production – a hidden memorial disguised as a bedtime story.
再比如《魔法锅》这一集。胆小怯懦的小刺猬 Yozhik 在夜晚的森林中漫步，惊叹于萤火虫闪烁的光芒。其中一只萤火虫光芒微弱，最终彻底熄灭。绝望的 Yozhik 四处求助，但驼鹿教授 Losyash 解释说无能为力：光芒永远消失了。只有 Barash 能帮忙——将萤火虫放入他的魔法锅中，那里是幻想世界，萤火虫仍能继续发光。这集实际上是对该剧某位制作人的隐秘悼念，他在制作过程中离世，整个故事被包装成了一场睡前童话。
Then there is ‘The Meaning of Life’, one of the bleakest half-hours ever slipped into a children’s cartoon. Barash sinks into existential despair. “What’s the point of washing up in the morning? To feel awake. But what’s the point of being awake?” he asks. His search for meaning leads him on a perilous journey toward a mystical figure named Kuzinatra. Though he never reaches her, Barash concludes that the value lies not in arriving, but in paving the way for those who will follow. After narrowly escaping death, he accepts life’s absurdity with a kind of weary peace.
还有《生命的意义》，这是儿童动画中最为阴郁的半小时之一。巴雷什陷入了存在主义的绝望。"早上洗漱有什么意义？为了清醒。但清醒又有什么意义？"他问道。对意义的追寻让他踏上险途，寻找一位名为库兹娜特拉的神秘人物。虽然最终未能相见，巴雷什领悟到价值不在抵达终点，而在为后来者铺路。在侥幸逃脱死亡后，他以一种疲惫的平静接受了生活的荒诞。
And those are only the highlights. Across its run, Smeshariki quietly touches on themes far removed from playground morality:
而这仅仅是冰山一角。在剧集播出的过程中，《开心球》悄然触及了许多与校园道德相去甚远的主题：
Identity (Butterfly)
身份（蝴蝶）
Addiction (That Sweet Word 'Honey')
成瘾（那个甜蜜的词"亲爱的"）
Prostitution (Mountains and Candy)
卖淫（山与糖果）
Internet dependency (Telegraph)
互联网依赖症（《每日电讯报》）
Propaganda (Truffle)
宣传（松露）
Suicide (Valhalla)
自杀（瓦尔哈拉）
Layered over all this are sly nods to cinema both Russian and global – ‘Stalker’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, even Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.
在这些元素之上，还巧妙融入了对俄罗斯及全球经典电影的致敬——《潜行者》《黑客帝国》《终结者》《阿甘正传》《活死人之夜》，甚至希区柯克的《惊魂记》。
To children, these are just curious adventures. To adults, they read like allegories of workaholism, escapism, and death – a philosophical undercurrent running beneath the cheerful colors and round little animals. It’s unsettling, fascinating, and impossible to ignore.
在孩子们眼中，这些不过是奇妙的冒险故事。对成年人而言，它们却像是关于工作狂、逃避主义和死亡的寓言——欢快色彩与圆滚小动物之下暗涌着哲学暗流。这种反差令人不安又着迷，让人无法忽视。
From bedtime TV to internet cult
从睡前节目到网络邪典
For children, the unsettling storylines pass by as just another quirky adventure. The bright colors and slapstick humor soften the blow, and most kids never notice the philosophical undertones.
对儿童观众来说，那些令人不安的情节只是又一幕古怪冒险。明亮的色彩和滑稽幽默冲淡了冲击力，大多数孩子根本察觉不到其中的哲学深意。
Adults, however, have turned Smeshariki into a phenomenon of its own. Online forums are full of lengthy essays unpacking the hidden meanings of particular episodes – whether they’re allegories of workaholism, grief, or existential futility. At the same time, the show has spawned a thriving meme culture, where its round, bouncy characters get pasted into bleak jokes about depression, burnout, and politics.
然而，成年人已将《开心球》（Smeshariki）塑造成一种独特现象。网络论坛上充斥着长篇大论，剖析特定剧集中隐藏的寓意——无论是关于工作狂、悲伤还是存在主义虚无的寓言。与此同时，这部动画催生了一个蓬勃发展的梗文化，那些圆滚滚的弹性角色被植入关于抑郁、职业倦怠和政治的黑色笑话中。
What makes this dual reception even stranger is the stance of the creators. Officially, Smeshariki remains labeled as children’s programming. It airs on kids’ channels, sells plush toys, and runs educational spin-offs. The writers and producers rarely acknowledge the darker interpretations, insisting it’s just a cheerful series for preschoolers. Yet the internet seems determined to prove them wrong – seeing in the show not only a cartoon, but a mirror of Russian life itself.
更令人费解的是创作者们的态度。尽管官方仍将《开心球》定位为儿童节目——它在儿童频道播出、销售毛绒玩具、推出教育衍生剧，编剧和制片人也很少承认那些黑暗解读，坚称这仅仅是给学龄前儿童观看的欢乐动画。然而互联网似乎执意要证明他们的错误——观众从中看到的不仅是卡通，更是俄罗斯社会生活的真实映照。
Why Russians give children tragedy
为何俄罗斯人将悲剧呈现给孩子
To understand why Russian parents don’t flinch at letting their kids watch a cartoon about death and despair, you have to look beyond animation – back to school literature.
要理解俄罗斯父母为何能坦然让孩子观看关于死亡与绝望的动画，必须超越动画本身——回溯至学校文学教育。
Generations of Russian children grow up reading Ivan Turgenev’s ‘Mumu’ (1854), the grim story of a mute serf forced to drown the only creature he loves – a little dog – at his mistress’s command. For outsiders, it seems brutal to assign such a tale in middle school. But in Russia, it’s considered formative: An early lesson that life is unfair, loss is inevitable, and cruelty exists even in domestic settings.
一代代俄罗斯孩童成长过程中必读屠格涅夫 1854 年创作的《木木》，这个阴郁故事讲述哑巴农奴被迫遵照女主人命令，溺死他唯一挚爱的小狗。在外界看来，让初中生接触如此残酷的故事未免残忍。但在俄罗斯，这被视为塑造人格的必经之路：一堂关于生活不公、失去不可避免、甚至家庭环境中也存在残酷的早期课程。
The same applies to Alexander Pushkin’s works. Fifth graders encounter ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ as a lighthearted fairy tale, but adults recognize the sly sexual jokes and satire buried in the verse. Later, students read ‘Eugene Onegin’ as a romantic novel, only to discover years later that it is also a biting commentary on social vices. In Russian culture, stories are designed to unfold in layers – innocent on the surface, biting underneath.
普希金的作品同样如此。五年级学生读《鲁斯兰与柳德米拉》时只当它是个轻松的童话，而成年人却能发现诗中暗藏的隐晦性笑话和讽刺。之后，学生们又将《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》当作爱情小说来读，多年后才领悟到它对社会弊病的尖锐批判。俄罗斯文化中的故事总是层层递进——表面纯真无邪，内里锋芒毕露。
This educational approach reflects a deeper belief: Children should be gradually introduced to the harsher sides of reality, but in controlled doses. Rather than protecting kids from darkness, Russian tradition treats it as something to be absorbed early, through allegory and literature.
这种教育方式反映了一种深层信念：应当以可控的方式，让孩子逐步接触现实的残酷面。俄罗斯传统并非将黑暗面隔绝于儿童，而是通过寓言和文学作品，让他们早期就有所体悟。
Seen this way, Smeshariki isn’t an outlier at all. It’s the latest expression of a cultural habit: To wrap existential dread and satire inside the safe package of a children’s tale.
由此观之，《开心球》绝非异类，它只是一种文化习惯的最新体现——将存在主义的焦虑与社会讽刺，包裹在儿童故事的安全外衣中传递。
It carries the same double code that has shaped Russian culture for centuries: Teaching children kindness while quietly preparing them for life’s cruelty.
它延续了塑造俄罗斯文化数百年的双重密码：既教导孩子们善良，又悄然为他们应对生活的残酷做好准备。
This is why the show’s strange mix of whimsy and despair resonates so deeply. For Russian audiences, a bedtime story that touches on mortality or existential dread isn’t a contradiction. It’s a continuation of a cultural tradition that runs from Pushkin’s sly verse to Turgenev’s drowned dog. Childhood, in this view, isn’t a protected bubble. It’s the training ground for the world outside.
这正是为何剧中奇思妙想与绝望情绪交织的独特魅力能引发如此深刻的共鸣。对俄罗斯观众而言，睡前故事触及生死议题或存在主义焦虑并非矛盾，而是从普希金狡黠诗篇到屠格涅夫笔下溺毙小狗的文化传承。在这种观念里，童年并非保护罩，而是面对现实世界的练兵场。
Perhaps the strangest thing about Smeshariki is not that it hides death and despair inside cheerful little animals – but that Russian parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
《芝麻街》嗑抗抑郁药：这部儿童动画教俄罗斯人认识死亡——RT 娱乐 关于《开心球》（《奇奇怪怪》/《咯咯奇》）最奇怪的或许不是它将死亡与绝望藏在欢快的小动物外表下——而是俄罗斯父母们对此习以为常。
By Vadim Zagorenko, a Moscow-based columnist and writer covering international politics, culture, and media trends
作者：瓦迪姆·扎戈连科，常驻莫斯科的专栏作家兼撰稿人，专注于国际政治、文化与媒体趋势的报道
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Sesame Street on antidepressants: This children’s cartoon teaches Russians about death
服用抗抑郁药的《芝麻街》：这部儿童动画片向俄罗斯人传授死亡知识
‘Smeshariki’ looks like bubblegum TV for kids, but it sneaks in heart attacks, suicide, and full-blown existential crises
《开心球》看起来像是给孩子们看的泡泡糖电视节目，但它却暗藏了心脏病发作、自杀和全面爆发的存在主义危机
Think ‘Sesame Street’ but with death, depression, and existential dread. At first glance, it looks like any other children’s cartoon: Round, brightly colored animals teaching kids to share, be polite, and cross the street safely. But Russia’s most beloved animated series, ‘Smeshariki’ – released internationally as ‘KikoRiki’ and in the US as ‘GoGoRiki’ or ‘BalloonToons’ – hides something stranger.
想象一下《芝麻街》，但充斥着死亡、抑郁和存在主义焦虑。乍看之下，它与其他儿童动画无异：圆润鲜艳的动物角色教孩子们学会分享、礼貌和安全过马路。但这部俄罗斯最受欢迎的动画系列《开心球》（国际发行时名为《KikoRiki》，在美国则称作《GoGoRiki》或《BalloonToons》）背后隐藏着更为诡谲的内核。
Beneath the cheerful surface lies a world of heart attacks, suicide jokes, and meditations on the meaning of life. In Russia, a country where fairy tales have never shied away from darkness, it’s no wonder this cartoon became both a cultural phenomenon and an internet cult.
在欢乐的表象之下，是一个充斥着心脏病发作、自杀笑话和生命意义沉思的世界。在童话故事从不避讳黑暗的俄罗斯，这部动画能同时成为文化现象和网络邪典也就不足为奇了。
The birth of Russia’s ‘two-level’ cartoons
俄罗斯"双层次"动画的诞生
Soviet animators worked under conditions that would have killed off most creative industries: Bad equipment, tiny budgets, and a censor breathing down their necks. The idea of ‘adult animation’ didn’t exist in the USSR, but animators still found ways to keep parents entertained. They slipped in jokes about bureaucrats and social misfits – you can spot them in the Soviet ‘*** the Pooh’ or in ‘The Adventures of Captain Vrungel’. Others went darker, with unsettling works like ‘Hercules at Admet’s’.
苏联动画制作人在足以扼杀大多数创意产业的环境中工作：设备简陋、预算微薄、还有审查官时刻紧盯。苏联虽不存在"成人动画"概念，但动画师仍设法让家长获得乐趣。他们在《苏联版小熊》或《冯格尔船长历险记》中穿插官僚主义者和社会边缘人的笑料，更有《大力士在阿德墨托斯家中》这类令人不安的暗黑作品。
Out of this came a whole subgenre sometimes described as ‘psychedelic Soviet fairy tales’. These weren’t just bedtime stories with pretty colors. They mixed surreal imagery, absurd humor, and hints of political satire – odd little films that could mesmerize kids while giving adults a completely different experience. Titles like ‘Wow! A Talking Fish!’ still feel strange and hypnotic today.
由此衍生出被称为"迷幻苏联童话"的完整亚类型。这些不仅是色彩绚丽的睡前故事，更融合了超现实意象、荒诞幽默与政治讽刺色彩——这些奇特短片既能吸引孩子，又为成人带来全然不同的体验。像《会说话的鱼！》这样的作品至今仍散发着诡异而迷人的气息。
The point was never to create a double audience on purpose. It was survival. When you can’t openly critique society, you hide commentary in a cartoon about animals, wizards, or a talking fish. That habit – speaking to children and adults at once – became second nature to Russian animation.
刻意打造双重观众从来不是目的，生存才是。当你无法公开批判社会时，就把评论藏在关于动物、巫师或会说话的鱼类的动画里。这种同时向儿童和成人传递信息的习惯，已成为俄罗斯动画的第二本能。
A cartoon with no villains
没有反派的动画片
Smeshariki – a mash-up of the Russian words for ‘laughter’ (smekh) and ‘little balls’ (shariki) – premiered in 2004 and quickly became a national hit. It ran for nearly a decade, spawned three feature films, an educational spin-off called ‘Pincode’, and even a movie-within-a-movie anthology. The franchise bled into video games, public-service ads, and piles of merchandise. Internationally, it reached 23 countries, including the US.
《开心球》（Smeshariki）——这个名称融合了俄语中"笑声"（smekh）和"小圆球"（shariki）两个词——于 2004 年首播后迅速风靡全国。该系列持续近十年，衍生出三部电影长片、名为《平密码》的教育番外篇，甚至还有戏中戏选集。这个 IP 还渗透到电子游戏、公益广告和大量周边商品中，在国际上覆盖了包括美国在内的 23 个国家。
On the surface, the characters look like any others: A bouncy rabbit named Krosh, his anxious hedgehog sidekick Yozhik, the dreamy poet-sheep Barash, and others.
表面看来，这些角色平平无奇：活泼的兔子克罗什、他焦虑的刺猬搭档尤日克、爱幻想的诗人绵羊巴拉什等。
Meet the rest of the cast
认识其他角色
Nyusha – a capricious and ambitious pig
Nyusha——一只任性又野心勃勃的小猪
Sovunya – a strict, health-obsessed owl
索夫妮娅——一只严谨、痴迷健康知识的猫头鹰
Kar-Karych – an aging crow with artistic pretensions
卡尔卡雷奇——一只自诩艺术家的年迈乌鸦
Pin – an eccentric inventor penguin with a thick German accent
平——说话带浓重德国口音的古怪发明家企鹅
Kopatych – a no-nonsense farmer bear with a southern Russian twang
科帕提奇——操着俄罗斯南方口音、务实耿直的农场主熊
Losyash – an active moose professor
洛夏什——一位活跃的麋鹿教授
They live in Flower Valley, a self-contained world with no villains, no battles, and no real outside contact.
他们居住在鲜花谷，一个与世隔绝的世界，没有反派、没有斗争，也没有真正的外界联系。
That lack of villains is crucial. Every conflict comes from the characters’ own flaws or mistakes, not from some evil force. The episodes almost always reset to a cheerful status quo – yet more than once, the stories veer into territory that’s unnervingly heavy for a preschool cartoon.
这种反派角色的缺失至关重要。所有冲突都源于角色自身的缺陷或错误，而非某种邪恶力量。每集几乎都会回归欢乐的日常基调——然而不止一次，这些故事会突然转向令人不安的沉重主题，对学龄前动画而言实属罕见。
When the cartoon turns dark
当卡通画风转向黑暗
At its most unsettling, Smeshariki feels less like a children’s cartoon and more like a fragment of Russian literature. Behind the cheerful colors unfold stories about death, loss, and the absurdity of existence.
《开心球》最令人不安之处在于，它不像儿童动画，反倒更像俄罗斯文学片段。欢快色彩背后展开的，是关于死亡、失去与存在荒诞性的故事。
Take Pin, the eccentric penguin inventor. In ‘Close to Heart’, he works himself into such an emotional frenzy that he suffers a heart attack. He tries to numb his feelings to avoid another one, only to collapse again. Temporarily paralyzed, he sits helplessly as his poetic friend Barash – who, in the same episode, has been abducted by aliens – dances in front of him. It’s a surreal, almost nightmarish sequence about fragility, helplessness, and the limits of control.
以古怪的企鹅发明家平克为例。在《贴近心房》一集中，他因情绪过度激动导致心脏病发作。为预防复发，他试图麻痹自己的情感，却再次崩溃倒下。暂时瘫痪的他无助地坐着，眼睁睁看着被外星人绑架的诗人朋友巴拉什在眼前起舞——这组超现实近乎噩梦的镜头，诠释着生命的脆弱、无助与控制力的局限。
Or consider ‘The Magic Pot’. Yozhik, the timid hedgehog, wanders the forest at night, marveling at glowing fireflies. One flickers weakly, its light fading for good. Desperate, Yozhik seeks help, but the moose professor Losyash explains that nothing can be done: The light is gone forever. Only Barash can help, by carrying the firefly into his magic pot, a world of imagination where it still shines. The episode was dedicated to one of the show’s own creators, who died during production – a hidden memorial disguised as a bedtime story.
再比如《魔法锅》这一集。胆小怯懦的小刺猬 Yozhik 在夜晚的森林中漫步，惊叹于萤火虫闪烁的光芒。其中一只萤火虫光芒微弱，最终彻底熄灭。绝望的 Yozhik 四处求助，但驼鹿教授 Losyash 解释说无能为力：光芒永远消失了。只有 Barash 能帮忙——将萤火虫放入他的魔法锅中，那里是幻想世界，萤火虫仍能继续发光。这集实际上是对该剧某位制作人的隐秘悼念，他在制作过程中离世，整个故事被包装成了一场睡前童话。
Then there is ‘The Meaning of Life’, one of the bleakest half-hours ever slipped into a children’s cartoon. Barash sinks into existential despair. “What’s the point of washing up in the morning? To feel awake. But what’s the point of being awake?” he asks. His search for meaning leads him on a perilous journey toward a mystical figure named Kuzinatra. Though he never reaches her, Barash concludes that the value lies not in arriving, but in paving the way for those who will follow. After narrowly escaping death, he accepts life’s absurdity with a kind of weary peace.
还有《生命的意义》，这是儿童动画中最为阴郁的半小时之一。巴雷什陷入了存在主义的绝望。"早上洗漱有什么意义？为了清醒。但清醒又有什么意义？"他问道。对意义的追寻让他踏上险途，寻找一位名为库兹娜特拉的神秘人物。虽然最终未能相见，巴雷什领悟到价值不在抵达终点，而在为后来者铺路。在侥幸逃脱死亡后，他以一种疲惫的平静接受了生活的荒诞。
And those are only the highlights. Across its run, Smeshariki quietly touches on themes far removed from playground morality:
而这仅仅是冰山一角。在剧集播出的过程中，《开心球》悄然触及了许多与校园道德相去甚远的主题：
Identity (Butterfly)
身份（蝴蝶）
Addiction (That Sweet Word 'Honey')
成瘾（那个甜蜜的词"亲爱的"）
Prostitution (Mountains and Candy)
卖淫（山与糖果）
Internet dependency (Telegraph)
互联网依赖症（《每日电讯报》）
Propaganda (Truffle)
宣传（松露）
Suicide (Valhalla)
自杀（瓦尔哈拉）
Layered over all this are sly nods to cinema both Russian and global – ‘Stalker’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, even Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.
在这些元素之上，还巧妙融入了对俄罗斯及全球经典电影的致敬——《潜行者》《黑客帝国》《终结者》《阿甘正传》《活死人之夜》，甚至希区柯克的《惊魂记》。
To children, these are just curious adventures. To adults, they read like allegories of workaholism, escapism, and death – a philosophical undercurrent running beneath the cheerful colors and round little animals. It’s unsettling, fascinating, and impossible to ignore.
在孩子们眼中，这些不过是奇妙的冒险故事。对成年人而言，它们却像是关于工作狂、逃避主义和死亡的寓言——欢快色彩与圆滚小动物之下暗涌着哲学暗流。这种反差令人不安又着迷，让人无法忽视。
From bedtime TV to internet cult
从睡前节目到网络邪典
For children, the unsettling storylines pass by as just another quirky adventure. The bright colors and slapstick humor soften the blow, and most kids never notice the philosophical undertones.
对儿童观众来说，那些令人不安的情节只是又一幕古怪冒险。明亮的色彩和滑稽幽默冲淡了冲击力，大多数孩子根本察觉不到其中的哲学深意。
Adults, however, have turned Smeshariki into a phenomenon of its own. Online forums are full of lengthy essays unpacking the hidden meanings of particular episodes – whether they’re allegories of workaholism, grief, or existential futility. At the same time, the show has spawned a thriving meme culture, where its round, bouncy characters get pasted into bleak jokes about depression, burnout, and politics.
然而，成年人已将《开心球》（Smeshariki）塑造成一种独特现象。网络论坛上充斥着长篇大论，剖析特定剧集中隐藏的寓意——无论是关于工作狂、悲伤还是存在主义虚无的寓言。与此同时，这部动画催生了一个蓬勃发展的梗文化，那些圆滚滚的弹性角色被植入关于抑郁、职业倦怠和政治的黑色笑话中。
What makes this dual reception even stranger is the stance of the creators. Officially, Smeshariki remains labeled as children’s programming. It airs on kids’ channels, sells plush toys, and runs educational spin-offs. The writers and producers rarely acknowledge the darker interpretations, insisting it’s just a cheerful series for preschoolers. Yet the internet seems determined to prove them wrong – seeing in the show not only a cartoon, but a mirror of Russian life itself.
更令人费解的是创作者们的态度。尽管官方仍将《开心球》定位为儿童节目——它在儿童频道播出、销售毛绒玩具、推出教育衍生剧，编剧和制片人也很少承认那些黑暗解读，坚称这仅仅是给学龄前儿童观看的欢乐动画。然而互联网似乎执意要证明他们的错误——观众从中看到的不仅是卡通，更是俄罗斯社会生活的真实映照。
Why Russians give children tragedy
为何俄罗斯人将悲剧呈现给孩子
To understand why Russian parents don’t flinch at letting their kids watch a cartoon about death and despair, you have to look beyond animation – back to school literature.
要理解俄罗斯父母为何能坦然让孩子观看关于死亡与绝望的动画，必须超越动画本身——回溯至学校文学教育。
Generations of Russian children grow up reading Ivan Turgenev’s ‘Mumu’ (1854), the grim story of a mute serf forced to drown the only creature he loves – a little dog – at his mistress’s command. For outsiders, it seems brutal to assign such a tale in middle school. But in Russia, it’s considered formative: An early lesson that life is unfair, loss is inevitable, and cruelty exists even in domestic settings.
一代代俄罗斯孩童成长过程中必读屠格涅夫 1854 年创作的《木木》，这个阴郁故事讲述哑巴农奴被迫遵照女主人命令，溺死他唯一挚爱的小狗。在外界看来，让初中生接触如此残酷的故事未免残忍。但在俄罗斯，这被视为塑造人格的必经之路：一堂关于生活不公、失去不可避免、甚至家庭环境中也存在残酷的早期课程。
The same applies to Alexander Pushkin’s works. Fifth graders encounter ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ as a lighthearted fairy tale, but adults recognize the sly sexual jokes and satire buried in the verse. Later, students read ‘Eugene Onegin’ as a romantic novel, only to discover years later that it is also a biting commentary on social vices. In Russian culture, stories are designed to unfold in layers – innocent on the surface, biting underneath.
普希金的作品同样如此。五年级学生读《鲁斯兰与柳德米拉》时只当它是个轻松的童话，而成年人却能发现诗中暗藏的隐晦性笑话和讽刺。之后，学生们又将《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》当作爱情小说来读，多年后才领悟到它对社会弊病的尖锐批判。俄罗斯文化中的故事总是层层递进——表面纯真无邪，内里锋芒毕露。
This educational approach reflects a deeper belief: Children should be gradually introduced to the harsher sides of reality, but in controlled doses. Rather than protecting kids from darkness, Russian tradition treats it as something to be absorbed early, through allegory and literature.
这种教育方式反映了一种深层信念：应当以可控的方式，让孩子逐步接触现实的残酷面。俄罗斯传统并非将黑暗面隔绝于儿童，而是通过寓言和文学作品，让他们早期就有所体悟。
Seen this way, Smeshariki isn’t an outlier at all. It’s the latest expression of a cultural habit: To wrap existential dread and satire inside the safe package of a children’s tale.
由此观之，《开心球》绝非异类，它只是一种文化习惯的最新体现——将存在主义的焦虑与社会讽刺，包裹在儿童故事的安全外衣中传递。
It carries the same double code that has shaped Russian culture for centuries: Teaching children kindness while quietly preparing them for life’s cruelty.
它延续了塑造俄罗斯文化数百年的双重密码：既教导孩子们善良，又悄然为他们应对生活的残酷做好准备。
This is why the show’s strange mix of whimsy and despair resonates so deeply. For Russian audiences, a bedtime story that touches on mortality or existential dread isn’t a contradiction. It’s a continuation of a cultural tradition that runs from Pushkin’s sly verse to Turgenev’s drowned dog. Childhood, in this view, isn’t a protected bubble. It’s the training ground for the world outside.
这正是为何剧中奇思妙想与绝望情绪交织的独特魅力能引发如此深刻的共鸣。对俄罗斯观众而言，睡前故事触及生死议题或存在主义焦虑并非矛盾，而是从普希金狡黠诗篇到屠格涅夫笔下溺毙小狗的文化传承。在这种观念里，童年并非保护罩，而是面对现实世界的练兵场。
Perhaps the strangest thing about Smeshariki is not that it hides death and despair inside cheerful little animals – but that Russian parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
《芝麻街》嗑抗抑郁药：这部儿童动画教俄罗斯人认识死亡——RT 娱乐 关于《开心球》（《奇奇怪怪》/《咯咯奇》）最奇怪的或许不是它将死亡与绝望藏在欢快的小动物外表下——而是俄罗斯父母们对此习以为常。
By Vadim Zagorenko, a Moscow-based columnist and writer covering international politics, culture, and media trends
作者：瓦迪姆·扎戈连科，常驻莫斯科的专栏作家兼撰稿人，专注于国际政治、文化与媒体趋势的报道
Sesame Street on antidepressants: This children’s cartoon teaches Russians about death
服用抗抑郁药的《芝麻街》：这部儿童动画片向俄罗斯人传授死亡知识
‘Smeshariki’ looks like bubblegum TV for kids, but it sneaks in heart attacks, suicide, and full-blown existential crises
《开心球》看起来像是给孩子们看的泡泡糖电视节目，但它却暗藏了心脏病发作、自杀和全面爆发的存在主义危机
Think ‘Sesame Street’ but with death, depression, and existential dread. At first glance, it looks like any other children’s cartoon: Round, brightly colored animals teaching kids to share, be polite, and cross the street safely. But Russia’s most beloved animated series, ‘Smeshariki’ – released internationally as ‘KikoRiki’ and in the US as ‘GoGoRiki’ or ‘BalloonToons’ – hides something stranger.
想象一下《芝麻街》，但充斥着死亡、抑郁和存在主义焦虑。乍看之下，它与其他儿童动画无异：圆润鲜艳的动物角色教孩子们学会分享、礼貌和安全过马路。但这部俄罗斯最受欢迎的动画系列《开心球》（国际发行时名为《KikoRiki》，在美国则称作《GoGoRiki》或《BalloonToons》）背后隐藏着更为诡谲的内核。
Beneath the cheerful surface lies a world of heart attacks, suicide jokes, and meditations on the meaning of life. In Russia, a country where fairy tales have never shied away from darkness, it’s no wonder this cartoon became both a cultural phenomenon and an internet cult.
在欢乐的表象之下，是一个充斥着心脏病发作、自杀笑话和生命意义沉思的世界。在童话故事从不避讳黑暗的俄罗斯，这部动画能同时成为文化现象和网络邪典也就不足为奇了。
The birth of Russia’s ‘two-level’ cartoons
俄罗斯"双层次"动画的诞生
Soviet animators worked under conditions that would have killed off most creative industries: Bad equipment, tiny budgets, and a censor breathing down their necks. The idea of ‘adult animation’ didn’t exist in the USSR, but animators still found ways to keep parents entertained. They slipped in jokes about bureaucrats and social misfits – you can spot them in the Soviet ‘*** the Pooh’ or in ‘The Adventures of Captain Vrungel’. Others went darker, with unsettling works like ‘Hercules at Admet’s’.
苏联动画制作人在足以扼杀大多数创意产业的环境中工作：设备简陋、预算微薄、还有审查官时刻紧盯。苏联虽不存在"成人动画"概念，但动画师仍设法让家长获得乐趣。他们在《苏联版小熊》或《冯格尔船长历险记》中穿插官僚主义者和社会边缘人的笑料，更有《大力士在阿德墨托斯家中》这类令人不安的暗黑作品。
Out of this came a whole subgenre sometimes described as ‘psychedelic Soviet fairy tales’. These weren’t just bedtime stories with pretty colors. They mixed surreal imagery, absurd humor, and hints of political satire – odd little films that could mesmerize kids while giving adults a completely different experience. Titles like ‘Wow! A Talking Fish!’ still feel strange and hypnotic today.
由此衍生出被称为"迷幻苏联童话"的完整亚类型。这些不仅是色彩绚丽的睡前故事，更融合了超现实意象、荒诞幽默与政治讽刺色彩——这些奇特短片既能吸引孩子，又为成人带来全然不同的体验。像《会说话的鱼！》这样的作品至今仍散发着诡异而迷人的气息。
The point was never to create a double audience on purpose. It was survival. When you can’t openly critique society, you hide commentary in a cartoon about animals, wizards, or a talking fish. That habit – speaking to children and adults at once – became second nature to Russian animation.
刻意打造双重观众从来不是目的，生存才是。当你无法公开批判社会时，就把评论藏在关于动物、巫师或会说话的鱼类的动画里。这种同时向儿童和成人传递信息的习惯，已成为俄罗斯动画的第二本能。
A cartoon with no villains
没有反派的动画片
Smeshariki – a mash-up of the Russian words for ‘laughter’ (smekh) and ‘little balls’ (shariki) – premiered in 2004 and quickly became a national hit. It ran for nearly a decade, spawned three feature films, an educational spin-off called ‘Pincode’, and even a movie-within-a-movie anthology. The franchise bled into video games, public-service ads, and piles of merchandise. Internationally, it reached 23 countries, including the US.
《开心球》（Smeshariki）——这个名称融合了俄语中"笑声"（smekh）和"小圆球"（shariki）两个词——于 2004 年首播后迅速风靡全国。该系列持续近十年，衍生出三部电影长片、名为《平密码》的教育番外篇，甚至还有戏中戏选集。这个 IP 还渗透到电子游戏、公益广告和大量周边商品中，在国际上覆盖了包括美国在内的 23 个国家。
On the surface, the characters look like any others: A bouncy rabbit named Krosh, his anxious hedgehog sidekick Yozhik, the dreamy poet-sheep Barash, and others.
表面看来，这些角色平平无奇：活泼的兔子克罗什、他焦虑的刺猬搭档尤日克、爱幻想的诗人绵羊巴拉什等。
Meet the rest of the cast
认识其他角色
Nyusha – a capricious and ambitious pig
Nyusha——一只任性又野心勃勃的小猪
Sovunya – a strict, health-obsessed owl
索夫妮娅——一只严谨、痴迷健康知识的猫头鹰
Kar-Karych – an aging crow with artistic pretensions
卡尔卡雷奇——一只自诩艺术家的年迈乌鸦
Pin – an eccentric inventor penguin with a thick German accent
平——说话带浓重德国口音的古怪发明家企鹅
Kopatych – a no-nonsense farmer bear with a southern Russian twang
科帕提奇——操着俄罗斯南方口音、务实耿直的农场主熊
Losyash – an active moose professor
洛夏什——一位活跃的麋鹿教授
They live in Flower Valley, a self-contained world with no villains, no battles, and no real outside contact.
他们居住在鲜花谷，一个与世隔绝的世界，没有反派、没有斗争，也没有真正的外界联系。
That lack of villains is crucial. Every conflict comes from the characters’ own flaws or mistakes, not from some evil force. The episodes almost always reset to a cheerful status quo – yet more than once, the stories veer into territory that’s unnervingly heavy for a preschool cartoon.
这种反派角色的缺失至关重要。所有冲突都源于角色自身的缺陷或错误，而非某种邪恶力量。每集几乎都会回归欢乐的日常基调——然而不止一次，这些故事会突然转向令人不安的沉重主题，对学龄前动画而言实属罕见。
When the cartoon turns dark
当卡通画风转向黑暗
At its most unsettling, Smeshariki feels less like a children’s cartoon and more like a fragment of Russian literature. Behind the cheerful colors unfold stories about death, loss, and the absurdity of existence.
《开心球》最令人不安之处在于，它不像儿童动画，反倒更像俄罗斯文学片段。欢快色彩背后展开的，是关于死亡、失去与存在荒诞性的故事。
Take Pin, the eccentric penguin inventor. In ‘Close to Heart’, he works himself into such an emotional frenzy that he suffers a heart attack. He tries to numb his feelings to avoid another one, only to collapse again. Temporarily paralyzed, he sits helplessly as his poetic friend Barash – who, in the same episode, has been abducted by aliens – dances in front of him. It’s a surreal, almost nightmarish sequence about fragility, helplessness, and the limits of control.
以古怪的企鹅发明家平克为例。在《贴近心房》一集中，他因情绪过度激动导致心脏病发作。为预防复发，他试图麻痹自己的情感，却再次崩溃倒下。暂时瘫痪的他无助地坐着，眼睁睁看着被外星人绑架的诗人朋友巴拉什在眼前起舞——这组超现实近乎噩梦的镜头，诠释着生命的脆弱、无助与控制力的局限。
Or consider ‘The Magic Pot’. Yozhik, the timid hedgehog, wanders the forest at night, marveling at glowing fireflies. One flickers weakly, its light fading for good. Desperate, Yozhik seeks help, but the moose professor Losyash explains that nothing can be done: The light is gone forever. Only Barash can help, by carrying the firefly into his magic pot, a world of imagination where it still shines. The episode was dedicated to one of the show’s own creators, who died during production – a hidden memorial disguised as a bedtime story.
再比如《魔法锅》这一集。胆小怯懦的小刺猬 Yozhik 在夜晚的森林中漫步，惊叹于萤火虫闪烁的光芒。其中一只萤火虫光芒微弱，最终彻底熄灭。绝望的 Yozhik 四处求助，但驼鹿教授 Losyash 解释说无能为力：光芒永远消失了。只有 Barash 能帮忙——将萤火虫放入他的魔法锅中，那里是幻想世界，萤火虫仍能继续发光。这集实际上是对该剧某位制作人的隐秘悼念，他在制作过程中离世，整个故事被包装成了一场睡前童话。
Then there is ‘The Meaning of Life’, one of the bleakest half-hours ever slipped into a children’s cartoon. Barash sinks into existential despair. “What’s the point of washing up in the morning? To feel awake. But what’s the point of being awake?” he asks. His search for meaning leads him on a perilous journey toward a mystical figure named Kuzinatra. Though he never reaches her, Barash concludes that the value lies not in arriving, but in paving the way for those who will follow. After narrowly escaping death, he accepts life’s absurdity with a kind of weary peace.
还有《生命的意义》，这是儿童动画中最为阴郁的半小时之一。巴雷什陷入了存在主义的绝望。"早上洗漱有什么意义？为了清醒。但清醒又有什么意义？"他问道。对意义的追寻让他踏上险途，寻找一位名为库兹娜特拉的神秘人物。虽然最终未能相见，巴雷什领悟到价值不在抵达终点，而在为后来者铺路。在侥幸逃脱死亡后，他以一种疲惫的平静接受了生活的荒诞。
And those are only the highlights. Across its run, Smeshariki quietly touches on themes far removed from playground morality:
而这仅仅是冰山一角。在剧集播出的过程中，《开心球》悄然触及了许多与校园道德相去甚远的主题：
Identity (Butterfly)
身份（蝴蝶）
Addiction (That Sweet Word 'Honey')
成瘾（那个甜蜜的词"亲爱的"）
Prostitution (Mountains and Candy)
卖淫（山与糖果）
Internet dependency (Telegraph)
互联网依赖症（《每日电讯报》）
Propaganda (Truffle)
宣传（松露）
Suicide (Valhalla)
自杀（瓦尔哈拉）
Layered over all this are sly nods to cinema both Russian and global – ‘Stalker’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’, even Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.
在这些元素之上，还巧妙融入了对俄罗斯及全球经典电影的致敬——《潜行者》《黑客帝国》《终结者》《阿甘正传》《活死人之夜》，甚至希区柯克的《惊魂记》。
To children, these are just curious adventures. To adults, they read like allegories of workaholism, escapism, and death – a philosophical undercurrent running beneath the cheerful colors and round little animals. It’s unsettling, fascinating, and impossible to ignore.
在孩子们眼中，这些不过是奇妙的冒险故事。对成年人而言，它们却像是关于工作狂、逃避主义和死亡的寓言——欢快色彩与圆滚小动物之下暗涌着哲学暗流。这种反差令人不安又着迷，让人无法忽视。
From bedtime TV to internet cult
从睡前节目到网络邪典
For children, the unsettling storylines pass by as just another quirky adventure. The bright colors and slapstick humor soften the blow, and most kids never notice the philosophical undertones.
对儿童观众来说，那些令人不安的情节只是又一幕古怪冒险。明亮的色彩和滑稽幽默冲淡了冲击力，大多数孩子根本察觉不到其中的哲学深意。
Adults, however, have turned Smeshariki into a phenomenon of its own. Online forums are full of lengthy essays unpacking the hidden meanings of particular episodes – whether they’re allegories of workaholism, grief, or existential futility. At the same time, the show has spawned a thriving meme culture, where its round, bouncy characters get pasted into bleak jokes about depression, burnout, and politics.
然而，成年人已将《开心球》（Smeshariki）塑造成一种独特现象。网络论坛上充斥着长篇大论，剖析特定剧集中隐藏的寓意——无论是关于工作狂、悲伤还是存在主义虚无的寓言。与此同时，这部动画催生了一个蓬勃发展的梗文化，那些圆滚滚的弹性角色被植入关于抑郁、职业倦怠和政治的黑色笑话中。
What makes this dual reception even stranger is the stance of the creators. Officially, Smeshariki remains labeled as children’s programming. It airs on kids’ channels, sells plush toys, and runs educational spin-offs. The writers and producers rarely acknowledge the darker interpretations, insisting it’s just a cheerful series for preschoolers. Yet the internet seems determined to prove them wrong – seeing in the show not only a cartoon, but a mirror of Russian life itself.
更令人费解的是创作者们的态度。尽管官方仍将《开心球》定位为儿童节目——它在儿童频道播出、销售毛绒玩具、推出教育衍生剧，编剧和制片人也很少承认那些黑暗解读，坚称这仅仅是给学龄前儿童观看的欢乐动画。然而互联网似乎执意要证明他们的错误——观众从中看到的不仅是卡通，更是俄罗斯社会生活的真实映照。
Why Russians give children tragedy
为何俄罗斯人将悲剧呈现给孩子
To understand why Russian parents don’t flinch at letting their kids watch a cartoon about death and despair, you have to look beyond animation – back to school literature.
要理解俄罗斯父母为何能坦然让孩子观看关于死亡与绝望的动画，必须超越动画本身——回溯至学校文学教育。
Generations of Russian children grow up reading Ivan Turgenev’s ‘Mumu’ (1854), the grim story of a mute serf forced to drown the only creature he loves – a little dog – at his mistress’s command. For outsiders, it seems brutal to assign such a tale in middle school. But in Russia, it’s considered formative: An early lesson that life is unfair, loss is inevitable, and cruelty exists even in domestic settings.
一代代俄罗斯孩童成长过程中必读屠格涅夫 1854 年创作的《木木》，这个阴郁故事讲述哑巴农奴被迫遵照女主人命令，溺死他唯一挚爱的小狗。在外界看来，让初中生接触如此残酷的故事未免残忍。但在俄罗斯，这被视为塑造人格的必经之路：一堂关于生活不公、失去不可避免、甚至家庭环境中也存在残酷的早期课程。
The same applies to Alexander Pushkin’s works. Fifth graders encounter ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ as a lighthearted fairy tale, but adults recognize the sly sexual jokes and satire buried in the verse. Later, students read ‘Eugene Onegin’ as a romantic novel, only to discover years later that it is also a biting commentary on social vices. In Russian culture, stories are designed to unfold in layers – innocent on the surface, biting underneath.
普希金的作品同样如此。五年级学生读《鲁斯兰与柳德米拉》时只当它是个轻松的童话，而成年人却能发现诗中暗藏的隐晦性笑话和讽刺。之后，学生们又将《叶甫盖尼·奥涅金》当作爱情小说来读，多年后才领悟到它对社会弊病的尖锐批判。俄罗斯文化中的故事总是层层递进——表面纯真无邪，内里锋芒毕露。
This educational approach reflects a deeper belief: Children should be gradually introduced to the harsher sides of reality, but in controlled doses. Rather than protecting kids from darkness, Russian tradition treats it as something to be absorbed early, through allegory and literature.
这种教育方式反映了一种深层信念：应当以可控的方式，让孩子逐步接触现实的残酷面。俄罗斯传统并非将黑暗面隔绝于儿童，而是通过寓言和文学作品，让他们早期就有所体悟。
Seen this way, Smeshariki isn’t an outlier at all. It’s the latest expression of a cultural habit: To wrap existential dread and satire inside the safe package of a children’s tale.
由此观之，《开心球》绝非异类，它只是一种文化习惯的最新体现——将存在主义的焦虑与社会讽刺，包裹在儿童故事的安全外衣中传递。
It carries the same double code that has shaped Russian culture for centuries: Teaching children kindness while quietly preparing them for life’s cruelty.
它延续了塑造俄罗斯文化数百年的双重密码：既教导孩子们善良，又悄然为他们应对生活的残酷做好准备。
This is why the show’s strange mix of whimsy and despair resonates so deeply. For Russian audiences, a bedtime story that touches on mortality or existential dread isn’t a contradiction. It’s a continuation of a cultural tradition that runs from Pushkin’s sly verse to Turgenev’s drowned dog. Childhood, in this view, isn’t a protected bubble. It’s the training ground for the world outside.
这正是为何剧中奇思妙想与绝望情绪交织的独特魅力能引发如此深刻的共鸣。对俄罗斯观众而言，睡前故事触及生死议题或存在主义焦虑并非矛盾，而是从普希金狡黠诗篇到屠格涅夫笔下溺毙小狗的文化传承。在这种观念里，童年并非保护罩，而是面对现实世界的练兵场。
Perhaps the strangest thing about Smeshariki is not that it hides death and despair inside cheerful little animals – but that Russian parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
《芝麻街》嗑抗抑郁药：这部儿童动画教俄罗斯人认识死亡——RT 娱乐 关于《开心球》（《奇奇怪怪》/《咯咯奇》）最奇怪的或许不是它将死亡与绝望藏在欢快的小动物外表下——而是俄罗斯父母们对此习以为常。
By Vadim Zagorenko, a Moscow-based columnist and writer covering international politics, culture, and media trends
作者：瓦迪姆·扎戈连科，常驻莫斯科的专栏作家兼撰稿人，专注于国际政治、文化与媒体趋势的报道
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