KVN: Students’ View on the Game

Abstract

KVN is the most long-lasting humor program on national TV. Review of the academic studies show that there are different approaches to assessing the role of KVN in agenda-setting and forming political opinions in Russia, but most scholars consider the youth to be the game's target audience. The research goal is to find out if KVN is popular with young people in the Russian Federation. The article summarizes the results of the online survey conducted in April-May 2023 during which 200 students from Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod and Lobachevski State University of Nizhny Novgorod (aged 19-25) answered the questions on their attitude to the game, regularity and the way they watch it. The young people named their favorite teams, comedians, and sketches. The results prove that though respondents are aware what KVN is, the show is of no interest to more than a half of them. Those, who watch the game, do it mostly via the Internet, prefer wordplay, situation, and abstract humor. Teams and comedians who played in seasons 2013-2016 are named as favorites, possibly because of their frequent appearance on TV and social media. Students would like to see changes in the game's format and content.