Russian reversal

plural Russian reversals

1. A type of joke that reverses the subject and object of an ordinary statement, claiming to describe the situation in Soviet Russia.

   Sounds like a Russian Reversal. "In Soviet Japan, life lives YOU!"

   2015, TJ Edmister, “Re: Interesting phraseology”, in sci.lang.japan (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   Decades ago comics like Yakov Smirnoff used to do “Russian Reversal” jokes: “In America you can always find a party! In Soviet Russia, party always finds you.”

   2015, Danny Katch, Socialism . . . Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation, page 35

   Smirnoff's popularity has waned since its high point in the 1980s, but the Russian reversal enjoys a vibrant second act as an internet meme, and it has shaped an image of late Soviet life as harsh and impoverished […]

   2016, Choi Chatterjee, Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, Deborah A. Field, Russia's Long Twentieth Century