History Literature / TheTwelveChairs

* LifeImitatesArt: In the 1980s the city administration did start to sell tickets at the entrance of Proval tunnel. And then closed it for a few years to clean the lake from debris and reinforce walls. Otherwise it could have collapsed by now.

* ImpossibleThief: PlayedForLaugs. In the movie Alchen steals clothes from ''people on a painting''. No, he doesn't cut them out, he just steals them.

* ImpossibleThief: In the movie adaptation Alchen steals details from a ''painting''. No, he doesn't cut them out, he just steals them.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: There are some reasons to believe Bender is of Jewish descent. Also, his Odessa roots (a very Jewish city) and his claim of being the son of one Turkish subject (Jews often used foreign passports, especially readily available Turkish papers, as foreign nationality would change their ethnicity to Turk in legal documents).

The two "comrades" ''nearly'' get the prize at the auction, but because Kisa screwed up and squandered all their cash, the chairs are [[GottaCatchThemAll split up and sold individually]]. They are not alone in this quest, either: [[CorruptChurch Father Fyodor]] took advantage of the deathbed confession, and has also set off to recover the fortune. In this search for Mme Petukhova's treasure, he becomes Vorobyaninov's main rival. While in this enterprise Ostap is in his element, Vorobyaninov is not so happy. [[FaceHeelTurn He's steadily abandoning his principles and losing self-esteem]].

Creator/MelBrooks directed a well-liked adaptation in 1970, with a wonderfully [[LargeHam hammy]] Creator/RonMoody as Vorobyaninov, with Creator/DomDeLuise as Father Fyodor, Creator/FrankLangella as Ostap Bender, and Creator/MelBrooks as Tikon.

* AdaptationalBadass: By omission. The movie adaptations tend to leave out Bender's more humiliating moments, such as when he gets royally plastered and misses the chance to catch their prize (which is the only time he gets called out by Kisa and doesn't have a retort) or when he gets beaten up by some highlanders when he got caught cheating in cards.

* HastilyHiddenMacGuffin: The entire plot is built on that. Madame Petukhova, an Imperial Russian noblewoman, hid her collection of jewelry in a chair during the Revolution of 1917, to prevent the revolutionaries from confiscating them. Years later, her son-in-law Ippolit Vorobyaninoff learns about that from Madame on her deathbed, and starts to look for that chair. As you can guess from the title, there are eleven more chairs looking exactly like that one.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Poet Lapis-Trubetskoy is notorious for that in-universe. No, Lapis, jackals are not "snake-shaped"! And peignoir is not a ball gown! And sea waves don't fall like a lifting winch.

Two other Russian adaptations have created a bit of a BrokenBase amongst the Russian viewers. The main point of contention is whether [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Mironov Andrei Mironov's]] interpretation of Bender as less of a LovableRogue and more of a VillainProtagonist works.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: One CatchPhrase of Ostap's is "This is congenial". Apparently, he thinks the word "congenial" comes from "genius" and means "very clever".

* PyrrhicVillainy: After Father Fyodor gets lost in a village and goes insane, Vorobyaninov murders Ostap Bender to keep the loot for himself, only to discover that someone else already found the jewels and used them to build a new public recreation center, Vorobyaninov loses his sanity.

* UnknownRival: Turned UpToEleven with Ellochka Schukina and her ridiculous "rivalry" with Consuelo Vanderbilt.

* HappinessInSlavery: Ippolit's former serf calls him a good master who rarely hit him. He also seems unhappy under the Communist regime and is happy to see Ippolit return to his old estate.

* HappinessInSlavery: Ippolit's former serf calls him a good master who rarely hit him. He also seems unhappy under the Communist regime, and is happy to see Ippolit return to his old estate.

Creator/MelBrooks directed a well-liked adaptation in 1970, with a wonderfully [[LargeHam hammy]] Creator/RonMoody as Vorobyaninov.

* DrivenToMadness: Father Fyodor. [[spoiler:Probably Vorobyaninov too.]]

** LifeImitatesArt: In the 1980s the city administration did start to sell tickets at the entrance of Proval tunnel. And then closed it for a few years to clean the lake from debris and reinforce walls. Otherwise it could have collapsed by now.
* MundaneSolution\\MugglesDoItBetter: When Bender visits a newspaper, there's a brief episode about the employees discussing their own enrichment scheme: buy government bonds, win a large sum and purchase several cars to go to a Caucasian resort for vacation. Months later, when Bender happens to be at said resort, [[BrickJoke he meets the same people who did exactly that and succeeded]], without any of the hardships Bender endured in his pursuit. He ends up begging money from them.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Kisa Vorobyaninov

In post-civil war Soviet Russia, [[ImpoverishedPatrician a former member of nobility]], Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, works as a desk clerk, until his mother-in-law reveals on her deathbed that her family jewelry had been hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family's dining room set. [[MacGuffin Those chairs]], along with all other personal property, had been expropriated by the government [[RedOctober during the Civil War]]. He becomes a treasure hunter, and after the [[ManipulativeBastard smooth operator]] and ConMan [[MagnificentBastard Ostap Bender]] forces Kisa ("Kitty", Vorobyaninov's [[EmbarrassingNickname funny childhood nickname]], which Bender prefers to long "Ippolit") to partner with him, they set off to track down the chairs. This ultimately helps Kisa, who doesn't possess [[LoveableRogue Bender's charm]] and is not as street-smart.

Creator/MelBrooks directed an adaptation in 1970. Two different Russian adaptations have created a bit of a BrokenBase amongst the Russian viewers. The main point of contention is whether [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Mironov Andrei Mironov's]] interpretation of Bender as less of a LovableRogue and more of a VillainProtagonist works.