Most "In Soviet Russia" jokes are dumb. They're purposefully dumb, to play on the humor of a Russian person telling a joke that crosses the language divide very, very poorly. And it's funny...with diminished returns. The fact that people kept pushing the joke long past it's prime was also funny, but for an even shorter time frame. However, a good number of the more original Yakov Smirnoff style jokes were quite clever. I always liked, "In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, Party finds you". The "Job determines your marks/Marx determines your job" one is also very clever. Simply switching the words completely changes the meaning to something dark and Orwellian through the clever application of Homonyms, as opposed to a vague implication of oppression by switching roles that most of the bad jokes rely on.