>>>>Ostap Bender
>>>
>>>THE Ostap Bender?
>>>
>>>I guess it's a nice change of pace from all quotations being from Shakespeare, Milton, George Bernard Shaw, or the Bible.
>>
>>Are Ilf & Petrov popular here in USA as well? I highly doubt it.
>
>Popular among the general populace?, no. But their The 1935 Travelogue of Two Soviet Writers is required reading in slavic studies...

I see. I didn't read it myself. But "12 Chairs" and "Golden Calf" are very popular among Russians and very funny.