Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
Hmmm, in "standard" Russian, if I'm not mistaken, it would be more correct to say Штирлиц увидел как голубые ели if the meaning is "Shtirlitz saw the gays eating", right? So dropping the как makes the meaning ambiguous (and is an example of "grammatical ellipsis").
absolutely right, It must be either Он увидел, как голубые ели.... or Он увидел, что голубые ели.... - and in this case it will have nothing to do with trees.. so this joke technically is not a joke because the basic grammar rule is broken here...

but another one i like: Штирлиц шёл вдоль берега, поскользнулся и упал на гальку. Галька тихо взвизгнула и убежала.