Rayok

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Rayok literally means "small paradise" in Russian.

By extension it came to mean a fairground peep show, as "The Fall" was one of the most popular topics for these. The show itself was performed with the help of a box with pictures viewed through magnifying lenses. The show was accompanied with lewd rhymed jokes.

The term "rayok" has also become applied to rhymed humorous "talk shows" without any peeping. The expression "to talk rayok" (говорить райком) means to speak in a rhymed, humorous way, to patter. Rayok, both show and talk forms, was an occupation of wandering artists called rayoshniks.

Its use as the title for a piece of music implies a scurrilous entertainment.

The word rayok was used in the titles of the following works:

• Rayok, a song by Modest Mussorgsky, also known as "The Peep-Show".
• Rayok, a cantata by Dmitri Shostakovich, also known as Anti-formalist Rayok, Little Paradise, The Peep-show, The Gods and A Learner's Manual.