Actually it's a brilliant novella and I recommend everyone read it. Biting social critique of bourgeois values:
http://www.classicallibrary.org/tolstoy/ivan/1.htm
I've worn my best a couple of times in the last few months, it's been enough with the Grim Reaper for a while for me, so I'm not too easily amused by the subject.
Charitably, I suspect it's an inside joke?