In the spring of 2023, the monthly “Dialog”, a theatre magazine presenting Polish and foreign dramas, was taken over by the right-wing authorities. A new editor-in-chief was imposed against the will of the editorial staff. The continuity of tradition was broken. Once again, the magazine had to confront the project of centralisation, having survived the era of the Polish People’s Republic (and the Central European totalitarianism described by Milan Kundera). The editorial team could choose between two strategies: positivist (submitting in the name of “saving substance”) or romantic (leaving in a gesture of indignation). However, the team decided to take a third path, that of resisting and sabotaging, using social media. The basic rule of this game was one of transparency. The editorial team set up a Facebook page similar to the official website, but independent. There, as a parody of the management, their moves were immediately revealed. Correspondence with the director was sent there and commented on by readers, episode by episode. The authorities were the butt of the joke because they could not be witty enough in their replies. Legal, but ironic and impertinent, this whole democratic spectacle was staged in front of the public. In the end, the conservative party lost the elections in Poland and the magazine “Dialog” was taken back, and it is this case that I would like to analyse in my speech. According to Kundera, small and fragile nations of Central Europe should cultivate their traditions and defend themselves with jokes. Similarly, small and fragile cultural institutions should defend themselves with irony. The case of the magazine “Dialog” is also a demonstration of the strength of the theatre community, which is accustomed to performative forms of resistance. Whether other endangered Central European democracies, such as Hungary, would adopt this strategy is another question.