What is the reason for POLISH jokes ?

Only if by recent you mean the people arriving from Galicia in 1800/19oo century ..the emigration of the 70's and 80's were the educated ones. Unfortunately, some still went for the menial jobs to make a dollar and survive... ask your parents.

Did you hear about the Polak who threw the grenade? The American picked it up, unclipped it and threw it back :) Boom! An American taught me this one :)

I believe it was about a Pole, a GERMAN and a grenade if I remember it rightly..
(After all the Amis weren't at war with Poles)

:)

Eurola


My folks were peasants from the Poznan area (1880's). So poor they were lucky to get a piece of rye bread (so the story goes). My grandfather quit school in the 2nd grade. Went to work and at some point opened up a grocery store and was so successful that he retired at 35. Of 18 grandchildren approx 14 have college degrees and the ones that don't are para legals, technicians, etc. All well educated productive individuals. this is a typical Polish American story. Nothing unusual.

It was like this. People immigrate to the states, settle in and than another wave comes in a generation later. The Poles that are already here poke fun at the newly arrivals because they recognize the nuances of Polish society which the newly arrived immigrants still hang onto. For instance my grandfather always referred to Poland as "the Old Country". And the newly arrived immigrants held on to their "old ways" and that's where Polish Jokes come from. Polish jokes don't come from Nazi's or Native Americans. they came from the Polish Americans because they recognized the "old ways". Now what's true for Poles was also true for the Irish, Italians, Norwegians, etc.

Polish jokes, far as I know where dead by the late 70's. I haven't heard many since. The latest type of Polish Jokes are the "Redneck Jokes". Same thing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Foxworthy

This is true.

Your story sounds similar to my Polish American family.

Many of the Polish Americans I know are educated professionals. Those without college educations gravitate towards starting their own business.

As a Polish American I would guess that you also know that Polish Americans own more real estate per capita then the average American.

Also in the book "The Jewish Phenomenon", Polish Americans on a per capita basis are the third wealthiest group in the US behind Jewish Americans and Japanese Americans.

According to page 5 of the book "The Jewish Phenomenon"

Ethnic Household Income (US Average 100)

Jewish 172
Japanese 132
Polish 115

Chinese 112
Italian 112
German 107

Anglo-Saxon 107
Irish 103

US Average100

Filipino 99
W. Indian 94
Mexican 76

Puerto Rican 63
Black 62
Native American 60


I agree with part of what you say.

As you say, these early jokes applied to many other ethnic groups that came here also. The people of a given ethnic group that settled first in America would "poke fun" at newcomers of the same group since they weren't as assimilated. These jokes were based mostly on the struggles of newcomers trying to assimilate.

Also many of these early jokes weren't as malicious as the Hollywood-TV 1960's-70's inferior intelligence jokes about Polish people.

Many of these first Polish jokes from Polish Americans were about Polish language nuiances, Pierogis and Kielbasa.

Polish jokes revolving around assimilation problems, Kielbasa, Pierogis didn't come from the Nazis, but the more aggressive subhuman intelligence jokes about Poles did. They are in Hitler's speeches. But not just the Nazis. The origin of so called US Polish jokes (subhuman intelligence jokes about Polish people) was largely by the 1960's Leftist anti-Polish Bigots in the Hollywood TV Network complex. They were basically media jokes about Polish people which reflected the hatred they had for Polish people.

You say these Polish jokes supposedly came from assimilated Poles against newcomer Poles. If this is true, how do you explain these 1960's-70's Polish jokes being told in areas of the US where there were NO Polish Americans?

How do you explain people in opposite parts of the country, telling the exact SAME inferior intelligence joke about Polish people to other people? On the same day?........The day after an anti-Polish TV show had that slur against Polish people.


Polish jokes have declined because Polish American groups have spoken out against them.

Although they are still around, especially among people who feel a need to put down somebody else so that they can feel better about their own ethnicity, you are correct that today inferior intelligence jokes about Polish people are nowhere as common today as they were in the 1970's when the media airwaves were saturated with them.

A couple years ago Sen. Arlen Specter apologized for telling Polish jokes (some say that was part of the reason for his recent loss). Back in the 1970's when mass TV media imagery influenced millions of Americans that it was politically correct to slander Polish people with ethnic slurs/jokes, he may not have apologized.

Who started redneck jokes? Southerners poking fun at other Southerners. The roots and subject matter of Redneck jokes are the same as Polish jokes. No difference. No body in Hollywood or America hates Poles. Actually America in general is rather ambivalent towards Poles and Poland. If anything Poles are ignored, probably due to the fact that we assimilate so easily. If Poles were hated by America as much as you say they are, they wouldn't be third on your chart. BTW who is last on your list? Indians and Blacks. Now these two groups may have an issue with how America perceives them. Not the Poles. Poles are a success story.

Amen, finally some common sense here. The Polish Joke sensitivity is just silly.... Poles making fun of other Poles and getting pissed at the world for it... ;)

America looks at Poland as just another country in Europe, that's all. From the military perspective I do know that the Polish Special Ops are very well regarded, heard it myself from our green berets and 101st Airborne soldiers. I've had the privilege of getting to know a few of those guys and am a proud owner of one of those patches...

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/POL_Wojska_Specjalne.svg

I've lived in America for almost 20 years now and have lived all over it, Southeast, West Coast, Northeast, Alaska and Hawaii. I'm yet to hear a Polish joke from an American. Black and Mexican jokes? Sure pretty often, Polish jokes? Nope. Maybe if I lived in Chicago but I haven't.

PS. Are we not allowed to post pics anymore here on PF?? I noticed that no matter what I do the url creates an arbitrary space in its address here preventing posting of the photo??

The Polish and Poland has as much reason for existence as the Belgians and their fake state

the sad truth is that Poles don't know how to laugh at themselves... they take everything too seriously and too personal - attack, argue and kill... just read this forum, lol....

They can if we laugh out the stereotypes which are real in some extend.
E.g. I like the German/Austrian commercials which play with stereotype of poles being thieves (Media Markt ad, and Euro 2008 Poland-Germany ad). They could do it better to make the suspense more clear but the idea is really funny. American jokes don't make me laugh at all... maybe because i don't see nothing intelligent in this kind of humor...

no idea...


jokes don't have to be intelligent to be funny and that's OK.... sometimes we don't get jokes because of the language understanding and knowledge of its reality...

how is it possible to don't know that stuff?! You don't live in Poland, do you?

youtube.com/watch?v=Nkmkh6NfS1g

no...

I don't hear Polish jokes in Toronto BUT it annoys me how some young Polish kids refer themselves as "Polaks" all the time. A lot of the older Canadian generation refers to Poles as "Polaks" as well.

If you can't beat them, join them mentality? :)

Really? That's not what Southerners who care about their culture tell me.

Why do Southerners use the word "Yankee" in a degrading way to refer to people who put them down as "rednecks"? Because they enjoy being mocked as stupid rednecks by non-Southerners???

There may be truth to some Southerners "poking fun" at other Southerners as "rednecks" just like you have a minority of people in every group that say unorthodox things about their own people. But Southerners who are proud of their culture and see the good of their culture resent the Hollywood stereotype of them being backward morons. They resent those Southerners (and non-Southerners) who make money mimicking the Hollywood negative stereotype of Southerners. Lets not forget that the Leftist element in Hollywood that does ridicule Southerners do so because they still hold the Confederacy thing against them. Oh yeah the Hollywood people who made the Anti-Southerner movie "Deliverance" are just loved by Southerners LOL

What you don't seem to realize is the effect Hollywood/mass media has on perpetuating and exaggerating a stereotype for the worse.

But maybe the Southerners, as misguided as they are, who do "poke fun" at other Southerners as "rednecks" do so because they know a "Southerner" or a "redneck" is NOT a specific identity. It is NOT a national/ethnic ancestry. They know that a "Southerner" or "redneck" could always move to the north and drop the Southern accent and change their identity. Someone who is of a given ancestry can not change their identity.


In a way you're right. The Leftist element in Hollywood that portrays Polish people and Southerners negatively, don't like them both.


As I have said before, most of the American people per se do NOT hate Polish people. It was a Leftist ELEMENT of Hollywood and the media in the 60's and 70's that used their media power to repeat hate through humor slurs against Polish people, under the guise of "humor" in an attempt to get the American people to think Poles have inferior intelligence. You honestly think all those anti-Polish slurs had no effect on people's opinions of Poles?

You keep saying Poles started these anti-Polish jokes. And lets call them what they are..... ANTI-Polish jokes or INSULT Jokes. Lets stop being politically correct here.

You really think Polish people would make sick jokes about how great it was about Hitler invading Poland and praising the Nazis like NBC-TV "comedians" did? You think Polish people made sick jokes about Polish mothers being "PROSTITUTES"? Like Joan Rivers did when she was on NBC-TV?? Poland being "crap"?

How do you explain people in the US who did not live near any Polish people learning the exact same anti-Polish jokes as other people in non-Polish areas virtually simultaneously???? Was it Polish people you claim "started" these jokes who telepathically put these hate jokes in the minds of millions of Americans?? Tell me how Polish people did that?????

When the Polish American Guardian Society surveyed Americans in the 70's who did NOT know any Polish people, these people said they had a bad opinion of Polish people. When they were asked "How can you have a bad opinion of Polish people if you do NOT know any???

Their answer was "Oh ITS BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT POLISH PEOPLE ON TV AND IN THE MOVIES!!!!" "With all those Polish jokes I hear on TV how can anyone have anything good to say about them!"


This chart of data is not based on perception. It was based on raw data of ethnic groups' income I believe about 25 years ago (the source of this income data was Thomas Sowell. An African American columnist).

I agree Polish Americans in general are a success story measured by financial metrics. But that reality means almost nothing if your image is attacked by opinion makers in the mass media. But I will agree with you that things have gotten better for Polish Americans in comparison to the 1970's.

As for Indians and Blacks, especially blacks, blacks have almost nothing to worry about as far as their media image.

Just about every action movie, Lawyer movie, Police movie, army movie, hero movie, you name it, the authority figure/good guy/hero, etc is a black guy. They are fortunate that the mass media has a lot of sympathy for them.

You're exaggerating a bit. Most of the top films in Hollywood are dominated by white actors. But I know what you're saying. Still, blacks feel the need to complain about everything. Now, what year did Joan Rivers make those comments about Poland and Polish mothers? Only guy that makes anti-Polish comments sometimes is Howard Stern. And he apparently has a "Polish" wife- Beth Ostrowsky. Rivers and Stern are both nasty American Jews. My father told me that the k'ikes are trying to humiliate Poles in the media for nor not doing enough to protect them in WWII and collaborating with the Nazi's. Also, I don't think the Jews were too impressed with the Polish communists basically kicking out Jews outta Poland in the late 60's. This made Poland look bad.

Oh, will you give it a rest alright? Geez, what a nonsense. Polish jokes are just the equivalent of Irish, Italian, Belgian, French, Spanish, Turk and German jokes. The jokes are all the same, only the nationalities of the main characters change.

Huh? Americans of Polish descent are not more or less successful than their Irish, Italian, German, Dutch fellow Americans.


Huh?? Nonsense. Total nonsense.


It's fair to say that some Poles feel that need too. This thread is a living proof of that.

>^..^<

M-G (statements getting bolder about such a non-issue)

Polish jokes ?
Well, because Poles invented jokes and sense of humour too. Before Polish invention there was only sarcasm and thoughtless bashing.

I'll have some of what you're smoking :D

See, I don't need stimulants, its a gift.
Which prove my point that humour is Polish invention.

Yeah, I think you're right

Take a good look at how vicious Americans can be as soon as they perceive a comment as personal attack on them, no sense of humor whatsoever. Read some of the comments made by your compatriots on this very forum, then we can speak of who's guilty of what sin.

This is one Polish attribute I have not developed, fortunately. Self-deprecating humour is me :) Which probably explains why I get on with people round here and on the "western" side of England.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that there must be some kind of geographical "dividing line" for humour - I seem to be able to have a good laugh with Manc/North West people (even Sc*users :0 ), Brummies/yam yams, and even Bristolians (though, in the case of the latter, it probably helps that I'm trying extremely hard to keep a straight face, while listening to the ridiculous accent lol). But in the case of places to the "east" of this proposed dividing line (Yorkshire/Notts/South East etc) I simply don't get their humour whatsoever, and they don't seem to get mine either. Suits me, though :D

Best not to tell that in Manc though. I have found that divide too over the years. The one exception is Geordies (Newcastle for those of you who do not recognise the term) with whom I always get on well with.

so what ?whatsoever it means !

This explains the little bit of self-imposed censorship above ;)


Likewise. I think my "dividing line" must proceed directly East towards the North Sea once you get north of the Lake District haha :)

I wasn't looking at the us versus them comparisons, I simply agree with pgtx that Polish jokes, something other Poles came up with generations ago to make fun of themselves and lighten up the mood has become such a sensitive issue. Unnecessary because they're so rare to begin with.

PS. You quoted pgtx's words under my name. My quote would've been:


;)

MediaWatch


Hollywood did not invent Polish jokes or Redneck jokes. Actually Hollywood were "johnnie come latelies" to the Polish Jokes. Polish jokes were inside jokes among Polish Americans in the 50's and 60's. Hollywood didn't pick up on Polish jokes until the TV show "All in the Family" with the character Archie Bunker. That was 1975 and by than Polish jokes were petering out.

The term Redneck refers to poor rural Southern whites (the peasant would be the Polish equivalent). The term Redneck comes from farmers on tractors looking down at the crops while they plow and getting a sunburn on their neck in the process (I got my college degree in the South and that's how they explained it to me). Rednecks are proud of being rednecks. I listen to Country Western Radio and every second song is something about rednecks. Jeff Foxworthy has popularized Redneck jokes. Foxworthy ain't Hollywood.

In fact Redneck jokes are nothing more than Polish jokes that I used to hear in the Old Neighborhood. Same thing, just change the subject.

After WWII there were a lot of Polish refugees that came to the States. The Polish Refugees (called DP's for Displaced Persons). Well my dad rented an apartment to one of these DP couples and one day I was walking by and noticed through the window that one of their kids was drinking their milk through a glass jar that previously held jams or jellies or something. The point being they were so cheap they wouldn't buy something like a glass cup to drink out of, they would use an old jar that came with jam/jellie purchase. Or when they would blow a fuse they would stuff a penny in the socket and than screw the bad fuse back in because they were too cheap to buy a new fuse. The penny would bypass the bad fuse but by so doing you defeat the purpose of the fuse and the house can catch on fire. So I remember one day my dad arguing with the DP's about not putting pennies in the fuse box. He in his best 1880's peasant Polish and her in her modern Polish (I presume, I don't speak either). I don't think they understood each other. So my dad just bought a box of fuses and left them on the top of the fuse box. But the point being you don't get mad, you laugh. "Ah,they're from the old country ... putting pennies in my fuse box!" You make a joke out of the situation. That's where Polish jokes come from. You don't get mad, you laugh. Polish jokes are a way to relieve the day to day stress of assimilation into a new country. This is where Polish jokes come from.

I believe the jokes were supported by US establishment after WWII as an excuse for abandoning Poland. Poland was the 4th allied power, after Soviet Union, US and England and before France. But it was France who got the permanent seat on the Security Council. To defend this betrayal it was convenient to tell people that Polish people were 'bad', stupid and everything in between.

Another issue is Poles in Hollywood movies, in 50s very famous movies had Polish elements, like Someone Like It Hot, The Westside Story, On The Waterfront, The Streetcar Named Desire, etc. Then it ended, why?