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What is the reason for POLISH jokes ? [486]
MediaWatchIn a way you're right. The Leftist element in Hollywood that portrays Polish people and Southerners negatively, don't like them both.
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.