This ran in The New Yorker a few years ago:
Poem in the Manner of Dorothy Parker
by David LehmanDorothy Parker
who wrote witty stories,
did not foresee
that spectacles would be-
come fashion accessories.
“Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.”And today,
in Washington Square Park
I thought of her, Miss Parker,
and what she might say
assessing the spectacles of our day:
“Even the nicest lasses
Have tattoos on their asses.”
I suspect Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine the Operator would fall flat with younger audiences today. When was the last time someone placed a call using an operator? I don’t even know what would happen if I dialed 0 on my cell phone. And the schtick had lots of references to Ma Bell and the problems of a telephone monopoly.
Edith Ann would hold up better, I think. “Hi, I’m Edith Ann and I’m five years old… and that’s the truthbthbthbthb.”
Thanks, I was going to mention that.
On Letterman she did a Top Ten List of Dolly Parton’ s pet peeves that included, “All those smartass MCs who introduce you by saying, ‘And now, here they are, Dolly Parton,’” and “Nobody notices I’ve got a great ass, too!”
When I was in sixth grade in 1993, I had a teacher who insisted on referring to improper fractions (e.g. 5/2 or 7/3 or other fractions which equal >1) as “Dolly Parton fractions” because they’re top-heavy.
I had absolutely no idea what that meant, so the joke was already out of date by then.
It was all part of the joke, referring to the fact that both Richard Pryor and Michael Jackson had incidents where they were set on fire.
My theory:
Polish jokes are about one group of oeople being really stupid, and misinterpreting things and/or doing things the wrong way. Or about them being particularly dirty and unhygenic.
I’m of Polish ancestry, by the way. All four grandparent were born in someplace that was, at one time or another, Poland.
Anyway, that kind of joke is pretty much universal and perpetual – there are always jokes about somebody doing something the stupid way – what varies is the nationality of the stupid people. You have the equivalent of these jokes being told elsewhere, but about different groups of people. They probably tell similar jokes in Poland, but about – I don’t know – Czechs or something.
The jokes were told in the US about the immigrant Poles because the immigrants were frequently not well off or well-educated. And Polish, unlike Italian or French, isn’t a “Romance” language, is hard to spell (“too many consonants. I’d like to buy a vowel.”) and sounds unlovely to the unfamiliar ear. You could maybe sort of figure out what an Italian was saying, but not a Pole. So they all seemed stupid and illiterate. The perfect material for “stupid” jokes. They couldn’t even talk right.
And from the Polish immigrant’s POV, the distance between their own language and English meant that acquiring English was an especially uphill struggle. The standard Polish alphabet is even different in many ways from the one used for English & Romance languages. So even gaining the ability to figure out simple signage, a sort of pre-literacy, is harder too.
At least compared to the difficulties faced by a contemporary German, Spanish, or Italian immigrant. Which extra struggle makes it appear that Poles are extra slow learners. AKA dumb.
Knock knock jokes that aren’t some variant of this:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
People seriously answer the door for people that haven’t dm’d in advance?
People seriously answer the door for people that haven’t dm’d in advance, who?
You, apparently. God you’re old!
Like with the female version, it is barbaric. I do hope it devolves back to Jewish/religion based chopping soon.
There is no comparison to the male circumcision. In women it is actually barbarism and a human rights violation with no medical benefits.
I was circumcised and don’t remember it at all yet still enjoy the benefits (Reduced risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs), penile cancer, and specific STIs (e.g., HPV, HIV)).
I challenge your assertion that, in males, it is barbaric.
They’re lacto-vegetarian, not vegan. The word vegetarian is occluded, the whole concept of vegetarian is occluded nowadays. But we still exist.
Back in the 70’s I assumed that pollack jokes were specifically invented because it was an acceptable, neutral and non-offensive term.
Sure, it was a slur on an ethnic group…but a group with no history (in Amercan culture) of having suffered from official discrimination, and treated hatefully. So by saying “polack” you weren’t reopening old wounds or being mean to anybody personally …you were just joking.
Well, the alphabet wasn’t THAT different – the same letters, but some with diacritical marks 9most notably the small “l” with a diagonal slash through it – Ł - Wikipedia ) But agreed that it was an uphill battle to become fluent in English. Neither of my grandmothers ever really achieved fluency – they mainly kept to their own pocket community of Polish-speakers and patronized the Polish-language shops and church.
As I’ve mentioned before, when I was a kid and “Polack” jokes were popular, I had no idea what the word meant, and certainly not that it referred to an actual ethic group. To me, it was just a funny-sounding word that meant “a stupid person.”
I certainly do. Note that I said “Don’t think I’ve ever seen”, not “I’ve never seen”. And window construction has never been a major part of my looking at houses.
I read a book on the evolution of comedy in America (as focused on comedy duos) that talked about how much vaudeville-era comedy concentrated on wordplay and mistaken-meaning humor (of which Groucho Marx was a notable exemplar). The reason behind this was the large surge of immigration in the era from southern and eastern Europe - the new arrivals, having to learn a language so different from theirs, could enjoy themselves by watching comedians implicitly poke fun at the irregular language that was giving them such fits.
When I was 5, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was on TV. I could never remember what U.N.C.L.E. stood for. An older kid at school told me it stood for “Unidentified (N-word) crossing Lake Erie.” I thought that was hilarious even though I’d never heard the second word and had no idea what it might mean. I went home and in all innocence repeated it to my mom, who was horrified: “You should never say that word! I’ve known those people, I’ve worked with them, and they are just as good as you and me!” Then I was deeply confused, until it got straightened out that I didn’t know what the word meant, and Mom explained it to me. It’s to the credit of my parents that I never heard it until exposed to the corrupting influence of white kids at school. Funny, come to think of it, the kid who told me that racist joke was Polish. Immensely proud of being Polish, would never shut up about it. He was very offended by Polack jokes.
There’s an indelible scene by the unforgettable Godfrey Cambridge in The President’s Analyst, describing his character’s first encounter with the word when he was a little boy. Absolutely heartbreaking and Godfrey really puts it across.
I’ve seen a few reactor videos on youtube, and they all seem to get the jive scene, though they don’t recognize the actress and most reactors tend to be offended at the racism aspect of it.
The joke that they never get is the running joke about Jim never having a second cup of coffee at home (and then the later callback when she says Jim never vomits at home), which is a reference to a 1970s era coffee commercial. In the commercial, the coffee at home sucks compared to the brand they are advertising which is why Jim never has a second cup.
A lot of reactors seem to get the Stayin’ Alive reference too, which surprises me. I guess that reference is still alive in memes.
United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.
(I pulled that from my so-called mind without any external assistance. Maybe I’m not so senile as all that. I turned seven in 1964, the year it premiered)