# Polish insult **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802 "2009-06-24T04:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/21 "2009-06-25T07:06:21Z")
The joke was not about Polish people. The joke was that Will Ferrell is an idiot. Having said that, it is perfectly ok to insult a nationality. It’s also perfectly ok to insult a race. There are no rules. We are all allowed to say whatever we want. What you want to get offended by is up to you. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/22 "2009-06-25T08:12:37Z")
> [@](#): > > **Diogenes the Cynic** : It’s also perfectly ok to insult a race. There are no rules. We are all allowed to say whatever we want. Maybe at your house in Minnesota. Not true at my house in Nashville. That’s my sanctuary and it’s private property. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/23 "2009-06-25T08:19:54Z")
Of all the places in the world, I gotta think that if Diogenes was talking about Zoe’s house in Nashville, he would’ve mentioned that. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/24 "2009-06-25T10:49:22Z")
> [@dmheat](#): > > Maybe the line should’ve been, “Forget the African-Americans, it’s the T-Rex’s that are the dummies of the world.” > […] > What are the rules here? What group of people can we insult and who can do the insulting? What insults and jokes are ok and which ones cross the line? I need a handbook here. Tell you what: I’ll make you a flow chart of which nationalities and groups are allowed to insult which. I think the basics are obvious: African-Americans can always insult white people and women can always insult men, but the reverse isn’t always true. Anybody can insult the French and the French can insult anybody, but the British can only make fun of the Germans on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the Italians can only make fun of the Russians every other Saturday. The Russians can make fun of the Albanians in the afternoon, and Albanians can tease the Portguese on non-holiday weekends. The Portugese can gently mock the Dutch, but only on the first Monday of the month, and the Dutch can tease the Belgians on weekdays _provided they remain jovial and it does not proceed to joshing_. Now, for the Asian countries of course all of this is reversed. For the Muslims and Jews, it works on a lunar calendar, and for the African nations I’m not really sure. I’ll need funds to study this properly. I’m thinking a modest $10 million grant will more than get me on my way. Do you have an application process or can you just make out a check to the name of my research foundation? The foundation is called CASH. > [@](#): > > Does Will Ferrell get a pass because, according to some, it’s just a stupid movie? No. He gets a pass because it’s a stupid movie, AND because you’ve misunderstood the joke, which was at the expense of Ferrell’s character and not Polish people. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/25 "2009-06-25T21:36:44Z")
> [@dmheat](#): > > I need a handbook here. My hovercraft is full of eels…oh wait, that handbook’s Hungarian. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/26 "2009-06-25T21:50:02Z")
I haven’t seen the movie, but have seen the trailer dozens of times. Ferrell’s character is a moron, and he’s completely, totally WRONG about the T. Rex being dumb. The T. Rex turns out to be a lot smarter than Ferrell! Would it be fair to say, then, the Ferrell might be wrong about the Poles, too? Hmm? ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/27 "2009-06-26T04:07:53Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > …and the Italians can only make fun of the Russians every other Saturday. Wait, every _other_ Saturday? Damn it, my chart is wrong! God knows what insults I’ve missed taking umbrage over. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/28 "2009-06-26T04:54:19Z")
:mad: > [@Jophiel](#): > > If I got upset about this, I’d have to feel bad about calling my sister a Polack when I catch her stuffing her purse with lemon bars at the buffet (yes, we’re of Polish descent). Dammit, I thought any joke regarding stealing lemon bars was a Norskie joke. I loves me some lemon bars. I’m some sorta Norskie, but I don’t care who made them, Squarehead, Polack, or whoever. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![US\_News\_Review](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@US\_News\_Review](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/US_News_Review)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/29 "2009-07-15T09:11:22Z")
> [@MissSwitac](#): > > How come there’s been no uproar about the insult to Polish people that was said by Will Ferrells character in the Land of the Lost movie? I don’t know the exact line, but it was something about the intelligence of Polish people versus the T Rex. > > Would that have been tolerated if he had insulted the black race? I know telling blacks they have nappy hair is a no no, but is it ok to say they are stupid? > > Are Polish jokes back in style again? Well there is a double standard when it comes to ethnic insult “jokes”. When Don Imus made one joke about blacks, he got thrown off the radio. The mass media (not all of it) seems to feel that some ethnic groups are “more equal then others” so they speak out more against some ethnic prejudices then others. So called Polish “jokes” have been on the decline since the TV Networks that pushed it hard in the 1970’s and 80’s don’t do it as much since they have received complaints from Poles and other fair minded Americans who were against this Anti-Polish racism/bigotry. Nevertheless, this racist stereotype that Poles have subhuman intelligence comes up every so often, like in this Will Ferrell movie. The ironic thing is that the origin of Polish jokes came from Nazi propaganda since the Nazis saw Poles as having subhuman intelligence since they are Slavic. That’s the dirty little secret that Hollywood and certain TV bigots don’t want to disclose. As for Will Ferrell, sadly he appears to be an anti-Polish bigot. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of the anti-Polish bigots around him encouraged him to push his anti-Polish slur. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/30 "2009-07-15T10:35:41Z")
Other than this one joke in this one Ferrell movie, are there examples of other Polish jokes in the media in the last 20 years or so? It seems like we as a culture have agreed that these jokes are lame and they’ve died out. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/31 "2009-07-15T10:42:02Z")
> [@US\_News\_Review](#): > > As for Will Ferrell, sadly he appears to be an anti-Polish bigot. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of the anti-Polish bigots around him encouraged him to push his anti-Polish slur. Or it could be a stupid joke in a stupid movie, intended more to malign the character who spoke it than the subject. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/32 "2009-07-15T10:50:41Z")
> [@MissSwitac](#): > > How come there’s been no uproar about the insult to Polish people that was said by Will Ferrells character in the Land of the Lost movie? Because _YOU_ screwed up and forgot to raise one. Didn’t you see your name on the schedule? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/33 "2009-07-15T10:51:46Z")
> [@US\_News\_Review](#): > > The ironic thing is that the origin of Polish jokes came from Nazi propaganda since the Nazis saw Poles as having subhuman intelligence since they are Slavic. That’s the dirty little secret that Hollywood and certain TV bigots don’t want to disclose. Can you give something to back that up, other than your opinion? I have no doubt that Polish Jokes were told by Russians prior to the Nazis, much in the way that in the U.S. jokes about the stupid Irish and stupid Blacks were fashionable in the 19th Century. ---
**Author:** ![SleepyDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SleepyDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleepyDuck)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/34 "2009-07-15T11:04:23Z")
Heh. I was in grade school in the 70s when “polack” jokes were all the rage. I didn’t find out until years later that they were actually referring to people of Polish descent. Didn’t make the jokes any more funny. This was also about the time I learned I shouldn’t be saying that someone “gypped” me out of a nickel, 'cause, you know… 'Course this was from my (what would now be called) PC mother. My dad was still obsessed with the “japs” that had moved in down the street of our white trash neighborhood. Of course the Nazis wouldn’t have won the war if they hadn’t caught all the Polacks’ hand grenades, pulled out the pins, then threw them back. Archie Bunker indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/35 "2009-07-15T11:06:40Z")
I haven’t seen LotL, don’t plan to, and think Will Ferrell needs a good smack. That said, it was probably intended as a cultural reference (or a metajoke, if you like); as noted, in America there used to exist a stereotype of Polish people as stupid. Ferrell was referencing that stereotype. Which is not to say it isn’t still a stupid movie. _On preview_: I thought the Polish jokes came from Russian immigrants, not the Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/36 "2009-07-15T11:12:04Z")
I have a feeling that Polish jokes probably originated from American Jews who had emigrated from Poland and hated the ethnic Poles. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/37 "2009-07-15T15:13:28Z")
> [@US\_News\_Review](#): > > Well there is a double standard when it comes to ethnic insult “jokes”. > > When Don Imus made one joke about blacks, he got thrown off the radio. The mass media (not all of it) seems to feel that some ethnic groups are “more equal then others” so they speak out more against some ethnic prejudices then others.(snip) Don Imus did not make a joke about blacks. Don Imus called one specific group of black atheletes “nappy-headed hos”. That’s an entirely different thing. For one, it wasn’t a joke, it was just an insult. Q. Why does it take three Polacks to screw in a light bulb? A. Because they’re so stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/38 "2009-07-15T15:57:13Z")
> [@US\_News\_Review](#): > > When Don Imus made one joke about blacks, he got thrown off the radio. Imus lost his job with MSNBC, but within a couple of months Imus in the Morning was back on the radio and on TV. It also wasn’t really one joke, it was a series of remarks, and it wasn’t even close to the first time he’d gotten in trouble for insensitive comments. > [@](#): > > As for Will Ferrell, sadly he appears to be an anti-Polish bigot. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if some of the anti-Polish bigots around him encouraged him to push his anti-Polish slur. Is this parody or do you actually believe there’s some kind of anti-Polish cabal trying to get Polish jokes put into movies? Even from the text alone, it’s clear the joke is that Ferrell’s character is an idiot for believing stupid things about Poles - not that Polish people are actually stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/39 "2009-07-15T17:51:52Z")
> [@MissSwitac](#): > > But that was my funny line. Really? How unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![US\_News\_Review](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@US\_News\_Review](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/US_News_Review)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802/40 "2009-07-15T20:09:41Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Can you give something to back that up, other than your opinion? > > I have no doubt that Polish Jokes were told by Russians prior to the Nazis, much in the way that in the U.S. jokes about the stupid Irish and stupid Blacks were fashionable in the 19th Century. I never heard anything about the Russians but Germany even before WWII had always looked at the Poles as having “inferior intelligence” since they were Slavic. They saw all of Eastern/Slavic Europe as being “inferior” culturally and intellectually, etc. This hatred of Poles peaked during Nazi Germany where Polish “jokes” can be found in Hitler’s speeches after he invaded Poland. But in fairness to Germany of 2009 I don’t believe this hatred still exists or is as intense as years past. There were always ethnic jokes made about people who were immigrants to a new nation like the US. They were jokes usually along the lines of how that ethnic group “didn’t fit in” to society. These were made about the Italians, Irish, Poles, etc. But the “jokes” about Poles having inferior/subhuman intelligence was imported by Hollywood and the TV networks like NBC-TV in the 1960’s and 1970’s, from Nazi propaganda, because of their hatred of Poles (Hypocritically, Hollywood hates Nazi propaganda but not when its applied to Poles). The Polish American Guardian Society and most Polish groups and newspapers saw all these TV and Hollywood shows with Anti-Polish jokes as part of a hate campaign against Poles, and they are right. Origin of the Polish joke from Polish American Journal [http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/The\_Origin\_of\_the\_Polish\_Joke/the\_origin\_of\_the\_polish\_joke.html](http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/The_Origin_of_the_Polish_Joke/the_origin_of_the_polish_joke.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-insult/500802.md?page=3)