Mea culpa.
Is this acceptable?
Saying that a joke by a moronic character against a non-oppressed ethnic group is worse than being beaten to death because someone thinks you’re an illegal immigrant is probably a position taken with the deliberate intent to piss people off.
Psst - “…comes across as disingenuous” is probably more diplomatic.
But I for one plan to write to the networks and demand that they take All In The Family, The Carol Burnett Show and Johnny Carson off the air immediately… right after I write to the BBC to demand cancellation of The Black and White Minstrel Show.
Not really. Gyrate is correct: if you’re really compelled to question whether or not somebody means what they are saying, you should steer far clear of saying or implying they are trolling. Saying they’ve probably made an argument “with the deliberate intent to piss people off” is not an improvement. Those kinds of comments usually derail debates whether you actually use the t-word or not. So please don’t do this any further in this forum.
EDIT: There’s also no need to apologize to me; I’m not the one you said was trolling. 
Hrm, I’d question whether there’s actually debate going on here that could be derailed. 
And, you’ll note, I didn’t apologize–I simply admitted my fault.
Okay, I finally gotta chime in here. I didn’t think this was going anywhere, but after three effing pages …
Background: I’m half-Polish. My mother was born and raised in Warszawa, most of my relatives on her side of the family still live in Poland (most in W-wa) and growing up I spoke Polish *before *I learned a word of English, though I have absolutely no discernible accent. But my mom’s Polish accent is so thick that after more than two decades of living in this country some people still have a hard time understanding her.
And with that in place, I gotta say to **US News Review **… are you serious, dude?
I guess you gotta be, since you’re devoting so much time and energy to this thread.
But, honestly, the thing’s you’re saying … they’re your opinions and you’re entitled to them and all, but it’s fair to say most people totally disagree with you. This notion you have, of either the Hollywood/media (?) or the whole country being viciously, violently anti-Polish … well, nobody else here has seen any of that beside you. (I’m discounting any examples from 1980 or before, since those examples are quite literally older than I am and thus invalid as critiques of **current **pop culture or social currents.) Since most of us live in the States and consume Hollywood/media, I’d think *someone *else on this board would have noticed these “cruel” and “vicious” jokes.
Maybe I would have? You know, being Polish, and having a parent with an unmistakeable accent? We moved around a fair bit when I was a kid, so we lived in different regions of the country, in tiny little burbs and near fairly large cities, New England to The South. You’d think I’d have remembered encountering this rampant anti-Polishness, since it’s so vicious and all.
Maybe sit down with some popcorn and watch a Carlos Mencia stand-up routine. He methodically makes fun of everyone. There’s a point to it, too - we’re all God’s chillun. No one is more or less anything, so we’re all the butt of each others’ jokes.
Well, I don’t know…when he does his “de-de-de” routine, I suppose he could be talking about Poles.
Joke! Joke! It was a joke!
Why do so many Pollock names end in ski?
Because their ancestors did not know how to spell tobaggon.
They have always been big in Detroit.
Watch Carlos Mencia?! My God! Will this relentless torment of the Poles never end?
In fact, according to the article in TIME, Poles in Poland do joke about their own intelligence. One example, from Poland, showed a circle of dots surrounding a single dot in the middle. The punch line called it “a Polish firing squad.”
Your tunnel vision about Polish people being the butt of jokes is remarkable. You seem to totally ignore most of American humor. Open your eyes, friend, and look around. Most TV sitcoms are built around the idiotic behavior of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Perfect Strangers got a couple of seasons out of milking the ignorance of Balki, a Greek immigrant. The Beverly Hillbillies was immensely successful in playing on the ignorance of American mountain people. A generation earlier, The Real McCoys did the same.
The basic sitcom is based on its characters acting stupidly. In most cases, it’s WASPs, but in The Goldbergs, it was Jews. In most black-cast sitcoms, it was the African Americans playing the fools. On Taxi, Andy Kaufman played Latka Gravas, a dimwit of uncertain ethnicity, but probably not Polish.
To sum up, in American comedy, everybody’s an idiot. When there’s a Polish character, he’s an idiot, too.
I figured the actual line was funnier than the summaries above–but in poking around in other sources, the OP’s description sounded pretty accurate. I wonder if this is a case in which a joke was so unfunny that its intent is hard to determine? If the joke were funny, people would be too busy to look for offense, but given its totally flat lameositude, there’s nothing to distract people from wondering whether it’s intended to perpetuate stereotypes.
Good one Adolf. Just make sure you did the Zig Heil salute after telling that one.
My earlier warning was not a suggestion. Do not do this again. You’re new here and should familiarize yourself with the rules in the Registration Agreement. If you continue insulting other posters, your stay here will be a short one.
According to the Sheila Roberts interview referenced earlier:
*Q: It’s been so long since anyone has done Polish jokes. Have they come back around?
WILL FERRELL: Yeah, probably.
Q: Are you expecting any kind of blow back from the Polish community?
WILL FERRELL: I would be flattered if there was. Yeah. I know, it’s so funny. It made us laugh, the fact of reintroducing that in it, and especially that Rick Marshall would use that as a reference. It’s like in his nerdy mind it would be like, “It’s a pretty funny reference, right?” But that’s funny that you’d pick that out.*
(Rick Marshall is the name of the character.) So, yeah, the whole point is that this character is so nerdy and out of the loop that he would think a “dumb Polack” reference is funny.
I don’t believe the American people are anti-Polish. I am Pro-American and I love America. I feel that when you talk to most Americans one on one they are generally fair minded and decent people. Although I am proud of my Polish ancestry I am proud of being AN American FIRST. My loyalty will always be to America FIRST.
All of the Anti-Polish propaganda that I talked about above did NOT come from the American people.
My criticisms were never about the American people but for those in the TV/Hollywood media who unfairly pushed racist stereotypes against Polish people over the decades, because of some kind of twisted anti-Polish prejudice of theirs. In my opinion, these Anti-Polish bigots in the media are NOT real Americans, since Americans in general have a sense of fair play and are not bigots which aren’t qualities these TV/media types bashing Poles have.
I recognize that this type of Polish-bashing that was rampant decades ago when the mass media was going crazy knocking Poles, does not exist today…at least nowhere as intense as decades ago.
My questioning has been along the lines of the impact of all this Anti-Polish propaganda on the American people and the residual Anti-Polish bias today. Although we are all Americans, for some reason there is always this emphasis on everyone’s race and ethnic background in the US.
We’re always hearing from the media about “The first Black NFL Football coach”, “The first Latina nominee Supreme Court Justice”, Irish day parade, Italian day parade, etc etc.
Since there is all this fixation on everyone’s race and ethnicity it just makes makes me conscious of my Polish ethnicity and the need to defend it since at some level, people are judging you on your ethnicity. And sad to say over the decades the Anti-Polish bigots in the media have fed the American people a ton of Anti-Polish propaganda which I’m merely speaking out against.
Anti-Polish prejudice today is a lot more subtle then decades ago when it was full blown in the mainstream. In light of that, I submit to you that if you were to go to people you meet across the country and compare Polish people to other ethnic groups, especially European ethnic groups, the Poles would come in last.
If you were to list 10 European ethnic groups with the Polish people and have people rank them as far as their positive attributes, the Polish people would come in last. That’s a direct result of the decades of Polish bashing coming from the Un-American Polish-haters in the media.
The “No true Polack” argument, huh?
It doesn’t matter how dumb the Poles are typically - they still average out pretty well because of Marie Curie. Heck, she discovered and named Polonium.
In other words, it doesn’t exist. Which also explains why you could only find two examples from the last quarter century or so - and you misunderstood at least one of them.
So its OK to make ethnic slurs on this forum? which is what I was responding to.
When someone makes an Anti-Polish slur. is it OK to point out that it sounds like Nazi propaganda as long as its not a personal comment about another poster?
Evidently you haven’t read all my posts and their attachments.
Again, read the registration agreement. Ethnic slurs are not allowed. Obvious jokes usually are. You responded to the “ethnic slurs” (jokes) by insulting other posters, which is not allowed.
I think you’ve made that claim enough times in this thread already. In general, criticizing another poster’s arguments is allowed and insulting the person who makes the argument is not.