How did the Polish become the butt of so many jokes? I know quite a few folks of Polish decent and they seem to be reasonably intelligent people. Was there a time when the Polish were considered simpletons and that jokes were aimed at them out of ignorance? Personally, I don’t know any Poles who are consistent with the stereotype. Now the Irish, on the other hand …
I know a number of Polish people most of them have Ph Ds in BioChemistry and stuff like that. my old 7th grade social Studies teacher used to tell polish jokes all the time. he’d always come back with “but they held off the Germans on one side and the Russians on the other for two weeks so thay can’t be that dumb” but why they are I have no idea.
Someone one once told me the Poles and Irish were last large waves of immigrants to hit our shores before the days of P.C., hence these jokes have stuck around.
Here in central MN the big ethnic jokes seem to be Polish and Ole and Sven (Scandinavian) jokes, of which there are many. Not so many German jokes, though - if my theory above is correct, the German jokes morphed into Polock jokes.
I think it came about the same time EVERY other Nationality was viewed as inferior to American. Remember all those ‘Chinese’ characters in movies back when. They were bumbling idiots. Now we know the truth- every high schooler finds some Asian kid to copy off of.
I am not sure exactly when it started, or why. Actually I am not sure of anything I just said. But I think I make a decent point. Poland is/was not the only country looked at ass moronic or idiotic. But somehow they did get stuck with all the “Are you a smart American or Dumb Poloc…” jokes. I bet it was more by chance. It could just as easily have been Dumb Swede, Dumb German (nope not German- Einstein), Dumb Columbian, Dumb Peruvian… I think Dumb Poloc has a better ring to it. Was there some kind of even that focused our attention to Poland back then? Did they do something really stupid during the wars? Did they really have submarines with screen doors and helicopters with ejection seats? If so, I think that could be the reason.
Being of Irish descent in a large Polish community, I will concur with sandyr. That’s the explanation I’ve always heard.
Funny thing about these two ethnic groups though. Seems like neither one much cares about the jokes. I mean, I hear people with last names like “Czlapinski” tell Polish jokes to "Przyrbilski"s, and they don’t seem to care much. I guess they see the jokes for what they are rather than attach their culture to it.
Likewise, the Irish are notorious for being proud of everything others make fun of them for (drunkenness, laziness, rowdiness).
Perhaps that’s why these two groups still have jokes made about them - they don’t really care.
I’m at work right now and don’t have access to my books, but…
I think Stephen J. Gould, in his The Mismeasure of Man, mentions widespread IQ testing of new immigrants arriving in America during the early 20th century, with the results separated by ethnicity. For whatever reason (he gives a long description of how the testing procedures were hideously flawed (still are, IMO)), Eastern Europeans, Poles in particular, scored lower than other European groups. He claims this is the origin of “Polish Jokes”.
When I get home tonight I’ll find where he says this and post a cite.
–sublight.
I remember hearing a LONG time ago something about how dumb pollock jokes originated from their pathetically inferior air force in WWII. I have no idea if this is true or not but it was supposedly something about how while the Americans and Germans…etc were flying the fighter planes of the day, the Poles were flying ancient bi-planes. At first glance this doesnt seem to be fair basis for decades of dumb pollock jokes but apparently they crudely attached old machine guns to these planes and alot of the gunners shot the tails off of their own planes. You gotta admit that would be funny as hell to see and it would definately be basis for dumb pollock jokes if it happened enough times. (BTW i heard this long before ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ came out so i couldnt just be something that someone made up after seeing that movie.)
Its been a long day, did anything i just said make sense?
Are you Polish?
::shoots himself in the foot:: huh? 
Polish Air Force
Really? Last time I was in the States I saw one of those ‘Legends of Air Power’ shows on the Speed Channel. The subject was a Polish-American pilot who flew with the Polish Air Force in the early days of WWII (pre-Pearl Harbor, I assume). According to the program, their equipment was about average, but their pilots were quite skilled. The American used what he learned from them to train the US pilots later in the war.
I can’t remember the name of the pilot the program was about. Gabby something, I think. He served in the USAF until the 80s, eventually becoming a General, IIRC. Anyone?
–sublight.
Maybe what i heard was about World War One. Then again maybe what i heard wasn’t even true at all.
Consider: When Hitler’s Panzer division rolled into Poland, the Poles having no armour, counter-attacked on horse-back! Horses vs. tanks,pretty funny huh? Big Brass Balls if you ask me.
A French guy (sic) told me that the French have “Belgian jokes” instead of Polish jokes. Perhaps every country has another to pick on? Anyone know of other examples?
Consider: When Hitler’s Panzer division rolled into Poland, the Poles having no armour, counter-attacked on horse-back! Horses vs. tanks,pretty funny huh? Big Brass Balls if you ask me.
Tomas you have to imagine a soldier’s point of view. These jokes didnt originate from some white house button-pusher that’s had it made his whole life. They came from soldiers who saw fucked up shit every day, dont you think these soldiers would want to “desensitize” themselves? From a desenitized point-of-view what you just said is funny as hell, brass balls or not.
Also
When i was really young i had a babysitter from Holland, they make fun of people from Belgium too. Estonian people make fun of Finns.
Damn, someone alrady made mention of my favorite polish invention, the helicopter with an ejector seat.
aahhha hahaha haha, I slay me
Anyway, I agree that there really is no substance or basis for the vast amount of polish jokes. And to Mr. Sheepshead of course they don’t care, well most anyway, I think if people take themselves so sreiously as to get genuinely upset about some polish jokes than they got problems.
Like its been said I think everyone likes to poke fun of someone, personally I like to target the frech, or should I say froggies.
Interesting thread. I have read that the “Polish” joke originated among polish-american auto workers in Hamtramck, Michigan. Supposedly, the line workers (most were polish immigrants) would trade witty insults among themselves, which became the “polish” jokes. Interestingly, if you look at most of these jokes, you can insert any nationality (eg irish, italian, french-canadian. etc.) and have a similar story line. Onw rhing I have never heard of-the “japanese” joke. Since there was a large immigration of japanese to the west coats-California areas, one would expect some kind of ethnoc humor among them. Any nisei care to enlighten us? Are htere “japanese” jokes?
ok, I promised a cite in my earlier post, and here it is.
Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, Penguin Books 1981, p.197
"From Boring’s ocean of numbers, three ‘facts’ rose to the top and continued to influence social policy in America long after their source in the tests had bene forgotten.
…
- European immigrants can be graded by their country of origin… The average Russian has a mental age of 11.34; the Italian, 11.01; the Pole, 10.74. The Polish joke attained the same legitimacy as the moron joke – indeed, they described the same animal."
Which actually doesn’t claim the test results were the source of the Polish joke. My mistake. Sorry.
–sublight, sub-moron.
I’d always heard the explanation that it stemmed from WWII, too. At first thought, cavalry against tanks is suicidally stupid. But then, if you think about it: They had no choice. Their options were a suicidal charge that might have a chance of taking out a few Nazis, or being conquered and enslaved by the most vile group in modern history. That’s brave, not stupid.
By the way, Bear_Nenno, I don’t think that the Germans would have been protected from jokes just because of Einstein. If I’m asked toname three famous Poles, I’ll say Copernicus, Curie, and JP2, smart folks all.
My dad (whose name ended with “ski”) said before he’d ever heard Poish jokes, Bohemian jokes were all the rage.
Q: Why didn’t the Bohemians kill themselves during the stock market crash?
A: You can’t kill yourself jumping out of a basement window.
Oh man, that one always cracks me up!
That is not inconsistent w/ the WWII origin suggested above.
Hey, everyone wants to make fun of someone.
BTW, know why my dad’s (and my) names end with “ski”?
Cause we can’t spell toboggan!
Har Har!
Just as another data point: In Hawaii, Polish jokes aren’t told, but Portagee jokes are. Portagee is a slur for Portuguese. Portuguese were the principle non-Asian settlers of Hawaii.