Looks like there is already a Dope thread for that (does that suprise anyone?) if you want to continue it there. And it gives me an excuse to do my first 16-year thread bump!
OK, since you asked for it. Here’s a list I have on my computer that I’ve compiled over time. I’ll admit that some of the words are fairly obscure, but they can all be found in some dictionary. They also are all pronounced differently when capitalized. The first definition is the capitalized one:
Ares Greek god; plural of “are”, unit of land measure
August Eighth month; marked by majestic dignity
Bund Federation; irrigation embankment
Chou Chinese dynasty; type of pastry
Dives A rich man; plural of “dive”
Ewe West African people; female sheep
Job Biblical character; occupation
Junker Prussian aristocrat; beat up car
Manes Deified spirits of Roman dead; plural of “mane”
Polish Language of Poland; put a shine on something
Sung Chinese dynasty; past tense of “sing”
Tang Chinese dynasty; sharp flavor
I don’t pretend this list is complete. I’m sure there are others out there.
In Indiana, they tell Kentucky jokes. I’m sure people in Kentucky tell Hoosier jokes.
Best one I ever heard: “Why wasn’t Jesus born in Kentucky?”
A: “They couldn’t find three wise men, and a virgin.”
Anyone else thinking of TBBT ep. where Sheldon thinks the word is “Polish,” and it’s really “polish.”
Sheldon draws sausages (Polish sausages), the solar system, discovered by Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, and Madame Curie, dead from radiation poisoning, who was a naturalized French citizen, but Polish by birth, and Leonard can’t get it.
Penny draws a fingernail with polish, and Amy gets it in two seconds.
That may be my favorite episode.
Half Polish here, with the prominent features.
Never really caught on, the jokes could be universally applied to any group, I usually heard them from other people who had Polish Heritage. The only stereotypical joke I’ve heard was about drunkenness and it’s believable, I lived on the NW side for a few years and seen many Polish passed out on lawns. Other than that, I don’t think it’s a thing. Never really heard Italian jokes for that matter either.
Oh, Job/job is another good one, and comes closest to another everyday word. I’ll check the other thread that was resurrected to see if there’s anything else I like in there.
<Not a joke> Once Howard Cosell was announcing a boxing match and one fighter was Polish. Cosell kept referring to him as “the Polack.” At one point, he even said, “…the Polack. And I do not mean that in the derogatory sense.”
Howard was a gem but at that moment he was an idiot.
And Big Chuck was Chuck Schodowski, as Polish as they come. Many of the jokes referenced Parma, a large Cleveland suburb with thousands of Polish descent. They seemed to take it as a point of pride. One of the common references was to pink flamingo lawn ornaments in Parma. They became a good seller in stores. Heck, you can probably still find them today.
I just tried Googling and as soon as I had typed “Parma pin…” up popped the whole phrase.
Dennis
The reason for Polish? As I recall, the first Polish Joke i ever heard was “What do Polish soldiers do for calisthenics?” The person giving the answer raises his hands in a gesture of surrender. This was in about 1965, not long after the end of WWII, and the relatively unenthusiastic resistance put up by the Polish military defense was contemporaneous with living memory, so it resonated with experience.
Whether or not that was actually the original Polish Joke, I do not know. But it lent an air of credibility to the meme. I had the impression at the time that Polish Jokes seemed to motivate from Chicago, even though the first place I heard them was Montreal… Such as “Why are Poles not allowed to swim in Lake Michigan? Because they leave a ring.” And “You can tell the bride at a Polish wedding by her clean bowling shirt” would gain traction in a region like the Midwest, where bowling was highly popular.
In '75, when I was 10, we moved from suburban Chicago to Green Bay. I heard a lot of the same jokes in both places, but what were Polish jokes in Chicago were Belgian jokes in Green Bay – GB had a history of Belgian immigrants; the biggest section of the phone book was “V” (all of the Vande___, Vanden___, and Vander___).
I remember my 7th grade science teacher would occaisionally have a “tell polish jokes” day. He was serious about saying if you found it offensive then leave the classroom. Didn’t know it then but I’m sure I had a few mortified classmates of Polish heritage. Teacher was a dick to say the least.
It was the era of the polish/Italian jokebook. One I remember was “What’s a Polish shikabob?” “Flaming arrow thru a trashcan.” And the rest were similar…
Growing up in Indiana in the 1970s, we told Polish jokes as well. They were generic “dumb person” jokes that could be, and have been, done with many ethnic groups. They were never directed at a specific person.
As has been mentioned, when we were telling them, the word used was not “Polish.” As far as I know, there was no large Polish population in our school or our part of Indiana.* The ethnic implications of those jokes were completely lost on us (or at least on me). I had no real idea what the word “Polack” meant. To me, it was just a funny-sounding word that meant “stupid person.” It wasn’t until years later that I learned that it was a slur on Polish people.
*Indiana does contain Kosciusko County (county seat: Warsaw), but I didn’t grow up anywhere near there.
In Waupun, all those Vandes were called Hollanders, and they’d have been Hollander jokes.
Maybe something like this has been said (I just did a fast scan) but I got chided at Assembly (a church gathering) for telling Polish jokes and someone made the serious suggestion that I switch it to something like Hittite since the chances are slim of having any ancient peoples within hearing range. My response was “OK — there were these two Hittites named Stash and Joe ------------”
snort
In Minnesota, where there are a lot of Polish folks, they tell Finlander jokes. “Ya, you know Eino and Toivo walked into a bar. . .”
So maybe it’s time to add the best (terminal) Polish joke I know…Guy bursts into a bar and shouts to the bartender, “Hey, I just heard the best Polish joke in the world!”
The bartender leans towards him. “Pal… see those three huge guys on the barstools? They’re Polish. And the guy in the booth over there? He’s a Polish cop so tough he works without a partner. And me, well, I ain’t no little guy and you might have noticed the place is named ‘Kowalski’s.’” So you really want to tell that Polish joke?"
“It’s okay,” the guy says cheerfully. “I’ll tell it reallll slowww.”
Posted as a monument to the cluelessness of that era. 
Somewhat reminds me of what I assume is an apocryphal story my friend told me that they were in a bar back in the 80s, and one guy launches into his joke: “A Polack, a nigger, and a spic walk into a bar…” and, behind them, there is a table full of black men who took offense, stood up, and said, “What did you say?” To which the joketeller turns to them and says, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were Polish.” And that, apparently, defused the situation. Of course, I am assuming this is apocryphal.
My experience was similar in (Chicagoland) Indiana in the 70s, but there is of course a sizable Polish population in Chicago.
I had a friend from Poland who moved to the US when he was in his twenties, and was surprised (and somewhat amused) when he found out that Americans told Polack jokes. He had never heard about it before he got here.
Interesting! My cousins with the Norskie jokes were in the western part of the state, where Norwegians had settled in greater numbers than around Green Bay.
They were at least a quarter Norwegian themselves, now that I think about it…