# Stupid Poles **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607 "2003-03-07T00:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bjork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9de0a6/32.png) [@Bjork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bjork)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/61 "2003-03-11T03:16:12Z")
I have to say, I am polish and I have never heard the “dumb polish” stereotype. There is the your Polish, where is your bottle of vodka And why do you not have blonde hair and blue eyes (which I guess could be transferred to dumb so it kind of all makes sense) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/62 "2003-03-31T15:20:51Z")
Anyone remember the “moron” jokes of the '50s? Why did the moron buy fish and cut off their noses? So they wouldn’t smell! Why did the moron throw a clock out the window? Because he wanted to see time fly! I heard once that the moron jokes were really just Polish jokes with the offensive ethnic references removed to make them more acceptable in polite society of the time. (Nowadays, of course, it would be considered even more offensive to make fun of retarded people than to make fun of any ethnic group.) Does anyone know the truth here? Which came to America first, the Polish joke or the moron joke? And did the one really evolve out of the other? I’m skeptical. It seems to me the classic moron joke is something fundamentally different. A moron joke usually is based on some kind of phonetic or semantic pun; it depends on the moron applying a literal interpretation to complex or ambiguous English phrases. Polish jokes tend to emphasize Poles doing really stupid things, and/or backwards things, and/or being crude, filthy slobs. E.g.: How can you tell when a Polish woman is having her period? She’s only wearing one sock! That just wouldn’t work as a moron joke. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/63 "2003-03-31T19:28:01Z")
Brainglutton, Moron jokes go back a lot further than the 1950s, but the did have a boom them. > [@](#): > > In my experience nationality-based jokes display the teller’s ignorance of the target nationality more than anything else. I really have to disagree with this, and with statements about such jokes being out of date. I’m a fairly outgoing person, and I travel a lot. In my experience, whenever you go somewhere new and meet new people (Canadians, New York Jews) one of the very first converstation topics is ethnic jokes about their culture. Ithink people see it as a friendly way to talk about stereotypes, good and bad. Additionally, old people will laugh about a mistake by claiming a “senior moment,” a Scotman will joke about his cheapness, an Italian will hit on you and then, when you shoot him down, say something like, “Hey, I’m a WOP, give me a break - we’re romantics.” People enjoy being part of a group. As for the staying power of Polish jokes, I’d say it has a lot to do with Polish-sounding names being obviously different and a lot to do with “just one of those things.” ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/64 "2003-03-31T20:28:14Z")
My favorite _real_ Polish joke (i.e., a joke at least purportedly told by Poles): > [@](#): > > During the Gdansk shipyard strikes, there were fears that the rest of the Warsaw Pact would invade Poland to put down the demonstrations and restore order. A foreign reporter asked a Polish general, “What would you do if the East Germans invaded from the west and the Russians from the East? Who would you fight first?” > > The general responds immediately, “The Germans.” > > The reporter says, “Why is that? Aren’t the Russians a bigger threat?” > > To which the general replies, “Of course, but business before pleasure.” ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/65 "2003-03-31T22:38:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > **s far as Reverse Polish Notation (RPN), I feel certain that it would never be called that if not for the nationality of the inventor.** Correct. It wouldn’t be called Polish Notation if it weren’t invented by Polish. Duh. Poland was famous for it’s logicians, best in the world, at one time. One of their accomplishments was Polish Logic notation, which Hewlett-Packard adopted for their calculators. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/66 "2003-04-01T18:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > \*\*“What’s black and blue and funny?” > > “A guy who tells Polish jokes in the wrong part of Chicago.” \*\* What’s black and white and not funny? Glen after telling one too many Polish jokes. Let’s see who gets _that_ one. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/67 "2003-04-01T20:01:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Satisfying Andy Licious \* > **…there were a notable number of Polish football players. Bronco Nagurski is probably the prototype…** Isn’t he the one who is famous for recovering a fumble and running to the _wrong goal_ for a safety instead of a touchdown? Maybe that had something to do with reinforcing the stereotype? And after hearing a lifetime of Polish jokes in the American Southwest, I was totally unprepared when I moved to the Russian/Polish section of Garfield, New Jersey. I had no idea so many Polish girls were knockouts! WOW! But then I met this Greek girl, and you know the rest. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/68 "2003-04-01T20:05:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*What’s black and white and not funny? > > Glen after telling one too many Polish jokes. > > Let’s see who gets _that_ one. \*\* That’s not from Raising Arizona, is it? > [@](#): > > Glen: Hi, how many polacks does it take to screw in a light bulb? > Hi: I don’t know, Glen, How many? > G: Three! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! > > No, wait. I told it wrong. WHY does it take three polacks to screw in a light bulb? > H: I don’t know, Glen, why? > G: Cause they’re so damn stupid! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/69 "2003-04-01T20:17:54Z")
And I’m sorry to spam the thread, but in the spirit of the first post in the thread linked to at [ukraine.com](http://ukraine.com), I have a Polish joke: How many Polish neighborhoods does it take to humiliate the German army and resist them longer than the nations of Poland and France? [One](http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/wgupris.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607/70 "2003-04-01T20:50:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Joe\_Cool \* > \*\*That’s not from Raising Arizona, is it? \*\* Yep, that was a _Raising Arizona_ reference. 🙂 If you remeber the last scene with Glen, a cop had just pulled him over and he tries to talk his way out of it with one of his “jokes”. Then you see the cop’s nameplate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-poles/159607.md?page=3)