Polish joke

A Polish joke is an ethnic joke intended to mock the Polish people in the English language based on the hostile stereotypes about them. A 'Polish joke' belongs to the category of jokes whose understanding requires prior knowledge of what a Polish joke is, because similar to all discriminatory jokes, they depend upon the audience's preconceived notions and affective dislikes for entertainment.^[1] The relationship between these internalized negative stereotypes about the Polish people and the persistence of ethnic jokes about them is not easy to trace, although they can be understood by many.^[2] Often an offensive term for the Poles themselves is used in the joke description as well, i.e. the Polack joke in English.

History

Some of the early 20th century Polish jokes might have been told originally before World War II in disputed border-regions such as Silesia, suggesting that Polish jokes did not originate in Nazi Germany, but a lot earlier, as an outgrowth of regional jokes rooted in historical social class differences.^[3] Nonetheless, these jokes were later fuelled by ethnic slurs disseminated by German warlords and National Socialist propaganda that attempted to justify the Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles by presenting them as dirty and relegating them as inferior on the basis of not being German.^[4][5]

Polish Americans became the subject of derogatory jokes at the time when Polish immigrants came to America in considerable numbers fleeing mass persecution at home perpetrated by Frederick the Great^[6] and Tsar Nicholas I.^[7][8] They took the only jobs available to them, usually requiring physical labor. The same job-related stereotypes persisted even as Polish Americans joined the middle class in the mid 20th century. "These degrading stereotypes were far from harmless. The constant derision, often publicly disseminated through the mass media, caused serious identity crises, feeling of inadequacy, and low self-esteem for many Polish Americans." During the Cold War era, despite the sympathy in the US for Poland being subjected to communism, negative stereotypes about Polish Americans endured, mainly because of the Hollywood/TV media involvement.^[9][10]

Some Polish jokes were brought to America by German displaced persons fleeing war-torn Europe in the late 1940s.^[4] During the political transformations of the Soviet controlled Eastern block in the 1980s, the much earlier German anti-Polish sentiment—dating at least to the policies of Otto von Bismarck and the persecution of Poles under the German Empire—was revived in East Germany against Solidarność (Solidarity). Polish jokes became common, reminding some of the spread of such jokes under the Nazis.^[11]

According to Christie Davies, American versions of Polish jokes are an unrelated "purely American phenomenon" and do not express the "historical Old World hatreds".^[12] This view is challenged by the Polish American Journal researchers who argue that Nazi and Soviet propaganda shaped the perception of Poles.^[13]

Negative stereotypes

United States

Debate continues whether the early Polish jokes brought to states like Wisconsin by German immigrants were directly related to the wave of American jokes of the early 1960s.^[3] Since the late 1960s, Polish American organizations made continuous effort to challenge the negative stereotyping of the Polish people once prevalent in U.S. media. In the 1960s and 70s TV shows like All in the Family, The Tonight Show, and Laugh-In often used jokes received by American Poles as demeaning.^[10] The Polish jokes heard in the 1970s led the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to approach the U.S. State Department to complain, a move that ultimately had no effect.^[10] The 2010 documentary film Polack by James Kenney explores the source of the Polish joke in America, tracing it through history and into contemporary politics.^[14][15] The depiction of Polish Americans in the play Polish Joke by David Ives has resulted in a number of complaints by the Polonia in the US.^[16]

The book Hollywood's War with Poland shows how Hollywood's World War II (and onwards) negative portrayal of Polish people as being "backward", helped condition the American people to see Polish people as having inferior intelligence in the 20th century. The book supports the Polish American Journal's assertion that Hollywood historically was fertile ground for anti-Polish prejudice, based on its Left-wing/Soviet sympathies.^[17]

The Polish American Congress Anti-Bigotry Committee was created in early 1980s to fight anti-Polish sentiment, including "Polish jokes". Notable public cases include protests against the use of Polish jokes by Drew Carey (early 2000s) and Jimmy Kimmel (2013), both joking at the ABC network.^[18]

Germany

In the 1990s, popular culture in Germany experienced a surge of Polish jokes. In their televisions shows, entertainers like Harald Schmidt or Thomas Koschwitz used to make jokes about Polish economy or increased automobile theft in Germany attributed to Poles:

Was ist der neueste Werbeslogan der Tourismus-Branche für Polen?

"Kommen Sie nach Polen - Ihr Auto ist schon da."

What is the latest slogan promoting tourism to Poland?

"Come to Poland! Your car is already there!"

The Bild tabloid employed stereotypical headlines about Poland. This triggered public outrage among German and Polish intellectuals, but in the latter half of the decade, fears of theft had even led to a decrease in German tourists visiting Poland.^[19][20] Still in 2003, it was observed that the public image of Poland in Germany was largely shaped by stereotypical jokes.^[21]

See also

• Anti-Polish sentiment
• Hate speech
• Lightbulb joke

Notes

References

• David Ives, Polish Jokes and other plays, ISBN 0-8021-4130-7