Polish joke: Difference between revisions
Referenced Polish jokes origin section of Polish American Journal Website |
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'''Polish jokes''', also called '''[[Polack]] jokes''' – |
'''Polish jokes''', also called '''[[Polack]] jokes''' – in reference to an ethnic slur – are [[joke]]s against [[Poles|Polish people]]. They belong to the category of what author Ted Cohen calls "conditional jokes", which means that their understanding requires knowledge of "what a Polish joke is". Conditional jokes depend upon the audience's ''affective'' preference, or their likes and dislikes. Although these [[ethnic jokes]] might be understood by many, their success depends entirely upon the negative disposition of the listener.<ref name="Cohen">{{cite book|author=Ted Cohen|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=eIPSME0a35QC&pg=PA21&dq=%22Polish+jokes%22+in+Prussia&sig=ACfU3U0iRInPtMjgTEqExFATMkBx1j8Uyg#v=onepage&q=&f=false |title=Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters |page=21 |year=1999 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |ISBN=0226112306 |accessdate=2009-09-10}}</ref> Many of the so called "Polish jokes" originated from [[Nazi German]] and [[Soviet]] hate propaganda campaign in conjunction with their joint [[invasion of Poland]] in [[World War II]] and further attempts at justifying the [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles]] and the [[Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946)]]. They were brought to [[Hollywood]] from war-torn Europe with waves of Anti-Polish bigots.<ref name="polamjournal">{{cite web|author=|url=http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/The_Origin_of_the_Polish_Joke/the_origin_of_the_polish_joke.html |title=The Origin of the "Polish Joke" |page= |year=2009 |publisher=POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL |ISBN= |accessdate=2010-12-14}}</ref>{{more|Polonophobia}} |
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The Polish jokes origin section of the Polish American Journal website says so called "Polish jokes" originated from Nazi German subhuman intelligence jokes about Polish people. <ref name="Cohen"> peoplehttp://www.polamjournal.com/Library/The_Origin_of_the_Polish_Joke/the_origin_of_the_polish_joke.html {{cite book|author=Ted Cohen|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=eIPSME0a35QC&pg=PA21&dq=%22Polish+jokes%22+in+Prussia&sig=ACfU3U0iRInPtMjgTEqExFATMkBx1j8Uyg#v=onepage&q=&f=false |title=Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters |page=21 |year=1999 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |ISBN=0226112306 |accessdate=2009-09-10}}</ref> |
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==Polish jokes in Germany== |
==Polish jokes in Germany== |
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===Polish American Guardian Society=== |
===Polish American Guardian Society=== |
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| ⚫ | The Polish American Guardian Society argued that TV Networks like NBC-TV were responsible for using the power of TV to attack Poles with racist jokes in the 60s and 70s. The Polish American Journal website says Polish jokes were imported from Nazi propaganda into the US after WWII by Anti-Polish bigots in Hollywood and NBC-TV, despite their claims of being anti-Nazi. These ethnic jokes were much more hateful than simple anti-immigrant jokes that Poles and other ethnic groups experienced prior to 1960s.<ref name="polamjournal" /> |
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{{unreferenced-section|date=September 2010}} |
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| ⚫ | The Polish American Guardian Society argued that TV Networks like NBC-TV were responsible for using the power of TV to attack Poles with racist jokes in the 60s and 70s. The Polish American Journal website says Polish jokes were imported from Nazi propaganda into the US after WWII by Anti-Polish bigots in Hollywood and NBC-TV, despite their claims of being anti-Nazi. These ethnic jokes were much more hateful than simple anti-immigrant jokes that Poles and other ethnic groups experienced prior to 1960s. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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Revision as of 17:26, 14 November 2010
Polish jokes, also called Polack jokes – in reference to an ethnic slur – are jokes against Polish people. They belong to the category of what author Ted Cohen calls "conditional jokes", which means that their understanding requires knowledge of "what a Polish joke is". Conditional jokes depend upon the audience's affective preference, or their likes and dislikes. Although these ethnic jokes might be understood by many, their success depends entirely upon the negative disposition of the listener.[1] Many of the so called "Polish jokes" originated from Nazi German and Soviet hate propaganda campaign in conjunction with their joint invasion of Poland in World War II and further attempts at justifying the Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles and the Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946). They were brought to Hollywood from war-torn Europe with waves of Anti-Polish bigots.[2]
Polish jokes in Germany
During the political transformations of the Soviet controlled Eastern block in the 1980s, the traditional German anti-Polish sentiment dating back to the policies of Otto von Bismarck and the German Empire was again blatantly exploited in GDR against Solidarność (Solidarity). This tactic had become especially apparent in the "rejuvenation of 'Polish jokes', some of which reminded listeners of the spread of such jokes under the Nazis".[3]
Polish jokes in United States
Polish immigration from the dismantled Polish state was high due to ethnic discrimination and unemployment on traditionally Polish lands.[4] There's a debate whether these early "Polish jokes" brought to states like Wisconsin by German immigrants were directly related to the wave of American jokes of the early 1960s.[5]
Polish jokes were again strengthened by German immigrant displaced persons fleeing war-torn Europe in the late 1940s. These jokes were fuelled by ethnic slurs disseminated by German National Socialist propaganda, which attempted to justify the Nazi murder by presenting Poles as "dreck", dirty and inferior.[6] It is also possible that some of the earliest American Polack jokes from Germany, were originally told before World War II in disputed border-regions such as Silesia.[5]
Some of the most "provocative critique of previous scholarship on the subject"[7] has been made by British writer Christie Davies in The Mirth of Nations suggesting that "Polish jokes" did not originate in Nazi Germany, but a lot earlier, as an outgrowth of regional jokes rooted in "social class differences reaching back to the nineteenth century". According to Davies, American versions of Polish jokes are an unrelated "purely American phenomenon" and do not express the "historical Old World hatreds of the Germans for the Poles".[8]
For decades, Polish Americans like other minority groups have been the subject of derogatory jokes originating in the malicious stereotype developed in the U.S. before the return of Poland's independence, at the time when Polish immigrants came to America in considerable numbers fleeing mass persecution at home. They were taking the only jobs available to them, usually requiring physical labor.
The same ethnic and job-related stereotypes persisted even as Polish Americans joined the middle class in 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.[9]
Since the late 1960s, Polish American organizations made continuous effort to challenge the negative stereotyping of the Polish people once prevalent in American media. 1960's & 70's TV shows like All in the Family, The Tonight Show, and Laugh-In often used jokes demeaning to Poles.[9] The "Polish jokes" heard in the 1970s were particularly offensive, so much so that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs approached the U.S. State Department about that, however unsuccessfully. Gradually, Americans have developed a more positive image of their Polish neighbors in the following decades.[9]
The play called Polish Joke by David Ives has resulted in a number of complaints by the Polonia in the US.[10]
Polish American Guardian Society
The Polish American Guardian Society argued that TV Networks like NBC-TV were responsible for using the power of TV to attack Poles with racist jokes in the 60s and 70s. The Polish American Journal website says Polish jokes were imported from Nazi propaganda into the US after WWII by Anti-Polish bigots in Hollywood and NBC-TV, despite their claims of being anti-Nazi. These ethnic jokes were much more hateful than simple anti-immigrant jokes that Poles and other ethnic groups experienced prior to 1960s.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Ted Cohen (1999). Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. University of Chicago Press. p. 21. ISBN 0226112306. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
- ^ a b "The Origin of the "Polish Joke"". POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL. 2009. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
- ^ John C. Torpey, Intellectuals, Socialism, and Dissent Published 1995 by U of Minnesota Press. Page 82.
- ^ Helena Znaniecka Lopata, Mary Patrice Erdmans, Polish Americans Published by Transaction Publishers, 1994, New Brunswick, New Jersey. 294 pages. ISBN 1560001003
- ^ a b Christie Davies, "Germans+migrating+to+America+had+taken+with+them+a+negative+view+of+the+Poles"&ei=EuGPSNvNOpykjgH93IzWCg&sig=ACfU3U1_-DPiYLmTN-BaUCWk1N_EDxpVug The Mirth of Nations. Page 176.
- ^ Tomasz Szarota, Goebbels: 1982 (1939-41): 16, 36-7, 274; 1978. Also: Tomasz Szarota: Stereotyp Polski i Polaków w oczach Niemców podczas II wojny światowej; Bibliografia historii polskiej - 1981. Page 162.
- ^ "provocative+critique+of+previous+scholarship+on+the+subject"&ei=o02HSISqN4icjgHUqZHoAQ&sig=ACfU3U00HFdhIJcBVo1JeyF4dydH8pP3Eg Alan Dundes, professor of anthropology and folklore from University of California in Berkeley on The Mirth of Nations by Christie Davies
- ^ Christie Davies, "American+Polish+jokes+are+an+American+phenomenon."&ei=0t6PSKaPOp6ujgGztdCWDA&sig=ACfU3U05Iv_rSxfRopT-zdRN47qoS-3MBA ibidem. Page 177.
- ^ a b c Dominic Pulera, "Polish+joke"&ei=xY-MSL_xG5XIigHVwqHdAg&sig=ACfU3U2Lh_ecLbTPj6QkQbJuVV-5_bNLAQ Sharing the Dream: White Males in Multicultural America Published 2004 by Continuum International Publishing Group, 448 pages. ISBN 0826416438. Page 99.
- ^ Commentary on "Polish Joke"
- David Ives, Polish Jokes and other plays, ISBN 0-8021-4130-7