Polish "jokes" came from Nazi propaganda

Oui, mais dans la réalité, le français donne un bisou à la suédoise et une baffe au belge..

I was told that joke by a Lorrainer . . .

carefull..with a Lorrainer..that could be the quiche of death.

That is really low, low humor . . .



I salute you ! ! !

Thanks, Setanta! As many have said, I'm full of it!

I'm sure the Poles had their German jokes just like those; I am also sure it's a good thing most Germans didn't understand them.

oooh, ever read Three Men on the Bummel? (you can read it on Guttenberg for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2183)

I have never laughed so hard in my life as when the three gents in the book go skiing in Germany.... One of my top 5 books for sure.

Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.

Speaking of tips, here's a quick tangent about another tip of yours that I don't know where else to post: I finally got to check out the Town Hall Deli in South Orange that you recommended to me over a year ago. Those Sloppy Joes -- divine!

(Bookmarking "Three Men on the Bummel".)

OH!!!!! I miss them so!!!!

Since I had to read that in school, and since I afterwards defended Thomas et.al. from e.g. the Poles invading us from the sea, I really liked Three Men in a Boat better.

Three Men in a Boat? That sounds like the title of an old Heinz Ruehman film. Or maybe Heinz Erhardt. Is it?

well, that's pretty much Volume 2. I love bicycles and their experimenting with various contraptions and inventions was riotous. The boat was funny as well, but i think the bikes won in my book.

defending thomas from poles coming from the sea? what? you mean since you worked on boats? aha...i think i'm getting it. yes, bikes for me.

Navy, and I was conscripted - that had nothing at all to do with "work".

Poles don't have negative jokes about any nation.
Why? It's like political correctness in the US. Why insult someone without reason?
Anyway, people in the West (further West) have a distorted image of the Polish nation.
Even look at Mexico - inside Mexico, Mexicans control and run the whole country. Mexicans are top politicians, judges, teachers, police chiefs and so on. The same here. That's why I'm still here, not somewhere abroad.
Maybe those jokes are a method of dissuading Poles from emigration - that would make sense, because Poles should build Poland in their own country.
However, foreign companies have a heavy presence here - so many Poles are now Mexicans in our own country.
Lots of intellectuals here, but they are not practical and consumption-oriented. Maybe Poles are seen as easy prey by street-smart foreigners.
Recently British banks have won a dirty currency game against the remaining purely Polish companies.

Yeah, so, I don't know about Europe, but almost NO ONE in the United States cares about Poland or its people whatsoever -- not about Polish emigration, not about Polish politics, not about Polish literature. Even those who tell Polack jokes.

Sorry.

you have got to be kidding. or live in a bunker without access to other Poles, perhaps.

Patiodog, I'm sorry for you. This means that Americans live in isolation and don't care about the rest of the world, even its potential enemies. Like a hamster in his cage.
I understand that America as a large country occupies a large part of one's brain, just to grasp its complexity.
But to be proud that one doesn't know other cultures - well, simpletons abroad.

Highly sociable Dagmaraka.

OK, I've found some Polish-German stereotypes (from Gazeta Wyborcza):

Poles joke frequently, even in serious, official situations, while Germans are very stiff.

1944, Cracow. A young Hitlerjugend member comes in a street across a Polish worker. The German wants to shoot at the Pole, but hears a voice: "Don't do it, he's a future Pope, and you will be his successor..."

During a general audience, the Polish secretary of Benedict XVI disappeared somewhere. Then an old German priest recollected some words in Polish and wrote them for the Pope on a piece of paper. The Pope says to the Polish pilgrims: "Defenders of the Polish post office! Come out, you're surrounded!" (First days of the war in Gdansk; and the Pope has phonetic messages which he reads from the balcony)

True story: a Polish woman lives in Berlin. She found an apartment through a real estate agent.When they were signing the contract, the guy says to her: "You know, additionally there is a deposit, 1000 Euro, but you will get it back when you dissolve the contract with me". The Pole said jokingly: "Unless I destroy everything, true?" Then the guy got highly frightened: "What do you mean? You are planning this?"
(Just a joke based on exaggeration)

Listen. You posit grandiose notions, such as "Maybe those jokes are a method of dissuading Poles from emigration - that would make sense, because Poles should build Poland in their own country."

Polish jokes are disseminated throughout the United States, but Polish immigration (from our point of view) is not at all a concern here. So clearly the jokes are not some great cultural method to keep Poles in their homeland -- at least not any more, and I doubt they were, except in the sense that a lazy social scientist might think of it.

For what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment of the US's collective ignorance of the rest of the world. But as someone who claims to translate American novels, your ignorance of our culture is shocking. How can you possibly translate the literature of a culture you clearly do not understand?

The basic premise of the thread is absurd. Polish jokes were common in the United States long before the National Socialist party existed in Germany.