Why pollock jokes

I am not of Polish ancestry. In my school, if you picked up a penny, you were a Polack. If you wore white socks, you were a Polack. So until I was nine or ten, I thought anybody could be a Polack. I don't know where these memes came from but I mentioned this to someone else who grew up near Chicago and he said the same was true in his school: white socks means Polack.

The people I knew who knew the most Polish jokes were either of Polish ancestry or German ancestry. Between the two that may be a majority of the Chicago-area population. There is a German-Polish thing that has gone on for at least a century and it's still very active in these jokes. I don't think Polish jokes are as common in areas other than Chicago or East Germany, or Poland -- anyone have any statistics here? I don't find the cartoon particularly funny.

Maybe I don't know enough Polish. What does "Zbigniew" actually mean, in Polish? It's just an old Slavic name. Looking at the word's etymology it means "one that got rid of anger", but most Polish people never realise that. And the joke itself is quite hard to understand for Polish people, as the name is perfectly normal quite popular in Poland.

Moreover, if you're drunk, it's very hard to pronounce it Actually, I would think it might be easier to pronounce it while drunk or at least you wouldn't care as much. I think the joke would be the fact that you'd have to be drunk to needlessly inflict the misery of a Polish name on your child. Other fun names: Katarzyna or Malgorzata.

Just in case anyone gets mad, let me mention that I'm Polish and know what it's like to have to teach people my name every day. Still, few non marathi ppl get it right.. Try Seamus. It just isn't funny, though, as an wthnic stereotype, the alcoholic allusion should work better.

I can also think of combinations of specific ethnic groups and alcohol beverages that would be considered insulting. This joke reveals in a roundabout way how different ethnic groups in America are associated with certain characteristics and how such views change over time, as well as where the New Yorker positions itself with its readership. So you wanna play Polish army hospital? Polish army hospital? Magda sorta breaks her footbone. Magda exits. You know Stanley Bloshchik.

What else? World War Two, the Polish army fought the German tanks on horseback. Who lives in alla these houses up and down the block? From the city of Woodge. B , you give up the accordion. Everybody loves the Irish. And most important—you can spell their names.

To be Irish is a social skill. Tell me. But always, Jasiu, whatever you do—always serve God. The sausage is on the table! Get yer fat doopa in here! Being lovable is the whole secret of marriage. Is there sausage yet? Thank you, Uncle Roman. Roman exits. Lights change. That is I. Sad, sadler, sadlest. That was a workout! How do you do. Welcome to The World Corporation. Sit down. What about free golf balls for life? You have to buy those yourself.

They laugh politely. Not generous enough? A famous and well-chosen school. Jasiu has a sudden prolonged coughing fit. What is the nationality of that?

Do I not look like a Sadler? Newsletters, offers and promotions delivered straight to your inbox. Enter Email Address Related Books. August Shipwreck by Tom Stoppard. Today, in the European Union, Polish stupidity stereotyping in humour is less active and the Polish immigrant is hard working and a threat to indigenous labour, yet joking does not depict this threat in a canny Pole.

The article applies the liminal concept of the trickster — an ambiguous border crosser or traveller — to elaborate some of the characteristics of jokes told by and about Polish migrants in the EU, mainly in the British context. A more robust explanatory framework is thus offered than is currently available in humour studies. AB - In the context of contemporary European labour migration, where the most publicised pattern of labour migration sees Eastern European migrants move West, the dominant scholarly interpretation of Polish jokes is not applicable for the analysis of much of the joking by or about the Poles.

New European tricksters: Polish jokes in the context of European Union labour migration. Overview Fingerprint.