Why were there so many Polish jokes at one time?

Answer 1

There was an image of Polish-Americans as primarily blue collar workers, badly educated and tending to be a bit ignorant socially.

At a time when jokes targeting black people became politically unacceptable people wanted to tell ethnic jokes so they told Polish jokes. Most people who told them never knew anyone of Polish descent. By the way, I am partially of Polish descent.

I consider the jokes to largely be harmlessly poking fun at a European immigrant group. For the most part, Polish-Americans are typically hard-working, generally religious, and reasonably well-educated.

In Texas we tell very similar jokes about Aggies, who are students or graduates of Texas A&M University. This is in part an allusion to the agricultural part of the school's curricula, and in no way reflects the fact that this university compares favorably to most state universities in the United States.

I have no particular problem with ethnic jokes as long as they are done in fun and as long as people realize that you can't pigeonhole people by ethnicity or other means. They also need to realize that some people might find such jokes hurtful and they should be sensitive to those people.

A typical Polish joke: A rich Polish kid was described as being born with "a silver lunch pail in his hand."

Answer 2

In the late '70 and early '80's Polish jokes were like Blonde Jokes are now. Everybody was telling them (well, just about) and there were dozens of Polish Joke books on the market, sadly. Polish jokes finally went "out" more or less when Yuppies came in during the early to mid-'80's. Then the Blonde Joke made it big, also Poland left communism.

Answer 3

My answer is what Polish jokes? They died out in the eighties. Then there were jokes about the Irish, Blacks, Catholics, Blondes, Hispanics, Food Vendors, Harley Riders and now thank God the Republicans.

Answer 4

like what?