Seriously, the ones that get the most attention seem to be more extremeAs for the Polish reputation for stupidity - I have no clue whence it originates.
one way or another. That's probably true for any group that gets
stereotyped. Except maybe Poles. I've never met a Pole anywhere close
to being as stupid as all the jokes imply. (Where'd they get that
reputation, anyway?)
from Myth: Some ethnic groups have genetically inferior IQ's.
<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-inferiorIQ.htm>
In the U.S., Polish Jews arriving before 1910 were also perceived as stupid (for no other reason than they were accustomed to a different culture and spoke another language). So many "Pollock" jokes arose that Americans still tell them to this day, even if no one remembers why. The Polish Jews suffered heavy job discrimination and suspicion of criminality; not surprisingly, their children suffered low grades and IQ test scores. Today, of course, many Americans hold the opposite prejudice; Jews are viewed as the most brilliant of ethnic groups.
I however believe that it originates from somewhere before the WWs. The 'Polish' or rather more like the slavic people under German rule (overall roman Catholics, in contrast with the large numbers of German immigrants who usually were Lutherans) were very much considered to be yokels in the rest of the Prussian Reich. And in general the majority of Polish, besides being the oppressed, in the Eastern Prussian provinces usually lacked schooling and sofistication. This was because in general they lived as farmers in very closed rural type communities. A very nice example of stereotype like the one of the stupid Pole is 'Soldat Schweijk' , a movie featuring a lowely and charmingly clutzy (in this case) czech soldier (imagine a non annoying Jerry Lewis type) who drives his superiors in the Prussian army totally nuts in 'Inspector Clueseau (sp?) like situations as in the Pink panther movies.
Comprehensive history of poland <http://www.polishroots.org/genpoland/eastpr.htm>
That and the history of the 'souvereign' 'country' of Poland. I believe that from the day the Kingdom of Poland was proclaimed (1226), up untill somewhere in the 1989 the whole country or parts of it have almost continuously been occupied by one foreign power or another. ;o) So Polish people were oppressed by an awfull lot of different peoples and therefore probably the target of racially tinted jokes for a very long time. (see also Jokes and stereotypes <http://www.allangould.com/magazines/somefavourites/racisthumor/magazines_somefavourites_racisthumour.html>)
Sonja :o) link 1: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-inferiorIQ.htm link 2: http://www.polishroots.org/genpoland/eastpr.htm link 3: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2A421675
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