Polish joke

During the Cold War era, despite the sympathy in the US for Poland being subjected to communism, negative stereotypes about Polish Americans endured, mainly because of Hollywood/TV media involvement.

[9][10] Some Polish jokes were brought to America by German displaced persons fleeing war-torn Europe in the late 1940s.

[10] The 2010 documentary film Polack by James Kenney explores the source of the Polish joke in America, tracing it through history and into contemporary politics.

Notable public cases include protests against the use of Polish jokes by Drew Carey (early 2000s) and Jimmy Kimmel (2013), both on the ABC network.

In their televisions shows, entertainers such as Harald Schmidt and Thomas Koschwitz made jokes about the Polish economy and about increased automobile thefts in Germany, attributed to Poles: English translation: The Bild tabloid employed stereotypical headlines about Poland.

[21] In recent decades, it has been observed that the public image of Poland in Germany itself was largely shaped by stereotypical jokes.