Jaga,
You are correct that Polish jokes in the US, as in the common anti-immigrant jokes that targeted all major ethnic groups coming into the USA, existed before Nazi Germany. But those Polish jokes were somewhat different then the malicious Polish jokes coming out of WWII and then out of Hollywood/NBC-TV in the 1960's.
Those Polish jokes were about Poles having a thick accent, eating too much Kielbasa, having hard to pronounce long last names, and being uneducated, etc. Actually not too different then stereotypes about other ethnic groups coming into the US. Even the Germans coming into the US were stereotyped as being "too backward to assimilate into the US".
It is true that in Germany, before Nazi Germany, there were Polish jokes that focused on Polish people's "inferior intelligence". That was common in Bismarck's time and then the Nazis went crazy with these inferior intelligence jokes for Nazi propaganda purposes against Poland.
But at least with the Nazi Germans I can at least find it somewhat understandable that they would push them against Poland since they saw Poland as an adversary and went to war with Poland.
Every nation that goes to war with another nation has propaganda against that nation.
What is odd is when NBC-TV and Hollywood push them against Polish people. They are just being malicious against Polish people like the Polish American Guardian Society has said.
The Italians were mocked as having inferior intelligence and so were the Irish. So why doesn't NBC-TV keep pushing an inferior intelligence stereotype against them? About 90 years ago they used to say "Irish and dogs need not apply" and had said the Irish had the intelligence of "white monkeys".
A big part of the negative stereotyping in the US about Polish people has little to do with the Polish people and mostly to do with elements of the media that are anti-Polish.
Some will say that stereotypes about Polish people having "inferior intelligence" came from their assimilation problems into the US (which also affected all other ethnic groups) and THAT IS WHY there are jokes about Polish people having inferior intelligence.
Well then why was there a SURGE in "Polish jokes" in the 1960's and 1970's??? Was it because Polish people all across the US were all of a sudden doing stupid things? Even in parts of the US where there were NO Polish people?
?
No, it was because of Network TV like NBC-TV and CBS-TV pushing out negative use of the word POLISH.
When Americans in the 1960's and 1970's all across the US are saying the SAME Polish joke, its not because Polish people did something that prompted that. It because that's what Americans saw on NATIONAL TV about Polish people.
Its part of the anti-Polish Bigots in the media trying to CONDITION Americans to have the same anti-Polish prejudice that they have.
A perfect example is the "Polish Sully" situation.
Here is a nice story about a highly intelligent and highly skilled Polish pilot who saves hundreds of people.
When most people read this story in fair minded media (that isn't anti-Polish) they get a good impression of Polish people.
But then the anti-Polish element of the media, like a certain part of NBC-TV/Seth Meyers comes along and takes a FACTUALLY POSITIVE story about Polish people and then uses insult humor to implant into the minds of the American people a NEGATIVE image of Polish people.
Basically Seth Meyers pushed anti-Polish propaganda into the minds of the 5 million people who watched that show that night.
That's a perfect example of what has been done to Polish people by a certain element of the media for over 4 decades.
My parents said when they were growing up in the 50's, that they never heard any of these degrading jokes about Polish people having inferior intelligence. But then in the 1960's there were Polish jokes all over the place where Americans were basically repeating the same Polish jokes they SAW ON TV and in movies.
In the 1970's all of the sudden the stereotype of the "MEATHEAD DUMB POLACK" was all over the US. Now there is no way Polish people assimilated into the US in the 1970's in such a way where Americans felt the need to call them SPECIFICALLY "MEATHEAD DUMB POLACKS".
No this specific negative image of Polish people came from the idiot show "All in the Family" where there was a lot of dialogue of "MEATHEAD DUMB POLACK" going into the minds of 40 million people per show.
Even though the producer of the show "All in the Family" claimed it was supposed to be "against ethnic bigotry" many say that was a ruse and actually the show promoted ethnic bigotry. Mostly against Polish people.
TV imagery is EXTREMELY powerful in shaping people's opinions on anything. Unfortunately for Polish people, it has been used to attack the image of Polish people since the 1960's.
