Post by Jaga on Oct 19, 2007 22:58:31 GMT -7
What's the difference between Poland in World War II and 2007?
In World War II, the Polish government fled to London and the Polish people were at home. In 2007, the Kaczynski twins are home and the Polish people have fled to London.
from:
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkTSWs8JcURh57R-bm7EKXn4Cp0A
Humour hits hard at Poland's power twins
3 hours ago
WARSAW (AFP) — What's the difference between Poland in World War II and 2007?
In World War II, the Polish government fled to London and the Polish people were at home. In 2007, the Kaczynski twins are home and the Polish people have fled to London.
As their country braces for snap elections Sunday which are being seen as a referendum on two years of often controversial conservative rule, Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin Prime Minister Jaroslaw, are the butt of a wave of jokes.
For those who remember the communist era, the wave of cynical humour has a familiar feel, evoking the way people used to mock the regime and the economic shortages which were a feature of daily life for ordinary Poles.
"We're seeing the same phenomenon as at the end of communism. People, and intellectuals in particular, are against their rulers, just as they were back then," said political scientist Kazimierz Kik.
But while the anti-communist jokes of the 1980s were spread by word of mouth, their anti-Kaczynski equivalents use the information superhighway, and are passed around by e-mail, phone text messages, and a plethora of websites showing doctored footage of the twins in action.
Polish Internet surfers can feed their need for novelty thanks to video-sharing site YouTube, for example, where a Star Wars-themed "Attack of the Clones" clip showing millions of Kaczynskis bracing to invade Earth had received more than two million hits by Friday.
The 58-year-old, almost indistinguishable, diminutive and portly Kaczynskis are a dream target for humorists.
"What do the Kaczynskis do on a tennis court? They play volleyball," goes one Polish favorite.
Their surname derives from "kaczka", the Polish word for duck, and waterfowl are an ever present feature of anti-Kaczynski comedy.
On video shows a real speech by Lech Kaczynski in which he declares, "My fellow Poles, I have just three words to say", followed by a superimposed "quack, quack, quack" as his nose and mouth transform into a beak.
Another visual joke plays on the fact that the president shares his first name with a local brand of beer, and that the Polish acronym of the Kaczynskis' party, Law and Justice, is PiS.
Kaczynski is depicted clutching a bottle, under a cheeky slogan referring to the after-effects of a tipple, and clearly destined for English-speaking Poles: "Make PiS, Not War!"
The brothers have given humorists a helping hand: several months ago Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced he didn't have a bank account and paid his salary over to his mother.
Polish caricaturists are also having a field day with some of the more controversial practices of the twins, such as their alleged penchant for using the secret service and anti-corruption squad to dig up dirt on government ministers and lawmakers.
A cartoon by Andrzej Mleczko, one of Poland's most biting artists, recently showed a waiter in a restaurant telling a couple: "For an extra charge, we have a table guaranteed not to be bugged."
...
In World War II, the Polish government fled to London and the Polish people were at home. In 2007, the Kaczynski twins are home and the Polish people have fled to London.
from:
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkTSWs8JcURh57R-bm7EKXn4Cp0A
Humour hits hard at Poland's power twins
3 hours ago
WARSAW (AFP) — What's the difference between Poland in World War II and 2007?
In World War II, the Polish government fled to London and the Polish people were at home. In 2007, the Kaczynski twins are home and the Polish people have fled to London.
As their country braces for snap elections Sunday which are being seen as a referendum on two years of often controversial conservative rule, Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin Prime Minister Jaroslaw, are the butt of a wave of jokes.
For those who remember the communist era, the wave of cynical humour has a familiar feel, evoking the way people used to mock the regime and the economic shortages which were a feature of daily life for ordinary Poles.
"We're seeing the same phenomenon as at the end of communism. People, and intellectuals in particular, are against their rulers, just as they were back then," said political scientist Kazimierz Kik.
But while the anti-communist jokes of the 1980s were spread by word of mouth, their anti-Kaczynski equivalents use the information superhighway, and are passed around by e-mail, phone text messages, and a plethora of websites showing doctored footage of the twins in action.
Polish Internet surfers can feed their need for novelty thanks to video-sharing site YouTube, for example, where a Star Wars-themed "Attack of the Clones" clip showing millions of Kaczynskis bracing to invade Earth had received more than two million hits by Friday.
The 58-year-old, almost indistinguishable, diminutive and portly Kaczynskis are a dream target for humorists.
"What do the Kaczynskis do on a tennis court? They play volleyball," goes one Polish favorite.
Their surname derives from "kaczka", the Polish word for duck, and waterfowl are an ever present feature of anti-Kaczynski comedy.
On video shows a real speech by Lech Kaczynski in which he declares, "My fellow Poles, I have just three words to say", followed by a superimposed "quack, quack, quack" as his nose and mouth transform into a beak.
Another visual joke plays on the fact that the president shares his first name with a local brand of beer, and that the Polish acronym of the Kaczynskis' party, Law and Justice, is PiS.
Kaczynski is depicted clutching a bottle, under a cheeky slogan referring to the after-effects of a tipple, and clearly destined for English-speaking Poles: "Make PiS, Not War!"
The brothers have given humorists a helping hand: several months ago Jaroslaw Kaczynski announced he didn't have a bank account and paid his salary over to his mother.
Polish caricaturists are also having a field day with some of the more controversial practices of the twins, such as their alleged penchant for using the secret service and anti-corruption squad to dig up dirt on government ministers and lawmakers.
A cartoon by Andrzej Mleczko, one of Poland's most biting artists, recently showed a waiter in a restaurant telling a couple: "For an extra charge, we have a table guaranteed not to be bugged."
...