Eh, I don’t know. I mean, sure, there are stereotypes.
But it feels a bit different. I thinks it’s the difference between friendly banter, like friends do it sometimes, and blatant bullying.
I’ve done a little experiment. I went to https://witze.net/ , a website that is German and filled with humour that must be at least 30 years old. Many jokes refer to cultural events from that time (there was one about the explosion of the Challenger, which was in 1986). So that should give a good example of the time period I was reffing to.
You find examples of friendly banter for the French, etc.:
"Whats European heaven like?
The Englishman opens the door for you, the French is cooking, the Italian is the Entertainment and the German takes care of organising everything.
What’s European hell like?
The Frenchman opens the door, the Englishman is cooking, the German is the Entertainer and the Italian takes care of organising everything."
Not funny, but also just a play on stereotypes. It’s like that.
The polish stereotype is “they are thiefs”.
“Whs do Russians always steal two cars? Because they have to drive trough Poland on their way back.”
“Why is Viagra not allowed in Poland? Because everything that stands longer than 10 Minute is stolen.”
And on and on.
Am I imagining that there is a difference if your stereotype is “bad at humour” (which the German website proves quite well ironically) or “steals everything all the time”?
Eh, I don’t know. I mean, sure, there are stereotypes.
But it feels a bit different. I thinks it’s the difference between friendly banter, like friends do it sometimes, and blatant bullying.
I’ve done a little experiment. I went to https://witze.net/ , a website that is German and filled with humour that must be at least 30 years old. Many jokes refer to cultural events from that time (there was one about the explosion of the Challenger, which was in 1986). So that should give a good example of the time period I was reffing to.
You find examples of friendly banter for the French, etc.:
"Whats European heaven like?
The Englishman opens the door for you, the French is cooking, the Italian is the Entertainment and the German takes care of organising everything.
What’s European hell like?
The Frenchman opens the door, the Englishman is cooking, the German is the Entertainer and the Italian takes care of organising everything."
Not funny, but also just a play on stereotypes. It’s like that.
The polish stereotype is “they are thiefs”.
“Whs do Russians always steal two cars? Because they have to drive trough Poland on their way back.”
“Why is Viagra not allowed in Poland? Because everything that stands longer than 10 Minute is stolen.”
And on and on.
Am I imagining that there is a difference if your stereotype is “bad at humour” (which the German website proves quite well ironically) or “steals everything all the time”?
To be fair, the 90s in Poland were a rough time to own a car.
We made a tourism campaign out of it at least: “Come to Poland! Your car is already here”.