CULTURAL STEREOTYPES IN POLISH JOKES

Abstract

The article presents results of textological research based on Polish humor. The jokes feature music-related topics (approx. 400 jokes were analyzed). The general peculiarity of such jokes is richness of hyperbole that is used to display characteristics of musicians and the instruments they play. Constant attention to these characteristics creates some certain cultural stereotypes that are transmitted through short funny texts that are easy to remember and pass on in the society. For instance, viola players are rather popular characters of Polish jokes. However, they are usually presented as individuals whose performance cannot be referred to as professional: they play out of tune, if they play in an orchestra, they lag behind the rhythm, they can not tune their instrument properly and what they play is not music, but some noise. There are jokes that depict characteristics of specific groups of musicians as narrow-minded and not well-educated people (for instance, village musicians who usually play at wedding parties, think they could play in a philharmonic orchestra). However, not all the jokes include negative stereotypes: some characters evoke sympathy and even admiration: one of the jokes portrays a jazz musician who does not earn money by performing; on the contrary, they invest in music. Such a musician is devoted to their art and is ready to make financial sacrifice to promote their music. Our analysis has proved that Polish music jokes are based on rich musical background and require readers/listeners to have considerable amount of such knowledge. Moreover, in the process of understanding and interpretation of these texts a recipient has to undergo series of cognitive procedures (to understand the desirable implication, to quickly single out the characteristic feature of an object that usually takes marginal position in a concept structure, etc.).