Official European Joke
15February 21, 2011 by Aleksandra Łuczak
Please read the Official European Joke and see how it illustrates the European stereotypes.
Do you find it funny, interesting, boring?
Shouldn’t the EU debunk (pol. obalać) myths and streotypes instead of strengthening them?
Have your say!
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I think the joke is funny because it’s truthful. Millions of people take themselves and their lives so seriously that they refuse to recognize the absurdity of much of what they do. I think being able to laugh at yourself is key to staying in harmony with others. It shows you don’t take yourself too seriously. If you can’t, then you probably need to lighten up a bit. Aristotle said something to the extent of “never trust a theory that can’t withstand humor”.
I agree with hryniu. We should be able to laugh at ourselves whether the joke is true or not. An intelligent man will understand that the stereotypes exposed in this joke are a matter to laugh about. We cannot worry if few idiots will take the joke seriously, if we allow that to happen we won’t have nothing to laugh about.
The joke is fantastic! Have you ever eaten a meal prepared by a british cook or tried organise anything in Italy? Those words are not an insult, it shows both bad and good sides of every mentioned country. I don’t know what to be offended for. Whe should treat ourselves less seriously and concentrate on cases more important than this. It should be treated as fun, some kind of entertainment. Finally I have to say that the article was very funny 🙂
In my opinion the joke presented is avreage. The story that comes to it afterwards- absolutly hilarious. I almost felt on the flor, when I managed to read it to the end. All statements from countries commenting that joke are eaven better mix of all complexes of those countries and should be included as an inseparable expandation of that joke.
Nice one ! Sometimes stereotypes hurts people but I think that many of them can be consturctive. It only depends on how people can manage with criticism. Its good to sometimes hear something about yourself and create some conclusion.
🙂 Great joke… Every joke based on stereotypes. I know that not all jokes are the best for everybody (especially for participants in this joke), but we should have a distance for us… I agree with Filip that it’s good to sometimes hear something about yourself.
To be honest it is quite funny joke. Every culture is different so everyone can see it in another way. Same countries didn’t even know what the lunch is. I would choose solution with English cooker. Just because I was living with them for 3 months and I can’t forget this special proper unhealthy english breakfast but this isn’t about lunch it is about our cultures and differences between every united country in European Union. Why they didn’t write anything about us? Stereotype about polish isn’t nice but still they should find same place for stilling lunch by polish government ☺ in this story.
Frankly, that’s just boring. Like every joke based on stereotypes. Why? Couse it’s predictable. In my opinion EU shouldn’t debunk stereotypes, becouse that will not change anything. The only way to debunk stereotype is to meet other culture in person. I think that stereotypes will die by a natural death in propotion to the progressive globalization.
Personally I do like it a lot. It is based on stereotypes, but it’s generally true. However I find spanish food better, but still it makes me laugh. Of course italian guy may feel offended and claim that he’s well organized and he may be right. But that’s not what it’s about. All the nations differ, and we all know. Sometimes we just can’t laugh at ourselves, what im my opinion is really important.
It’s one of best politically inapropriate jokes I’ve ever read. I love that kind of jokes mostly becouse of their ability to ridicule our national complexes and in most situations it’s actually true. Like one made by Germans about Poles: “Go on vacations to Poland, Your car is already there!”.
I think this joke is great! And probably it is funny thanks to stereotypes on which it is based. It seems that stereotypes are just mean and can hurt people without no reason. However, they cut both ways. They sometimes can be constructive criticim, because we all know that they say some truth about people which they are concerned with. Fortunalety, we can laugh at ourselves, especially Poles. This sentence is a sign of it: “Poland also protested because they were not depicted in the joke.” 🙂
I think this joke is funny because it’s true. It shows the stereotypes of European countries and their citizens but same joke is not racist or offensive. Sense of humor is strongly connected with our mentally distance to itself and to the world. I don’t see any reasons that anyone could feel offended
Stereotypes has existed…exist …and will exist….fighting with them is meaningless. We fight with stereotypes about Poland and Poles but we laught when we hear something about Russians or Germans. We need to have a distance to ourselfs.
I think that stereotypes don’t come from nowhere. We can’t say that ‘UE should debunk stereotypes..’ because it is almost impossible. For example the stereotype about Polish people is that they have mustache, wears torn undershirt etc. Of course, there are less of these people that it was for example 20 years ago, but we can still see them almost everyday.
We should laugh at stereotypes and move on with our culture and manner and don’t fight for cases like this ‘UE jokes’.
A educated and inteligent preson understands that stereotypes are just jokes, nothing more. Only close-minded person considers them as a good way to recognize diffrent nations. This joke is brillant and true as well. Laughing at others is fun but we also must learn to laugh at ourselves. EU should debunk stereotypes but one little joke never done any harm.