“How they ever got applied to the nation that produced Copernicus, Chopin, and John Paul II may be a mystery, but the jokes are universal.”
Well, living in Chicago where we get the most Polish immigrants I think I can speculate. I don’t think we tend to get the cream of their society over here, at least not in the majority. Basically, a lot of them are what other Poles would basically call “hillbillies”, and when they come over here they are not sophisticated at all and the results can be hilarious.
There was a funny British show called “Harry and Paul” that featured skits, one of which was about a Polish Cafe in London, the actresses obviously aren’t Polish, but it was kind of cute in showing how Poles are.
“He was very old, he was 47!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSuJ9b96w9U